Book Review: Silbury - Resolving the Enigma by Michael Dames Artificial Mound Wiltshire

Submitted by runemage on Tuesday, 14 September 2010 Page Views: 15595

Country: England County: Wiltshire Type: Artificial Mound

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**Silbury Hill** submitted by h_fenton : Silbury Hill viewed from north (roughly). Kite Aerial Photograph 30 August 2010 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Runemage writes: This is an interesting book cover. It shows Silbury in a numinous shot, the dark clouds above the fiery red sky as the sun is at rise or set and the top of Silbury is reflected in the waters below. The typeface used in the chapter sub-headings and the words Resolving the Enigma on the cover is reminiscent of an old typewriter and takes you back to legendary days of codebreaking and Enigma machines.

This is a nice touch, so even before you open the book, subliminally you are aware that the book involves solving the codes hidden in the landscape around this unique man-made hill.

In the seventies, Dames wrote ‘The Silbury Treasure’ which, whilst written with great enthusiasm, was generally ignored by the archaeological community as the ideas it proposed – that Silbury was an Earth and water fertility Goddess - were too way out for their thinking at that time. It’s not essential to have read that prior to reading ‘Solving the Enigma’, I haven’t read it and it didn’t spoil my enjoyment.

Throughout ‘Resolving the Enigma’, Dames takes us on a journey, starting at Silbury and slowly encompassing different features of the wider landscape, pointing out things we may not have even thought about previously. It’s a gentle journey that twists and turns, drawing mostly on what’s in plain sight but simultaneously providing a different viewpoint. For me, his interpretation of what was at the centre of the mound is definitely a new outlook and there were familiar places mentioned which I will now see in a new light.

The early part of the book describes his viewpoint differing from the mainstream in his early days and sometimes much more recently. He takes particular issue with Caroline Malone, curator of Avebury's Keiller Museum, who wrote in the official English Heritage account of the Avebury Monuments in 1989 that Silbury cannot be seen from either of the Avebury circles, thereby directly opposing Dames' Goddess theory.

Dames claims this is untrue but doesn't provide a image to illustrate his point. This is most frustrating for a reader who lives too far from Avebury to go and have a look for themselves, so I did the next best thing. Off I went to The Megalithic Portal's site page for Avebury and found this image, which clearly shows Dames’ observation is correct.

View of Silbury Hill from the southern inner circle at Avebury, by Baz

Also, he has a gentle dig (!) at Richard Atkinson, who famously and rather over enthusiastically excavated the site for BBC Televisiion in the late sixties. Dames writes: "His narrow gaze brought extra meaning to the phrase Tunnel Vision" but that’s about as contrary as he gets. Dames briefly outlines the different viewpoints of archaeologists since Atkinson’s time but doesn’t turn the narrative into an attack, rather he suggests there is more than meets the eye in our secular post-mythic age.

The journey with Dames isn’t only through the landscape, where he points out alignments and sightlines between some of the more familiar landmarks on certain dates. It’s also a journey forward through time from the Neolithic and has a fairly detailed exploration of the Roman presence, culture and rituals in the area which he believes are a continuance of those a lot older and which have survived in some folk-customs into the present. He says "To understand Silbury is to enjoy such poetics of fusion which draws sacred and practical life together" and later "Silbury is the product of the age of myth – how can our secular culture ever hope to see the water and earth Neolithic Deity?"

When Dames had finished writing the book, something came to light just before publication and is included as a postscript. This something only serves to enhance the mystery of Silbury for future generations.

In summary, if you prefer factual chronological archaeology, I’d doubt if you’d gain much enjoyment from reading this. If you like to wonder and speculate and conjecture on the how and the why of the ancient places, you’ll love this book. And if you come somewhere in the middle of those extremes, you may find it gives a fresh outlook to something you’d perhaps not considered before.

Review by Runemage

Silbury: Resolving the Enigma by Michael Dames

Published by The History Press, Jun 2010

Paperback, 192 pages

RRP: £14.99

£14.24 or less at Amazon.co.uk

Contributor Bio for runemage: Based in UK, contributing since 2005. Favourite site: Uragh.

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