Friday, 27 February 2026

Greatest hits

I just had a look at the stats for this blog and they're actually quite impressive. Here are the most popular posts.

The cleaner clootie campaign

Many people choose to interact with sacred sites by leaving clooties - small bits of cloth tied to trees.

Unfortunately these cause problems for wildlife, because small birds can get tangled in them, animals can choke on them, and they can damage the tree that they are tied to.

Clooties on a tree (source: Cleaner Clootie Campaign)

That's why the Cleaner Clootie Campaign was started, to try to get people to use biodegradable clooties. My personal preference would be for people not to leave any kind of clootie, but if you feel you have to, at least use biodegradable fabric. It is more in keeping with the folklore anyway, as the traditional view was that you left a clootie as an offering to take your illness away, and as the clootie rotted away, the illness faded too.

If you want to perform a meaningful service or offering for a sacred site, clean up the litter.

In the 1990s a group of local Pagans (including me) cleaned out the litter from Nine Wells near Cambridge, and it stayed tidy for years afterwards, because it seems that if people see a tidy site, they don't drop litter.

You could also do the site a favour by removing the clooties that other people have left.

Sunday, 30 June 2024

Castlerigg disrespected

What happened to “take only photos, leave only memories”?

This year, some idiot(s) decided that they could light a fire in Castlerigg stone circle in Cumbria. Uh, no.

The BBC reported:

English Heritage said: “It is extremely concerning to see that a fire has been lit within the stone circle, a thoughtless act that damages the scheduled monument and could have resulted in further serious consequences.”

The director of nearby climbing centre Newlands Adventure Centre, Gayle Brooks, said staff had to pick up faeces from their children’s playground before a school group arrived following the celebrations.
“I am not sure why out of all the surrounding fields anyone would choose a children’s play area to use as a toilet,” she said.
Last year there were too many people at the site, disturbing local residents.

The Keswick Reminder reported:

The trust said in a statement: “In recent years, our ranger team has worked hard to build relationships with visitors to Castlerigg Stone Circle during the summer solstice, resulting in the majority now showing a huge amount of respect for the site, cleaning up and litter picking after visiting.

“There is however still a small minority who behave irresponsibly and leave behind mess, taking our ranger teams away from their vital nature conservation work. We respectfully ask that visitors dispose of their litter responsibly, camp in designated campsites and remind them that fires and disposable barbecues are not permitted anywhere in the Lake District National Park. We want to encourage people to get outdoors and to enjoy the Lake District, but to respect the landscape and the people and wildlife that call it home, by leaving no trace and following the Countryside Code.”

I don’t know who these people are or if they identify as Pagans (I have come across assholes in the Pagan community who think they have an absolute right to drum all night at camps, and have even had stones thrown at my tent after asking them to stop—in Shropshire in 1998).

There has always been an element among Pagans who do not think about the wider context and consequences of their actions, and who don’t care about other people.

It’s also possible that the people who did this are part of rave culture or whatever has replaced it.

Either way, stone circles and the archaeology and natural environment around them are a priceless and irreplaceable part of everyone’s heritage, and need to be respected and protected.

I hope the people who commented on Just Stop Oil’s protest at Stonehenge will also comment on this. I doubt the effectiveness of JSO’s methods, since it just got people annoyed with them instead of actually talking about the climate emergency, but lighting a fire in the middle of a stone circle is worse than spraying orange cornflour on it.

Monday, 15 April 2024

Stonehenge and the Moon

The Guardian reports:

Now a project has been launched to delve into the lesser understood links that may exist between the monument and the moon during a rare lunar event.
A “major lunar standstill”, which takes place once every 18.6 years, when moonrise and moonset reach their farthest apart points along the horizon, will take place in January 2025.
This will give archaeologists, astronomers and archaeoastronomers a rare chance to explore theories surrounding the event and the ancient people of Stonehenge. Some experts believe the people who built the monument were aware of the major lunar standstill and may have buried their dead in a particular part of the site because of its relationship to the phenomenon.
It is also possible that four “station stones” forming a rectangle at the site – two of which are still standing – may have been positioned to mark the major lunar standstill.

Rare lunar event to shed light on Stonehenge’s links to the moon

Thursday, 2 December 2021

CFP: Actors, not spectators

Actors, Not Spectators. Community Representation in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage in the 21st century

A session at the 28th EAA Annual Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, 31 August - 3 September 2022

Call for papers - Session: #424

Theme: 1. Archaeologists and Archaeology Here and Now

Session Format: Regular session

Title: Actors, Not Spectators. Community Representation in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage in the 21st century

Session Abstract

A shift in public and community archaeology and the way communities are engaged has resulted in numerous publications on how to actively involve various citizens in the entire research process. Despite the increased focus on participatory archaeological research and citizen science worldwide, projects are still often aimed at the “comfortable” audience. The dutiful spectator that obliges with “official” definitions, legislations, and heritage practices, such as “responsible” metal detectorists in many countries. Yet, detectorists and other parts of the public are still routinely by-passed in the citizen scientist realm because of the way they choose to engage with heritage; often hands-on, not within the museum setting nor in the passive role as a spectator. Due to this, they are frequently denied access to the archaeological field, and painted as a potential threat. In addition, there are the individuals who do not always conform with the normative views of an archaeological participator: the non-white, disabled, Indigenous, neurodivergent, LGTBQ+, those of ethnic and religious minorities. Specifically, people who are commonly denied access to their past and to be an actor in this narrative.

Across the world, individuals, communities, stakeholders, knowledge keepers and other members of the public are demanding to be allowed to not only view the end process of archaeology. They want to have access; to be actively involved in the heritage-making process and have a say in how the archaeological heritage is displayed and used. This session welcomes those who seek to challenge our view of what true participation can or should be. We particularly encourage individuals from the LGTBQ+ communities, citizen scientists, Indigenous persons, and people who can present on case studies, offer practical examples or theoretical approaches to these exclusionary practices in archaeology and heritage studies.

Keywords:

Representation, Heritage-making, Community, Public archaeology

Organisers

Main organiser: Kiara Beaulieu (Canada), University of Antwerp

Co-organisers: Suzie Thomas (Belgium), University of Antwerp
Irmelin Axelsen (Norway), University of Oslo
Jordan Jamieson (Canada), Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation

Email for informal inquiries: kiarabeaulieu@gmail.com or use our contact form.

To submit an abstract: go to the EAA website.

Friday, 18 August 2017

Statement against racism and bigotry

Pagans for Archaeology completely rejects racism, fascism, Nazism, white supremacism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ageism, ableism, body-shaming, and all forms of bigotry.

Inclusive Pagans celebrate life and love in all its beauty and diversity, and seek to protect and preserve the Earth and Nature, and to cultivate virtues of compassion and respect for all life.

For this reason, following the recent events in Charlottesville, USA, Pagans for Archaeology utterly condemns the ideology and actions of the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis who have caused such suffering there. Remove

Friday, 9 March 2012

A Dissenter graveyard

In Manchester, there is a defunct Unitarian church, and next to it a graveyard where many Unitarians and their dissenting predecessors are buried.

Asda want to build a car-park on it.

A local group, Friends of Swinton Unitarian, has been formed to protest the loss of this piece of heritage.

I thought this whole issue was rather illuminating of the issues around ancient 'pagan' burials.

How this is different from reburying ancient 'pagan' burials

the burials are considerably more recent; direct descendants may still be around
if the burials need to be relocated, the rituals with which they would have been interred are still extant
there is still a Unitarian religion with direct and unbroken descent from the Unitarians of the 19th century and their dissenting predecessors
the graves are still in situ and we don't really need another supermarket - the remains are not being dug up for rescue archaeology purposes

The Unitarian response

The response to this from contemporary Unitarians is also interesting and sensible.

In the UK Unitarians group on Facebook, one member commented:

Graveyards and cemeteries are for the living. That we live in a time when we don't see a graveyard as sacred space and don't value them is to my mind a real shame. This is not about where the bodies may be buried but about the meaning of this space. Our history should not just be confined to written or electronic records but should be around us for all to see. If this becomes a debate about where bones are buried, I think that we are missing a more profound issue about the value of sacred space within our communities.

I think the history is important. The fact that there were separate dissenters' graveyards is a significant aspect of British history. Also, this is a green space in the heart of a city, which is another reason for caring about it. And there may be individual graves of historic significance, as well as the whole thing being a bit of our history. But I am heartened to see that most commenters have said that the living are more important than the dead, and that the history and the sacred space are the most important aspects.