How much do we know about Stonehenge? Less than we think. And what has Stonehenge got to do with the Ice Age? More than we might think. This blog is mostly devoted to the problems of where the Stonehenge bluestones came from, and how they got from their source areas to the monument. Now and then I will muse on related Stonehenge topics which have an Ice Age dimension...
Pages
▼
Friday, 29 May 2009
Something about ice
Not many people will have seen this map. It's crucial for an understanding of Britain during the Ice Age, and of the glacial theory relating to the transport of the bluestones from West Wales to Stonehenge. There is still a debate about how far to the east the ice of the Irish Sea Glacier actually reached. Did it reach Salisbury Plain? Even if it didn't, it was not far off.........
Note that this map is a very conservative one -- with the ice limit drawn to enclose the best-authenticated glacial deposits as described in the literature. It does not take full account of the glaciological modelling work which suggests that if the ice reached the Scillies and the south Cornwall coast, it must also have extended up to the margins of Salisbury Plain and maybe well onto the chalk downlands. The most useful models thus far show the ice extending at least as far east as Stonehenge. See the other maps on this blog. (This entry amended 4th November 2009.)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave your message here