Silbury Hill: a lighthouse for neolithic sailors?
Silbury Hill was long believed to be an ancient tomb or ceremonial hill for religious rites, but in 2014 has been proposed that the structure was something very similar to a lighthouse, built to guide sailors in the waterways formed at the end of the last ice age. The hypothesis is that the south of England appeared as a series of islands connected by streams, canals and swollen rivers and that Stonehenge was located along the coast!
It seems that in recent times archaeologists dedicated to the study of British antiquities are completely revising the theories advanced so far. In the past had been proposed that the famous circular rocks of Stonehenge were intended to support an ancient altar, so that our ancestors could be “closer to heaven”.
2014 was the time for the ancient mound of Silbury Hill. Previously researchers considered Silbury Hill to be an ancient burial mound or a ceremonial hill for performing religious rites.
But Robert John Langdon, a local cartographer and historian, proposed a revolutionary new theory about the nature and function of Silbury. In his opinion, the mound is what remains of an ancient lighthouse used in the Neolithic era, following the end of the last ice age.
The melting of the glaciers would have made the south of England similar to an archipelago of islands connected by streams, canals and rivers. The lighthouse would have helped sailors to orient themselves in the maze of canals, leading them to the "port" of Silbury.
The key clue would be the stone avenue discovered by Langdon that connects Silbury Hill to the well-known Avebury stone circle. “The maps I produced indicate that Avebury was a trading post for our ancestors,” Langdon explained at that time. "My hypothesis is that the nearby Silbury Hill monument functioned as a port, while Avebury as a trading market".
Recent archaeological studies have indeed revealed that the Silbury Hill site was built in stages, starting from a small structure, to what is visible today.
"If it was just a symbolic structure, what need was there to change its dimensions?", asked Langdon. "The height was changed so that the lighthouse would become visible from ships and boats even from long distances".
Langodon imagines that at the end of the Ice Age southern England appeared as an archipelago composed of numerous islands separated by streams and swollen rivers and that at that time, Stonehenge was also located near the coastal area.
