The bluestone pillar myth

 "Listen carefully!  I shall say this only once!!"  If only it was that easy.  The famous catch-phrase doesn't apply when it comes to the mythology of Stonehenge.  I have been saying for the past 20 years that only about half a dozen of the Stonehenge bluestones are slim and elegant pillars. They are in the bluestone oval, or horseshoe, or whatever you want to call it.  All the other 37 bluestones are boulders, stumps, slabs and rough or rectilinear stones with a recognisable long axis.  The great majority have rounded off edges, abraded and heavily weathered surfaces, with some facets which look like the facets we see on glacial erratics in all parts of the world where glaciers have been at work.   I don't think there are any glacial striations, but it would not surprise me if some were to turn up on the underside of come of the recumbent stones lying in the turf.  I have done post after post on this, as here:

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2016/01/bluestone-shapes-stonehenge-builders.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2013/03/more-on-bluestone-shapes.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-stonehenge-boulders.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2015/02/understanding-bluestone-circle.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-43-stonehenge-bluestones.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2013/03/another-bluestone-myth.html

But no matter how hard I try to educate the Great British public -- or the global audience -- about what the bluestones actually look like, people stick resolutely to the myth that the bluestones are pillars like the sarsens, but just a bit smaller.  Very irritating. 

We have seen this myth again in all its gory glory, in the latest TV docu-drama featuring Alice Roberts and Mike Parker Pearson, on the "lost Circle" of Waun Mawn.  It's full of wacky reconstructions of Waun Mawn and Stonehenge, showing bluestone pillars zooming into position and then being removed or rearranged.  Pillars, pillars and more pillars -- all 82 of them, and to hell with reality, which suggests to us that they only ever had around 43 stones and that they moved them about quite a bit because their aspirations were greater than their stone resources. The "pillar obsession" infects all the artists who work for EH as well -- and in almost every artist's impression of the stages of Stonehenge the myth is perpetrated.  Just one myth out of many.

Never mind -- one day we will get the message through........

Nineteen stones in the Bluestone Circle:

31 -- damaged and heavily worn slab. Standing. Recent damage close to ground level
32 -- heavily worn slightly elongated boulder. Fallen -- resting on another stone
33 -- well worn short and stumpy pillar. Standing. Signs of shaping -- meant as a lintel?
34 -- well rounded small boulder, placed on end
35 a and 35 b -- irregular and well worn boulder, embedded in the ground and only just visible
36 -- an irregular and heavily worn boulder, slightly elongated. Modern damage on one edge. Recumbent
37 -- smallish well-rounded boulder, slightly slab-shaped and set on end
38 -- smallish irregular boulder, well worn, fallen and under another stone
39 -- another smallish boulder, well worn, slightly slab-shaped, with some later damage. Leaning, almost recumbent
40g -- below ground stump -- irregular shape
41 -- recumbent elongated boulder with heavy wear -- very well rounded edges
42 -- recumbent wedge-shaped stone with heavy wear on edges
43 -- recumbent slightly flattened boulder with heavy wear on edges
44 -- heavily worn boulder just visible in the turf -- recumbent
45 -- recumbent elongated boulder with heavy wear on edges
46 -- slightly slab-shaped boulder set on edge. Flaky -- considerable recent surface damage
47 -- slab with heavy wear on edges -- set on end
48 -- small recumbent boulder with heavy wear -- just projecting through the turf
49 -- small irregular slab with quite sharp edges. Upright. Signs of dressing? Intended as a lintel?

The myth of the bluestone pillars is perpetrated through constant repetition and reference to images such as these.......