Controversy Over Stonehenge Car Tunnel Construction Ruling

AFP

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 20:39

• Fleur Launspach

  UK and Ireland correspondent

• Fleur Launspach

  UK and Ireland correspondent

The court in London will rule in the coming days on a long-term dispute over the construction of a car tunnel near Stonehenge. This world-famous prehistoric stone circle is estimated to be more than four thousand years old.

The British government has long had plans to improve infrastructure and decongest the busy road past Stonehenge. The A303 connects London with the south-west counties, including the much-loved holiday resort of Cornwall. The one-lane road is notorious for traffic jams.

Moreover, the road is dangerous because drivers get distracted when they see Stonehenge. The government’s new multibillion-dollar construction plan involves the construction of a 3-kilometer-long deep tunnel, which crosses the UNESCO site at both the entrance and exit.

The plan faces fierce opposition from archaeologists, renowned historians and activists. According to them, the site is too important to run the risk of prehistoric finds being lost by the excavators.

Full of treasures

“This entire area – as far as the eye can see – is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” John Adams points out. He is chairman of the ‘Stonehenge Alliance’, an action group that opposes the construction of the car tunnel.

Not only is the famous stone circle a world heritage site, but also the land around and below it, says Adams. “It is full of skeletons, settlements, pottery and other archaeological treasures. It is a very important archaeological site – where new discoveries continue to be made.”

Unique prehistoric landscape

Stonehenge is without a doubt the most mysterious place in England. The origins of the stone circle, where people first gathered more than four thousand years ago, have been debated for centuries.

There are numerous theories and extensive archaeological research into ‘how’ the huge stones were moved over hundreds of miles from different parts of the British Isles in prehistoric times. Researchers are also concerned with the question ‘why’: what was the significance of the stone formation for prehistoric man?

Someone who has dedicated his entire career to finding answers is archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson. “Around the stones of Stonehenge, underground, are archaeological remains from thousands of years ago,” he says in his office at University College London. “There are cemeteries and settlements. There are ceremonial sites that were built five thousand years ago or perhaps even earlier. It is one of the best preserved prehistoric landscapes we have – perhaps in the world.”

Skeletal research

An important aspect of Stonehenge is that it is a huge cemetery. More than seven hundred burial mounds have been found in the area. Examining skeletons using modern techniques, such as isotopic analysis and the recovery of ancient DNA, can provide more insight into who the people were, says Parker Pearson. He also believes that this type of research would make it clearer where these people came from, how they lived their lives and what role they had in the development and construction of Stonehenge.

The archaeologist refers to the remarkable discovery through DNA and isotopes that new people arrived in the area some 4,500 years ago. “Migrants, probably from the Netherlands, but with ancestors as far away as Ukraine,” he says. “They arrived at the time of the second phase of Stonehenge’s construction, when the large stones were being laid down. According to the professor, these new groups changed the entire population structure of Britain.

Parker Pearson also opposes the construction plans. According to him and his team, one of the places where construction will take place according to the plans is a four-thousand-year-old settlement. “We know very little about that site,” he says. “But it is probably home to one of the largest settlements of that period, not just in Britain but in the whole of Europe. It is precisely the archaeological details that are so incredibly important for understanding how people lived in prehistoric times and what they did around Stonehenge.”

2024-02-18 19:39:23


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