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Littlestone L
Littlestone Sep 2, 2012 22:08:54
Replying to tiompan

The hidden aspect is as likely to have been important , so often barrows , rock art , stone circles appear to be sited not on but just away from the greatest viewshed as if the it's the view from rather than to that counts .
Jeeze... the reason for that is hard to get your head around (the round barrows on the Ridgeway by the Sanctuary do that - being slightly below the summit). But I still don’t get it. In death wouldn’t the deceased want the best possible view he or she could get? I’ve heard it suggested that by positioning barrows (for example) slightly below the summit there’s somehow a stronger visual statement made but I really can’t see how that would work.

T tiompan
tiompan Sep 2, 2012 22:53:33
Replying to Littlestone

Littlestone wrote:
The hidden aspect is as likely to have been important , so often barrows , rock art , stone circles appear to be sited not on but just away from the greatest viewshed as if the it's the view from rather than to that counts .
Jeeze... the reason for that is hard to get your head around (the round barrows on the Ridgeway by the Sanctuary do that - being slightly below the summit). But I still don’t get it. In death wouldn’t the deceased want the best possible view he or she could get? I’ve heard it suggested that by positioning barrows (for example) slightly below the summit there’s somehow a stronger visual statement made but I really can’t see how that would work.
I've noticed it at many sites sometimes no more than 50 m away from the really expansive view but the monument gets sited with something lesser . Could be territorial . The best view is usually from the top but rarely are the monuments there .David Field has noted that the distibution of barrows in Wessex is skewed towards the higher contours mainly beause those on the downs were not affected by medieval ploughing , whereas in some of the gravel areas i.e. Raunds the original majority lowland valley distribution survived .