THE BOOK
Some of the ideas discussed in this blog are published in my new book called "The Stonehenge Bluestones" -- available by post and through good bookshops everywhere. Bad bookshops might not have it....
To order, click
HERE

Monday 11 November 2024

A very silly rant from the pet rock boys

 

Well, this is rather entertaining -- and more than a little pathetic.  Pearce, Bevins, Ixer and Scourse have put together a furious synthetic rant designed to question my competence and destroy my credibility.  It's just been published in Quaternary Newsletter:

Pearce, N., Bevins, R., Ixer, R. and Scourse, J.  2024.  Comment on "An igneous erratic at Limeslade, Gower, and the Glaciation of the Bristol Channel" by Brian John.  Quaternary Newsletter 163, pp 15 - 20.

Also very entertaining is Tim Daw's instant report on his blog.  Ah, the faithful retainer can always be relied on to help his muckers when they are in a spot of bother.  His report, with carefully selected quotes, is flagged up as "the professional response" to my Limeslade article !!  It's quite touching to see such blind loyalty from an amateur.

Maybe you shouldn't be too surprised.  I'm not surprised at all.........

As readers of this blog will know, my short article published earlier this year presented some preliminary information on the Limeslade boulder, including pXRF data kindly provided by the late Prof Tim Darvill, and assessed its importance in the debate about the glaciation of the Bristol Channel.  In the article I recognised the shortcomings of just three readings from one sample from the boulder, and looked forward to seeing more intensive and detailed analyses of other samples from the boulder by other researchers.  I said: "There is inadequate data for the creation of scatter diagrams or bivariate graphs involving the Limeslade boulder ppm readings. So it is not possible at present to say that the pXRF readings occupy a different visualised “compositional space” for trace elements than the readings for the Preseli tors."

Not everybody has access to research funds and top class laboratory facilities, and when Prof Tim Darvill and Dr Steve Parry offered to help in obtaining pXRF readings, I was grateful for their involvement. 

Instead of accepting this preliminary work with good grace as a starting point for future research, Pearce et al  have subjected it to detailed -- and it has to be said, obsessively aggressive and petulant -- scrutiny, while in the process questioning the competence of other geologists whose notes I reproduced word for word.  I am at a loss as to why these four academics have allowed themselves to be sucked into this absurd spat.  They cannot possibly come out of it with any credit.

In the second part of their article Pearce et al accuse me of  "a polemic against the advocates of human transport (e.g. Parker Pearson et al., 2021)".  I strongly refute that.  My assessment of the human transport thesis (on pp 10 and 11) is carefully phrased, and constitutes a straightforward review of the narrative developed over the last decade by Parker Pearson, Ixer, Bevins and others.  Indeed, my comments are supported by the dramatic retreats made by these authors from the spectacular claims they were making just a few years ago.  These retreats (for example on Waun Mawn) are well known to all who read the literature.

The latter part of the Pearce et al article relates to the glaciation / sea ice transport issue, and I take issue with almost everything that they say.  I will revisit that in a later post.  I will not accept snide comments from people who have apparently never done any field work in West Wales relating to the Quaternary stratigraphic sequence.  Nor will I accept a "holier than thou" attitude from geologists who have, over the last decade, refused to cite "inconvenient literature" or to accept that any of their ideas are questioned or disputed by anybody else.

As for their parting shot:  "This article merely represents a disingenuous cover to justify a rehearsal
of the now well-worn and increasingly tedious debate concerning transport of the Stonehenge bluestones."  That really is beneath contempt.  The article I published was fashioned in part by the constructive comments of the journal editor and referees. The "tedious debate" to which Pearce et al  refer has been fuelled and perpetrated by an endless stream of journal and popular science magazine articles which they themselves have written, many of them recycling the same basic data, designed to promote the strange fantasy that the Preseli bluestones at Stonehenge were targetted, quarried and transported by our Neolithic ancestors.

Watch this space........

Details:

Brian John, 2024. An Igneous Erratic at Limeslade, Gower & the Glaciation of the Bristol Channel. Quaternary Newsletter 162, June 2024. pp 4 - 14.

The article is freely accessible, and can be downloaded here:

https://www.qra.org.uk/quaternary-newsletter/quaternary-newsletter-current/

It is also on Researchgate, and can be accessed here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381775577_Quaternary_Newsletter_Article_AN_IGNEOUS_ERRATIC_AT_LIMESLADE_GOWER_AND_THE_GLACIATION_OF_THE_BRISTOL_CHANNEL

Saturday 9 November 2024

The Shebbear erratic



https://www.facebook.com/groups/2003881253140331/posts/turning-of-the-devils-stone-shebbear-2024/2559590600902724/

Thanks to Tony for drawing attention to this.  The famous Shebbear erratic lies at an altitude of c 146m and is c 15 km from the Devon coast.  It is likely to have been carried into position by an ice stream travelling from the N or NW.  Over most of its surface it appears to be deeply weathered and abraded, but some breakages are apparent, and these might be of different ages.  They look like glacial facets, since the fracture scars are themselves abraded.  Some damage might of course have been done down through the centuries because of the village obsession of tipping it over every year on November 5th............

There is no reason at all to think that the Devils Stone might have been collected up somewhere on the coast and carried into its present position by the villagers or their ancestors.......  However, there is one tradition that the stone came from Henscott, near Bradford,  to the SW of Shebbear and to the west of the River Torridge.  LIDAR images show that there were a number of small quarries in the area, no doubt used for local building purposes.

At both Shebbear and Henscott the local rocks are fine grained sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age -- mostly mudstones, siltstones and sandstones.

There are still people who argue that the large glacial erratics in Devon and Cornwall are concentrated in the intertidal zone along the present coast.   This is just not true, as I have pointed out on many occasions.  On at least one occasion there were Quaternary ice caps on Dartmoor and Exmoor, and we know from other evidence that glacier ice from the Irish Sea Ice Stream pressed inland from the Bristol Channel;  but we still do not know where the boundary between local ice and "invasive ice" might have been.






The stone is said not to be local, and it looks to me as if it might be a coarse conglomerate or igneous rock.  Some say it is a gravelly sarsen stone or an "arenaceous conglomerate".  Others report it as being made of "quartz" and others claim it is made of pinkish granite.  It has dimensions c 6 ft x 4 ft and is reputed to weigh about a tonne.  It was clearly once a great deal bigger than it is today-- the facets are substantial, both on the top and bottom of the boulder.



The turning of the stone in 1946

In one of the reports on the stone, it says that there are other similar erratics in the vicinity.  One stone is mentioned c 750m to the north of the village, where the surface altitude is 173m.   I am intrigued............




Sunday 3 November 2024

25th Anniversary -- Kindle celebration

 

This has nothing to do with Stonehenge or the Ice Age, but one of the joys of being a blogger is that one can very occasionally post something quite irrelevant, in the hope that some people out there might be interested.  Anyway, forgive me dear reader -- but here's the deal........

-----------------------

For five days, starting on Monday 4th November, we will have a free "anniversary" promotion on the Amazon web site, with the Kindle versions of the first three books in the saga.  You can download the digital or "electronic" versions of the three novels completely free of change.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074CFGRJ6?binding=kindle_edition&qid=1730659108&sr=1-1&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

Just click on the Kindle edition of each book to order your free download.

Enjoy!!

Here's the story:

In 1999 my wife and I flew to Gran Canaria on holiday, and en route I was struck down by aerotoxic syndrome. I felt sick before we landed, but then I experienced classic flu-like symptoms. I went straight to bed when we arrived at the apartment, and spent the night wide awake, feeling very ill indeed. One hears about "a fevered imagination" and now I know what it means. Anyway, a story came into my head - of a feisty woman called Martha Morgan. It was "narrated" -- I can still recall the female voice. Dates, places, characters, and a storyline covering the greater part of her life from 1796 to 1855. Individual episodes came into my head, and I even "heard" key conversations.

In the morning, not having slept a wink, I felt better, but the story was fixed firmly inside my head. I told my wife about this strange experience, and she said “Well then, you’d better start writing!” So I did..... and I knew that the story had to be told in Martha's own words, with immediacy, through diary entries.

Twenty-one years later, I still do not know what to make of that episode. l think that the story was “given” to me, and that in order to keep faith I had -- in the beginning -- to try and put into words the emotions and experiences of a pregnant, suicidal 18-year-old female who lived more than 200 years ago.

The narrative extended, eventually, across eight novels; and I can honestly say that the only one of those that involved the "invention"of characters and narrative was "Guardian Angel". The reasons for that will be obvious to the loyal readers of the Saga.

Wednesday 30 October 2024

Carningli summit

 


This is another great image from the Preseli360 drone camera, showing just how rugged the summit is when seen from the S or SW.  Jagged rock faces and scree slopes are normally associated with shaded of lee side slopes facing N or NE, but here they face south and south-east.  I have pondered long and hard on the explanation for this -- and am convinced that the NW flank of the mountain was "cleaned up" by the overriding ice of the Irish Sea Ice Stream coming in from Cardigan Bay and travelling NW towards SE.  The face we are looking at in the photo is the plucked face with features we often associate with the down-glacier sides of roches moutonnees.  I think there may well have been a wind-scoop feature here as well, maybe lasting for thousands of years and allowing frost shattering and scree accumulation to proceed more or less unhindered.

And another from Hugh.........




Monday 28 October 2024

Glama Plateau and Dynjandifoss

 


I rediscovered this excellent photo on a Facebook geomorphology page, showing the Dynjandifoss waterfall (the biggest waterfall in NW Iceland) on the edge of the Glama Plateau.   We did a helicopter reconnaissance and wandered about up there back in the 1970's -- it was fascinating because it was the location of a small ice cap that has now completely disappeared.

Put "Glama" into the search box and you will find some of my other posts.  

There are more excellent photos of this area on Gareth McCormack's web site:



Close-up of the waterfall.  Photo:  Gareth McCormack



Wednesday 16 October 2024

Ken Follett jumps onto the bandwaggon

 


Quercus Publishing have just announced that they will publish a new novel about Stonehenge, written by Welsh author Ken Follett -- a man with a huge following of loyal readers.  The early announcement is all over the media today -- the book will be published in September of next year.

https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/ken-folletts-circle-of-days-kicks-off-his-hachette-global-deal#:~:text=Circle%20of%20Days%20examines%20the,an%20unmatched%20ability%20to%20lead%22

Here is the press release:

Hachette has revealed details of Ken Follett’s upcoming epic, Circle of Days, which is centred around the construction of one of the world’s most iconic monuments, Stonehenge. The announcement follows the new global deal with the publisher after Follett left his long-time publisher Pan Macmillan earlier this year.

Jon Butler, managing director at Quercus, and Ben Sevier, president and publisher of Hachette Book Group’s Grand Central Publishing, announced the global English-language publication details of the newly acquired author at Frankfurt Book Fair 2024. Quercus (UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada) and Grand Central (North American rights) will release the English-language edition on 23rd September 2025.

Circle of Days examines the mystery of the creation of Stonehenge, following three characters: Seft, "a flint miner with a gift"; the girl he loves, Neen; and Joia, Neen’s sister, a priestess "with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead".

Follett said: "Stonehenge is one of the world’s most iconic and recognisable monuments but, in reality, so little is known about it. How was it built? Why was it built? Who built it? I’ve written before about moments of great human achievement and I’ve always been drawn to stories of ordinary people doing seemingly impossible things, and what could be more extraordinary than the construction of this enormous monument?"

The book will also be published in foreign-language editions in different countries around the world, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Follett has been sold in over 80 countries and in 40 languages.

=============

Of course the book will be read and judged as fiction, and nobody will be too concerned about accuracy or authenticity  -- but it is quite inevitable that it will contain an extended section dealing with the heroic finding and transport of the bluestones.  So the mythology will be developed and extended.........

No criticism of Ken Follett -- he sees an opportunity here, and he is just a poor Welsh author trying to make a living, like everybody else...........




Monday 14 October 2024

The Nevern Estuary anomaly


One of the big igneous erratics on the foreshore of the Nevern Estuary



"In south-west Wales, extensive dark grey, silty, graptolitic, pyritous mudstone is Caradoc in age, and indicates that relatively deep water and low energy conditions had persisted since late Arenig times. However, in north Pembrokeshire and south Cardiganshire, the sedimentation was influenced by movement on the Newport Sands Fault. South of the fault, sedimentation was mainly of mud, which now comprises the Pen yr Aber and Cwm yr Eglwys mudstone formations. North of the fault, the upper part of the Cwm yr Eglwys Mudstone Formation interdigitates with and is overlain by turbiditic sandstone, mudstone, slumped beds and conglomerate of the Dinas Island Formation (P662414), which is well exposed in the cliff sections between Dinas Head and Poppit Sands."

According to the records, the Penyraber mudstone formation rests more or less conformably or discomformably on the complex rocks of the Llanvirn Fishguard Volcanic Group.  But according tom the geologists there must have been a long time interval between the accumulation of volcanic materials and the accumulation of the deep sea sediments above them.

Anyway, the Penyraber mudstones are typically black or dark grey, and they outcrop in the Nevern estuary  in the north side of the river, inside the sand dunes and along the shore as far as the "iron bridge".   There are no signs of interbedded or underlying volcanic deposits, and I am still pondering on the origins of the cluster of igneous erratics on the foreshore, between the high and low tide marks.  They still remind me o the strange igneous outcrops in Ty Canol Wood, but if the erratics come from there, the ice must have travelled northwards from Mynydd Preseli, and the jury is still out on that one.........

What I noticed yesterday, on one of our estuary walks, was a high concentration of stained quartz fragments, some of them quite angular, littering the beach surface near the Riverslea boat house.  There also seem to be two parallel alignments.  I must go back and examine them when I am not threatened by an incoming tide -- is there an outcrop of something interesting just beneath the beach surface?  Watch this space.......