Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum

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GLADMAN

950 posts

Re: Change?

Jan 28, 2017, 15:22

moss wrote:

.....So perhaps TMA as a resource is still growing, is still in its adapting stage, finding new sites and caring for them. You cannot stop it in full flow and reorder it into something new.

I'd agree with that. I see the paper tome as the introductory, very idiosyncratic precursor to a much, much larger undertaking, one - to all intents and purposes - without an end: the identification, attempted understanding and, above all, the appreciation and preservation of the tangible remnants left behind by the prehistoric pioneers of the UK and Europe.

That book captured my imagination precisely because it DIDN'T employ the tediously dry - often prohibitively so - point scoring, pseudo-academic discourse of any other archaeological work I'd picked up beforehand (the occasional dry wit of Aubrey notwithstanding). I've always held the opinion it's rather easy to become an expert upon something that will never allow definitive resolution of even such a basic question as 'what was a stone circle for?'. Cope was clearly coming at it from a different, irreverent direction with, crucially for me, an emphasis upon how these places made him FEEL combined with an altruistic, all-inclusive clarion cry to the reader to go and see for themselves.

It was the format of the book which I believe enabled Cope to share his enthusiasm so vividly, so I see no reason why the format of the website should change. I hope he - and those who give up their own time in support - feel the vision was worthwhile.

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Change? (moss)

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Topic Outline:

Change? – moss, Jan 25, 2017, 09:09


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