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 Head To Head The Modern Antiquarian Stonehenge Forum | Start a topic | Search |
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| Visiting the ancient monuments of southern England is a wonderful idea. But why be so concerned with being alone at them? It took a lot of cooperative work to plan and build the old things: surely they are as much about "community," in some sense of the word--even if potentially coerced or authoritarian--as anything else. I think the current wrestling with how to preserve both the sites themselves physically and access to them is probably a good metaphor for the "discussions" that must have taken place over their building and original use. Loie and I and our friends the Hauers had a perfectly satisfactory "Stonehenge Private Access" sunrise visit to the interior of the circle two years ago. We four were there with about twenty other folks, all very respectful of and interested in the stones and their site. It was fun seeing other peoples' reactions. We followed up with a plowman's breakfast in town, then a day exploring the Cursus, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls. While at the latter, we fell in with a group of archaeologists doing some GPS surveying of the Walls, and upon asking one of their group what they were doing, got an hour's lecture and question and answer time about the Walls and the whole area. Marvelous! The next day we met Jimit and Nigel of this site (and the Stone Pages) for a guided tour of the Avebury complex, and they got Pete Glastonbury to meet us for lunch and more exploring. We had a tour the likes of which money couldn't buy courtesy of our terrific new friends. What a treat that was. Our visit couldn't have been more informative or interesting, and all four of us have wonderful memories and real gratitude to both English Heritage and our Stone Pages friends for taking the time to be helpful and friendly and concerned about the old places. Given ENOUGH people, they certainly will disagree about how best to treat our cultural heritage. But at least SOME people are concerned about doing it at all, and to all of the--both professional and amateur--we're thankful. Reply | with quote | Posted by BuckyE 3rd January 2006ce 13:44 In reply to: Maybe this is a stupid question... (LoonyDream) |
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