Tunnel to re-open at mystery hill

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I find this interesting - hope you do.

 

Jo

 

English Heritage is conducting stabilisation work at the site

Engineers are to re-open a tunnel that goes deep inside the ancient

monument of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire.

The tunnel, dug in 1968, was the last made over many centuries by

archaeologists exploring the site.

 

Engineers are planning to stabilise the 5,000-year-old structure,

which is believed to be the world's largest man-made prehistoric

mound.

 

Archaeologists will also try to unlock the site's ancient secrets and

find out how, why and when it was built.

 

Earlier this year, archaeologists found traces of a Roman settlement

at the landmark.

 

English Heritage, which is conducting the stabilising work, believes

there was a Roman community at Silbury Hill about 2,000 years ago. It

says the site may have been a sacred place of pilgrimage.

 

 

 

The 130ft Neolithic mound near Avebury - one of Europe's largest

prehistoric monuments - is thought to have been created some 3,000

years earlier.

 

Heavy rains in May 2000 caused substantial damage to the hill, with

the collapse of an 18th century shaft.

 

Parts of the ancient site are thought to be collapsing because of the

tunnels dug by archaeologists over many centuries.

 

After prising open the tunnel's sealed door on Friday, engineers are

expected to spend four months, filling the tunnels with hundreds of

cubic tonnes of chalk to stabilise the structure.

 

Archaeologists will also be going into the hill, hoping that modern

science can solve the mystery of why the hill was built in the first

place.