World Heritage Site- Silbury hill and west kennet long barrow

Today im still in Wiltshire, i parked for the night in a aptly named place called the Sanctuary that is next to a Neolithic site of ancient stone and timber circles .
Its along a section of a long distance path called 'The Ridgeway' path. Theirs so much to see and explore around this area if your wish is to discover bronze age and Neolithic life.

Their is two very important sites almost next to each other, just down the hill from where i parked overnight, one of these is called Silbury hill which is a huge man made mound, their is much speculation as to the hills past history or use but whatever its use was its a pretty impressive sight.

The next place im going to explore is the 'west kennet long barrow' that dates back over 5000 years. Its one of the UK's finest and best preserved examples of a chambered tomb.

This particular barrow was built around 1000 years before Silbury hill and was made from ginormous local sarson stones and limestone then topped with a layer of chalk.

Excavations revealed that it was used as a communial tomb with over 46 bodies inside placed in over a 1000 year period. The chambers contained a vast cross section of the community from the young to the elderly.

Very few complete skeletons were found and it apearred that the bones were rearranged or moved around, sometimes taken out altogether, who knows what for, maybe for rutual practice.

The tomb was deliberatly blocked up around 4000 years ago but in the 1850's a man named John Thurnam excavated the central passage and its western chamber, he was seemingly unaware of the other hidden chambers and these were later excavated in 1955 by two men Stuart Piggot and Richard Atkinson.

When the bones from inside were analysed the scientists found most folks back then had tooth problems and arthritis so (nothing changes).

The ancient landscape around here is considered as such importance, that it has been designated a World Heritige Site.

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Wishing you a wonderful day 😊