the prehistoric built environment

Guardian Unlimited | Ramblers barred from ancient mound

Silbury Hill

Image – earthrod.co.uk

Access is to be denied to the great earthen mound to the north of Stonehenge – Silbury Hill.

Yes, it is receiving too much damage. But what interested me was that this feature of an earthen landscape has been reclassified a building. (As part of the countryside, people had free access to the monument.)

Whether or not it is appropriate to bar access, I am arguing in my latest book that the landscape round Stonehenge is an ancient built environment. Our distinctions between city and countryside are not applicable to much of prehistory.

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