The summer solstice this year was apparently the biggest since the exclusion zone was lifted nine years ago, with access again managed by English Heritage: The BBC reported 36,500 revellers in attendance although given the way in which people were being counted, the real figure is almost certainly lower than this (counting was done by stewards on entry to the stones, so as people travelled back and forth to the campsite, they were presumably counted more than once).

The mood of those attending was largely good and I for one had many interesting and varied conversations with a variety of folks and even enjoyed a bit of dancing inside the bluestone circle, the latter not being something one can do everyday! There were folks from all over Europe and further afield and it is great to see so many people coming to see the event. I walked in from Durrington (avoiding the traffic carnage!) and couldn’t help but be moved by the people streaming in towards the circle from all directions, making me think of our ancestors who would have travelled along similar lines for soltices past: A truly inspiration feeling and one which really provides a sense of place. » Continue reading “Summer Solstice, 2009″

There was an interesting discussion on Radio Four this morning about free entry to museums. Simon Jenkins, chairman of the National Trust, raised concerns about the London-centric nature of free access to national museums. To be honest, I was under the impression that it is not just the national museums that are free, many provincial museums also offer free entry. Indeed, all the museums I visit regularly are free. One of my favourites is Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery which has offered free access for a while now. Banbury Museum likewise. Southampton museums were also free until earlier this year and now charge nominal entrance fees.

It is indeed true that uneven free entry will encourage visitors to visit some museums over and above others but this is not an argument for having entry fees. I have noticed when visiting another of my haunts, the Natural History Museum, that the demographic of visitors has changed in recent years. Many more people in total including more children and families in attendance rather than just obviously middle-class, middle-aged couples. This is a good thing; everyone should be given the opportunity to visit informative places like museums, they should not be restricted to those with disposable income. Far too often, heritage attractions charge an entry fee based on some rather spurious figure in the order of £6-10 for an adult. So, for a family day out, a typical 2 adult + 2 children family are looking at a not insubstantial sum and for those on low incomes, this may just be too much. If we want people to engage with heritage attractions, including museums, we need to scrap or reduce entrance fees as much as possible.

Some news regarding the Ordnance Survey and spatial data in the UK has come to me via the wonders of GIS User and my work. Once again, OS licensing is the key issue but now there is a another driving force on the scene which may have an impact. » Continue reading “Time’s up for the Ordnance Survey…?”

I’ve just been watching the Time Team special Secrets of Stonehenge; very interesting programme. The theoretical basis regarding stone commemorating the ancestors and the links between Durrington Walls and Stonehenge, linked by the river Avon, have been well discussed in the literature (see Parker Pearson & Ramilisonina. 1998) but it is really good to see how the evidence arising from the Stonehenge Riverside Project fits in to Mike Parker-Pearson’s ideas. Excellent contributions from Mike Pitts regarding the Aubrey Holes and how they are really stone sockets and Josh Pollard on the practices of excarnation and dealing with the dead in prehistory. Putting all the information together, the idea that it was an early farming community who built a bluestone circle to commemorate their ancestors, later becoming the sarsen megalithic structure we see today, certainly changes the established story; English Heritage are going to have to update their guidebooks!

There was also little mention of the recent Darvill and Wainright excavations which appeared on the BBC Timewatch programme other than a rather dismissive comment regarding ‘hospital theories’. As it says on the BBC website: His [Parker Pearson's] interpretation is at odds with that of Darvill and Wainwright. Stonehenge was not a place for the living, whether sickening or fighting fit. It was a monument for the dead. According to Parker Pearson, “Stonehenge… was built not for the transitory living but for the ancestors whose permanence was materialised in stone.” It must be admitted that the evidence for a prehistoric Lourdes is scant in comparison to the wealth of information amassed by the Stonehenge Riverside Project. And if it were a football match, the dream team of Mike Parker Pearson, Mike Pitts, Julian Thomas, Chris Tilley, Josh Pollard, Colin Richards and Kate Welham certainly outgun Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainright… Of course, they are all well renowned archaeologists as regards Stonehenge and there are always competing theories, that being the nature of academic discourse; I certainly have many of their publications on my shelf for my research on prehistoric landscapes.

Well done Time Team for presenting at least some of the wealth of new information in an accessible and interesting fashion; I’d like to see part two (revenge of the ancestors…?) to complete the story

Other links:

• National Geographic pages on the Stonehenge Riverside Project
• My Flickr photos from the Darvill & Wainright excavations
• My Flickr photos from the Durrington Walls excavations, part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project
• The Stonehenge Research Framework authored by Tim Darvill
• My Flickr photos of Stonehenge, including some more from the Stonehenge Riverside Project
• The Stonehenge landscape in 3D from Wessex Archaeology
• Stonehenge LiDAR visualisation, a zoomify-able hillshaded elevation model from Wessex Archaeology

References:
Parker Pearson, M. & Ramilisonina. 1998. Stonehenge for the ancestors: the stones pass on the message. Antiquity 72: 308-26.