Representation by Paul D. Burley
- Date submitted
- 8 January 2019
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The A303 Stonehenge project as proposed by Highways England will result in significant and irreversible damage to the Stonehenge cultural landscape including a vast portion of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes one of the worlds greatest examples, and possible oldest example, of prehistoric hierotopy (refer to [Redacted]. Stonehenge: As Above, So Below. New Generation Publishing: London.) Specifically, the archaeological evidence demonstrates that there are numerous Neolithic long barrows, the Greater Stonehenge Cursus, Stonehenge itself, the Avenue, the Coneybury Anomaly, Bluestone Henge, Woodhenge, and other monuments that were constructed at specific locations and with engineered sizes and orientations such that they correspond to certain astronomical features including the Winter Hexagon asterism, portions of the the Milky Way and ecliptic, and the constellation of Orion. That area includes portions of the Avon valley, Blick Mead, Stonehenge bottom, and additional geomorphological features of the World Heritage Site. In total, the areal extent of this hierotopy covers approximately 50 square kilometers, between Amesbury in the east to about one kilometer west of the B3086 in the west, and from the Lake Group of tumuli south of Normanton Down to the south, to the crest of Larkhill in the north. The type, size and location of the proposed A303 project extends across the central portion of that area and will irreparably impact the cultural landscape, preventing this unique correspondence between Neolithic landscape architecture and features of the night sky - features shown to have been of significant import to cultures around the world and throughout time - to be fully investigated, understood, appreciated and protected for generations to come.