'Bronze Age monument discovered'

London, July 12: The discovery of a 4,000-year-old stone monument that has lain forgotten for generations under farmland on the English border with Wales has sparked a major row between residents and the local council.

The snake-shaped Bronze Age feature made of fire-cracked stones and dubbed the Rotherwas Ribbon or Dinedor Serpent was discovered as workers began excavations for an already controversial road near Hereford, 120 miles (193 km) west of London.

''We were already calling it the 'road to nowhere' because that is exactly where it goes and then this magnificent artefact was discovered,'' said local resident Martin Wyness.

''It is a wonderful find for Herefordshire and the world. Burying it under a road would be a major loss of our heritage,'' he added, comparing it in importance to the slightly older World Heritage listed site at Stonehenge.

Residents say the road, meant as a bypass to an industrial estate, is unnecessary.

But Herefordshire Council says the road is needed to relieve congestion and has offered to cover the monument protectively for future generations but then press ahead with building the bypass.

Campaigners claim that the structure, which follows the contours of Dinedor Hill, could be as much as 1,000 metres (3,281 ft) long and not just the 60 metres (197 ft) uncovered by the diggers.

The use of burned stones in Bronze Age rituals is well-established, but archaeologists who have visited the site say this finding is unique in Europe because in other cases the stones have been found in mounds not set in a distinct pattern.

They said the closest similar site, albeit 2,000 years younger is the 405-metre- (1,329 ft) -long Serpent Mound in the Ohio River Valley in the United States.

Inspectors from English Heritage, which must decide the fate of the Rotherwas Ribbon, visited the site on Monday to begin their investigations.

''English Heritage considers that this is a significant find worthy of being fully recorded for future research and protected in-situ.

''Each part of the find is very fragile and by keeping the remains in their context they can help us understand how people used to live in this landscape setting,'' it added in a statement.

It said that public access should be controlled while the future of the site was decided.

Reuters>