As may be gathered from other postings I have made on sites in the area I spent an excellent time in Dorstone at the end of May this year - lots of superb sites to see - I walked over this site to visit the Dorstone Hill (Promontory) Fort just to the southeast (under the dark green trees on the main photograph of this site) - as a result the recent postings about this 'find' readily caught my eye -
I do not doubt the physical evidence discovered by the excavation teams and I accept that I have not read any academic paper/report of the recent excavations but I am concerned about the theory that has been brought forward - may I issue a 'caveat'? - I am always sceptical about newspaper/TV/Radio reporting which rarely reports academic reasoning fully -
So what do we know? The principle seems 'uncomplicated' - A Burial Barrow had been built over the site of a large timber building which had been reduced to ashes by fire - the remaining 'knowledge' is really only 'opinion' -
What evidence is there that the fire was deliberate? - How many people (if any) perished in the fire? What evidence is there that those who built the Barrow even knew about the former existence of the building? If they did how did they come by the knowledge? Did they know any one who perished in the fire or was there some community or familial knowledge (even folklore) of the circumstances of the fire and those who may have perished therein?
Families like to be buried in the same plot or mentioned on the same family memorial - particularly if there was some connecting tragedy to memorialise - like our forbears having been victims in some dreadful accident - we forget that Christians adopted many Pagan beliefs and practices - so there may be nothing new in the idea of a Family Grave and Memorial -
Why does the theory have to be more convoluted? And the theory supposedly supported by the discovery of stone axes could be a 'red herring' - which theory are you entitled to adopt? (a) did somebody arrive with axes to barter? or (b) did someone who had heard of them go off to find them and then bring them back? Both theories are equally plausible
I think we should await, with eager anticpation, the full academic report - there is already considerable evidence in the area of early settlement - Barrows, Promontory Forts, Camps, Hillforts, Holloways, Settlements, Ancient Standing Stones, Wells, Springs etc - and thus much for us to enjoy
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road