"Pohjoinen Stonehenge" hiekkakuopaksi Englannissa!?

Saapunutta postia:

Muinaisen rituaalipaikan hävittämiselle Englannissa on asetettu päätöspäivä.

Konsiili valitsee joko maakehän ("Pohjoisen Stonehengen") säilyttämisen tai hiekkakuopan.

Pohjois-Yorkshiren lääninneuvosto (North Yorkshire County Council) on ilmoittanut, että suunniteltu päätös koskien 'Ladybridge Farm' -tilaa, mikä on viimeisin ehdotus maa-aineksen ottamisen kohteeksi tunnetulla 'Thornborough Henge´s' -arkeologisella vyöhykkeellä tullaan tekemään julkisessa katselmuksessa Mashamin kaupungintalolla 20 syyskuuta klo. 1 iltapäivällä.

Kehoitamme Thornborouhgh Henge´sin tuhoamista vastustavan kampanja tukijoita saapumaan paikalle, tai ottamaan yhteyttä britti-viranomaisiin kyseisenä ajankohtana.

Viimeksi kuluneiden kymmenen vuoden aikana on yksin kaivaminen tuhonnut enemmän kuin 400 arkeologista rakennetta, joista useimmat oli ajoitettu Thornboroughin maakehä-kompleksin rituaalikäytön aikoihin.

Tämä summittainen tuhoaminen on vastoin N.Y.County Councilin omia sääntöjä, joiden mukaan kansallisesti merkittäville arkeologisille jäänteille ei hyväksyttävää tehdä vahinkoa.

Ehdotuksensa mukaisesti Tarmac Northern Ltd aikoo kaivaa enemmän kuin 100 eekkeriä Thornboroughin rituaalista maaperää noin viidessä vuodessa. Kaivaminen jättäisi jälkeensä järven, josta kaikki muinaisjäännökset on hävitetty.

Thornboroughin maakehät ovat suuri monumenttikompleksi, joka on rakennettu noin 5000 vuotta sitten kivikaudella. Nimensä kulttialue on saanut kolmesta suuresta kehästä, jotka olivat myös muinaisten rituaalien keskus.

Yli 10 000 allekirjoittajaa on vedonnut Englannin hallitukseen Thornboroughin asiassa. Seuraavana "Time Watchin" kirjhe kokonaisuudessaan:

"TIMEWATCH PRESS RELEASE 13 Sept 2005

Decision day set for quarry on ritual site.

Council to choose between henge "capital" and quarry

North Yorkshire County Council have announced that the planning
decision
regarding Ladybridge Farm - the latest proposal to quarry in the now
famous
Thornborough Henge's archaeology zone, will be made at a public meeting
to
be held at Masham Town Hall on the 20th September at 1pm. Supporters
of the
campaign against the quarry plan are urged to be there.


In the last ten years alone, quarrying in the area has quietly
destroyed
more than 400 archaeological structures, many of which dated from the
exact
period that the complex was being used.
This wholesale destruction was in spite of North Yorkshire County
Council's
own planning rules, which include, "Proposals for mining operations,
which
would have an unacceptable effect on nationally important
archaeological
remains, whether scheduled or not, and their settings, will not be
permitted."

The proposal by Tarmac Northern Ltd will quarry more than 100 acres of
Thornborough's ritual landscape in a little over four years. The land
will
be left as lakes, sterilised of any ancient remains.

Thornborough Henges are a huge monument complex created 5,000 years ago
during the Stone Age, the huge triple earth circles or henges that give
Thornborough Henges it name were the focal point for ancient ritual
activities on a scale that was unprecedented. Each of Thornborough's
henges
dwarfs that of the internationally famous Stonehenge yet many would ask
"what are Thornborough Henges?"

Forgotten by archaeologists and society in general, the henges only
recently
came to prominence after local people began to question the wisdom of
allowing gravel quarrying so close to this internationally important
site.

Nowadays the henges have a loyal fan base from all over the world,
there is
barely a country that fails to be represented amongst the 10,000
signatures
on the petition calling for the British Government to protect the
archaeological integrity of this, potentially the first monument in the
world aligned to the constellation Orion.


Campaigners say that the 1,500 letters of objection to the quarry
should be
sufficient to stop this "unthinkable" development, and it appears that
the
establishment agrees. English Heritage have confirmed that the remains
at
Ladybridge are nationally important and have strongly objected to the
quarry
plan. Other members of the archaeological establishment who have lined
up to
condemn the proposal include the Council for British Archaeology,
Yorkshire
Archaeology Society, the Council for Independent Archaeology and
hundreds of
individual archaeologists. "Internationally important" is the mantra of
these archaeologists.

But campaigners fear that the "cast iron case" is not as strong as many
would think, for whilst it is English Heritage who judge for the
British
Government questions of importance of archaeology, in this case it is
North
Yorkshire County Council that have to make this decision, and detailed
questions over the exact interpretation of "nationally important"
abound.

"It's a bit silly" said George Chaplin, Chairman of campaign group
TimeWatch.org, "English Heritage have said that the site is nationally
important but the developer has refused to accept this and has proposed
to
handle the archaeology as "lesser features" - to be removed and
recorded.

Whilst English Heritage, the UK Government's heritage guardians are in
no
doubt as to the importance of the archaeology threatened at Ladybridge,
the
judgement must be made by North Yorkshire's planning committee and we
can
only trust that the right decision will prevail."

"This quarry application may cause the loss of irreplaceable heritage,
as
well as being outside of the Council's preferred areas for quarrying
and
will cause the loss of good quality arable land, which the Council is
committed to protecting. But the messages we are getting is that
refusal is
far from certain. It seems planning rules are open to the
interpretation of
big business and our local authorities seem wary of potentially
expensive
legal challenges."


More information regarding the Thornborough Henges can be obtained from
the
TimeWatch.org website."

Linkit:
http://www.timewatch.org/
http://www.friendsofthornborough.org.uk/
(lisää linkkejä suom. sivulla)
Suomeksi:
http://pakana.50megs.com/thornborough_henges.htm

http://pakana.50megs.com/thornbor_ilma21.jpg