Archaeologists date tool discarded 4,500 years ago

Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Thursday November 22, 2001
The Guardian

A scrap of antler has proved that Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in
Europe, was completed around 4,500 years ago.
The first scientific evidence for the date of one of the most puzzling of our
ancient monuments is one of two antlers found at the summit of the 128ft hill.
It was discovered as archaeologists agonised over how to fill a gaping hole
which had threatened the collapse of the Wiltshire monument.

The fragments are the broken tips of the picks with which the monument was
built, that were thrown into the top of the hill as the last gaps between the
blocks of cut chalk were filled with rubble.

While the first phase of building at Silbury may be centuries older, the dating
of the antler proves the structure was complete almost 1,000 years before the
last arrangement of the boulders at Stonehenge.

The dating, by the Oxford University radiocarbon unit, yields a late Neolithic
date of about 2490-2340BC, with 95% certainty of accuracy. Earlier attempts to
date Silbury Hill were based on educated guesses of 2800-2000BC: its form is so
unusual there is almost nothing to compare it with. "An archaeologist shouldn't
say this, but it is the result we were hoping for," said Amanda Chadbury,
English Heritage's ancient monuments inspector for the area.

rest at
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