UCL Course on "The Age of Stonehenge" -- the perfect course for stupid students

Following instructions on what to think and what to do is 

not always a good idea........

Thanks to Tony for the link to this UCL course page:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/sites/archaeology/files/arcl0078_age_stonehenge_handbook_2019-20.pdf 

It's a 2nd / 3rd year course (not intended for freshers) on Stonehenge for students in the Institute of Archaeology -- so one would expect them to be reasonably well-read by the time they embark upon it.

Here is the essential info:

ARCL0078: The Age of Stonehenge
2019/2020
Year 2/3 Option, 0.5 unit

Coordinator: Prof Mike Parket Pearson

1. Overview

Stonehenge is the world’s most famous stone circle, dating from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. An iconic symbol of mystery and counter-culture, it has attracted attention from enthusiasts around the world who have come up with myriad and often bizarre interpretations of who built it, how and why. This half- module will explore Stonehenge and other monumental constructions within their social, cultural and landscape context, allowing Stonehenge to be understood within the world of prehistoric Britain and Europe from the adoption of farming to the development of copper and bronze metallurgy.

This course will examine the history of archaeological research on Stonehenge, and the nature of social change from the Neolithic to the Bell Beaker period and the Early Bronze Age. With many recent investigations of Stonehenge producing a wealth of new evidence, this course will bring students up to date on our knowledge of this fascinating period in prehistory. (my emphasis)

The course covers the prehistory of the British Isles between c.4000 and c.1500 BC, from the introduction of farming to the early Bronze Age. We will cover the Mesolithic background and Neolithic beginnings, the development of Early Neolithic settlement and monumentality, the changing material culture and monument styles of the Middle Neolithic in the prelude to Stonehenge, Late Neolithic settlements and society at the time of Stonehenge, followed by the arrival of the Bell Beaker way of life and the adoption of metallurgy in Britain. The chronological sequence will end with the Early Bronze Age modifications to Stonehenge during the gold-rich Wessex period. In four extra sessions, we will look at the development of Stonehenge, its relationship with Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, the procurement of Stonehenge’s stones, the Orkney sequence, and Stonehenge in the modern age.

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How intelligent are the students on this course expected to be?  The answer to that is that they are assumed to be rather stupid, and incapable of independent thought, since in spite of the blurb about "bringing students up to date" the course literature is stuck in a time warp, together with the course leader, Prof Mike Parker Pearson.  In the section of the course on "Stonehenge and its stone sources" (reproduced below) the only acknowledgement of any disputes on the modes of bluestone transport is that reference is made to "the glacial transport theory" discussed by Kellaway in 1971 and Olwen Williams-Thorpe and her colleagues around 1991 - 2006. 

So the assumption is made by Prof MPP that his own 2nd and 3rd year students are simply too stupid to cope with the fact that the "glacial transport hypothesis" is alive and well, as explained in my two books published in 2008 and 2018:

Brian John, 2008 The Bluestone Enigma, Greencroft Books, 160 pp. 

Brian John, 2018 The Stonehenge Bluestones, Greencroft Books, 256 pp.

Both of these books have sold well at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, so I assume that somebody thinks that they are reliable and worth reading!  But apparently MPP has not noticed that they exist.  Very careless.

Then there is the other assumption -- that UCL students are too thick to cope with the idea that the MPP "bluestone quarrying" evidence at Rhosyfelin and Carn Goedog has been rejected after close scrutiny and that his quarrying and stone removal hypothesis has been hotly disputed in peer-reviewed and published papers, as follows:

Brian John, Dyfed Elis-Gruffydd and John Downes. 2015. OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUPPOSED “NEOLITHIC BLUESTONE QUARRY” AT CRAIG RHOSYFELIN, PEMBROKESHIRE". Archaeology in Wales 54, pp 139-148. (Publication 14th December 2015)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286775899_
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286927485_Photo_Gallery

Brian John, Dyfed Elis-Gruffydd and John Downes (2015a). "Quaternary Events at Craig Rhosyfelin, Pembrokeshire." Quaternary Newsletter, October 2015 (No 137), pp 16-32.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283643851_QUATERNARY_EVENTS_AT_CRAIG_RHOSYFELIN_PEMBROKESHIRE

and this paper published online:

Brian John (2019) Carn Goedog and the question of the "bluestone megalith quarry"
Researchgate: working paper
April 2019, 25 pp.

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12677.81121
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332739336_Carn_Goedog_and_the_question_of_the_bluestone_megalith_quarry
Carn Goedog paper.pdf

It does not do much for the reputation of a learned institution or University department if its most senior figure cannot bring himself to admit that his theories are hotly disputed, and assumes that his students are too stupid to cope with ideas that are not in line with "the gospel according to our head of department."

Anyway, I hope they all enjoy their lecture on 11th November, content in the knowledge that as long as they do not question anything they will get a nice archaeology degree in due course.

And would I ever give a job to the holder of a UCL Archaeology degree?  Sorry.  No way............

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Extract:

11.11.19 MPP lecture on Stonehenge and its stone sources

Week 7 Stonehenge and its stone sources

Stonehenge is built from two different types of stone: sarsen (the local silcrete) and bluestones (a variety of dolerites, rhyolites, tuffs and sandstones). Whilst the sarsen stone sources are likely to be local to within 20 miles of Stonehenge, the bluestones have their sources in west Wales. Three sources have recently been identified on the north side of the Preseli Mountains; one of these at Craig Rhosyfelin has recently been excavated and produced evidence of megalith quarrying. The choice of stones from such a distant source may have a major bearing on the purpose of Stonehenge.

Bevins, R.E., Pearce, N.G. and Ixer, R.A. 2011. Stonehenge rhyolitic bluestone sources and the application of zircon chemistry as a new tool for provenancing rhyolitic lithics. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 605-22. Electronic resource

Darvill, T. and Wainwright, G. 2016. Neolithic and Bronze Age Pembrokeshire. Prehistoric, Roman and Early Medieval Pembrokeshire. Pembrokeshire County History volume I. Haverfordwest: Pembrokeshire County History Trust. 55–222.

Green, C.P. 1973. Pleistocene river gravels and the Stonehenge problem. Nature 243: 214–16. Electronic resource

Ixer, R.A. and Bevins, R.E. 2010. The petrography, affinity and provenance of lithics from the Cursus Field, Stonehenge. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 103: 1- 15. Electronic resource

Ixer, R.A. and Bevins, R.E. 2011. The detailed petrography of six orthostats from the bluestone circle, Stonehenge. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 104: 1–14. Electronic resource

Ixer, R.A. and Bevins, R.E. 2011. Craig Rhos-y-felin, Pont Saeson is the dominant source of the Stonehenge rhyolitic ‘debitage’ Archaeology in Wales 50: 21-32. Electronic resource

Ixer, R.A. and Bevins, R.E. 2017. The bluestones of Stonehenge. Geology Today 33(5): 183–7. Electronic resource

Ixer, R.A. and Turner, P. 2006. A detailed re-examination of the petrography of the Altar Stone and other non-sarsen sandstones from Stonehenge as a guide to their provenance. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 99: 1–9. Electronic resource

Ixer, R.A., Turner, P., Molyneux, S. and Bevins, R. 2017. The petrography, geological age and distribution of the Lower Palaeozoic Sandstone debitage from the Stonehenge landscape. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 110: 1–16. Electronic resource

Kellaway, G.A. 1971. Glaciation and the stones of Stonehenge. Nature 232: 30–5. Electronic resource

Meyrick, O. 1955. The Broadstones. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 56: 192-3. Electronic resource

Meyrick, O. 1958. The Broadstones. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 57: 76.

Parker Pearson, M. 2016. The sarsen stones of Stonehenge. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 127: 363

Parker Pearson, M., Bevins, R., Ixer, R., Pollard, J., Richards, C., Welham, K., Chan, B., Craig Rhos-y-felin: a Welsh bluestone megalith quarry for Stonehenge.
1331-52. Electronic resource

Parker Pearson, M. 2016. Secondhand Stonehenge? Welsh origins of a Wiltshire monument.
Current Archaeology 311: 18–22. Electronic resource

Parker Pearson, M., Pollard, J., Richards, C. and Welham, K. 2017. The origins of Stonehenge: on
the track of the bluestones. Archaeology International 20: 54–9.
doi: http://doi.org/10.5334/ai.353. Electronic resource

Parker Pearson, M., Pollard, J., Richards, C.,Welham, K. Casswell, C., French, C., Shaw, D., Simmons, E., Stanford, A., Bevins, R.E. and Ixer, R.A. 2019. Megalithic quarries for Stonehenge’s
bluestones. Antiquity 93: 45-62. Electronic resource

Parker Pearson, M., Pollard, J., Richards, C., Schlee, D. and Welham, K. 2016. In search of the
Stonehenge quarries. British Archaeology 146: 16–23.

Piggott, S. 1948. Destroyed megaliths in north Wiltshire. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Magazine 52: 390-2. Electronic resource

Snoeck, C., Pouncett, J., Claeys, P., Goderis, S., Mattielli, N., Parker Pearson, M., Willis, C., Zazzo, A., Lee-Thorp, J. and Schulting, R. 2018. Strontium isotope analyses on cremated human remains from Stonehenge support links with west Wales.
Scientific Reports (2018) 8: 10790. Electronic resource

Thorpe, R.S., Williams-Thorpe, O., Jenkins, D.G. and Watson, J.S. 1991. The geological sources and transport of the bluestones of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 57: 103–57. Electronic resource

Williams-Thorpe, O., Green, C.P. and Scourse, J.D. 1997. The Stonehenge bluestones: discussion. In B. Cunliffe and C. Renfrew (eds) Science and Stonehenge. London: British Academy & Oxford University Press. 315–18. INST ARCH DAA 410 W.7 CUN

Williams-Thorpe, O., Jones, M.C., Potts, P.J. and Webb, P.C. 2006. Preseli dolerite bluestones: axe- heads, Stonehenge monoliths, and outcrop sources. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 25: 29–46. Electronic resource