It's amazing how the endless stream of nonsense about Stonehenge goes on and on .... endlessly. Here is another article -- derived from something which was itself derived from something derivative. Maybe in the circumstances we should not be surprised -- there is an insatiable appetite for articles which say "Stonehenge mystery solved." Read on, dear friends, and be entertained. I love the bit about "miniature bluestones that surround Stonehenge" -- is our learned reporter referring to the bluestone orthostats or to the flakes in the debitage?
Then we have this wonderful bit: "......... if we could determine with confidence that the stones had been worked by humans in Neolithic times, then the ice-transport theory would be refuted," Bevins said, according to Live Science." I hope Richard didn't actually say that, since it is of course total nonsense. Neolithic working of the stones at Stonehenge is something that is entirely irrelevant to the mode of transport from Wales to Salisbury Plain. On the other hand, if it can be shown that the stones had been worked or shaped at or near their source and prior to long-distance transport, that would be a different matter. As far as I can see, there is not a shred of evidence that the stones (rhyolite, dolerite or any of the others) WERE worked prior to arrival on Salisbury Plain; if there is any such evidence, it would be good to hear of it.
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Scientists Crack Mystery Of Stonehenge Rock Source
By Oulimata Ba | Feb 22, 2014
http://www.hngn.com/articles/25046/20140222/scientists-crack-mystery-stonehenge-rock-source.htm
Scientists have discovered the source of miniature bluestones that surround Stonehenge, bringing the archaeological world one step closer to cracking the mystery of how the ancient structure was created, Live Science reported.
Stonehenge, located in Wiltshire, England, is comprised of massive, 30-ton sarsen stones made of sandstone, and smaller bluestones. The smaller rocks were named bluestones due to their blue tinge when wet.
By studying the bluestones' composition, scientists found they originated from an outcropping not far from Stonehenge. The outcropping is also 1.8 miles from another site that was originally thought to be the source of the bluestones almost 100 years ago, Live Science reported.
The discovery "locates the exact sources of the stones, which highlight areas where archaeologists can search for evidence of the human working of the stones," said National Museum of Wales geologist Richard Bevins, who co-authored the study, Live Science reported.
The discovery was published in the February issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Stonehenge is a prehistoric structure that dates back to 5,000 years ago. Construction of the structure, a large circle of vertical stones with horizontal stones on top, was altered by several ancient civilizations over the course of 1,000 years, Live Science reported.
The reason for the structure, or how the stones were raised, is still unknown.
Though the discovery may make solving the mystery easier, it still raises new questions about how they got there in the first place.
Scientists hope that finding out where the rocks originated will lead to evidence humans left behind in the area, Bevins said, Live Science reported. The evidence left by humans could then confirm or deny other theories of how the stones were moved. One theory says that glaciers transported the bluestones to the Stonehenge location during an ancient ice age, Live Science reported.
"For example, if we could determine with confidence that the stones had been worked by humans in Neolithic times, then the ice-transport theory would be refuted," Bevins said, according to Live Science.
Speaking in geomorphological terms, was it this 'endless stream of Stonehenge nonsense', going back to Medieval times and even earlier, that has caused this grooved erosion channel in the side of the pictured bluestone? Or was it just Merlin? (again). Perhaps MPP has already categorised it as another example of his PERIGLACIAL CHANNELS, or whatever terminology his "experts", Lewis and French, have produced for the benefit of the punters. Forgive my scepticism.
ReplyDeleteThis is of course the famous grooved bluestone, into which the one with a tongue is supposed to have fitted. Not even I would be so outrageous as to suggest the groove is natural. No problem at all with a bit of handiwork at Stonehenge, during at least some of those building phases.....
ReplyDeleteSorry, folks, yet again my tongue was firmly in my cheek when I penned the above........so many wasted nights, watching TW3 and David Frost in my formative years(Bill Oddie was in that as well).
ReplyDeleteYou should spend your time more profitably, Tony, watching the rugby!!
ReplyDeleteThree great matches this weekend......
the tongue stone doesn't fit the grooved stone they are different sizes.
ReplyDeletePeteG
Ah -- thanks Pete. So the speculation is that there were two or more pairs of T+G bluestones? I recall seeing somewhere a reference to a "wall"of tight-fitting stones -- but I imagine the evidence for this is rather scanty.....
ReplyDeleteI think perhaps the first reference to a wall of tight-fitting stones may well have come from archaeology writer and "geographer and geomorphologist by training" Rodney Castleden, Brian. Someone whose notions you have disagreed with on this Blog several times.
ReplyDeleteI have indeed disagreed with much of what Rodney has out in print. But I'm not pathologically opposed to the idea of several bluestones shaped and fitted together at some stage -- if the evidence suggests it, fine.....
ReplyDeletePerhaps these tongue-and-grooved variety of bluestones will be revealed, all in due course, at Castell Mawr by a triumphant MPP, having been left behind there by our forgetful intrepid forebear boyos, All Those Years Ago.....you couldn't write it....hang on, I just did.
ReplyDeleteBrian: Perhaps you could say an "erratic train of nonsense"?
ReplyDeleteOr innumerable trains of nonsense from numerous sources united in a terminal moraine of utter confusion and credulity!
Damn right the rugby's been cracking! Good Luck (he says through gritted teeth)
"We are riding on a railroad
ReplyDeleteSinging someone else's song...
...We are sailing away on a river to the sea
Maybe you and I will meet again...
...There's a man*
up here who claims to have his hands
Upon the reins
There are chains upon his hands and he's riding upon a train"
* WHICH ARCHAEOLOGIST COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE?