Silbury Hill forum 180 room
Image by texlahoma
Silbury Hill

did you just say what I think you said?

close
more_vert
PeterH P
PeterH Oct 29, 2005 19:33:10
Replying to BrigantesNation

You misunderstand me. How can I make it any clearer that I do not see archaeologists as the best people to preserve Silbury or any other ancient site. That is not their function, purpose or expertise. I do believe that EH is well motivated towards preserving/saving Silbury and I believe that appropriate engineers have the required expertise and not archaeologists.

The word "amateur" has come to be used in a dismissive way. I hold to its true meaning ie from the Latin "amator" meaning lover. You shout for Thornborough for love of Thornborough not because you are paid to do so as a professional. Ditto VBB, Nigel, Pete G et al because they LOVE Silbury. However, that love and passion does not guarantee that they always have the required knowledge to make the best decisions - and at the end of the day decisions are required and talk must give way to action.

B BrigantesNation
BrigantesNation Oct 30, 2005 01:15:37
Replying to PeterH

Five years delay does not say "well motivated" to me. I never got involved with Thornborough because I loved the site, in fact I hardly knew it existed and had visited it only once some five years previous. In fact thinking about it it was not until a couple of days after I started the campaign that I visited the site for the second time.

But, I already knew things were not well with heritage, for three years I'd been investigating sites in detail and finding I was having concerns about a lot of things I was seeing. The system does indeed have many experts, but that system is not engineered to work and many experts have split loyalties that often conflict.

Our governments have messed around on the subject of heritage for the last twenty years at least and what we are left with is a toothless and bankrupt curator of heritage, one that has had to let a great many of its experts go, those that remain are spread too thinly. In addition the county level curators have similarly been stripped of expertise and resources and also power. Many counties have just a few archaeologists between the County Archaeologist and English Heritage spread across thousands of sites from all periods.

I think the truth is quite a number of us have realised that there is only one watchdog for our heritage - us. And we have each decided that we will watch over our heritage in our own way. Some of us have formed groups others go it alone or try to get involved in alternative ways.

Ultimately, my goal is to see English Heritage as a properly funded curator of heritage with the power and the political freedom to locate all heritagevsites, understand their importance and protect them accordingly, including deciding how best to preserve a site and with the proper resources.

I also want to see a profession of archaeologists that are rewarded in line with similar professions, rather than McDonalds wages if they are lucky. I want to see archaeologists on development sites make decisions without fear of losing the contract, to me this means they should be paid by EH or the county out of an agreed development charge. Anyway, George's utopian world list is a long one so I won't go on.

My point is, the only way I can see change of this sort happening is via public pressure and that does not come by keeping quiet or avoiding public meetings because they might cost some money. EH have had plenty of time to consult in the last five years, it's hardly our fault if they are a little slow.

If you are happy to leave things to EH then that's fine it's your decision. Personally I'm not confident about doing that at all and whilst I can see that this causes irritation to some people, at the end of the day unless the public show concern about an issue, that issue will not get dealt with.

Silbury is a very special place, its a flagship site. One would have hoped EH would have been very forthcoming with this project and would have been eager to tell us of the great work done so far and what is planned in the future. That they chose to wait until it was demanded is a great shame and again does little to inspire confidence.

B BrigantesNation
BrigantesNation Oct 30, 2005 01:15:37
Replying to PeterH

Five years delay does not say "well motivated" to me. I never got involved with Thornborough because I loved the site, in fact I hardly knew it existed and had visited it only once some five years previous. In fact thinking about it it was not until a couple of days after I started the campaign that I visited the site for the second time.

But, I already knew things were not well with heritage, for three years I'd been investigating sites in detail and finding I was having concerns about a lot of things I was seeing. The system does indeed have many experts, but that system is not engineered to work and many experts have split loyalties that often conflict.

Our governments have messed around on the subject of heritage for the last twenty years at least and what we are left with is a toothless and bankrupt curator of heritage, one that has had to let a great many of its experts go, those that remain are spread too thinly. In addition the county level curators have similarly been stripped of expertise and resources and also power. Many counties have just a few archaeologists between the County Archaeologist and English Heritage spread across thousands of sites from all periods.

I think the truth is quite a number of us have realised that there is only one watchdog for our heritage - us. And we have each decided that we will watch over our heritage in our own way. Some of us have formed groups others go it alone or try to get involved in alternative ways.

Ultimately, my goal is to see English Heritage as a properly funded curator of heritage with the power and the political freedom to locate all heritagevsites, understand their importance and protect them accordingly, including deciding how best to preserve a site and with the proper resources.

I also want to see a profession of archaeologists that are rewarded in line with similar professions, rather than McDonalds wages if they are lucky. I want to see archaeologists on development sites make decisions without fear of losing the contract, to me this means they should be paid by EH or the county out of an agreed development charge. Anyway, George's utopian world list is a long one so I won't go on.

My point is, the only way I can see change of this sort happening is via public pressure and that does not come by keeping quiet or avoiding public meetings because they might cost some money. EH have had plenty of time to consult in the last five years, it's hardly our fault if they are a little slow.

If you are happy to leave things to EH then that's fine it's your decision. Personally I'm not confident about doing that at all and whilst I can see that this causes irritation to some people, at the end of the day unless the public show concern about an issue, that issue will not get dealt with.

Silbury is a very special place, its a flagship site. One would have hoped EH would have been very forthcoming with this project and would have been eager to tell us of the great work done so far and what is planned in the future. That they chose to wait until it was demanded is a great shame and again does little to inspire confidence.