Dear SBP,

Five years ago I knew nothing about archaeology. I don't know a lot now. However, I did come to it from a profession and an era that put standing up for what was right irrespective of one's personal position or career at the very top of its requirements.

You should understand therefore that I have remained unable to feel other than outraged that in a situation where Thornborough's landscape may well be destroyed and 60,000 cubic feet of Silbury may go the same way in obscure circumstances, that thousands upon thousands of archaeologists have remained utterly silent. Telling me I don't understand, or that they're agonising in silence won't wash. The point is, they're keeping quiet when they could put a stop to it. All there is is a raggle taggle army of naïve amateurs. And they're treated like ignorant ill-informed troublemakers by the likes of you who can't even risk giving an opinion on the two issues. It's so easy for you to make a few dismissive keystrokes. In defence of what? Absolutely nothing, it transpires, except friendship!

I do know something about the issue. You have demonstrated very clearly you don't, having previously given us to understand you were in the know. Oh, and you're quite wrong to assert you have the same literature as me, I know that for certain.

So bollocks. When Silbury is tunnelled and Thornborough is quarried I'm sure you and your dedicated passionate friends will rationalise it and move on, maintaining an even more profound silence about what you've watched happen. But it won't make it right. What's happening stinks and is entirely avoidable. Don't tell me that the profession of archaeology couldn't stop it, they could. It just needs the sense of right and wrong to be stronger than a dedication to realpolitik.

I'm well aware that's a view that puts me in the dinosaur class and is a million miles from modern reality so there's no need to reply. You've succeded in shutting me up for now, so I guess that's a result.