Well, this looks like fun. I have mentioned it before. A small group of volunteers -- mostly military veterans -- from Operation Nightingale has got permission for ten days of digging at Boles Barrow. Not the best time of year for digging -- it could get very messy. But I suppose they have to stay well clear of the peak season for MOD operational manoevres on Salisbury Plain, with tanks and explosives and God knows what else.......
I suppose the prime objective of the work is to try and establish whether the Boles Barrow bluestone really did come from here, given the arguments about provenance and "archaeological context" that have raged over the years. And they are also clearly looking for other bits of bluestone inside the barrow, with our old friends Ixer and Bevins waiting in the wings to examine whatever bits and pieces they come up with. All good fun. Watch this space.......
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My good old friend and ex - colleague, former Wiltshire County Archaeologist Roy Canham, O.B.E. may be somewhat perturbed on hearing this news. I met him in a shop years ago and, when asked about the Darvill - Wainwright 2008 Stonehenge dig just then taking place, he responded " Geoffrey [ Wainwright, who he knew well] shouldn't be digging there, i.e. in the inner sanctum of Stonehenge. Darvill later dressed it up as " cutting edge modern archaeology". But all excavation is essentially destructive.
Roy Canham was awarded an MBE. For more:-
https://insidedio.blog.gov.uk/2017/11/22saving-archaeology-o
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