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Nick Snashall writes: Mind-Blowingly, Awesomely Fabulous! [Calm down dear, it's only a... ]The Stonehenge Avenue Revealed
Its been a busy time of late in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The junction between the A344 and the A303 has finally been closed and the new Visitor Centre is well underway. Our National Trust team are working hard to improve access across the landscape and I’ve been busy writing and planning for the installation of new interpretation panels across the landscape incorporating the latest discoveries. Its an exciting time seeing the whole Stonehenge Environmental Improvements Project coming together.
But amid all of this activity one moment in particular has given me pause for reflection. Seeing the final section of the Stonehenge Avenue revealed in front of me. This archaeological miracle occurred because after many years of work and preparation the A344 – the road that once separated Stonehenge from its Avenue – has finally been stripped away.
How did I come to be involved? I’m part of the Archaeological working group that have helped plan, advise on and monitored the work in this most sensitive of locations. Needless to say getting things right was both a huge responsibility. And over a period of many years an immense amount of head scratching and planning (by not just me, but also my colleagues at English Heritage and Wiltshire Council) has gone into it. So to see it happening, to finally be standing looking at the ditches of this last stretch of the Avenue, was simply mind-blowingly, awesomely fabulous!
A team from Wessex Archaeology have been carrying out the fieldwork on the site to a strict programme designed to balance the desire to answer questions with the need to preserve and protect for future generations.
And what has it revealed? Well although the fieldwork has finished and analysis of the results will carry on for months to come we can now say with certainty that the banks and ditches of the Avenue were continuous all of the way from the River Avon right up to Stonehenge itself.
More at
https://ntarchaeostonehengeaveburywhs.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/mind-blowingly-awesomely-fabulous-the-stonehenge-avenue-revealed/
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