Almost finished here....
Thursday August 6 2015.
It was the last day of the Avebury, Kennet Avenue.
I really wanted to see a naked post hole.
Our first destination that day was the UFO capital of Britain -well, one of several - Warminster.
I think I was hoping to find the UFO cafe or some such; a shop dedicated to UFO memorabilia perhaps.
There was a mural...
The inclusion of 'Doritos' shaped UFOs allows one to date the earliest year it could have been painted.
Then on to Avebury...
I must come over as completely at home, as if I know where I'm going and what I'm doing. The National Trust man was about to give me access to behind the fence so I could hang out with the archaeologists, and I'm laughing and saying "gosh no!!!! I don't know them"
And then things go down hill
Just a bit.
Because I do have questions
One in particular
And I expect Josh Pollard to know the answer
And he is just behind that fence.
To the question....
Have the bones found at C 12 the Sanctuary, been carbon dated?
And this is so frustrating..
The National Trust man says, 'burial, no that's Woodhenge' and I say 'no...really...no, please ask.
So he goes behind the fence
And I can't look.
Over the years I've come to love the Sanctuary.
We didn't get off to a very good beginning
I think it makes most people feel the way it made me feel; like there is too much gravity somehow, and the sound of the cars and Waitrose lorries and the way the road cuts the Sanctuary off from the barrows...it isn't an easy place.
More often than not, offerings are left here.
Flowers and feathers...
Use will make the place live.
More important than markers!
So I set my phone timer to 20 min's
And wrote:
5:40 PM Thursday afternoon.
Bright bright late afternoon light.
Pages flickering against my pen as I write.
The rush of cars over the sound of the wind.
Just returned from the Avebury dig. Needed to ask JP a question via the lovely NT man. Seems JP who began his archaeology with the Sanctuary has become more inclined towards the bigger and more impressive wood to stone-land of living and dead-ritual landscape approach taken by MPP. Makes sense financially. The answer to my question - has the skeleton found at the Sanctuary been carbon dated - came back via the NT man as...'a Beaker burial, probably local' . JP didn't know if it had been dated, MPP says 'it was 'local'....but I can't ask 'why do you say that?' Has there been a DNA test, or are you going by the style of beaker?...
Always the sound of cars here.
A grass hopper, sound drowned out by the endless flowing road...
At the center today an apple! flowers and feathers.
Two posts become the center.
Small post markers ever more like rotting teeth, walloped by the lawn mower when the grass is cut, breaking and crumbling...Guess I'll return once a year with flour and mark out the pathways when all the red markers have gone.
At Avebury, seems a wide path predated the stone-lined avenue. A post hole present off the Avenue, on the Waden hill side...behind the fence.
More cars.
People arrive and wander around, through the Sanctuary's broken walls and pathways.
NT man said Marsden timber circle is a mirror image, or replica of Woodhenge...needs checking...but really my experience now is sadness and a heavy heart. I am allergic to archaeology; the lines separating who can hear knowledge, who can provide knowledge. The hierarchical nature, and commodification of archaeology.
Culture wars and fault lines.
It was the last day of the Avebury, Kennet Avenue.
I really wanted to see a naked post hole.
Our first destination that day was the UFO capital of Britain -well, one of several - Warminster.
I think I was hoping to find the UFO cafe or some such; a shop dedicated to UFO memorabilia perhaps.
There was a mural...
The inclusion of 'Doritos' shaped UFOs allows one to date the earliest year it could have been painted.
Then on to Avebury...
I must come over as completely at home, as if I know where I'm going and what I'm doing. The National Trust man was about to give me access to behind the fence so I could hang out with the archaeologists, and I'm laughing and saying "gosh no!!!! I don't know them"
And then things go down hill
Just a bit.
Because I do have questions
One in particular
And I expect Josh Pollard to know the answer
And he is just behind that fence.
To the question....
Have the bones found at C 12 the Sanctuary, been carbon dated?
And this is so frustrating..
The National Trust man says, 'burial, no that's Woodhenge' and I say 'no...really...no, please ask.
So he goes behind the fence
And I can't look.
Over the years I've come to love the Sanctuary.
We didn't get off to a very good beginning
I think it makes most people feel the way it made me feel; like there is too much gravity somehow, and the sound of the cars and Waitrose lorries and the way the road cuts the Sanctuary off from the barrows...it isn't an easy place.
More often than not, offerings are left here.
Flowers and feathers...
Use will make the place live.
More important than markers!
So I set my phone timer to 20 min's
And wrote:
5:40 PM Thursday afternoon.
Bright bright late afternoon light.
Pages flickering against my pen as I write.
The rush of cars over the sound of the wind.
Just returned from the Avebury dig. Needed to ask JP a question via the lovely NT man. Seems JP who began his archaeology with the Sanctuary has become more inclined towards the bigger and more impressive wood to stone-land of living and dead-ritual landscape approach taken by MPP. Makes sense financially. The answer to my question - has the skeleton found at the Sanctuary been carbon dated - came back via the NT man as...'a Beaker burial, probably local' . JP didn't know if it had been dated, MPP says 'it was 'local'....but I can't ask 'why do you say that?' Has there been a DNA test, or are you going by the style of beaker?...
Always the sound of cars here.
A grass hopper, sound drowned out by the endless flowing road...
At the center today an apple! flowers and feathers.
Two posts become the center.
Small post markers ever more like rotting teeth, walloped by the lawn mower when the grass is cut, breaking and crumbling...Guess I'll return once a year with flour and mark out the pathways when all the red markers have gone.
At Avebury, seems a wide path predated the stone-lined avenue. A post hole present off the Avenue, on the Waden hill side...behind the fence.
More cars.
People arrive and wander around, through the Sanctuary's broken walls and pathways.
NT man said Marsden timber circle is a mirror image, or replica of Woodhenge...needs checking...but really my experience now is sadness and a heavy heart. I am allergic to archaeology; the lines separating who can hear knowledge, who can provide knowledge. The hierarchical nature, and commodification of archaeology.
Culture wars and fault lines.
