goffik
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Re: Silbury Hill, the truth
Nov 14, 2007, 13:56
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Crikey!
So does that mean the "egomaniacs" and "scaremongerers" are actually right? ;o)
Who'd-a thought it?
No need for apologies... :D
G x
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Littlestone
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Re: Silbury Hill, the truth
Nov 14, 2007, 14:27
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Crikey!
So does that mean the "egomaniacs" and "scaremongerers" are actually right? ;o)
Who'd-a thought it?
We did I guess ;-)
Time to squeeze English Heritage for more info of the honest and detailed kind methinks; and if it's not forthcoming there's always The Freedom of Information Act.
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moss
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Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 16, 2007, 11:13
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Well you can hardly credit it but the next EH update (down below) says that forget the fortnightly one its a monthly update from now on..... and there I was worrying about all that chalk falling down in the news, still at least what you don't know you don't worry about.....
http://amaxus.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/Silbury_Hill_web_update_25.pdf
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nigelswift
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Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 16, 2007, 12:24
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[i}"As progress on the project will become less variable, updates will be posted on a monthly basis."[/]
For "less variable" I think we can read "the removal of the polystyrene and the old steelwork over the course of the next month will very probably involve far more collapses and loss of material than previously so now we're going to entirely shut down the information flow to the public".
Terrible.
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Littlestone
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Edited Nov 17, 2007, 16:59
Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 16, 2007, 20:56
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Those at English Heritage have a responsibility to keep the public up-to-date (with at least weekly updates) on their progress at Silbury. Those updates should not only contain detailed information on the major issues of instability or the discovery of further voids but discuss less urgent (though equally important) issues such as the removal of the Atkinson/BBC door and lintel - an announcement on which could be made tomorrow if English Heritage so wished.*
Instead, those at English Heritage responsible for the Silbury conservation project have decide in their wisdom to now reduce their Silbury Updates from first weekly, to fortnightly and now monthly! They continue to avoid publishing their plans for the removal (or non-removal) of the Atkinson/BBC door and lintel and have announced (in passing) that they have laid a geo-electrical cable along the length of the Atkinson/BBC tunnel.** This cable hasn't been laid along the floor of the existing tunnel but into a newly cut trench that measures around a metre square. In removing original, untouched Neolithic building material from the heart of Silbury, English Heritage are yet again contravening accepted norms of conservation while not being completely transparent about the need to dig a new trench and lay a geo-electrical cable within it.
* http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=44274&message=558623
** http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.17511 (Update 25).
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Etton
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Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 17, 2007, 20:31
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I have read this thread with interest and have a few questions/points to put forward. Please don't see it as flaming - I'd like to have a mature discussion about it if anyone has any responses or problems with this post.
Have you considered that a lot of the material that falls through might be the old collapsed material that lies above the atkinson arches and occasionally falls through the sides?
If, as Pete says, the archaeologists have now left site and the engineers are taking over, why would there be weekly updates? All the updates I saw were clearly written by archaeologists. I'm sure the engineers have better things to do than take hours out of their already probably very long working days to write about the backfilling process? Might 'less variable' mean that because no archaeology is now going on, there is only one process left on site and that is backfilling. One might not expect an awful lot to be happening as they are no longer removing old material and sampling or recording, or having to deal with collapses and deformed arches to battle to the central voids.
Isn't the diagram in some of the updates, of the old tunnels and things, the detailed diagram of the extent of known voids up to now??
Thanks.
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nigelswift
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Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 18, 2007, 05:44
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Isn't the diagram in some of the updates, of the old tunnels and things, the detailed diagram of the extent of known voids up to now??
Which diagram do you mean please?
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tomwatts
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Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 18, 2007, 11:06
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There was a plan of the tunnels in the EH info. I looked for it a couple of times last week, but couldn't find it.
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ocifant
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Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 18, 2007, 14:54
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But surely a plan of the tunnels as previously dug, and a plan of the voids as now known are two different things. Aren't they?
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Etton
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Re: To the Heart of the Matter
Nov 18, 2007, 16:28
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Other updates might have it in but I know update 6 does? As far as I can see, it shows old tunnels as well as the voids EH found out about after the shaft collapse a few years ago. The red line is void caused by the shifting of the 1849(?) tunnel and material in between that and the other tunnels is obviously collapsed stuff that should be at the top of the red line but has fallen down with the shifting and rested on top of the '68 tunnel. So that's voids in the first half of the tunnel, then the ones further along are the central void?
That's what it looked like. Maybe the voids got worse after the rain but they look so far outside of the original metal supports it would probably take aaaaages to go in and shore up the voids above, causing more delays and movement in the hill before they fill it anyway.
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