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Absurdity of time capsules

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FourWinds F
FourWinds Aug 15, 2007 12:50:23
Replying to fitzcoraldo

fitzcoraldo wrote:
Children from a local school in Wales have also left their poetry (on stone) in a neolithic quarry on Mynydd Rhiw which has recently been excavated.. Why????

I suppose it's all about how you view and interact with sites. My personal opinion is that these monuments are not dead, their histories are still being written. I guess the local children may have been involved in the excavation and by leaving something of themselves they then become part of the quarries history. This inturn may foster a sense of ownership and belonging.

cheers
fitz

If they did help to excavate it then they are already part of the place's history, because it has been recorded that they did so (if they did so).

F fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Aug 15, 2007 13:35:12
Replying to FourWinds

true nuff Tom
but who's to know that, some dusty report in the county archive isn't all that inspiring.
I think that perhaps if these places were elevated in the public imagination then they might just be treated differently and given a little more love and respect. It's gotta be better than just preserving them as some kind of relic, forever frozen in time.
It should always be a case by case thing but I personally haven't got any big problems with including peoples responses to ancient sites along side the sites themselves.
I've seen a couple of really nice examples. The rock art at Ashove in Derbyshire has some lovely stuff made by the kids as a response to the carvings.
This lovely plaque has been mounted beside the wonderful High banks panel http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/37453/images/high_banks.html.
Saying that I was never to fond of that chrome egg thing at the Rollrights but that's just me.

M moss
moss Aug 15, 2007 13:44:51
Replying to FourWinds

FourWinds wrote:
fitzcoraldo wrote:
I suppose it's all about how you view and interact with sites. My personal opinion is that these monuments are not dead, their histories are still being written. I guess the local children may have been involved in the excavation and by leaving something of themselves they then become part of the quarries history. This inturn may foster a sense of ownership and belonging.

cheers
fitz

If they did help to excavate it then they are already part of the place's history, because it has been recorded that they did so (if they did so).
I suppose you could also argue why the history of a neolithic quarry has anything to do with the children who just happen to live locally, do we have time capsules at castles, roman forts, iron age hillforts, not nitpicking here Fitz but just interested. I know we should teach our children to love the world around them and by making them write a few poems AT LEAST focus their minds on something definitely to do with history, but the world has moved on somewhat, as they will..
Also, secondary burials in barrows just shows a lazy tendency not to get the shovel/antlers pick out and dig a new grave.. and I expect votive offerings always come with a "Please god/goddess make me better, mend my broken heart, kill the neighbours pigs etc....