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....
To order, click
HERE

Monday 12 September 2016

Iceberg!


No particular relevance here, except that I had to share this!  One of the most beautiful polar photos I have ever seen -- just look at the extraordinary translucent quality of the light.....

A photo by Janet Little -- very early morning among the icebergs in Hall Bredning, Scoresby Sund, East Greenland.  Top photographers do manage to catch scenes like this every now and then -- but they have to be there, at the right time, with the right equipment!

7 comments:

Myris of Alexandria said...

Very very lovely.
I have converted it into a jigsaw.

Saw your crie de Coeur in Current Arch, very naughty one might misread the letter. I note no detailed spelling out of different ice ages and although all honest comments perhaps a touchette d'ingeniousness.
Care to elaborate on your last sentence. Quantification?

Super book reviews in same issue.
M

BRIAN JOHN said...

Is this the letter you mean, Myris? This is how it was sent. Not sure what it looked like if printed. I only see Current Archaeology occasionally...


The Stonehenge Challenge

I dispute the claim that UCL students "have shown how easy it is to transport bluestones from the Preseli Hills using human labour" (CA 318, p 48). They have simply shown how easy it is to move a smallish lump of rock on a nice grassy surface in a London park, using modern materials. As for the claim that it is now "up to the glacial transport theorists" to demonstrate that large glacial erratics can be transported over long distances, I thought that every British eleven-year-old knows that? It has been common knowledge ever since the early days of "the glacial theory", as attested in the writings of Agassiz, Esmark and many others. There are many examples of glacial erratics that have been transported more than 500 miles. The Irish Sea glacier extended far to the south of Stonehenge on at least two occasions in the Ice Age, and flowed over the Isles of Scilly. It certainly extended well into Somerset. What we still do not know is precisely where the eastern limit of the glacier was positioned.

Brian John
Pembrokeshire

TonyH said...

Oh, there you are, Myris, emerging from beneath this iceberg. That did surprise me! Most of your archaeological associates are down holes or trenches during September. But not quarries.Not proven.

Myris of Alexandria said...

Makes a good jigsaw.

Just missing the perfidious Yanks and their subs. We want another adventure story soon. Perhaps not everybody was lost in the mine and are now out for bloody revenge.

Yes a good read and even better reread.

More quarries to come watch this space.
M

BRIAN JOHN said...

Thanks Myris. Glad you liked the Greenland story -- no plans for a sequel, although readers are apparently rather fond of Joe Horton, who must have a complicated back-story.....

As for the quarries, we will just ignore your throwaway lines since you are just winding us up, as usual. Good harmless fun.

TonyH said...

Of course, the main Quarry might well yet turn out to be he/those who play the Pied Piper and/or takes us on Wild Goose Chases for Red Herrings......lots of characters in this Stranger - Than - Fiction episodic thriller....hold onto your seats, the metaphors are endless.

TonyH said...

Any of our Preseli - based (or Pembrokeshire/ Cardiganshire) Bloggers heard anything about MPP's Intrepid Headline- Grabbing Digging etc Antics yet? He's meant to be "In The Building", as it were, now, isn't he? Surely he can't be keeping such a low profile? Clue: he's not a Welsh Speaker.