Stonehenge protests – deadline looms
A number of organisations are marshalling support and preparing objections to the Government’s road development plans for the Stonehenge World Heritage Site before the imminent deadline of September 4th. If sufficient objections are lodged before the deadline it will force a public enquiry next year. The key points of the Highways Agency proposals are the closure of the A344, which runs alongside the stones; the dualling of the neighbouring A303; and the construction of a 2.1 km tunnel to carry the section of the road that runs closest to the site. Plans also include the construction of a £183 million visitor centre.
Many of the dissenting voices are concerned that the plans ignore the hugely important surrounding area, which is littered with prehistoric sites. Chris Woodford of Save Stonehenge says: “What they will be doing is improving part of the landscape in the immediate vicinity of the stones themselves, but at the expense of the wider heritage site.”
The Council for British Archaeology will be launching an objection in the next few days. CBA have welcomed an extension to the tunnel originally planned, but are worried about the damage that will be caused to either side of it and think that the plans fall short of the improvements the site deserves. George Lambrick, CBA Director, has pointed out that the proposals are not in line with the World Heritage Site Management Scheme, which requires the entire site to be free of roads. Longer tunnel options, rejected on grounds of cost, should be looked into further. The National Trust, owner of the site, supports this position and has launched its own objection.
However, Dr. Francis Pryor MBE, President of the CBA and an acknowledged expert on prehistoric Britain, has argued for a more balanced approach to the plans. Dr. Pryor feels that something is better than nothing. “The worst outcome would be for the archaeological world to disagree so strongly that the current scheme came to nothing and that we were left with the existing national disgrace.”
The AA Motoring Trust also supports the scheme on the grounds that the existing road is badly designed, resulting in a high accident rate. “Boring the A303 is probably a good thing, because it means that you can give the landscape back.”
As the deadline for objections approaches, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has declined to add anything to the comments made at the launch of the scheme by the then Arts Minister Baroness Tessa Blackstone: “It will ensure Stonehenge is reunited with its surrounding monuments in their natural downland landscape setting, protecting the site from heavy traffic, and make possible the construction of a world class visitor centre.”
Source: 24 Hour Museum (29 August 2003)
Illegal quarrying destroys prehistoric caves
Ten years of illegal stone quarrying have destroyed prehistoric rock shelters and irreplaceable cave paintings in the villages of Rasulpur and Patsal, near Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Predesh (India). The sites date back 6,000 years to the Mesolithic period, when nomadic hunter-gatherers began, for the first time, to mark their presence through signs and symbols. Early artists used inorganic pigments such as iron oxide, cupric-oxide and lime to produce reds, greens and whites respectively.
The first indication of ancient sites in the Rasulpur and Patsal region came in 1958, when SC Chandra stumbled upon microlithic sites at Kera. Then, in 1963, JP Gutpa discovered the rock shelters, twelve at Rasulpur and five at Patsal, located on a ridge of the upper Vindhyan range. The inhabitants would have hunted in the dense forest below the ridge and fished in a huge lake that existed in prehistoric times.
These significant finds were published in the Indian Archaeological Review. In spite of this, and despite representations from officials from the Archaeology Survey of India, provincial administrators granted licenses to mine the region’s sandstone in the early and mid 1990s. Since 1993, unchecked mining through blasting with dynamite and gelignite has destroyed all but one of the Rasulpur shelters, and inflicted serious damage three out of the five at Patsal. The two remaining shelters at Patsal have survived because they are used as places of worship by villagers.
When asked to comment on the destruction, a spokesman for the regional administration said: “No, no national heritage has been lost. I was not aware that these rock shelters have been destroyed. When were they destroyed?”
Source: Times of India (29 August 2003)
Chance discovery of petroglyphs by holiday maker
A holiday maker has stumbled upon elaborate carvings on a granite boulder which has been part of the sea defences of the Norfolk resort of Gorleston (England) for the past twenty years. The discovery was reported to the Norfolk Archaeological Unit, who have concluded that the markings are genuine and probably date back to the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. The main design is a series of concentric circles, common in Northern Britain, Scandinavia and elsewhere along the Neolithic Atlantic fringe.
It is known that some of the rock used to construct the Gorleston sea wall were imported from Scandinavia. The likelihood that this was the region of origin of the carvings is strengthened by what appears to be a later textual addition, thought to be Viking related, beneath the main carving.
The two tonne stone has now been recovered from the beach and placed in storage by Great Yarmouth Borough Council, pending further analysis. A spokesman for the Council said: "It is quite amazing that a piece of stone with such history has been hidden with sand for over twenty years before being uncovered. The future of the stone will not be decided until investigations into its origins have been completed. However, if it is confirmed to be from Scandinavia then it is likely that it will be returned to its home country."
(Editor's note: A few days later after we published this news, these carvings have been found they were really created by a stone artist in 1995; see Archaeo News on 3 September 2003)
Source: Anglia Advertiser (28 August 2003)
43 new archaeological sites discovered in Vietnam
A survey has revealed 43 sites of archaeological potential, with most dating back to the Neolithic, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum (Vietnam). Jointly conducted by Vietnam’s Institute of Archaeology and the provincial Cultural Service between May and August 2003, the survey has led to the discovery of hundreds of artefacts of high historical value. Jewellery pieces and a silica axe are cited by archaeologists as examples of designs so far unique in Vietnam.
The survey’s findings have provided background for the province’s map of archaeological sites, compiled by the Institute of Archaeology.
Source: vnagency.com.vn (27 August 2003)
