Stonehenge

The BBC have just reported that in addition to the dramatic cuts to public services, the Con Dem coalition have cut the government funding for the Stonehenge Visitor Centre Project. I imagine the project will now be cancelled as it is unlikely that English Heritage, Wiltshire Council, the Highways Agency or indeed anyone else will be able to stump up the twenty odd million needed.

A great shame, another opportunity missed. To be honest, like Mike Pitts, i thought I was dreaming when I saw the news; bad case of deja vue… Since I’ve been working in archaeology, I’ve worked on two major projects aimed at sorting out Stonehenge which have looked at many, many options and there were previous projects before that. Just think of all the time and money that has been spent to date on the various iterations of road routes, visitor centre plans and assessment/evaluation work, all of which has come to nothing.

Given the enormity of the national debt, surely funding for this project is a drop in the ocean. The Con Dems are truly scratching around down the back of the sofa for any coppers to be found. And what is most galling is that the bankers who caused all of this mess recieved such large bonuses again this year, out of money British tax-payers provided, they could probably club together and pay for a new visitor centre (if they had an ounce of social responsibility between them).

Related posts:

1. Stonehenge world heritage status at risk as tunnel plan is shelved – Times Online
2. Secrets of Stonehenge
3. Stonehenge panoramas

Stonehenge panorama

Following on from my last post, I’ve prepared a couple more panoramas from my Stonehenge photographs. Again, these were prepared using Microsoft ICE and then uploaded to Photosynth. The first is a partial panorama of the henge and the stone circle. The second is a 360 degree panorama taken from the walkway where the Avenue meets the henge.

This panorama shows the complete monument rather well I think; in addition to the world famous stone circle, the earlier bank and ditch of the henge is prominent.

The Avenue is an interesting component of the monument and the viewpoint for this panorama looks directly down its path as well as back towards the circle.

Related posts:

1. Photographs and then some!
2. Secrets of Stonehenge
3. Stonehenge excavations

Woodhenge Panorama

First there was photography. Then came digital photography. Now, Microsoft have some neat tools for doing amazing things with digital photographs and I’ve combined my love of photography, geeky things and prehistoric archaeology using some of their gadgets.

Firstly, there is ICE (Image Composite Editor). I’ve used this to produce a 360 degree panorama of photos taken at Woodhenge. I’ve been creating panoramas for a decade now, my Avebury panoramas being captured 1999-2000 using an early Agfa digital camera, a tripod and Photovista. A tripod was vital, matching wasn’t perfect, and colour balance was poor but now, using ICE, pretty much any images can be used and the software will simply match, stitch and colour balance them to produce almost magical outputs.

The panorama above comprises 25 portrait oriented photographs taken freehand whilst standing on the central post at Woodhenge. It was then uploaded to Photosynth from where it is embedded. Lovely isn’t it

Photosynth is the other neat gadget from Microsoft. It’s been around a while now and as well as featuring on CSI used to solve crimes as part of their forensic toolkit, it is great as a platform for exploring archaeological sites. I’ve been meaning to have a go for a while now and finally got around to it, using a rather famous pile of prehistoric rocks near where I live as a testbed.

This synth comprises 150 photos and contains some highlights (the Avenue, Heelstone, tenon joint and Bluestones). One of the rather clever things Photosynth does is to use the geometry inherent in the photos to create a simple point cloud of measurements. This shows the plan view of the stones really well and I have then geolocated the photosynth based on this point cloud and aerial photography.

Anyway, I’ve got lots more images taken at the weekend I’m currently putting together so will post more as I do. I’d be really interested to here from other people having fun with this cool technology also.

Related posts:

1. Stonehenge panoramas
2. Avebury panoramas

A talk given earlier this year at Strode College based largely on a talk given earlier this year at the IfA conference. The main aim was to show the students some of the ways in which technology is used in contemporary archaeological practice to help disseminate findings, with numerous examples from all over the place; credits to all those people and organisations mentioned. Topics covered included data standards, GIS, ontologies and terminology through to innovative uses of the web and so-called web2.0 services such as blogs, twitter, flickr and the like. Videos from the day are over on Vimeo.

Slides on Slideshare:

Presentation on Vimeo:

Strode College Archaeology Conference 09 – Paul Cripps. from Henry Rothwell on Vimeo.

Paul Cripps of Wessex Archaeology (www.wessexarch.co.uk) speaks on the subject of infomatics, HER/SMR storage and access, and covers a considerable amount of ground concerning information technology in relation to archaeological data.
Well worth a look.

Related posts:

1. heritage.data.gov.uk …?
2. The Guardian; technology
3. The wonders of technology

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.

The druids were there to welcome the dawn and the traveller community were well represented as ever. I really love the way in which Stonehenge represents so many different things to so many people from such diverse backgrounds: There are few events in the modern world which attract such a variety of people from all walks of life. Of course, there was a small contingent of ignorant yoof causing trouble, particularly at the buses in the morning, but this is the way of most such events these days, and it was more selfish, drunken bad behaviour than anything serious. I guess this is simply the way of the world these days: Even Glastonbury is no longer the preserve of the caring sharing hippy… And it is this minority which gives cause to the police presence…

The police, despite being present in numbers, were largely restrained although their heavy presence at the entrance, including dogs, and the use of metal-detectors and searches was intrusive to say the least but again, some level of intrusion seems to be the norm at any kind of public gathering these days. Thankfully, they were all wearing their ID numbers unlike at the recent G20 protests even if most of them had obviously forgetten how to smile, at least on the way in where intimidation was the order of the day: all the police I chatted to and saw around the circle were actually quite jovial, picking up on the good vibes from the crowd. I did hear a funny conversation between a visitor and one of the search teams as we passed through the security barriers which revealed they weren’t quite sure what they were looking for! I would guess from the police comments reported in the Guardian that illegal drugs were top of the list, hence the dogs but a tip for next year would be to watch out for large flares, at least one of which was sneaked in and caused mayhem in the circle when lit amongst the crowds…

The much talked about spy-in-the-sky seemed to be largely ineffective, with limited battery life (it kept disappearing, presumably for new batteries) and the laser-pointers aimed at it by the crowds can’t have helped it’s surveillance operations! From a geek point of view, I was rather jealous of the pilot: what a job flying such an amazing machine around (even if it does represent the rather repulsive surveillance obsession the authorities seem so keen on). I guess this was more of an intimidation tool than anything else, a bit like the zero-tolerance policy towards drugs which was patently untenable, much of the crowd enjoying, ahem, herbal cigarettes judging by the smells around the site.

The stewards did a fair job of keeping folks from climbing the trilithons but seemed resigned to letting people clamber on the smaller stones, a marked change from previous years and one which really ought to be remedied: The stones are not just important archaeological remains and of religious significance to some but are also home to a wide range of lichens which, taking years to grow, are very sensitive to damage.

One major problem, as in previous years, were the transport links. The roads became impassable and the police response was simply to close them and turn people away. The view in the morning was one of carnage with abandoned cars littering the surrounding roads where people trapped in the logjam had simply left their cars and walked to the henge. Yes, it was possible to get a bus between the event and Salisbury but the bus company certainly made a tidy profit, charging £6 for a single and £9 for a return ticket. Given that other similar sized (free) events such as the BBC One Big Weekend in Swindon earlier this year seem to manage the volumes of people and traffic, is it really that hard to implement some way of getting people to and from the event and ensure there are adequate numbers of stewards in the right places…? But of course, the difference being the solstice is an event which the authorities really don’t like like or want to happen, memories of the 1980’s festivals still influencing decision making. The use of tactics such as the bold statements about zero-tolerance to drugs accompanied by searches and sniffer dogs, the use of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, rumours of police horses being deployed for the first time since the Battle of the Beanfield and the alcohol restrictions, not to mention the rather under-resourced management of essentials such as the roads and public transport in favour of large number of uniformed officers on patrol all suggest the authorities would rather we simply weren’t there. Lessen the enjoyment and perhaps folks won’t return or be put off in the first place. Appreciated, English Heritage and the National Trust don’t want visitor numbers to increase but I for one am not keen on these rather insidious means of discouraging people, especially when all this security still fails to stop idiots bringing large flares into the event.

So, overall a wonderful experience once again but I have to wonder what will happen in the years to come…

Related posts:

1. Stonehenge world heritage status at risk as tunnel plan is shelved – Times Online

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.

Related posts:

1. Stonehenge excavations
2. It’s all go at the local pile of prehistoric rocks!
3. Stonehenge Visitor Centre RIP. Again.

There aren’t many folk who can claim to have dug at Stonehenge (and I’m not one of them!) but I was lucky enough to see the ongoing excavations first hand this week. And i was only saying recently about getting up there to take some pictures! What a unique site and what a small trench; archaeology in a nutshell (or fish tank as one correspondant described it as groups of academics were shown round all day on Wednesday, completely diverting the site directors from their activities). Thanks to the directors for arranging for there to be such an open day (and providing such a truly fantastic opportunity for us researchers). Indeed the whole access to information side of things is exemplary: There are also big screens in the Timewatch tent showing live images from the trench providing even greater access not to mention the Smithsonian Magazine blog and BBC video blogs.

As regards the dig itself, it was interesting to see the bluestone socket and how deep it was (massive compared to the sarsen sockets, perhaps indicative of techniques more commonly applied to timber posts than stone settings) and entertaining to hear how pottery had been discovered in the backfill of the previous excavations (doh!). I was also surprised to learn that the concrete used in recent history to, ahem, shore up the monument was actually reinforced with steels, hence no decent magnetometer results within the circle. This recent history is equally as interesting as the prehistory!

The amount of disturbance to the bluestones is also fascinating and does suggest there is something special going on with them and different from other stones used in Stonehenge and other stone circles. Combined with the observation that most of the bluestones have in fact been removed totally from the site, this would suggest they were important enough to some people to invest considerable effort in their removal. And of course, transporting them from Wales in the first place was hardly a casual decision, involving considerable investment of time and energy. The idea that they had mysterious healing powers would go some way to explaining this unusual activity, why they were brought to the site in the first place and their subsequent role in activities at the site up to the present day.

Related posts:

1. Secrets of Stonehenge
2. It’s all go at the local pile of prehistoric rocks!
3. Stonehenge panoramas

Yes, that shining example of British archaeology we call Stonehenge is in the news a bit lately. The ongoing dig, a GPR survey, and publication of some BBC archive footage , not to mention a new book by Anthony Johnson which solves it all (presumably not the outstanding issues of chronology though). There hasn’t been this much activity at the henge in years! Not since they rebuilt the place in the 50’s. And the 60’s. Must get up there and take some photos; it is still open to the public whilst the dig is ongoing (the public, restricted to the circulatory path, never getting close to the henge itself anyway so not a problem for the excavations presumably).

The BBC footage in particular is great, showing the henge being dismantled and reassembled like a giant airfix model. Just goes to show how much work has been done previously and also how what we see today is rather different from what was there only a century ago. It’s plain to see in old paintings how much the henge has changed. Our view of the stones rarely takes into account all this modern reconstruction, preferring instead to think of the stones as immovable, permanent, deeply rooted in history rather than concrete. This recent history has been researched avidly by Brian Edwards who has published both on Stonehenge and also my favourite henge: Avebury, that fantastic 1930’s reconstruction (oh yes, Avebury too was pretty much rebuilt by Alexander Keiller, the marmalade magnate; there’s an excellent book on Keiller by Linda J Murray).

Getting back to current events, I for one can’t wait to see the results of the geophysics and excavations. Despite much effort over the years, Stonehenge is still largely a mystery and hopefully this programme of works will shed some new light on the chronology and development of the site if not settle the debate about what is was actually for; the A&E ward of the south-west, according to Darvill (quoted in the Guardian). It strikes me that this latest idea being proposed by Wainright and Darvill resonates of modern, alternative uses of the site (and so is bound to be very popular), although they are claiming ancient roots for this belief. The observation regarding the unusual concentration of injured bodies found in the area is also really rather interesting. I’m still thinking in terms of life and death, wood and stone, places for the ancestors and the living with spaces acting as social mediators, but the idea of healing practices forming some kind of link between life and death seems like a plausible starting point for some investigation.

Related posts:

1. Secrets of Stonehenge
2. Stonehenge excavations
3. How Stonehenge Might Have Been Built

Anomaly Television » Blog Archive » How Stonehenge Might Have Been Built

An interesting approach to building Stonehenge from a Michigan construction worker called Wally T. Wallington. I have to say, the idea of rocking the huge stones back and forth seems an awful lot more plausible than eg using hot air balloons to lift the stones into place! 

Related posts:

1. Secrets of Stonehenge
2. Stonehenge excavations
3. Stonehenge panoramas

Here we go again. Having spent the past decades going through the options and coming up with a solution that, whilst not perfect, was a compromise accepted by many and which stood up to Public Inquiry, we have suddenly been placed back in a state of flux, not knowing if the road scheme is on or off or what form it may or may not take. Anything could happen in the next half hour (or later this year when the government finally decide), with all cards back in play including the potential for miles of new dual carriageway through the World Heritage Site. Or nothing. Or perhaps those who campaigned so hard for a longer tunnel will suddenly get their way (unlikely given the decision seems to be based around project costs rather than archaeological issues). What is going on here? There was a public inquiry which reported and considerable work has been done over the years evaluating the various proposals and assessing their archaeological impact. A tunnel is the only option that does not involve excessive destruction of archaeological deposits within this important cultural landscape, removes the barrier through the heart of the World Heritage Site and satisfies the need for a dual-carriageway between London and the West. The only real question is how long it should be. I would hate to see the prolonged debate surrounding this topic to be used as an excuse to bulldoze through a scheme whose primary interests are transport issues and cost to the detriment of all else.

This news has been reported elsewhere by campaigners and is being seen as a positive thing and used as more ammunition against English Heritage; whilst it is true English Heritage supported the proposed tunnel scheme (and disagreed with the National Trust over it), this must be seen in context against the other options under scrutiny; long dual carriageways through the landscape going around the henge or a tunnel, the tunnel (even a short one) being the obvious choice. Lord Wayland also seems quite happy at the news, arguing a few cosmetic changes are all that is needed. It is the removal of the roads and restoration of the landscape that is important, not simply a few speed bumps and anyway how on earth is traffic calming on the A303 supposed to ease congestion…? And as for building a new car-park within the World Heritage Site, I’m sure the good folks at UNESCO would have been pleased with that example of best practice and how it would enhance the visitor experience, an important justification for the proposed works (hence the proposed visitor centre is outside the WHS, to allow space for facilities worthy of a world class tourst attraction without building in the vicinity of or even view of the stones). Going back to square one is an alarming development, contrary to the opinions of Save Stonehenge and others. It does not mean that the game is over; there is still a need for a new road to help with traffic issues (unless views on this have also changed with the wind) and having all options back open can only be a bad thing, having ruled most of them out as unacceptable previously.

To be fair, the area has now been thoroughly investigated using all available techniques and development would be preceded by yet more survey and excavation so the main issue is that of the landscape as a whole, how to reconstitute the space as an open landscape through which people are free to explore and experience; any new surface route would be catastrophic from this perspective, even if it did divert the road away from the stones themselves. I would like to see a longer tunnel so that the avenue can once again be walked along from the henge to the Avon but it comes down to how much we, as a society (or at least our elected representatives), are prepared to value such concerns when a cheaper option will suffice and satisfy the needs of the majority.

Stonehenge roads scheme condemned (Telegraph, 2002) and the National Trust calling for a longer tunnel; examples of how the debate was reported in the press at the time.

English Heritage’s previous letter from the Chairman to the Highways Agency outlining their position and stating in what ways the other options (surface routes and cut & cover tunnel) are unacceptable.

Related posts:

1. Stonehenge Visitor Centre RIP. Again.
2. Awards for the Presentation of Heritage Research, 2007
3. heritage.data.gov.uk …?