Editing Stonehenge (section)

====Vandalism====

The site has suffered vandalism intermittently for centuries. Until the 17th century, stones disappeared from the site, to be employed at building sites.<ref>{{cite journal |access-date=3 July 2024 |archive-date=7 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707013904/http://www.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/site/news_rece_ston.php |author1=Robert Layton |author2=Julian Thomas |date=1999 |language=en |periodical=[[World Archaeological Congress]] |quote=Up until the 17th century stones occasionally went missing to help build bridges or houses |title=Proposals for a tunnel at Stonehenge: an assessment of the alternatives |url=http://www.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/site/news_rece_ston.php}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>  In the 19th century, tourists employed chisels to cut rock chips off the megaliths as souvenirs.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |access-date=3 July 2024 |date=22 May 2008 |language=en |quote=At one time, chisels would be handed to people visiting Stonehenge, so they could chip away at the ancient monument to get their own souvenirs. But the practice has been outlawed since 1900 |title=Chisels once given at Stonehenge |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/7414750.stm |work=[[BBC]]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

Although the first years of the ''Free Festival'' (annual, from 1975 onwards) saw "very little vandalism", Stonehenge had to be fenced off from 1978 onwards.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Barbara Bender |author2=Mark Edmonds |date=December 1992 |title=Stonehenge: whose past? What past? |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/026151779290001N |language=en |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |volume=13 |pages=356–357 |doi=10.1016/0261-5177(92)90001-N |issn=0261-5177 |access-date=3 July 2024 |quote=In the early years of the Free Festival the authorities remained tolerant.  After 1978 they roped off the stones inner sanctum towards the Heel […] There was very little vandalism |number=4 |periodical=Tourism Management}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>  Later, repeated vandalism in the 1980s and 1990s led the authorities to deploy up to hundreds of police, erect barriers around Stonehenge, and impose exclusion zones up to six kilometres from the archaeological monument.<ref name="TCR">{{cite journal |author1=Humphrys, Geoffrey |date=June 1994 |title=Stonehenge – June's flashpoint |language=en |volume=264 |page=309 |issn=0010-7565 |quote=Repeated vandalism has led to a barrier being erected around the stones, and during the past four years a four-mile exclusion zone has been enforced from June 11 to June 24 |number=1541 |periodical=[[The Contemporary Review]]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref name="Numen">{{cite journal |author1=Carole M. Cusack |date=2012 |title=Charmed Circle: Stonehenge, Contemporary Paganism, and Alternative Archaeology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23244956 |language=en |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=59 |pages=148–149 |issn=0029-5973 |access-date=2 July 2024 |quote=in 1984 […] Vandalism occurred |number=2 y 3 |periodical=[[Numen (journal)|Numen]]|jstor=23244956 }}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>  The vandalism of 1984 included defacing the monument with purple spray paint.<ref>{{cite magazine |author1=LAURA MILLER |date=21 April 2014 |title=Romancing The Stones |language=en |volume=90 |page=48 |issn=0028-792X |quote=archeologists tolerated Druid rituals at Stonehenge […] By 1984 […]  vandalism: "People were climbing all over the stones and spray-painting them purple." |number=9 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The government went so far as to close Stonehenge to protect it from vandalism, but in the face of public outcry the government opted to re-open it.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Patricia Monaghan |date=1 November 2008 |title=Stonehenge by Rosemary Hill |publisher=[[American Library Association]] |volume=105 |page=13 |issn=0006-7385 |quote=it was built several millennia before the Celts with their druid priests arrived on British shores? For several hundred years, people have believed that Stonehenge is connected to the druids, so ardently that public outcry eventually drove the government, which had closed the monument to keep it from vandalism and other deterioration, reopened it |number=5 |periodical=[[Booklist]]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

In 2008, two men used a hammer and a screwdriver to take a small chip the size of a [[10p coin]] from the side of the Heel Stone, in what authorities described as "the first vandalism in decades".<ref>{{cite news |date=22 May 2008 |title=Souvenir hunters vandalise Stonehenge |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/may/22/conservation.archaeology |access-date=3 July 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]] |language=en |agency=Press Association}}</ref>

In 2020, the British transport minister was accused of vandalism when he decided that the road through the Stonehenge area would be converted into a tunnel that would pass in the immediate vicinity.<ref>{{cite news |title=Stonehenge tunnel: Campaigners raise funds for legal challenge |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-55485482 |access-date=3 July 2024 |work=[[BBC]] |date=31 December 2020 |language=en |quote=«wanton vandalism of one of the world's most iconic heritage sites»}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=13 November 2020 |language=en |page=19 |quote=The road past Stonehenge will be put in a tunnel, the Transport Secretary has decreed, enraging those who declare it vandalism |title=Under Stonehenge |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The project was decades old, but had repeatedly been delayed because of its cost or the effects on archaeological remains.<ref>{{cite news |author1=PHILIP JOHNSTON |date=19 July 2023 |language=en |page=16 |quote=the Government gave the go-ahead for a project that has been talked about for decades but has been rejected as archaeological vandalism or just too costly |title=The scandalous Stonehenge tunnel is a very British waste of taxpayer money |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The historian [[Tom Holland (author)|Tom Holland]] opined that "To inflict this act of vandalism on this landscape seems unbelievable."<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Craig Simpson |date=18 February 2021 |language=en |page=10 |periodical=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |quote=Tom Holland, the historian and president of the alliance, told The Daily Telegraph: "To inflict this act of vandalism on this landscape seems unbelievable |title=Stonehenge campaigners to take tunnel project to court}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>  Tunnel opponents considered it "state-sponsored vandalism" even as their case was defeated in court in 2024.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Mark Hallam |title=Stonehenge: Campaigners lose court challenge to tunnel plans |url=https://www.dw.com/en/stonehenge-campaigners-lose-court-challenge-to-tunnel-plans/a-68302773 |access-date=3 July 2024 |work=[[Deutsche Welle]] |date=2024-02-20 |language=en |quote=this judgement is a huge blow and exposes the site to National Highway's state-sponsored vandalism}}</ref>

[[File:Vlcsnap at 0010-VIDEO 19062024 JustStopOil Stonehenge.png|thumb|[[Just Stop Oil]] protestors vandalising Stonehenge]]
On 19 June 2024, [[Climate movement|climate protesters]] from [[Just Stop Oil]] vandalised three of the [[standing stones]] by spraying orange cornflour powder paint onto them. [[English Heritage]] called the defacement "extremely upsetting" and began an investigation to assess the damage caused by the paint,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ott |first=Haley |date=2024-06-19 |title=Stonehenge sprayed with orange paint by Just Stop Oil activists demanding U.K. "phase out fossil fuels" |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stonehenge-just-stop-oil-protest-activists-spray-orange-paint-demand-uk-stop-fossil-fuel/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619135458/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stonehenge-just-stop-oil-protest-activists-spray-orange-paint-demand-uk-stop-fossil-fuel/ |archive-date=2024-06-19 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=CBS News |language=en-US}}</ref> before removing it with blown air and reporting that there was "no visible damage" to the stones.<ref name="bbcstone">{{cite news |last1=Boobyer |first1=Leigh |date=19 June 2024 |title=Stonehenge covered in powder paint by Just Stop Oil protesters |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw44mdee0zzo |access-date=22 June 2024 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Stonehenge – Just Stop Oil protest |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/pr-stonehenge--just-stop-oil-protest/ |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> The English Heritage webpage for Stonehenge calls for visitors to respect the stones since they form a [[World Heritage Site]], a [[Scheduled Ancient Monument]], and a place sacred to many.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Please respect the stones |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/solstice/respect-the-stones/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620001804/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/solstice/respect-the-stones/ |archive-date=2024-06-20 |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> Conversely, [[Sarah Kerr]], a lecturer in archaeology at [[University College Cork]], noted that the [[effects of climate change]] pose a much greater threat to Stonehenge and other British heritage sites than Just Stop Oil's protest, which was washed away without causing damage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kerr |first=Sarah |date=2024-06-21 |title=Stonehenge protest: if you worry about damage to British heritage you should listen to Just Stop Oil |url=http://theconversation.com/stonehenge-protest-if-you-worry-about-damage-to-british-heritage-you-should-listen-to-just-stop-oil-232934 |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref>
{{See also|Just Stop Oil#Stonehenge}}