The recent thread on the British musuem raised a pertinent point about the increasing interest shown in ancient sites. I've been making a regular pilgramige to the Avebury landscape for a few years, and the volume of visitors has certainly mushroomed recently. The main site is regularly bussling with tourists, seekers, parents, lovers, and assorted lovable headcases. Walk down the main street of this old English village in summertime and be accompanied by a whole orchestra of languages. Thank God. Americans? Bring them all over, including Bush. They're welcome. National boundaries are worth less than the maps they are drawn on; this is about sharing our common humanity, our common origins. Americans, Chinese, French, German, egyptian. Sun reader, city banker, Mcdonalds deputy supervisor, nurse, teacher, Thatcher. Visit these sites and love them. They are beyond language, beyond class, beyond the ego that wants to keep the solitude of these places to myself.
There are beautiful areas of land around Oxfordshire which I Can't visit without tresspassing. The exlusivity of Aristocracy. Land as a possession. Lets not go down the same road, these sites should be free to everyone. That is why the addmission charges at Stonehenge are so silly. It's understandable that other heritage sites, such as stately homes and castles, require an entrance fee, since the cost of maintaining those sites is considerable. The cost of upholstering and French polishing at Stonehenge, however, must be fairly minimal.
I'm off to Avebury. If I meet George Bush I'll welcome him with open arms, and direct him to the wonderful view from Silbury hill.
Is the hole still there?
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