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Alexander Keiller's Avebury
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Re: Alexander Keiller's Avebury
Jan 22, 2013, 15:48
Rhiannon wrote:
If I sound rude it's because I found it frustrating that I'd looked up things to back up my point, and you haven't got the time to read them.

It's not my fault though. I didn't *choose* to have a limited number of hours in the day ;)

Just a practical note... I assume you're reaching the TMA forum via HTH? Multi-quotes don't work if you're reading it via TMA. Take a peak. Your post is a mess (that's not a criticism and it's not your fault. I personally find it a pain in the arse that we can't multi-quote on here).

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It's the precautionary principle. It's that we actually can't and don't know what those things might be.
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But that will *always* be the case. Does that mean that we leave everything forever buried and never dig another hole in the earth? We can *never* be 100% certain that we're not destroying something, so it becomes a risk vs. reward equation, which is why we end up with equally passionate people taking differing views on this subject - because there's no objective right or wrong answer, just how you personally weigh up the risk vs. reward.



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No, that's not what's being said. It's that the 'resource' (ie all the archaeological information under the ground) is finite at Avebury. So yes you can dig (as they did at one part of the purported Beckhampton avenue) but you can only dig a bit at a time. You learn something this time. But you leave a bit left so people can learn stuff in the future. So yes, you can dig, you can 'restore' (provided you know what was originally there to restore it, I suppose) - but you don't take a unique and nationally (internationally?) important site like Avebury and dig it all up, restore it all up, at once.
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Well if you're talking about restoring the stones carefully over time, I'm on board with that - with the caveat that the restoration doesn't necessarily risk anything connected with the WHS status, since - as far as I understand it - any damage would be to medieval archaeology. Personally - and I know this is subjective - I feel that the reward of re-erecting stones far outweighs the risk of destroying medieval archaeology.


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No of course not, you're totally right. But Avebury certainly isn't being hermetically preserved, it's a massive tourist attraction with car parks and restaurants and a road and everything. Why not change it one thing at a time, a tweak here and there, a bit of information gleaned here and there, building on previous knowledge, moving forward slowly but surely. Not treating the place like some kind of prehistoric recreation attraction.
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I'm on board with that. I'd be quite happy to see a plan in place for the restoration of the buried stones. I don't feel any need to see a rush towards restoring them all in one go.


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And, I know it's a slippery slope sort of point, but if you want the stones re-erected, do you want the ditch dug out as well, where does one stop? Reinstate the size of the banks? The entrances? (Remove all the houses... the road)
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It's the risk vs. reward thing again. The stones can be re-erected for comparatively little risk and effort. If the ditch could be re-dug with similarly little risk, then I'd be all for it. But it can't, so that's an easy line to draw. I'm not sure I'd have an issue with pulling the houses down though, so long as they leave the pub ;)
In reply to:
Re: Alexander Keiller's Avebury (Rhiannon)		 Replies:
Re: Alexander Keiller's Avebury (Sanctuary)
Re: Alexander Keiller's Avebury (bladup)
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