Our Review of the Heritage Journal Year continues with a look back at the summer months.

14-15

May

Our look at our ancient sites continued this month, with a view of the Bleasdale Circle and Billingborough Fen,  and we took a road trip to visit West Stow, in Suffolk. Following this visit, we touched upon the exclusivity of some sites which are, often of necessity, not as welcoming to handicapped visitors as they might be.

Meanwhile, with the news that Heritage Tourism is booming, we suggested a way in which
funding for heritage  could be increased. Despite this increased interest in Heritage, RESCUE, the British Archaeological Trust, are crying out for new members and supporters, a theme which was covered at their AGM this year.

With Prehistory now included in the national curriculum, we highlighted a couple of examples of teaching resources from different parts of the country. And speaking of prehistory, we delved into our own archives, travelling back nine years to our participation in a major piece of experimental archaeology – the theory and practice of ‘stone-rowing‘.

Our early summer competition, purely for fun, presented a series of severely pixellated pictures of burial chambers.  How many did you manage to guess right?

June

Vandalism at Tara and developer damage at Offa’s  Dyke  reared their head early in the month. Elsewhere, Carwynnen Quoit awaited its capstone, which was successfully raised at Midsummer, whilst at nearby Boscawen-Un an offering left in a dug hole was the subject of some debate in the comments section. How much damage is’acceptable’?

Of course, Midsummer is known for the celebrations at Stonehenge, but we highlighted
Solstice celebrations  at a few other  locations too.

And speaking of Stonehenge, we asked ‘Is The National Trust still opposed to a “short tunnel” at Stonehenge?‘ – from later events, it seems the answer was a resounding No!

July

Continuing with the Stonehenge tunnel theme, we stated: “a tunnel that is slightly longer than a short one is still a short one, and is still massively damaging”. And of other campaigners, we suggested “It would be nice if they all started (complaining) about (the short tunnel) NOW, and didn’t wait until December when the die is cast and the chances of changing anything will have all but disappeared.” Sadly prophetic words.

Out and about, we visited some heritage within a Cornish hillfort, looked at a tale of a moving mediaeval cross, and featured Castlerigg in our continuing A-Z of prehistoric sites. Pigwn stone alignment was also featured, which led into a series of posts asking some serious questions  of the scheduling process in Wales.

With the archaeological digging season in full swing, we suggested some sites worth a
visit. Our ‘Inside the Mind‘ series, which had been on hiatus also reappeared, via an interview with Professor Niall Sharples.

Sadly, the subject of monuments being used to advertise various causes, via so-called ‘brandalism’ returned yet again, and the Friends of the Stonehenge and Avebury WHS stated “Sooner or later a monument is going to be damaged beyond repair“.

August

Our second most read post of the year highlighted some unwelcome shenanigans at Stonehenge during the Solstice celebrations.  This occurred despite English Heritage making the position about criminality at Stonehenge very clear.  And this.

The economic cuts that are causing the loss of many County Archaeologists and their services was highlighted by a story involving the Director of the CBA finding Roman bones in a utility company’s road digging! And Sandy Gerrard provided another thought-provoking piece asking ‘Is destruction of heritage ever a good thing?‘

We continued to question the scheduling inconsistencies in Wales, looking again at the case for Bancbryn, and comparing with Gwern Wyddog and the Burial Chamber at Pen-yr-Alttwen.

Our much-maligned Artefact Erosion Counter  passed another milestone this month – 12 million recordable finds! Much-maligned, yet still no-one has proposed a better model for measuring the loss… and some people still wonder why we continue with the metal detectorist stories. But we will continue to ask, ‘How much loss is acceptable?’

Our review concludes tomorrow, so come back then!