[Stones] The Silbury Sarcophagus?

[Ric]

hello,

the block looks kind of layered - looks more to me
like a section of a compressed turf/inner layer of the
hill - and i don't think this is a 'double exposure',
it looks more like a 'long exposure'?

fascinating pictures - thanks - a pox on those who
undermined Silbury and Avebury Circle in the past, and
a plea to restore the whole neolithic ritual complex -
including Silbury Hill - from Beckhampton Avenue to
the Sanctuary on Overton Hill!

;)

Ric

--- littlestone <littlestone at supanet.com> wrote:

> Just been looking at the Silbury Conservation Risk
> Assessment (Fachtna McAvoy, May 2005 - second link
> down at
>
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.17594
> ) and wonder what the large block of stone might be
> that's shown in the photo on Page 52, Fig. A14.
> Apart from the (broken?) right-hand side the stone
> looks pretty symmetrical. Note how the left-hand
> side and top seem to have been dressed. Looks almost
> like one end of a sarcophagus. Natural or otherwise
> someone in 1969 took the trouble to measure and
> photograph the cavity in the top of stone - a cavity
> which seems to be about a foot deep and about two
> foot long.
> 
> The next photo (Fig. A15) is also interesting and
> shows what looks like Atkinson on the left with a
> colleague on the right who seems to be working on
> the stone with a trowel. The helmet shown on the
> extreme right is the same helmet belonging to the
> person working opposite Atkinson (double exposure -
> there are actually only two people there). Note also
> the bucket at the base of the stone. Are Atkinson
> and his colleague removing debris from the top of
> the stone that's shown in photo A14?
> 
> If the shape of the stone is just natural and not
> dressed it's still of interest and, hopefully, still
> in situ.>