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moss M
moss Nov 16, 2007 11:13:43
Replying to Littlestone

Well you can hardly credit it but the next EH update (down below) says that forget the fortnightly one its a monthly update from now on..... and there I was worrying about all that chalk falling down in the news, still at least what you don't know you don't worry about.....

http://amaxus.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/Silbury_Hill_web_update_25.pdf

N nigelswift
nigelswift Nov 16, 2007 12:24:08
Replying to moss

[i}"As progress on the project will become less variable, updates will be posted on a monthly basis."[/]

For "less variable" I think we can read "the removal of the polystyrene and the old steelwork over the course of the next month will very probably involve far more collapses and loss of material than previously so now we're going to entirely shut down the information flow to the public".

Terrible.

L Littlestone
Littlestone Nov 16, 2007 20:56:12
Replying to moss

Those at English Heritage have a responsibility to keep the public up-to-date (with at least weekly updates) on their progress at Silbury. Those updates should not only contain detailed information on the major issues of instability or the discovery of further voids but discuss less urgent (though equally important) issues such as the removal of the Atkinson/BBC door and lintel - an announcement on which could be made tomorrow if English Heritage so wished.*
Instead, those at English Heritage responsible for the Silbury conservation project have decide in their wisdom to now reduce their Silbury Updates from first weekly, to fortnightly and now monthly! They continue to avoid publishing their plans for the removal (or non-removal) of the Atkinson/BBC door and lintel and have announced (in passing) that they have laid a geo-electrical cable along the length of the Atkinson/BBC tunnel.** This cable hasn't been laid along the floor of the existing tunnel but into a newly cut trench that measures around a metre square. In removing original, untouched Neolithic building material from the heart of Silbury, English Heritage are yet again contravening accepted norms of conservation while not being completely transparent about the need to dig a new trench and lay a geo-electrical cable within it.

* http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=44274&message=558623

** http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.17511 (Update 25).