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....
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Sunday 29 May 2011

Express does a puff for Robert's Great Mesolithic Inundation


It's interesting that the Express refused to do a review of "The Bluestone Enigma," presumably on the grounds that it was not wacky enough.  Now they have gone to town with an extended puff for RL's book about the mighty inundation that supposedly allowed stone-laden boats to deliver their valuable cargoes directly to Stonehenge.  They have even gone to the trouble of stocking it in the Express's on-line bookshop.  Best of luck to Robert -- he is just trying to make a living, just like the rest of us.  But what does this tell us about the quality of British journalism?  Answers on a postcard please...........

SECRETS OF THE STONES
Stonehenge exerts an extraordinary power over the people of Britain.

Sunday Express,  May 29,2011

By Graham Ball

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/249439/Secrets-of-the-stones
As the summer solstice will soon see thousands gather at Stonehenge, an archaeologist discusses his belief that the Wiltshire monument is evidence of a great civilisation which once thrived there

IN three weeks’ time, thousands of devotees will gather in the dark in a field in Wiltshire. They do this every year and each time their number grows.

They are there to celebrate the midsummer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and will wait until daybreak when the sun sends a piercing ray of light through Stonehenge, the ancient ruin they have come to venerate.

This primordial circle of stones, eight miles north of Salisbury in Wiltshire, exerts an extraordinary power over the people of Britain.

Some, like the Druids, claim it is the source of a mystical power while others, curious but sceptical, believe it to be the site of an ancient monument that has no relevance to the way we live today.

Whatever their conviction they are all missing the point according to one man who has studied the location for 30 years and believes he knows the real reason why Stonehenge is so special.

“Stonehenge is unique; it is already recognised as a World Heritage Site but it’s more than just an ancient curiosity, it is the place where civilisation began,” says writer and archaeologist Robert John Langdon.

“It’s simply the most amazing place in the world and we should all be celebrating the meaning of this incredible place.”

Robert fell under the spell of Stonehenge as a boy. He explored the massive stone monoliths and was intrigued by the official explanation of their origin. As the years passed and he learned more he was puzzled by contradictions in official explanation of its origins.

“The carbon dating of the stones is not consistent. I have discovered that stone post holes in what is now the car park for the site predate the accepted date for Stonehenge by 5,000 years. If this evidence is accepted, and it has been denied for years, it turns the conventional history of Stonehenge, and the rest of the world for that matter, on its head.”

If Robert is right, and he says he has the scientific evidence to prove he is, Stonehenge is the most important archaeological site in the world. It would mean Salisbury Plain is home to the first and most significant civilisation on earth. So how could this have happened?

“The geography and landscape of the site would have been very different. Britain would have been emerging from the last Ice Age, so much of the country we now recognise would have been under water. Stonehenge would have been on an estuary that led to the open sea. Too many important facts have been ignored,” says Robert.

“There is evidence that water was close, but that has been classified as a moat which I believe is wrong. It is also believed the stones were dragged over land from Wales which is misleading.

“The large sarsen stones came from an area close to Avebury which is not far from Stonehenge.  To have brought them overland all the way from Wales takes no account of the fact that according to the official time scale Salisbury Plain at that time would have been heavily forested which would have made that access all but impossible. The bluestones, which are the key to the secret of Stonehenge, were smaller and did come from Wales but they were brought there by boat.”

Robert’s hypothesis is based on his conviction that the men who built Stonehenge were much more skilled and sophisticated than is currently believed. In 10,000 BC, the Mesolithic period, he believes that men in ancient Britain developed the first recognisable civilisation and that Stonehenge was their greatest achievement.

“These were extremely capable people who found a way of drilling into stone and used sophisticated mortice and tenon joints to erect Stonehenge but most importantly they mastered the seas. These boat people, as we can call them, travelled widely and traded and these are the people I believe that Plato referred to in his writings on the origins of civilisation.”

So why did these people make such an effort to build Stonehenge? what was it intended to do?

“Stonehenge was accessible to boat people from  all over Europe and Mesolithic men and women came there to be cured of their ailments and to depart from this world. The alignment of the site to the sun and the moon is immensely significant but so is the presence of the bluestones in the circle.

“Bluestone turns blue in water, and was believed to have incredible powers of healing. Evidence from bones found close to Stonehenge suggests that the original inhabitants practised sophisticated medical procedures which included dentistry, limb removal and even brain surgery.

“These were not the fur-clad hunter gatherers living in mud huts that many mistakenly believe were the builders of Stonehenge. They were instead members of a great civilisation that moved out, leaving Stonehenge as the only surviving physical evidence of their genius.”

If Robert Langdon is right Stonehenge is much older than the Pyramids and there is a surprising connection between the two ancient stone monuments.

“Over the centuries the climate and landscape in Britain changed. Mesolithic men used their seafaring skills to move to a more sympathetic environment. They traded widely and sailed south to what is now the Mediterranean and moved in along the coast from Egypt to Greece and Italy. The ancient Egyptians’ skill at engineering and building with stone had its roots in the lessons learnt by the men who built Stonehenge.”

It is not only archaeologists with a theory about the significance of Stonehenge. The Druids regard it as a sacred place where they perform spiritual rituals.

Robert says: “I don’t have any disputes with the Druids and they don’t seem to mind me. I’ll be rubbing shoulders with lots of them at the midsummer solstice. The Druids may well have their beliefs but they came on the Stonehenge scene very late in the day.

“They would have discovered the site as an ancient and abandoned temple and taken it over but that’s all right. I get on pretty well with other archaeologists too although they do tend to dismiss my work, but that’s their loss. Stonehenge has a special hold on me and the more I learn about it the more fascinated I become. I’m already working on a new book which I think will ruffle quite a lot of feathers.

“In a sense what we know as Stonehenge is almost the foundations of a much bigger edifice. Stonehenge is, despite all the myths that have been fostered, a very special place. It is, I believe, the birthplace of civilisation and we all ought to give it the respect that it really deserves.”

To order a copy of Prehistoric Britain – The Stonehenge Enigma by Robert John Langdon (ABC Publishing Group, £14.99) with free UK delivery, please send a cheque or PO made payable to the Sunday Express Bookshop to: PO Box 200, Falmouth TR11 4W J, or telephone 0871 988 8366 with credit/debit card details or order online at expressbookshop.com. Calls cost 10p per minute from BT landlines.

12 comments:

Constantinos Ragazas said...

Brian,

There should be a law against such historical distortions presented as facts! Even if they are only about 'making money'! Having had many exchanges with Robert (in your blog as well as in his blog) I find nothing credible about his fantasized great lost Mesolithic civilization of boat people that build Stonehenge. As I argued with him before, he could just as easily have substituted 'aliens from Mars' and his narrative would be the same and just as 'unfalsifiable'.

Brian, books like Robert's with all the hype can only happen because the building of Stonehenge presently lacks a complete sensible explanation. This opens the door to mysticism and fantasy. Even your glacier transport theory leaves the door wide open to speculation over the purpose, ability and organization of the builders of Stonehenge.

My theory, in contrast, avoids all such speculation and mystery since prehistoric men had minimal role to play in the building of Stonehenge and other suchlike prehistoric monuments. When the Truth of Stonehenge is recognized, the mist of Mysticism will lift too.

Kostas

BRIAN JOHN said...

Kostas, I agree with the comment from Geo on one of the other posts -- namely that we should forget about "the Truth." You seem to be intent upon justifying your really rather unsupportable theory by claiming to be more concerned about "the Truth" than others may be. It's as bad as Tony Blair going to war in Iraq on the basis that it was "the right thing to do" -- as if he was uniquely noble and uniquely guided towards some wondrous goal that nobody else could see or appreciate. Sloppy thinking and self-delusion........

I've talked about the King and his lack of clothes before. What we need from you, Kostas, is not protestations about a pursuit of truth, but some hard EVIDENCE from real-world situations that are analogous.

Constantinos Ragazas said...

Brian,

What kind of a world would we have if we just “forget about "the Truth" “ ? But let me agree with you that Truth must be established through Objective Reason based on factual evidence, and not through “protestations about a pursuit of truth “.

You ask for “some hard EVIDENCE from real-world situations that are analogous”. All the evidence that you and others have presented about Stonehenge and about these prehistoric monuments are consistently explained by me. I have no problem and no contradiction with any of this evidence. It all fits in.

There are such-like landscape features in many other places in Europe and the world. There are even Stonehenge-like circles in the bottom of Lake Michigan, in Australia and in other places as well. What we see in Salisbury Plain is not entirely unique in the world. It is unique only in scale and in awe. Surely, not all of these land features around the world were made by the same lost Mesolithic civilization of boat people that Robert is peddling!

But I know that is not satisfactory for you! You want a 'real-world re-enactment' of the same geological events that took place in the UK at the time when Stonehenge was made. Do we ask of Darwin to re-enact the first creation of life? Yet we can all essentially agree on his Theory of Evolution.

I cannot create for the world the same geological conditions that existed at one time in the world. But if you in principle accept laboratory experiments that can simulate in part what I am hypothesizing, then we could at least agree in principle that my theory is 'falsifiable'.

There are a number of such experiments that I can suggest. These can easily be done. If you can support me in finding sponsors for such experiments, I can provide you with the proof that you need. Do you think Express may be interested?

Kostas

T Hinchliffe said...

Daily Express is roughly on a rather dodgy par with Daily Mail i.e. both base their existence increasingly on their special offers or free C.D.'s etc, rether than the quality (or otherwise) of their journalism.
And disappointed not to see RJL's dodgy hat protruding from his ark-like Mesolithic boat.

BRIAN JOHN said...

To be fair to RL, it's not HIS boat -- it's just a nice one I found on the web, which I thought rather nicely fitted the purpose! Doing a bit of creative photoshopping hadn't occurred to me.....

Celestial Elf said...

Interesting Theory :D
Thought you might like my King Arthur's Summer Solstice at Stonehenge machinima film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wuNE5M01ME Bright Blessings, elf ~

Anonymous said...

The man is a heretic and should be burnt at the stake!

We should all believe in God and stone pushing ice cubes. No matter what the scientist say or prove about the origins of the Blue Stones.

Pope Urban VIII

BRIAN JOHN said...

Your Holiness -- I am not sure I would advocate SUCH drastic treatment for heretics, since in the eyes of many establishment figures I am one myself. But a brief appearance before the Inquisition, maybe with a judicious use of torture (just to determine what he REALLY believes) might be appropriate.

sem said...

Aah, so "Bluestone turns blue in water" does it?
Everything turns blue (or green) in water after a depth of about 20ft. Just depends on the power of the flashgun.

Anonymous said...

Is Eric Von what's his name writing something on the 'extra terrestrial origin of the bluestones', or is that just rumor?

BRIAN JOHN said...

It might be just a rumour, but if it was reported in the Express, it MUST be true....

Frederik Krautwald said...

Kostas: "There should be a law against such historical distortions presented as facts!"

- Then there should also be a law against such preposterous suggestions.