Re: Heritage Reality | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Ancient Britain Os map

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nigelswift May 17, 2009 10:59:29

Replying to Stoneshifter

Not sure if "Pants" was meant as a criticism, but you were probably present when HA was born and designed, right here, and you'll recall it was an umbrella organisation in which people could do stuff themselves but under a bigger banner. It was also about prehistoric stuff alone. If you give me a salary and pay for my petrol and hotel and show me where to go and exactly where unplanned roads have been driven over and damaged officially recognised prehistoric monuments and most important of all that the issue is remotely winnable I'll go! The world is full of people damaging the cultural environment to make money, the law has deliberate gaps to let them, the best we can do is do what we can in our own tiny corner.

StoneGloves May 17, 2009 19:32:43

Replying to nigelswift

There's interesting biological research being carried out at the moment. Mental illness - what survival value does it have? The hobbits, of course; is it H. floriensis? Then the new discovery of butchery marks on Neanderthal bones. Did we out compete the Neanderthals? Nah, we just ate them! But the English language is evolving by use and, in this context, 'pants' means nonsense or rubbish.

There are no prizes for saving stuff. Going out on a limb is a lonely experience. It has no survival value. Or very little - the moral high ground, but that feeling soon wears off. And when the stuff is finally acknowledged - written about and brought into the mass of human understanding - it'll be someone else that is probably credited with the finds or else the civilised world will be under water. What I don't understand, in this process, is how people create an imaginary exclusion zone and refuse to enter it. And considering that one of my best finds is two minutes from a bus route, surrounded by houses, then that attitude is pretty extreme.