The Excavation of Seahenge
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- In 1999 on the north Norfolk coast the enigmatic timber circle known as Seahenge was excavated sparking both interest and controversy. Neil Moss brings you a talk about the hows and whys and some recollections from this extraordinary site excavated under extraordinary circumstances.
This event is inspired by ‘The world of Stonehenge’ exhibition at the British Museum from 17 February, featuring Seahenge, on display for the first time outside Norfolk. #TheWorldOfStonehenge
Fantastic. Thank you for the lecture
Its as though none of the negative comments here watched the video 🙃
Thank you for doing your best to protect such an amazing site. I love that a honeysuckle rope was found, how beautiful it must have looked when it was new 🥰
From 1985 to 1988 I lived in East Anglia, taking regular visits to the Norfolk coast. During the pandemic I began watching decades' worth of Time Team, including the episode about "Seahenge." Yes, thanks to RUclips, all the great British television unseen by me three decades ago I got caught up on. This presentation is an outstanding gift to continue learning about and understanding the site and the controversies attached to it. Thank you!
Many thanks for a considered and interesting explanation of an important excavation, including the practical difficulties of coping with those who opposed the dig.
Many thanks Neil. Thanks to all those who recovered and saved this unique monument of extreme National historical significance and importance from complete destruction by the actions of the North Sea. Those of us with clear vision are well aware of the importance of the archaeological rescue mission that took place..The 'blind' will never regain focus. Those not of the earth will never be complete. The 'deaf' will never 'grow ears'. The 'Gods' were kind enough to make this rare offering to us. It would have been particularly rude not to have accepted it.
The point you mention about the electrical discharge experience likely indicates that the site was chosen in pre-history as a place where 'unseen' forces could come into play during auspicious moments and as you know all of the 'ancient' gods were the unseen natural forces.
Loving this, and all the things that happened before, during and after were wonderfully told. This must have been like a great adventure. So glad you shared your story in such detail. I love archaeology and storytelling.
Fantastic. Well done. Watched through entirely.
Thanks. This was an interesting perspective and outline of the discover and complications around seahenge.
Outstanding work!
The druid parts were hilariuos xD
Thanks for sharing this process with us. Great care and consideration was taken to conserve this awesome part of our history ✨
Thank You for the work and for sharing this!
Thank you for sharing this informative video. As an amateur archaeologist, I am aware that archaeology is destructive: once a site has been fully excavated, there may, as in this case, be nothing left to see. However, the site would, in any case, have been covered and lost repeatedly, until it eventually disappeared completely.
What can be learned from recovery and detailed study of the timbers can tell us much about climate, availability of resources, tools, techniques and workforce required to construct such structures, as well as develop theories of why and how they were built.
I appreciate that this may run counter to the sentiments of those who believe that they are the guardians of ancient beliefs, and that the removal of the timbers may represent an attack on those beliefs. I think it is important to acknowledge that the destruction of a site is irreversible. But I also believe that what can be learned adds to our knowledge and understanding of ancient technology and thinking, and helps reduce often irrational speculation about the origin and purpose of sites of worship, habitation and burial.
Excellent talk thank you.
Thank You, Neil, a very informative interveiw. I was at the Museum in earlier June, and found it quite an amazing sight.
Very interesting Neil. many thanks for making the effort. I remember well the Time Team event.
Fascinating video, thank you for uploading
Well done. 👏
Thanks for this.
Very informative/insightful.
Do you have any further insights into Seahenge II/the decisions taken/made around it?
Hi Amy, thanks for your comments. There are some comments on this in the journal Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, volume 69 from 2003.
Thanks ++++
thanks
It's a farm, I have nothing to back this up. Its pure speculation, but theoretically that place could be used to grow mussels
Rather coincidental, I must say, but a couple od days ago I read an article correlating humans with trees - a tree puts roots into the ground while human consciousness puts roots into the aether. It struck me, for no reason in particular, that I'd read years ago about tree trunks being installed upside down in this manner but didnt nake that connection umtil just now. So I wonder if it was indeed a gesture designed to connect between the realms. The synchronicity of this video is enough for me to further contemplate this possibility. Thank you for posting!
Seahenge, Boudicca’s University of Druidic Sciences?
Should have just left it where it was. You literally destroyed it by “preserving it”
Great bot name.
I had not heard of this site before.
I wonder why you felt it necessary to destroy this site at all . .
Did you watch the video? The site was being destroyed by storm action and coastal erosion. Norfolk has the highest rates of coastal erosion in Europe. Inaction would eventually result in the site being lost, potentially within years. Instead the site has been comprehensively recorded and the individual timbers preserved for all of us.
Are you a bot?
THE....OGHAM....RUNIC TREES
You meant the destruction of seahenge.
The rings represent the planet saturn the projector of our reality 👍
Thank you. Fantastic educational video, very well presented. Can't see why there was so much controversy, but then you can't please everyone. Still, those that blinker themselves from science shouldn't stop the quest for knowledge of our distant past. If you had not carried out your work as you did I would never have been able to watch your fascinating and informative lecture. You have enriched the history of the human race.
Thanks for this, do you have any regrets?
I personally think you should have left it as was.
Heritage has a history of messing around with sites that it had no proper understanding of such as Stone Henge, moving the standing stones out of their original positions and concreting them into place where they thought most convenient.
I can understand why people would be apprehensive with Heritage poking around.
For what you learned from the archaeology it was hardly worth the effort and all the upset you caused.
It's no wonder why Heritage is so hated, the arrogance and the hubris that you always know best and ignore the wishes of people who have a real connection to these ancient sites.
You don't seam to understand that this is our heritage not your bloody awful organisation and it's board of executives.
What was the monetary cost of all this by the way.
Got to use up that budget after all....
'ignore the wishes of people who have a real connection to these ancient sites'. So these self-appointed custodians of the site should get to dictate to the nation? If they had had their way the timbers would continue to break up and decay with each subsequent storm. Norfolk has the highest rates of coastal erosion in Europe and the site had little chance of long term survival. Heritage belongs to us all and the timbers can now be visited locally and their historical context understood.
'..these self-appointed custodians of the site should get to dictate to the nation' - you are actually describing the actions of yourselves there
..highest rates of coastal erosion in Europe 🤦♂️
You disagree? Have you visited the Norfolk coast? If the foreshore wasn't eroding how else do you explain its discovery?@@dave_hoops
@@XtalQRP Exactly.. I agree - ''these self-appointed custodians of the site should get to dictate to the nation" - that's you/ your colleagues etc actions. You actually went and did it
Why is it that these guys who claim to be 'druids' need to wear their hair and beards long? Is it required to join the union?
They must have had vehicles and industry...look at how they made the sea level rise😂😂😂
a communal dwelling perhaps
Why didn’t you just leave it alone , science did not find anything that they could have not just been researched at the site, an absolute disgrace to the the science of archaeology
Because it is a monument of hugely significant National importance. Only fools or the blind would pass up the opportunity to rescue the monument.
Great thing to say in hindsight but one doesn't know in advance what's going to be learned from this sort of excavation and as Kernowek said, only a fool would pass up the opportunity.
It's easy for someone to criticize the methods of archeological work years/decades after the event but everyone it appears has worked as best they can given the available tools and information at the time. Howard Carter's methods are often under fire by modern archeologists but his work provided a valuable foundation for everything that came after.
It's an English thing
@@KernowekTim “Rescue”. It’s been there for thousands of years. Nobody rescued anything. They uprooted and destroyed an ancient monument.
Why leave it in situ? I've never heard a convincing argument beyond sentiment.