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I'm with Moss on this. Excavation is destructive and these days, under Valletta, its only done if the archaeology is threatened. I realise there's a case for "restoration" of Avebury but in this case, unlike some, restoration can't be divorced from excavation so we have to tread very carefully.

"I define 'responsible' in this context as the restoration of our heritage in the shortest possible time".
Pourquoi? Where's the threat? What's the hurry?

(I feel very mean to myself about this as I'd love to see the full set up, and it would probably give more pleasure to more people than saving the knowledge for a few future archaeos. But when it came to it, with the diggers poised, I think i'd wimp out of saying Go!)

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this Nigel :-)

I'm very pro-excavation/restoration/conservation but this thread is probably not the place to argue why in any great detail (and anyway, I've done some of it before under the East Kennet Long Barrow thread and somewhere else with Peter Herring on Sutton Hoo.

As for being in a hurry (re: the Avebury stones), 15-20 years does not seem unduly hasty to get started (and I'd like to see a couple of newly erected stones in Avebury while I still have the wits and the will to get there ;-)