"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........
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.......
6 comments:
Perhaps the worthy antiquarians associated with this tv stonehenge promotion find common ground in highlighting Stonehenge positively at this moment when the planning for a tunnel is being reviewed.
So today I can agree. They are most definitely pillars, all shaped and shiny. Most mysterious.
Ah -- I had not made a connection between all this fantastical Stonehenge myth and mystery stuff, blasted all over the media, and the fact that the tunnel construction controversy rages on. Of course MPP is right at the heart of the campaign to block the tunnel........ I suppose they might well feel that keeping Stonehenge in the forefront of the nation's consciousness at the moment is a good idea, and never mind what sort of nonsense they trot out in order to achieve their goal........
For me, in talking with uninvolved people in general discussion, the two main topics this year have been 'The Dig' and the 'Waun Mawn' programme. Whatever your views on either, it has certainly had people watching and provoked a positive response, generally for more information. I've even been asked to make a presentation to an international group of people I work with, so the more of that, the better.
Dave
That's interesting, Dave. And the theme of both of them is the manner in which "establishment figures" in the world of archaeology promote / use discoveries (or maybe imaginary discoveries) for the promotion of their own agendas, with mavericks or amateurs ignored or marginalised. Well, long live those of us who are on the margins!
Again your writing has made me chuckle. Thank you. For I have been in a dour mood over the weight of the fairy story.
I wish a good TV producer and investigative journalist would take you up.
Act one: a giggle and exposé at the human transport 'science.'
Two: ice flow maps, bluestone erratics, shapes and types, etc..
Three: how the mystery could be solved i.e. coring and surface exposure dating.
Be happy for ever,
Well said, Steve!
Many of us echo your wishes - surely these are not too much to ask?
I Why else do we encourage University - level education and an enquiring mind to be a reasonable aspiration for many of our young people?
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