There is a new Coflein web site -- published by the Royal Commission and the Welsh Government -- which allows access to all of the records relating to national monuments, including the key archaeological sites in Wales.
Here are some links:
New Coflein web site
http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en
Carn Meini record
http://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/401672/details/carn-menyn-bluestone-outcrops-of-spotted-doleritecarn-meini
Rhosyfelin record:
http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/416247/details/craig-rhosyfelin-pont-saeson-craig-rhos-y-felin-rhyolite-bluestone-outcrop
This is a very useful resource, although some bits of it are actually the remnants of the old site, and there are still large numbers of photos etc which are NOT available online and which can only be consulted at HQ or else ordered and paid for. This is all rather frustrating, and my impression is that the English Heritage site is better and rather more open in allowing free access to specialised materials........ it will be interesting to see what others think.
I haven't looked at many site records yet, but if the records for Carn Meini and Rhosyfelin are anything to go by, some serious revisions are already needed.........
I see the Flat Holm/Steep Holm bluestone rubbish is still being hauled out.
ReplyDeleteThe poor old Pet Rock boys throwing science into the mix and disproving all this rubbish and expecting to be read. It makes for the same old Grimme reading.
The boys are still Waiting by the River, but not long now!
M
Well, get after them, Myris. I shall be doing the same. Unless people correct what they put out on the web, it will just stay there, spreading confusion in all directions.......
ReplyDeleteIs there such a thing as "bluestone rubbish"? I thought the correct terminology was bluestone detritus. That's probably incorrect too, I seem to have mislaid my brain cell this morning amid the high pollen level.
ReplyDeleteWhen Myris refers to "bluestone rubbish" he is referring to the claim, by somebody or other, that there was a piece of spotted dolerite on Steep Holm. Or several. I am unsure of the source of that story, but until somebody proves otherwise, I am happy to think it perfectly possible for bluestone fragments, pebbles or boulders to turn up there. There are certainly pebbles on Flat Holm that appear to have come from Ramsey Island, and I am happy to call them "bluestones". Still waiting for the identifications to be done by Sid Howells........
ReplyDeleteMyris, can you give us the references to the claim and your disputation of it? I suspect it might come down to a particular chunk of rock and the good or bad provenancing of it......
It would be strange were there not glacial debris on the two islands. There is little doubt.
ReplyDeleteThe claim was that three bits of SH bluestone were found at very low tide, they were sent to the proto-pet rock boys who sectioned all three/four and showed that they were unlike any SH bluestone/axe-head but were cg amphibolites from Wales somewhere.
It was lectured about in 2006/7 n York as 'Waiting by the River; SH and the Severn Estuary' and a couple of letters were written to popular journals.
Later a mysterious fourth bluestone 'turned up' and was given the imprimatur by Wainwright (no less)recklessly but has never been seen by lesser mortals and all requests to do the petrography were ignored- think the guy then went and died.
It was all a publicity stunt and to do with internal feuding by the Flatholme/Steepholme committee.
The full account is written up somewhere by members of the committee in a SW England regional archy journal.
A major example of amateurs counting geese as swans.
M
It has not been formally written up by the boys but is scheduled for the paper after next.
Thanks for that, Myris. Ah, all this feuding creates much heat and little light. Reminds me of the obsession in Pembs with finding "the lost bluestone " on the floor of Milford Haven. Robert Kennedy, who was the head of the Pembs County Museum back in the bad old days, was quite convinced that since the Altar Stone came from the Cosheston area on the shore of Milford Haven (which it didn't, of course), it must have been an impromptu replacement for a stone lost by the voyagers as they were passing by with their valuable cargoes of 82 bluestone monoliths. Vast amounts of time and energy were expended on hunting all over the bed of Milford Haven for this precious missing stone, and every time a large stone was found in drilling explorations for the oil industry jetties, there were headlines in the local press about "Missing Stonehenge Bluestone found." At was all nonsense, and all very jolly.......
ReplyDelete