Scientists seek fresh chance to dig up Stonehenge's secrets

[hyphenate]

Scientists seek fresh chance to dig up Stonehenge's secrets

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday July 24, 2005
The Observer

Stonehenge has always mystified. Julius Caesar thought it was the work of druids, medieval scholars believed it was the handiwork of Merlin, while local folk tales simply blamed the devil.
Now scientists are demanding a full-scale research programme be launched to update our knowledge of the monument and discover precisely who built it and its burial barrow graves.

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'Stonehenge has not been well served by archaeology,' admitted Dr David Miles, chief archaeology adviser to English Heritage. 'Much of the area was excavated in the 19th century, when gentleman amateurs - glorified treasure-hunters, really - would get their labourers to dig great trenches straight into its barrows and graves.

'Then they would ransack them, taking away the human remains and grave goods. It was Indiana Jones stuff. We need to get that material back.'

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'It is over 50 years since substantial excavations have taken place at Stonehenge and more than two decades since the small-scale excavations,' the report notes. This research gap needs to be rectified.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,1535724,00.html

[I Have A Dream]

1. Very interesting!

I've visited Stonehenge, and it's really not a very big area. I hope that they don't touch the area.