Archaeology, delusion and deference

In thinking about the manner in which the "bluestone quarrying / Proto-Stonehenge" myth is so enthusiastically promoted by a group of senior archaeologists who should know better, and how their efforts are facilitated and even supported by university press offices, the media and even by archaeological journal editors, I have realised that it's now almost four years since I penned this:

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307557574_Those_bluestone_quarries_--_the_manufacturing_of_a_modern_myth_Greencroft_Working_Paper_No_3

Essentially, the short piece simply takes a number of assertions and challenges them.  It was submitted to "Current Archaeology" as a letter, but ignored by the Editor, as indeed other offers of articles and letters have been ignored by other journals.  Is my work incompetent, and are my observations without merit?  Am I out with the fairies?  I submit that having a rather substantial record of published work behind me, I have a reasonable understanding of earth surface processes and a reasonable capacity for critical thinking.  I have supervised and examined doctorate students and refereed many submitted papers.  And yet Bevins, Ixer, Parker Pearson and the rest of the quarrying gang have determined that my work, including two substantial peer-reviewed papers on Rhosyfelin published in reputable journals, should be completely ignored.  So am I pissed off about that?  Too right.........

To their credit, Darvill and Wainwright did acknowledge (in their 2016 chapter in the Pembrokeshire County History Prehistoric volume) the work of Dyfed Elis-Gruffydd, John Downes and myself -- but they completely misunderstood the points we were making and misrepresented our conclusions.

But never mind about my sense of grievance.  What is more saddening is the fact that NOBODY in archaeological circles has had the guts to carefully scrutinise the articles published by MPP and his research team and to go onto the record with their considered and informed views.  What on earth is going on within the discipline?  Are MPP and his team so important and so powerful that nobody dares to scrutinise or challenge their work?  In other words, has deference taken the place of peer review?  I know for a fact that there are many archaeologists who are seriously concerned about the myth machine that seems to roll on and on, unhindered, with the quarrying / bluestone narrative becoming more elaborate and more absurd with every paper that is published.  Some of them even cheer me on, out of earshot, and say "More power to your elbow!" So why do they all just lurk in the shadows, whispering,  muttering, and grovelling, without ever going onto the record?  Whatever happened to their own self-respect?  

British archaeology promotes its own self-determined excellence very enthusiastically, but there is truly something rotten at its core if it cannot control its own senior figures who continue to publish fantasies dressed up as facts.