Good news for the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes -- money for a revamp of displays and the development of new Bronze Age galleries. Congratulations to the museum -- it's difficult to pick up funding in these times of massive competition and financial constraints.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Museum people were to take this opportunity to reinterpret the Stonehenge story -- and at least to acknowledge that there is a sound alternative to hoary old "bluestone transport" myth? Just some mention of the glacial transport theory and the recent geological studies would be a nice move in the right direction....... and a move towards a proper respect for science and the balance of probabilities.
Heritage Lottery Fund awards development funding to Wiltshire Heritage Museum
Thursday, 31 March, 2011
http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/news/index.php?Action=8&id=131&page=0
The Wiltshire Heritage Museum at Devizes forms an important part of The Wiltshire Archaeological AND NATURAL HISTORY Society. As a Member of WANHS, I do hope this wonderful opportunity is taken to reinterpret the Stonehenge story more comprehensively, with an appropriate balance being given to recent geological studies - as reported in the recent issues of WANHS's "Wiltshire Studies", with articles by Rob Ixer and others, for example.
ReplyDeleteWANHS, the Society behind the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, is fulfilling the 'NATURAL HISTORY' part of its acronym this summer on July 16th at 10.30 a.m. Peter Keene, formerly Senior Lecturer in Geomorphology at Oxford Brooks University, is leading a walk out of Avebury to explore the geology & landscape around the Fyfield Down SSSI.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that. I don't know Peter Keene -- but I have in my possession some work done by Prof Andrew Goudie (one of my contemporaries) many years ago. He was quite convinced that the sarsens had not been taken from the Fyfield Down area to Stonehenge at all, and that the Stonehenge sarsens had been collected from a sarsen litter in the immediate neighbourhood of the monument site. It will be interesting to see what the Keene version is....
ReplyDeleteThis report from the Wiltshire Heritage Museum (Devizes) also says new galleries are planned by Salisbury Museum (Cathedral Close). As the English Heritage Visitor Centre has also just been given the green light, Wiltshire has 3 interpretation sites where the glacial transport theory and recent geological findings should now be given some discussion, at last.
ReplyDeleteApologies, that link to the WANHS Strategic Plan from the website I just quoted is via the heading 'Society'.
ReplyDelete