And while we are about it, here is my talk at the "Do Lectures" 2012, about Stonehenge as a whole and the myth-makers who have manufactures and sold assorted myths about it over the years. Some of the information given in my talk is not reliable any longer, since it has been overtaken by recent research, but the key points made are as valid as ever.
I like the Do Lectures and what they stand for -- the challenging of old ways of doing things, and the intense scrutiny of dodgy ideas promoted for dubious purposes, by people who should know better.......
4 comments:
'Dispelling the Stonehenge myth' for some of us, at least, involves mis - spelling that remarkable film story of Dian Fossey's life, 'Gorillas in the Mist', and. substituting it with "Guerillas in the Myths" instead. We aim to present Truth to [Media Hype] Power.
I just wish there were more guerrillas in the archaeology world capable of critical analysis of the work done by their colleagues. What we see is paper after paper just accepted at face value, with no effective scrutiny. Put that together with the incredible gullibility of the media, and you have a world within which science is bypassed. And a world within which charlatans can flourish.....
I'm just trusting that at some stage Alice Roberts, in her very significant role as a Professor of Public Engagement in Science (at Birmingham University), will stand back somewhat from her involvement in the making of the BBC2's production of this Friday's TV programme and reflect upon BOTH sides of the much more fundamental, basic debate, which must needs continue: the question of HOW did the West Wales bluestones somehow arrive in the general region of the future Stonehenge?
Alice, if you're reading this, remember, you're still relatively young, you have plenty of time ahead to give this your full analysis. Please do not be swayed too swiftly before deciding, I'm sure you know Science doesn't work like that!
Your next talk in the 'Do Lectures' series might justifiably be on the subject spotlighted by those Northern British archaeologists Gordon Brophy and Kenny Brophy's in their important writings, and how their revelation may be demonstrated in what Parker Pearson and his team have been claiming as factual in relation to the alleged Waun Mawn circle (to give just one example).
Brophy and Barclay talk about a 'prehistoric mythos' having been built up, it's central claim being that Stonehenge was the all -important focal point in Britain and that it attracted those distant from it to pay homage and/or to act subserviently to it, whether by bringing 'trophy' Preseli megaliths, or by simply visiting it so as to be dumbstruck with awe.
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