The Thornborough Henges 71
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The Thornborough Henges

Setting

FourWinds F
FourWinds Feb 23, 2006 07:14:06
Replying to BrigantesNation

Now then. You've come across a very interesting point. If you want to save the archaeology at Ladybridge Farm then why harp on about the henges? Surely it should be a 'Save Ladybridge Farm' campaign! Doing a save the henges campaign just gives Tarmac room to say "We ain't anywhere near the henges!"

I know you are campaigning to save the whole area, but a lot of the time it doesn't read that way. I also know that the relationship to the henges is very important, but they are safe and people will see them as the main concern.

Anyway, back to your point. What is Ladybridge's setting? Can it have one if it's part of the setting for something bigger? i.e. would it be there if it wasn't for the henges? One is most likely the cause of the other's presence. Again, saving the key site is the most important, which as you rightly say could actually be the pit alignments, not the henges or anything else. The setting of any site that is there purely because of an earlier site is 'the other site' and nothing more. Then the original site's setting comes in to play.

Great care must be taken to stress how important all the sites are as a whole. That's why I like the sound of <i>Archaeological Complex</i> - it sounds ... well erm ... complex! And therefore important :-)

N nigelswift
nigelswift Feb 23, 2006 07:49:18
Replying to FourWinds

"gives Tarmac room to say "We ain't anywhere near the henges!"

They have said it ad nauseam - it's in every single statement they make, often with the accusation the campaign has conned people into thinking the monument isn't safe. There's little truth in the accusation since the campaign started ensuring terms like archaeological landscape were always used but evidently it needs emphasising even more.

Complex is good. I think George uses it sometimes but maybe it should be used constantly so that it rolls off the tongue of friend and foe.

Another point worth pursuing is that comparisons with other important "complexes" hasn't been pushed hard enough maybe. Comparison may be all EH has in the end if they're forced to define how far Thornboro is likely to stretch. It's a fruitful exercise: if you transpose Ladybridge to scale onto Avebury or Stonehenge it straddles Silbury or the Stonehenge Cursus for instance. In "familiar" terms, Ladybridge is very close in.

The damnable thing is that the Stonehenge and Avebury complexes have lots of apparently relatively blank areas, yet regarding them as not part of the whole is inconceivable. Equally damnable is that blankness tends to be a function of not having been fully investigated. When they are, stuff is discovered.

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