Couldn't resist this one -- with due acknowledgement to the Bluestone Brewery Facebook page....... always happy to give a puff for our friends and neighbours!
Seriously though, the diggers were probably all perfectly sober and well organized. This is a nice pic of the latest Pensarn dig by MPP and his team, showing how thin the sediment layer is here -- not much more than a metre or so before the broken bedrock (looks like foliated rhyolite) is encountered. There is a lot of frost-shattered and broken rhyolite, and some foreign stones including bits of dolerite. Some of the stones look as if they might have been burnt -- are there hearths on the site? I wasn't invited to take a close look when I called over there the other evening.........
I don't want to sound sour. It sounds as if there are some really interesting things coming out of this dig, which we can all celebrate. I have no inside information, and need to check what is in the public domain, as well as separating rumours from facts. But all being well, I'll be in a position to report on what MPP has said within a few days.
PS -- slightly edited. I thought there might be till here. Now, having had a closer look, I have my doubts. Its distribution is very patchy.
I hope this Post of yours doesn't "frighten the horses" who otherwise may look at this Blog occasionally for an alternative view to the Human Transport notion!
ReplyDeleteI completely deny any sponsorship on this blog either from Fox News or from Bluestone Brewery! I can honestly say that not a drop of the deadly brew has ever passed my lips, being a non-alcoholic sort of fellow myself......
ReplyDeleteThat having been said, Amy (who is the boss) knows a commercial opportunity when she sees one, as you can see from the label on the bottle!
By the state of the trowel and the weather recently, it must have been a very mud-caked excavation. Hope the work proceeded as planned!
ReplyDeleteMyris is up river for a month enjoying the delights of dusty Nubian middens, I think that is what he wrote.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the Pet Rock boys are (as ever) busy and productive and the latest truth can be read here at "Geology Today" current issue. It appears not to be behind a pay wall but FREE, I can hear the sound of cracked mugs dipping into dead dog scrumpy vats as I impart this news.
Nice, very balanced, state of play. Neutral to a fault but intended for a geological audience. (Some geographers are welcome. What college were you at, was Van Mildet? built.
Were you to block this would you use an antimyris programme?
Sublime Apollo
Never fear, Myris, it is on the agenda and will be blogged about, when I can find the time and have cleared the backlog. Never let it be said that I ignore publications which are relevant to the matter in hand. I wish I could say the same of certain geologists......
ReplyDeleteI found the document by a search of 'geology today stonehenge' that got me to the free versions avoiding the paywalls.
ReplyDeleteThis the final paragraph which I sympathise with:
'There is no geological evidence for or against a sea route, indeed there is no geological evidence for any transport route (sea and/or land) and unless a dropped orthostat is found it is unlikely there ever can be. Indeed, the question of movement by ice is not ruled out by the available geological evidence although consensus favours human transport. The best that can be hoped for is that a number of undisputed Neolithic quarry sites can be found and recognized and that together they indicate the most likely pathway along which the stones were moved.' (Ixer and Bevins, 2017)
How does 'consensus' fit with scientific terms such as 'Occam's razor'? Or are we back to saying who forms the consensus?
Dave
Consensus, as they say, is a matter of opinion......... God only knows where the geologists got theirs from.
ReplyDeleteSublime Apollo
ReplyDeleteVan Mildert was not built. He was a Bishop.
The Durham College of that name opened in the mid - 1960's, amidst Beatlemania. Help!
TonyH
Dave Maynard
ReplyDeleteYour 'Geology Today' quote says "although consensus favours human transport".
Is this a mis - print?
Should it be "the "con t'senses" favours human transport?