Trees and barrows

close
more_vert
moss M
moss Apr 25, 2007 14:16:46
Replying to Littlestone

Littlestone wrote:
Pah! You supporters of trees on barrows should keep in mind the destruction the root systems are doing to the interiors. More importantly, and as far as I'm aware, barrows weren't designed to have trees sprouting out of 'em, so the that's a double whammy in the desecration stakes.

What next - hanging baskets at Stonehenge? Clear the lot, that's wot I say (starting with East Kennet ;-)

Well until you excavate (which is equally as damaging) you don't know roots are causing damage LS, and I think East Kennet looks quite romantic with its tree garnishing ;) as for hanging baskets at Stonehenge thats a little over the top but more wild flowers around prehistoric sites would'nt come amiss for all those philistines that don't know their daffodils from their cowslips..... Actually is'nt one of the archaeologists clearing the trees from the barrows at Stonehenge..

T tiompan
tiompan Apr 25, 2007 14:53:33
Replying to moss

moss wrote:
as for hanging baskets at Stonehenge thats a little over the top
Seems like a good idea , xmas lights at Newgrange , it's a bit dark there in winter , altar stone with large bbq y , walkway connecting the rollright stones ,bouncy castle ,where it belongs at Castlerigg , paintballing at Avebury ,the neo nazis would like that and Maes Howe the new big brother house .

L Littlestone
Littlestone Apr 25, 2007 16:37:15
Replying to moss

Well until you excavate (which is equally as damaging) you don't know roots are causing damage.
Sorry, but I don't accept that excavating causes as much damage as roots, and while excavating will hopefully advance our understanding of a place roots certainly will not :-)

Actually, roots do at least two quite nasty things (don't start yawning and you at the back please pay attention :-) The first is to displace whatever's in their way. If a root's under a drain it can grow to the point where it lifts the drain and causes it to burst (the drain that is not the root). Same thing happens to walls and foundations - they get lifted or pushed by the ever increasing size of the root until they crack. The second nasty thing about a root is that when it dies it rots away leaving a void. In other words, if the root under the drain hasn't grown to the point where it has lifted the drain it can still cause it to collapse into the void that the root once occupied. Same result - burst drain. If that isn't bad enough roots can move things around and possibly destroy important archaeological evidence.

By this point you've probably gathered that I don't much like roots. I don't much like mysteries either, and given the choice between a mystery and a fact I'll go for the fact. The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial may have been a mystery while it remained unexcavated but its excavation has provided us with a deeper understanding of early Anglo-Saxon culture, not to mention the preservation of some of the most stunning artefacts ever produce by humankind - artefacts that would otherwise have been lost forever.