The Winterbourne (centre) meets the Swallowhead Spring (far left) where it becomes the Kennet (foreground). The is an Egyptian word 'Kehmet' which refers to the black, fertile lands that resulted from the annual flooding of the Nile. Each year massive quantities of black silt were brought down from Ethiopia and the African interior resulting in Egypt's continuous fertility. Michael Dames, in his book The Silbury Treasure (ISBN 0-500-27140-2) examines the etymology of the word Kennet. He writes on page 110 -
Cunnit is Cunnt with an extra i. As late as 1740, the peasants of the district had not abandoned the nomenclature, and the old name was in use all down the river to Hungerford, in 1723. The Roman riverside settlement called Cunetio - their principal town in the entire Kennet valley.
It is only too easy to draw parallels between the words Kehmet and Kennet, not to mention other words in the family of Indo-European languages with similar sounds and symbolism, but with the great 'pyramid' of Silbury sitting only a stone's throw from both the Swallowhead Spring and the River Kennet, perhaps it is also a mistake to dismiss out-of-hand that there was ever any connection between the two cultures of ancient Britain and ancient Egypt. There was, after all, the small but thriving Roman town at the base of Silbury some two thousand years ago, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that there may have been an exchange of peoples and ideas between Britain and Egypt some two thousand years prior to that date.
Cunnit is Cunnt with an extra i. As late as 1740, the peasants of the district had not abandoned the nomenclature, and the old name was in use all down the river to Hungerford, in 1723. The Roman riverside settlement called Cunetio - their principal town in the entire Kennet valley.
It is only too easy to draw parallels between the words Kehmet and Kennet, not to mention other words in the family of Indo-European languages with similar sounds and symbolism, but with the great 'pyramid' of Silbury sitting only a stone's throw from both the Swallowhead Spring and the River Kennet, perhaps it is also a mistake to dismiss out-of-hand that there was ever any connection between the two cultures of ancient Britain and ancient Egypt. There was, after all, the small but thriving Roman town at the base of Silbury some two thousand years ago, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that there may have been an exchange of peoples and ideas between Britain and Egypt some two thousand years prior to that date.
