In 1968 I was excavating at Marden Henge in the Vale of Pewsey. Just up the road at Silbury Hill a plethora of high-visibility jackets and the familiar accents of Welsh miners outside a heavily guarded door was the site of Richard Atkinson’s tunnel into the bowels of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Having been denied entry in 1968 it was my huge pleasure and privilege one Sunday morning in 2007 to enter the reopened tunnel and experience the unique thrill of standing in the core of the mound and actually seeing the organic deposits within it about which I had heard so much. Such an ambitious exercise deserves a fitting outcome and Jim Leary, David Field and Gill Campbell have delivered this to us in a sumptuous volume published only six years after their work in the field. Both they and English Heritage are to be warmly congratulated on their achievement. The book describes the background to research at Silbury Hill and the results of the 2007 excavations, with copious illustrations and photographs that do justice to the importance of the monument. Silbury is important for three reasons: it has the potential to preserve unique insights into the later Neolithic environment; it is a member of an important group of prehistoric monuments in the surrounding landscape; and it is big! The new evidence demonstrates that the construction of the mound was undertaken piecemeal, rather than in major stages as was previously thought, and that its great size reflects continued and prolonged use rather than design. In their key chapter on understanding the environment of Silbury Hill Gill Campbell and her colleagues have seized their opportunity to provide a unique insight into the herb-rich chalk grassland from the turves and topsoil under the centre of the mound which makes Silbury so special. The location question is addressed through the recognition that the mound is sited at the head of the River Kennet, thus confirming the importance of rivers and springs in the Neolithic world, which has also been recognised at Stonehenge, the source of the bluestones in the Preseli Hills and elsewhere. The excellent fold-out map at the back of the volume provides the monumental context for Silbury and could have been amplified more in the text – we have moved on since Renfrew’s seminal Reference Renfrew1973 article! The importance of this volume cannot be overstated. The support that English Heritage has given to this project has been completely justified and the authors have brought it to a successful conclusion.

The companion volume on Silbury Hill, published a few years earlier, provides a digest for those who wish to know more about this important monument without impoverishing themselves by purchasing the main volume. It is an attractive, accessible publication, which summarises the excavation results with some fresh illustrations, including some engaging drawings by Judith Dobie and Eddie Lyons. The book focuses on the process – the earlier excavations, the collapse of the summit of the hill in 2000 and the reopening of Atkinson’s tunnel in 2007 – and this exciting story makes a good read. It is an authoritative publication in its own right and will be deservedly successful.

As Silbury is the largest prehistoric mound so Avebury is the largest henge monument in Britain and lies at the centre of a monumental landscape of which Silbury, Windmill Hill, the Sanctuary, the West Kennet timber enclosures and the West Kennet long barrow are the principal components. The Avebury monument is surrounded by a great bank and ditch, on the inner edge of which is a ring of large sarsen uprights with two smaller circles at the centre; two avenues of upright stones connect it to the wider landscape. Despite its fame, comparatively little is known about its development and chronology. Into this vacuum has stepped Di Pattison with a valuable corpus of the standing stones containing over 200 illustrations, of which more than eighty are in colour, and a Cd-Rom which holds a description of each stone, research notes and 300-plus additional colour photographs. The absence of an index is regrettable and a list of illustrations in the text of the book would have been helpful. It is a formidable piece of research that is an essential companion for any student of Avebury and the author has shown great commitment and expertise in bringing it to fruition. Where some of us will find ourselves at odds with her is in her claim to have recognised a large number of sculptured three-dimensional images – principally of human heads – in the stones. Such images are known to researchers as simulacra and are defined as images bearing a resemblance or superficial likeness to an object or person. Their recognition requires belief by the viewer that they are seeing the image in question. Crudely put – they see what they wish to see! Pattison possesses that belief in abundance. Leafing through the illustrations – many of which are annotated by the author to make her case – this reviewer warmed to her enthusiasm but not to the point of sharing her belief system. With some regret I must condemn her perceptions as fanciful – while acknowledging that this is to some extent a subjective judgement – and mitigate this by congratulating her on a well-conducted and published survey of the stones themselves!

These three books are essential reading for anyone working in the prehistory of Britain and have messages for English Heritage and the National Trust. English Heritage must strive in the difficult times that lie ahead to ensure that the high standards of scholarship and production represented in the Silbury Hill volumes are maintained in the new organisation. The National Trust should draft and implement a research design for Avebury that will provide an authentic story for the monument rather than a fanciful world of the imagination.