[Stones] Romans pay homage to Silbury?

[Ric]

i am sceptical - and the piece i paraphrased mentioned that Roman building had been detected at the base of the hill, which basically squares with what you say. thank the gods the Romans gave up and left, is what i will comment - can you imagine the Kennet and Swallhowhead Springs with an imperial conurbation on top of them? images of the once sacred Walbrook in London, spring to mind ... heaven forfend.
   
  but i am sceptical about the Romans' environmental sensitivity, because several hundred metres eastward they barged a Roman road through the West Kennet Avenue, the cultural fall out of which is still with us today, i feel. West Kennet Avenue in its current ruinous condition is like a broken arm to me, and as conceptually painful.
   
  :-|

littlestone <littlestone at supanet.com> wrote:
          What we now seem to have, ric, is a Roman town that once completely surrounded Silbury - a town with streets (and possibly a temple) with Silbury at its centre. By any stretch of the imagination that is absolutely astonishing (I'd love to see an artistic interpretation of what it may have looked like).
   
  Also, the Romans, being Romans, one cannot but wonder if they didn't excavate Silbury itself. Then again (whatever their other vices) the Romans do seem to have respected native beliefs (as long as those beliefs didn't threaten the power of Rome). Must have been quite a dilemma for the Roman engineers and historians of the day - to tunnel Silbury or not to tunnel. If the Romans had such a town (wonder what they called it?) surrounding Silbury and didn't tunnel the monument that in itself indicates either A) their respect for native beliefs or B) the strength of local/indigenous feeling at the time.
   
  There's an interesting link (provided by Kammer on TMA) here - http://snipurl.com/1clt1
   
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  i can see a personal ray of light here, however - if there were a considerable Roman presence local to Silbury Hill, it is just possible the archaeologists might recover something material which sheds some light on how the people at that time perceived the hill?
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