Breaking News: Stonehenge bluestones came from a Neolithic Temple at Bedd yr Afanc

Gentle reader, if you are a betting person, here is a racing certainty for you.  Put a quid or two down on it, and you can't lose........... 

In 2016 it will be announced to the world that the bluestones at Stonehenge were transported there from a large passage grave, tomb or "temple of the ancestors" located at Bedd yr Afanc, on the moorland near Brynberian.  The site is located very conveniently between Rhosyfelin and Carn Goedog, and you can read a lot more about it by typing in "Bedd yr Afanc" into the blog search box.  Everybody knows that there is a rather unusual passage grave there -- just a small cluster of unspectacular stones in two parallel rows.  But the question is this:  what was there before it was destroyed?  Something like this?

The reconstructed (and somewhat elaborated?) mound at Newgrange in Ireland, within which is a passage grave. The facade is faced with quartz cobbles brought in from the surrounding countryside.

  

The Setup

In the writing trade, this is what is meant by a setup: presenting the elements that flesh out the story and lay the groundwork for the plot. They are conveyed by the writer in a way that establishes a character, world, or situation, while moving the plot and story forward at the same time.

This is perfectly relevant here, since this is all about storytelling....... and since, after five years of digging and storytelling, we are moving towards a climax.

The storytellers are already hard at work, laying out their clues. One quote from the latest article by MPP and his colleagues in "British Archaeology": "Somewhere, on the land between the bluestone quarries, we think there is a passage tomb, formerly built of bluestones, waiting to be investigated. Could this have been a tomb for the ancestors that was dismantled and moved to Salisbury Plain, the tangible history of a Welsh neolithic tribe carried to their new homeland in one of the most extraordinary journeys of prehistoric times? Only time will tell."

Another quote from the recent press release that accompanied the publication of the "Antiquity" article:  "Prof Kate Welham, of Bournemouth University, said the ruins of a dismantled monument were likely to lie between the two megalith quarries. “We’ve been conducting geophysical surveys, trial excavations and aerial photographic analysis throughout the area and we think we have the most likely spot. The results are very promising. We may find something big in 2016,” she said."

At the end of the "Antiquity" article:  "Might the bluestones have formed one or more monuments within Wales that were dismantled and moved in order to be incorporated, eventually, into Stonehenge? Such an act could have served to merge two sacred centres into one, to unify two politically separate regions, or to legitimise the ancestral identity of migrants moving from one region to another. Future research into Neolithic monuments within north Pembrokeshire may shed light on these possibilities." Note the the talk is no longer of an ancient stone circle, but of a "monument" which could well be taken to mean a passage grave site or tomb.

Again, about the imagined Carn Goedog "engineering features" in the Brit Arch article:  "Beyond the ditch we found a platform of redeposited soil that formed a 5m-long ramp leading away from the quarry and curling northwards down the slope towards the valley in which Craig Rhos-y-felin sits......"  Note the suggestion that stones were taken northwards and downhill -- ie towards Bedd yr Afanc.

 

The Dream Location 

We have already discussed Bedd yr Afanc on this blog, and Chris, Hugh and others have been pondering on its choice as the next big location for the travelling circus.  And it is indeed the dream location.  It's on a dry expanse of relatively flat land with ample space for a large structure -- and surrounded by land that is more water-logged.  It's in the right place, more or less equidistant between Rhosyfelin and Carn Goedog.  There is a very substantial trackway across the moor, and if you like you can see it as connecting Carn Goedog and Bedd yr Afanc.  Although the stones of the passage grave remnants are not very large, they are varied in lithology, and seem to include dolerites and rhyolites and at least one stone that might be a gabbro.  No doubt the geologists will already be hard at work sorting out provenances.......

And then we come to the quartz cobbles that are needed in order to promote the view that Bedd yr Afanc was at one time equal in magnificence to Newgrange.  Take a look at this post:

http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/legend-of-bedd-yr-afanc.html

and this one:

http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/garnwen-brynberian.html

 But bits of quartz are of minor significance compared to the mythological value of Bedd yr Afanc.  The local story of the Afanc is one of the most famous in Welsh folklore, involving a very nasty water monster and a fair maiden, as set out here:

http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/the-brynberian-afanc.html

It's a great story, and if we like we can built into it all sorts of meanings and all sorts of associations with folk memories of Bedd yr Afanc as a sacred or revered site, involving heroism, sacrifice, death and burial.  So the passage grave is the place where the monster was buried -- and because of its mystical and religious associations it's not a great leap from there to creating a narrative which will justify its use as a "site of the ancestors" -- later to be dismantled and transported off to Stonehenge.

The possibilities are endless.  As we speak, Bedd yr Afanc is probably being prepared for stardom and is being lifted to the top of the National Park's wonderful heritage site list.    You can see Bedd yr Afanc from the new Visitor Centre, just up on the hillside:

http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/new-preseli-visitor-centre-work.html

Leaflets, guided tours, cups of tea, rolling Powerpoint presentations and videos, Welsh cakes, exhibitions of photos, jewellery made out of "monster rock" fragments -- once the Visitor Centre is completed, there is no knowing where it will all lead.  How about cuddly afanc monster toys?  Pots of pickled onions and bilberry jam marketed under the "Afanc" label.........

And anything they can do at Newgrange, we can do in Pembrokeshire.  Will a Lottery grant cover the cost, I wonder?

Excuse me -- I'm getting carried away.  But remember, folks, that you read it here first.  Put your money on it!  It's a racing certainty........