[Stones] The Erosion of Human Knowledge / Avebury

[littlestone]

"between 1986 - 1998 English Heritage spent some £146,850 restoring the 'Five Mile Chapel' which juts out into the wrecked South Circle at Avebury, and whose original congregation included one 'Stone-breaker Robinson', a character who boasted about destroying numerous Avebury sarsen stones in the 18th century. The South Circle's smashed Obelisk - the tallest stone at Avebury - was probably a victim of this stone-breaking madness. not one EH penny was spent restoring the South Circle."

Well, that little factoid should go at the top of any pro-restoration argument!

I don't think the arguments against restoration are predominately financial but more political and academic. Sometime ago I suggested that the standing of individual stones might be sponsored. I don't know if that would be successful but I suspect that a group like the Pagan Federation has enough members to raise funds for the standing of at least one stone. Again though I can hear howls of anguish from Avebury residents and the Christian and academic communities. But that's not to say that such a sponsorship scheme shouldn't be attempted (bringing in different people with different ideas to support the same objective is never a bad thing). I'd rather see a little plaque at the bottom of a resurrected stone that read something along the lines of, This megalith was re-erected with the generous aid of the Pagan Federation, than to see no megalith erected at all.
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