A little bird tells me that Prof GW will be conducting archaeological investigations in the Preseli Hills this summer. I wonder what that will be all about? Hunting for bluestone quarries and healing springs, no doubt......... probably under the banner of SPACES. I wonder if the good professor managed to find a tame geologist to help with the work? And I wonder who has provided the funding, and on what basis?
Well, the best of luck to him. All info honestly reported will be gratefully received by interested parties.
Time to bury a teaser?
ReplyDeleteHow about a little model of a water nymph, carved out of spotted dolerite and embedded carefully in a Neolithic charcoal layer? You offering, Barrie?
ReplyDeleteThis is all very despicable, just when we are trying to increase respect for the scientific method......! I should never have mentioned the water nymph, and should have realized she would open the floodgates.
ReplyDeleteWonder if the Society of Antiquities is able to provide any of the funding for GW's summer 2011 investigations? I have just noted that GW was its President in 2008, and TD its Vice President.
ReplyDeletePossibly -- I just hope they are not throwing good money after bad, and funding a hunt for "evidence" designed to corroborate a fantasy. But if they are funding serious work (for example, related to the possible Neolithic settlement sites in the area), that could be very useful indeed.....
ReplyDeleteI have just happened upon an interesting website to do with Geoffrey Wainwright (and other Wainwrights!).
ReplyDeleteGo to:-
wn.com/Geoffrey Wainwright
You will see a list headed 'The Door of Geoffrey Wainwright'.
Of interest are:
(7)les mysteres de Stonehenge - if only because you can see the French take on TD & GW's dig within Stonehenge 2008.
AND (4) The Healing Stones of Dyfed
which has BBC's Hugh Edwards paying homage to GW. At least Hugh has the decency to remark "some say the bluestones were carried by ice sheets"!! Toby Driver of the Royal Commission appears to be enthralled by GW's revelations. They do visit Preseli's Banc Du Neolithic Causewayed Camp which GW fits seamlessly into his saga.
Oh dear oh dear -- I saw that BBC Wales piece when it was broadcast, and I was appalled! I am still more than a little intrigued by the manner in which GW appears to be so utterly convinced by his own fantasies, to the extent of conjuring "evidence" out of thin air. His double act with the deferential Toby Driver is actually quite funny -- I had a go at Toby by Email, and wondered why he seemed to be incapable of independent thought on the matters explained with utter certainty by GW. But I couldn't get any sense by way of a reply. Funny and sad at the same time......
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it was extraordinary that GW should assume that a Neolithic settlement site near the other end of the Preseli ridge should have provided the manpower needed to move the stones from Preseli to Stonehenge. Talk about adding two and two together and making 2,000......
Is there some way of banning students from watching that video? I do hope so.
On second thoughts, maybe they should all be forced to watch it, so as to get a good idea how NOT to do archaeology.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the GW/ Toby Driver video, I noted that GW had seemingly acknowledged his brother-in-law's 'contribution' to GW's overall healing stones thesis for Preseli/Stonehenge. This is mentioned in aforesaid video as having been the result of a conversation the two had had five years earlier. Some may know GW was an archaelogy professor in India for quite a while - I do not think the two occurrences are entirely unconnected. The East is, after all, mystical.
ReplyDeleteBrother-in-law? News to me... whom are we talking about here?
ReplyDelete