Bad news today comes from Oxfordshire. The hut by the entrance to the Rollright stones has been the victim of an arson attack. A couple of years ago the stones were comprehensively splashed with yellow paint (you can see some of it in the photo above). Quite why these stones should be a focus for vandalism is baffling to me. The knee-jerk reaction is simply that it is senseless and futile to speculate. But why these stones? Usually vandalism is put down to poverty and a lack of facilities, but this is a circle in rural Oxfordshire. It’s simplistic to say all is well there, but I don’t recall it being crime central.
My best guess would be that the Rollright stones are one of the most pagan-friendly prehistoric sites in England. Avebury is happy to receive pagan tourists too, but the pagans there are another demographic to sell merchandise to. The Rollright stones are quiet, secluded and peaceful. As I recall you could hire dowsing rods there and a few postcards, but it was refreshingly free of tacky memorabilia. It’s always felt like a tolerant and friendly place. The staff there have always made me feel welcome. Perhaps if you’re upset and angry with life then the motive is jealousy.
I’ve mislaid my copies of Third Stone, so sadly I can’t look back on Cornelius Holtorf’s article Vandalism and the Meaning of Monuments, though he does have a page on Vandalism in his online thesis. You have to read it with your brain in gear. When he says:“But what some may call ‘vandalism’ may also be positive ‘tags’ that express aspects of the identity, politics and aestethic preference of groups of youngsters. Damaging and breaking things may even bestow upon the person doing it some kind of social prestige or power.” he’s not arguing that we should necessarily welcome vandalism when we seek to understand it.
Other links:
The BBC news story
The Rollright Stones
The Megalithic Portal’s page on the Rollright Stones.
Sites, Sacredness and Stories: Interactions of Archaeology and Contemporary Paganism by Robert J. Wallis and Jenny Blain. Folklore 114(2003):307-321 [PDF]
#1 by Aydin on 26th of January, 2006 - 6:23 pm
Aren’t those lichens on the rocks?
#2 by alun on 26th of January, 2006 - 7:13 pm
The near stone has lichen. The yellow blotches on the distant tall stone are paint. There’s a photo showing the sort of mess on the stones at http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverwood/34164443/
Removing it without removing the lichen is proving difficult.
#3 by Aydin on 26th of January, 2006 - 9:10 pm
At least you don’t seem to have treasure hunters in England. They do the most damage to archaeological sites in Turkey. I should do a post on that topic one day.