Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

When you put ‘solstice’ and ‘archaeology’ together in the same sentence, most people immediately think of that jewel of the Salisbury plain: Stonehenge. Throughout its long and varied career and multiple incarnations, the site has probably never been a quiet place at the solstice. Today, with competing claims for access from a variety of groups, including archaeologists, neo-pagans, neo-druids, and their assorted neophytes, you would be hard pressed to get within touching distance of the stones. With some 20,000 people expected this year , your chances of even seeing the solstice sunrise are limited, don’t mind finding any form of personal enlightenment or inner peace … or whatever you might journey there to seek. For the rest of the year, the stones are distinctly off limits to almost everyone. Unless you’re Gandalf or a high-ranking archaeologist with a superb research design your chances of getting close to those famous stones is vanishingly remote. End of story. Except … no...

I was supposed to be getting work done today! I had intended to pick the boys up from school, help with their homework, do a bit of housework, flit about on Facebook and Twitter … maybe even read a bit of an archaeology book … nothing too crazy. Instead I’ve spent much of the afternoon standing in one spot and breathlessly saying ‘awesome’. In fairness, I’ve not been alone – the Chapples Minor have also been standing about alternating between ‘awesome’, ‘cool’ and ‘wow’ … but the emphasis is clearly on the ‘Aaaaaaaaawesome’. Let’s back up slightly … I consider myself fortunate to be among the number of correspondents that the wonderful Howard Goldbaum (he of Voices from the Dawn [ Facebook | Web ] and All Around Nevada [ Web ]) uses to Beta test some of his project on. They’re invariably wonderful and seem to require little input for me, but at least I get to see so much of his work before it goes public. About a week or so ago I received an email from Howard about a...