As I write this, I have just returned from my first trip to England. I was fortunate to receive an invitation to attend a conference sponsored by the Council of Europe and the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. The conference theme was archaeological survey and data recording standards, and was attended by archaeologists from all over Europe, plus delegates from South Africa, Brazil and the United States. It was truly fascinating to learn about the survey and data recording programs used by archaeologists in other nations.

To my great pleasure, the conference also included a tour to visit important sites in Wessex and Devon. This included a stop at Stonehenge, which is a World Heritage Site for obvious reasons. Stonehenge must be among the five most famous archaeological sites in the world, and it is indeed impressive. What you learn from visiting the site is that Stonehenge was built in three stages, and is just a small part of an extensive prehistoric landscape that includes ceremonial roads, megaliths, earthworks, a woodhenge, and numerous barrows (burial mounds). The preservation of these features is excellent, and I couldn't help but think that this is how the Chillicothe area must have looked in Squier and Davis' time (1840s). What an opportunity that was to view the whole cultural landscape, rather than simply see the isolated remnants that have been preserved in most of southern Ohio.

Avebury is equally, if not more, impressive. This immense earthwork is also part of a fantastic bronze age landscape. The earthwork itself is massive beyond simple description, even larger than the features at Newark, Ohio. Associated with the earthworks are megalithic formations, lines of stones, ceremonial roadways, barrows, and Silbury Hill. The latter is a huge earthen mound that dominates the landscape. It is comparable in size to Monk's Mound at Cahokia, and is equally as impressive. What I found most impressive about my brief visit to Avebury is the way the English have managed to live with these monuments without totally destroying them. For example, the roadway through the earthwork was built through gateways included by the original builders, and shops, restaurants, and residences are nestled carefully within or outside the massive earthwork and ditchworks. I must also admit that the sheep that graze throughout the site are picturesque and add to the atmosphere of the place.

However, for someone that still considers himself a research archaeologist, the visit to Dartmoor National Park was the highlight of the trip. This rugged and lonely area is all in private ownership, and has been impacted by mining and other modern activities, but the archaeology is unbelievable. The area is literally covered with Bronze Age settlements and field boundaries. There are also numerous megaliths, stone circles, stone rows, cairns and burial cysts. After spending nearly two hours exploring the features at Merrivale, I am certain that I now have some small sense of how the Wetherills must have felt in their early exploration of Mesa Verde. Everywhere I turned there was some new, different and exciting feature in a remarkable state of preservation. And remember, this represents one of the more visited sites at Dartmoor. I can't even begin to comprehend what the more remote and less visited sites must be like.

On the long flight home from England, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about our cultural heritage. While many of my new friends in Great Britain tell me that their society is development oriented, and not everyone respects the archaeological record, I was very impressed with their societal effort to preserve their heritage. Restoration work has been necessary at both Stonehenge and Avebury to bring them to their current states of preservation. In the United States, we haven't done nearly as well. This is particularly true of the eastern United States, where we have cultivated nearly every square yard of flat ground east of the Mississippi River. When Squire and Davis conducted their landmark survey of Ross County, Ohio in the 1840s, the earthworks and mounds they recorded must have been nearly as impressive as sites I saw in England. Somehow the English have found a way to preserve much of their archeological heritage, while we have destroyed most of the sites that Squier and Davis so carefully mapped. It saddens me to think that we can never appreciate the awesomeness of the Hopewell culture in the way that I experienced the Bronze Age features surrounding Stonehenge and Avebury.

The value of cultural landscapes cannot be over estimated. The appreciation that visitors feel for George Washington's home at Mount Vernon is in great part due to the fact that much of the grounds surrounding the house has been preserved. If parking lots and apartment buildings had been constructed next to the structure, visitors would have a far less satisfying experience. The same can be said for Abraham Lincoln's Home in Springfield, Illinois. The Home itself would be far less impressive if the neighborhood and adjacent houses were not preserved. In prehistoric contexts, the preservation of the Anasazi landscape in Chaco Canyon makes the sites really come to life. For those of you familiar with the Hopewell sites in the Chillicothe area, consider the Story Mound. While it is laudable that the mound has been preserved, it exists totally in a twentieth century context. Houses and roads surround the site and have disturbed everything right up to the foot of the mound. It is impossible to imagine Woodland Indians building a mound in this setting.

I am convinced that as archeologists, we must view the archeological record as a cultural landscape. The Hopewellian earthworks, mounds, and habitation sites of Ross County were not built as isolated components, and we cannot appreciate their contribution to the prehistory of North America unless we study individual sites as part of a system. This places great urgency on our research and preservation efforts. Much has already been lost, and the opportunity to study and understand the Hopewell Culture in southern Ohio will not last forever. We need to make the commitment to study as much as possible of that record before it is lost.