The canons of the Church councils of Arles (443-452), Tours (567), Nantes (658), and Toledo (681 and 693), among others, contained passages that condemned worshipping at the pagan sanctuaries and encouraged the Bishops and all Christians to neglect, to hide, to desecrate, and even to destroy them, with the threat of excommunication for those who did not obey. (2)

John Chapman reported that in 1991 barrows in eastern Hungary were destroyed, because "many plainsfolk so loved the view of an unbroken flatness that any deviation from horizontality was offensive to their eyes and they would do their utmost to erase it" (1).

The Prehistoric destruction of the Tara Valley, Ireland. (2009)

The Gabhra (Tara-Skreen) Valley is currently suffering the construction of the M3 motorway, which passes straight through the heart of one of Irelands most sacred prehistoric landscapes - destroying over 100 prehistoric sites in the process.

It is only recently that archaeologists are beginning to view individual sites in terms of their place in the overall prehistoric landscape.

“The monuments around Tara cannot be viewed in isolation, or as individual sites, but must be seen in the context of an intact archaeological landscape, which should not under any circumstances be disturbed, in terms of visual or direct impact on the monuments themselves”

Ref: (N3 Navan to Dunshaughlin Route Selection, August 2000, paragraph 7.3)

Scheduled to open in 2010, the M3's loudest critics concede much of the damage is already done – 38 archaeological sites unearthed during construction thus far have been carved from the landscape. Among the now vanished finds, a newly discovered national monument at Lismullin that one leading archaeologist described as "the wooden equivalent of Stonehenge."

"All these sites, including the monument at Lismullin, were part and parcel of the greater whole that is the Hill of Tara complex and now they are gone, demolished. The damage is complete and irreversible," said Vincent Salafia of Tara Watch. "Some would say, `Give up the fight. The deed is done.' But we're not giving up because what we are most against is the building of the motorway through the valley that is at the heart of the Tara complex. It's a long ways from completion and there is still time to come to our senses.

Ref (http://www.thestar.com/World/Columnist/article/512894)

 

Opponents of the M3 have called on the European Parliament and the European Commission to intervene by asking the Irish government to review its plans and conduct an independent investigation into the highway’s impact on the Tara landscape. Campaigners first approached the commission for help in June 2005. The commission subsequently determined that the road construction violated EU law governing environmental impact assessments; however, it has yet to actually submit a case before the European Court of Justice, and that delay has allowed the Irish government and the Roads Authority to continue construction. On April 2, 2008, campaigners came before the EU Parliament’s petitions committee to resolve the problem. An EU Commission spokesman said the commission would be submitting an application to the court in the coming months; however, he said the commission did not have the authority to halt construction in the interim, as road opponents had hoped.

Ref: (http://www.sacredland.org/world_sites_pages/Tara.html)

The Lismullen henge:

Those who are expert in this area and in the area of Tara are of no doubt that this ritual site, really a temple, is part of the extended Tara complex. It is about 500metres from the area of Rath Lugh also flagged as being under threat of the motorway. This is the place about which there was such a furore in January. The NRA is trying to fit the road between these monuments – this was shown in photographs in the past.

This point in the Gabhra Valley is the entrance to Tara. It was more or less expected that a henge would be found in this location. They are usually associated with Passage Tombs. Conor Newman and Joe Fenwick recorded the existence of a straight line of Passage Tombs running from the river Boyne southwards right through the Gabhra Valley and up to the top of the hill. The Mound of the Hostages is surrounded by a henge also, this is 200metres in diameter and is much larger than the Lismullin Henge that is 80metres, still a very large area. These two henges are about the same distance apart as Knowth and Dowth are from each other. No one would doubt that the latter two are related to each other.

It is no accident that this henge is exactly where it is.

(Ref:  http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82427)

What You Can Do

Learn more about the issue and keep abreast of new developments by visiting the websites for the Save Tara campaign and TaraWatch. You can sign an online petition addressed to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, and join the network of Tara activists through MySpace and Facebook. You can also get involved with the New York-based World Monument Fund, which is working to protect Tara and other endangered sites.

(More about Tara-Hill)

• Rollrights, England: (2004):

April 1st 'prank'. - Yellow Gloss paint was found the next morning splattered across stones around the circle damaging around 70 stones; In some cases on both sides. The paint could still be seen clearly over two years later, and traces remain to this day.

(More about the Rollright's)

• Avebury, England (1999):

Two of the ancient standing stones at the Avebury World Heritage site in Wiltshire have been damaged by vandals in what may have been a protest against genetically-modified (GM) crops.

(More about Avebury)