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Stonehenge and its Environs

ANOTHER henge found half a mile from Stonehenge!

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tjj T
tjj Jul 23, 2010 13:52:33
Replying to thesweetcheat

thesweetcheat wrote:
tjj wrote:
I just caught quite an in depth report on News 24 including an interview with Vince Gaffney and footage of Stonehenge and surrounding landscape.

What I found exciting is that this was discovered by use of hi-tec scanners, not a trowel in sight. Really good news; the idea of a dig taking place say somewhere like Boscawen-un, a place so elemental and peaceful filled me with a shudder.

Although the stones at Boscawen-un has been heavily restored, so it's not entirely "as found" either. Boskednan circle has benefited greatly from having some of its fallen stones re-erected in the last 10 years, even Merry Maidens had three stones re-erected in the 19th century too. All of which present opportunities to have a poke about without causing damage. One time we went to Nine Ladies in the Peak District and it was being excavated - although it kind of detracted while it was going on, you would never know it had happened now.

But yes, better technology means that digs can be targeted more accurately and only go ahead when there's a pretty good chance of being worthwhile. Gone (mostly) are the speculative treasure-hunter trenches of old. Although, on a (slightly) related matter I saw on the news today that the bloke who found the "largest ever Roman coin hoard" (tm) in Somerset is set to get a big payout as it has been classed as treasure. I hope this doesn't encourage yet more night time digging at monuments.

Thanks for your reply tsc; food for thought as ever. This morning I read the link to Mike Pitt's take on it and he seems to be saying the same thing - that more advanced technology will show where the excavations should take place, rather than just 'picking a spot'. I know it is necessary and skilled and that as Mike Pitts pointed out, much of it done by volunteers and archaeologists with little funding. Respect to them, I am only to happy to learn from the results of their work.

(I mentioned elsewhere the John Aubrey exhibition currently running at the Bodleian Library and refer to it here as the many stone circles he visited and then drew can be viewed as part of the exhibition. It is very fascinating to see how they looked over 300 years ago)
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/2010_may_28

Re: your comment about 'treasure-hunting', yesterday a Facebook contact posted something about buying a metal detector ... I started to type a response that reflected something of what I have learnt about the issue here but decided to leave it alone.

Rhiannon, thanks for your link - I hadn't seen it before. Interesting too, to see the map that shows Marden's geographical relationship to Avebury and Stonehenge.

atb
june

S StoneGloves
StoneGloves Jul 23, 2010 15:27:38
Replying to tjj

Viz. your metal detecting. There's a big seasonal fair in Newcastle, held over the Summer Solstice, called The Hoppings. It's the biggest migratory fair in Europe, allegedly, and there's loads of rides. Everyone goes. The fair finished about midnight Saturday and the first vans started pulling out of there in the early hours. By seven on Sunday morning there were a dozen detectorists looking for stray coins, in the grass.