Near Stonehenge and Avebury in Wiltshire (England), lies Silbury, a massive, prehistoric man-made hill.
To date, numerous studies have been conducted on Silbury Hill, but it remains impossible to definitively conclude the purpose of the mound or decipher the many legends surrounding it related to gold, ghosts, or extraterrestrial beings.
Gold and UFOs
Currently, researchers are fiercely debating the reasons for Silbury Hill’s existence. Many stories have been woven around this place by anyone interested in Silbury, whether they are locals who seem incredibly knowledgeable about Silbury, or tourists curious about the origins of a place supposedly associated with… ghosts.
Many believe Silbury is the final resting place of King Sil, renowned as an invincible knight in legend. The ghost of King Sil is said to haunt the entire area after he was buried there in his intact golden armor and the horse that had accompanied him throughout his campaigns. Some rumors claim the remains of the mysterious king and his horse have turned into large blocks of gold, hidden deep within the Silbury crypt.
Silbury Hill is not simply a mound rumored to be haunted.
However, despite numerous excavations, no one has yet discovered any trace of King Sil’s remains, nor the enormous hoard of gold. Many other stories also mention gold cleverly hidden in the labyrinths buried deep beneath Silbury. Due to its unusually advantageous location, it is believed that dark forces and demons sought to find Wiltshire and bury a golden statue containing mystical power underground, subsequently piling up layers of earth to create Silbury Hill as it stands today.
Legend even describes how the devil, wanting to rule the world, plotted to drop earth from above to create a dust storm that would drive the people of Marlborough (a town and civic parish in Wiltshire) away. However, the monks thwarted this sinister plot and used the power of good to force the devil to drop earth onto the site of present-day Silbury, thus forming the mound associated with the ancient ” devil-warding” symbol.
Silbury Hill is not simply a mound rumored to be haunted; it also features several mysterious crop circles . Many conspiracy theorists believe that extraterrestrial beings constructed these landmarks as landing sites for spacecraft.
According to numerous accounts, Silbury Hill is on the list of “favorite” locations for unidentified flying objects (or UFOs) , frequently marked as a territory by flying saucers during their visits to Earth. In fact, many locals also claim to have seen large, disc-shaped objects hovering in the sky around the area.
Excavations were unsuccessful.
Silbury Hill, approximately 40 meters high and 160 meters in diameter, is considered the largest prehistoric monument in England . Carbon dating indicates that construction of Silbury began around the late Neolithic period and took place in three consecutive phases. Many studies speculate that the mound was completed in the mid-24th century BC.
However, most scientific views lean towards the assumption that there may have been a “resting” period of several hundred years between the second and third phases of Silbury Hill’s formation, resulting in the mound’s structure only stabilizing around the 21st century BC.
Silbury Hill has likely suffered the effects of weathering, leading to soil erosion and the disappearance of the surrounding rock at its base, causing its current estimated height to decrease by more than 1 meter compared to its original height. In the late 18th century, many miners concentrated their efforts on excavating the area around Silbury Hill, but without much success. Meanwhile, excavations conducted by several research groups between the 19th and 20th centuries also yielded no significant findings.
Archaeologists believe that the Norman people transformed the mounds into giant earthen towers for defense, protecting secret burial sites during the lives of ancient Norse inhabitants. In fact, burying the dead under mounds (along with their possessions) was quite common in prehistoric times, a way of honoring the souls of the deceased in the hope that their descendants would be protected. These long burial mounds – shelters for souls that had left their bodies – were designed to resemble the homes of the living.
However, by the end of the Neolithic period, the burial mounds had lost their elongated shape and gradually became round. This led researchers to believe that Silbury Hill is evidence of a change in the style of burial mounds . Furthermore, the high mound resembled a giant shield, preventing intruders from disturbing the eternal sleep of the souls, hence the fabricated stories about ghosts and spirits that deterred anyone from excavating Silbury Hill.
Ecological burial?
Silbury Hill may have been a site where prehistoric Britons disposed of bodies using… worms. (Image: English-heritage.org.uk).
A cross-section of Silbury reveals three main layers . The innermost layer – Silbury 1 – has a gravel base, topped by alternating layers of soil and chalk. Silbury 2 also consists of soil and chalk, and the outermost layer – Silbury 3 – has numerous trenches. Most researchers believe that the soil used to build the Silbury hills was alluvial soil or mud excavated from a nearby riverbed.
However, the few remaining researchers believe that it is black humus from the natural decomposition process, which is started by bacteria and fungi and finished by earthworms, or in other words, worm castings.
For these few researchers, Silbury was not a platform or a place of ceremony, but a burial ground for prehistoric people. Silbury, with its gravel floor and walls of wooden piles and boulders, served as a worm prison.
On top of the gravel, grass is arranged to feed the worms. Although worms don’t like grass, they can eat decaying grass, and, unable to escape, they have no choice but to eat it.
Why did prehistoric Britons keep worms in captivity? The likely answer is to dispose of corpses . During the Neolithic period in Europe, a common burial method was dismembering bodies. It’s highly probable that…
Silbury was constructed and bred with earthworms to accelerate the decomposition of dead bodies. The worms ate both grass and corpses, excreting black humus, a substance similar to silt.
The chalky layers interspersed between the soil layers likely served as a layer of material placed on top of the body debris, acting as a temporary trap for the worms below, forcing them to decompose the remains. Because chalk is soft and porous, when pressed down by the next layer of grass and body debris, it crumbles, allowing the worms to burrow upwards and continue decomposing the next layer of body parts.
Over the centuries, the Silbury mass grave gradually grew taller and wider, eventually becoming the hill it is today. In 2013, analysis of soil samples from Silbury Hill revealed it was full of worm castings.
The “ecological burial ground from prehistoric times” hypothesis became more credible, but it was still not entirely convincing because no human bones were found in Silbury Hill.
To this day, the world has been unable to determine why the Neolithic Britons built Silbury Hill.
Silbury Hill is located near the Avebury megalithic site in Wiltshire, in southwestern England. It is considered part of the three prehistoric sites recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Wiltshire: Silbury, Avebury, and Stonehenge
