This is the PR material put out as part of the "maximum impact" campaign involving Antiquity journal, the UCL press office, and MPP and his team. There was also close coordination with the BBC to achieve maximum media impact coinciding with the BBC2 transmission today.
Note that this material is chockfull of assertions dressed up as facts........... sadly, this is just par for the course. I have already addressed some of the points made, in earlier blog posts:
... and I draw attention to the only previous article on Waun Mawn, which I placed onto Researchgate in Nov 2020:
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The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales. (2021)
Archaeologists have found a dismantled stone circle near the Welsh quarries Stonehenge’s bluestones came from. (Correction: they claim to have found...) Named Waun Mawn, it was built shortly before Stonehenge. (Correction: they speculate that it was built shortly before Stonehenge....) It has an identical diameter to the ditch surrounding Stonehenge and is also aligned to the midsummer solstice sunrise. (Correction: the diameter is not identical. And why would anybody want to make a stone circle diameter in one location the same as an earthwork diameter in another place? There is no indication that the "special" diameter of 110m has any significance at all.)
The researchers conclude Waun Mawn was likely dismantled and rebuilt as Stonehenge. (Correction: there is no basis for that conclusion.)This may have been part of a wider move, as many buried at Stonehenge appear to have lived in Wales. (Correction: that assertion has been widely dismissed as another fantasy, usupprted by the evidence.)
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales. (2021)
Mike Parker Pearson, Josh Pollard, Colin Richards, Kate Welham, Timothy Kinnaird, Dave Shaw, Ellen Simmons, Adam Stanford, Richard Bevins, Rob Ixer, Clive Ruggles, Jim Rylatt & Kevan Edinborough.
Press release:
Stonehenge may be a rebuilt Welsh stone circle Archaeologists have found a dismantled stone circle near the Welsh quarries Stonehenge’s bluestones came from. (Correction: they claim to have found...) Named Waun Mawn, it was built shortly before Stonehenge. (Correction: they speculate that it was built shortly before Stonehenge....) It has an identical diameter to the ditch surrounding Stonehenge and is also aligned to the midsummer solstice sunrise. (Correction: the diameter is not identical. And why would anybody want to make a stone circle diameter in one location the same as an earthwork diameter in another place? There is no indication that the "special" diameter of 110m has any significance at all.)
The researchers conclude Waun Mawn was likely dismantled and rebuilt as Stonehenge. (Correction: there is no basis for that conclusion.)This may have been part of a wider move, as many buried at Stonehenge appear to have lived in Wales. (Correction: that assertion has been widely dismissed as another fantasy, usupprted by the evidence.)
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Archaeologists have identified the remains of a 5,000-year-old stone circle in west Wales that may have been dismantled and rebuilt as Stonehenge over 200 km away.(Correction: they haven't identified any stone circle remains. They have found some evidence that there might have been a stone setting here that was either not completed or which was altered in the Neolithic, in a landscape of many related features. The "link with Stonehenge" is speculative and irresponsible.)
The ‘Stones of Stonehenge’ research project had previously identified that Stonehenge’s bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in Wales. (Correction: some of them did, and others did not.)This prompted them to reinvestigate the nearby Waun Mawn stone circle to study whether it also shared links with Stonehenge. (Correction: circle? what circle?)
Waun Mawn had been identified over a century ago, but with only four remaining monoliths it was doubted much could be learnt from it. However, the researchers were able to shed new light on the site by excavating and examining the empty stoneholes the monoliths once sat in. (Correction: the "stoneholes" have not been adequately demonstrated to be anything other than natural pits and hollows in an undulating surface of till and broken bedrock.)
The results of this analysis, published in the journal Antiquity, reveals it shared crucial features with the famous Neolithic monument. Both, for example, were aligned with the midsummer solstice sunrise. (Correction: that is highly speculative. What are the "shared crucial features?")
Notably, the excavations revealed that Waun Mawn had a diameter of 110 metres. Aside from making it the third largest known stone circle in Britain, this matches the diameter of the ditch that enclosed Stonehenge 1, the earliest iteration of Stonehenge built around 3,000 BC. (Correction: the drawing off the diameter is highly speculative, and on the basis ion the evidence on the ground one could equally choose a number of other diameters as "best-fit" for the supposed stone sockets.)
Additionally, the researchers were also able to identify Waun Mawn was built around 3,200 BC. These dates make it one of the earliest stone circles in Britain, but also reveal a lack of activity after 3,000 BC when construction had started on Stonehenge 1. (Correction: the wide spread of dates obtained simply indicates that there was activity here over a long period of time. If the dates do suggest a time scale for "stone setting" and a date after which there was no more stone setting, what has that to do with Stonehenge? That would simply suggest either a regional or more widespread shift in cultural priorities.)
Combined with the fact that its bluestones came from the same quarries as Stonehenge, this led the research team to conclude that Waun Mawn was likely dismantled and became the source of many of the bluestones used in Stonehenge 1. (Correction: this is an outrageous suggestion, for which there is not a shred of evidence. What quarries? There are no rhyolites standing stones at Waun Mawn, and no spotted dolerite either. Where did this suggestion come from?)
Some were likely incorporated into subsequent iterations of Stonehenge and a few of the Waun Mawn monoliths may still be present at the site. (Correction: There is not a shred of evidence in support of this assertion.)
For instance, one of the remaining Stonehenge bluestones has a similar cross-section to one of the holes left at Waun Mawn, further supporting a link between the two monuments. (Correction: this is an absurd and wild piece of speculation, best placed in the "clutching at straws" category.). Currently, Stonehenge is also aligned with the midsummer solstice, like Waun Mawn. (Correction: circles are not aligned to anything. If there was a well-defined entrance passage or causeway, that might be aligned, but the stones chosen as defining the circle "entrance" are not at all convincing.)
The movement of this monument from the west seems to have been part of a wider pattern of migration. Recent isotopic analysis suggests that around 15% of the people buried at Stonehenge 1 previously lived in west Wales. (Correction: More wild fantasising. Analysis does NOT suggest that 15% of those buried at Stonehenge came from west Wales. That is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.)
This additional context may help explain why Stonehenge 1 was built. If it was part of a large migration east, the reconstruction of a monument from their homeland – possibly using stones brought from it – may have been an effort to venerate their ancestors, history, and heritage from back west. (Correction: This is the MPP "socio-political hypothesis" which is a part of the Stonehenge obsession -- as pointed out by Barclay and Brophy. The idea is unsupported by any facts.)
The ‘Stones of Stonehenge’ research project had previously identified that Stonehenge’s bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in Wales. (Correction: some of them did, and others did not.)This prompted them to reinvestigate the nearby Waun Mawn stone circle to study whether it also shared links with Stonehenge. (Correction: circle? what circle?)
Waun Mawn had been identified over a century ago, but with only four remaining monoliths it was doubted much could be learnt from it. However, the researchers were able to shed new light on the site by excavating and examining the empty stoneholes the monoliths once sat in. (Correction: the "stoneholes" have not been adequately demonstrated to be anything other than natural pits and hollows in an undulating surface of till and broken bedrock.)
The results of this analysis, published in the journal Antiquity, reveals it shared crucial features with the famous Neolithic monument. Both, for example, were aligned with the midsummer solstice sunrise. (Correction: that is highly speculative. What are the "shared crucial features?")
Notably, the excavations revealed that Waun Mawn had a diameter of 110 metres. Aside from making it the third largest known stone circle in Britain, this matches the diameter of the ditch that enclosed Stonehenge 1, the earliest iteration of Stonehenge built around 3,000 BC. (Correction: the drawing off the diameter is highly speculative, and on the basis ion the evidence on the ground one could equally choose a number of other diameters as "best-fit" for the supposed stone sockets.)
Additionally, the researchers were also able to identify Waun Mawn was built around 3,200 BC. These dates make it one of the earliest stone circles in Britain, but also reveal a lack of activity after 3,000 BC when construction had started on Stonehenge 1. (Correction: the wide spread of dates obtained simply indicates that there was activity here over a long period of time. If the dates do suggest a time scale for "stone setting" and a date after which there was no more stone setting, what has that to do with Stonehenge? That would simply suggest either a regional or more widespread shift in cultural priorities.)
Combined with the fact that its bluestones came from the same quarries as Stonehenge, this led the research team to conclude that Waun Mawn was likely dismantled and became the source of many of the bluestones used in Stonehenge 1. (Correction: this is an outrageous suggestion, for which there is not a shred of evidence. What quarries? There are no rhyolites standing stones at Waun Mawn, and no spotted dolerite either. Where did this suggestion come from?)
Some were likely incorporated into subsequent iterations of Stonehenge and a few of the Waun Mawn monoliths may still be present at the site. (Correction: There is not a shred of evidence in support of this assertion.)
For instance, one of the remaining Stonehenge bluestones has a similar cross-section to one of the holes left at Waun Mawn, further supporting a link between the two monuments. (Correction: this is an absurd and wild piece of speculation, best placed in the "clutching at straws" category.). Currently, Stonehenge is also aligned with the midsummer solstice, like Waun Mawn. (Correction: circles are not aligned to anything. If there was a well-defined entrance passage or causeway, that might be aligned, but the stones chosen as defining the circle "entrance" are not at all convincing.)
The movement of this monument from the west seems to have been part of a wider pattern of migration. Recent isotopic analysis suggests that around 15% of the people buried at Stonehenge 1 previously lived in west Wales. (Correction: More wild fantasising. Analysis does NOT suggest that 15% of those buried at Stonehenge came from west Wales. That is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.)
This additional context may help explain why Stonehenge 1 was built. If it was part of a large migration east, the reconstruction of a monument from their homeland – possibly using stones brought from it – may have been an effort to venerate their ancestors, history, and heritage from back west. (Correction: This is the MPP "socio-political hypothesis" which is a part of the Stonehenge obsession -- as pointed out by Barclay and Brophy. The idea is unsupported by any facts.)
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The press release is regurgitated / rehashed in nearly all of the press articles, so the above comments and corrections could be applied to nearly all of them. To refute all of the false assertions in today's media coverage would occupy acres of space, and I have better things to do with my time.
As suggested in one of my earlier posts, there are 7 "tests" or burdens of proof placed upon MPP and his team if he is to have any chance of convincing specialists that there is anything in the "Waun Mawn / Proto-Stonehenge" hypothesis.
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2018/09/proto-stonehenge-waun-mawn-and-burden.html
1. Prove that around 80 bluestone monoliths were arranged in a giant circle here, and that they were later taken away in a concerted fashion over a short period of time.
2. Prove that the putative stone circle was Neolithic, not Bronze age.
3. Prove that the stones were all placed here around 5,600 yrs BP and all taken away around 5,000 yrs BP.
4. Prove that the stone circle was not made of dolerite and meta-mudstone monoliths picked up in the neighbourhood, but of spotted dolerite monoliths from Carn Goedog, foliated rhyolite from Rhosyfelin, sandstones from the Afon Nyfer headwaters near Pontglasier, and unspotted dolerite from Cerrigmarchogion.
5. Prove that any "sockets" discovered really did hold monoliths, and that they are not simply extraction pits marking places from which stones have been collected for use elsewhere on Waun Mawn. They must also prove that they are not simply natural hollows in the surface of the broken bedrock / till layer that lies beneath the thin surface peat and soil layer.
6. Prove that any so-called traces of human activity on this site really do relate to settlement and "engineering work" and are not simply natural phenomena related to glacial and periglacial processes.
7. Prove via control digs that any features exposed during this dig really are exceptional and significant, and that they are not just typical of what occurs beneath the peat across a wide swathe of countryside.
Well, since I first mentioned these tests more than 2 years ago, I don't think any of them has been met. But what has happened since 2018 is that it is now much clearer that the Waun Mawn / Tafarn y Bwlch area is really rather rich in prehistoric remains, and that the features deemed to belong to a putative "giant stone circle" are insignificant as compared with some of the features already mapped and investigated by the Dyfed Archaeology.
Also, as pointed out by Barclay and Brophy, the idea that there was something very special about Stonehenge, with "all roads leading to Salisbury Plain", is really rather absurd. As far as MPP and his team are concerned, mythology is infinitely more attractive than sound science and cold facts.
DOI: 10.1080/00665983.2020.1769399
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/07/bluestones-and-interpretative-inflation.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-origins-of-british-neolithic-mythos.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-politicisation-of-neolithic.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-stonehenge-myth-machine-high-time.html
I'll do another post on the Antiquity article itself, which is truly appalling.
2 comments:
I'll be watching tonight. I heard Alice promoting on the R4 this morning and it does not sound promising. It is going to be the full narrative. She was carefully not to say that she believes 100% - it is MPP's baby. It was said that the work is peer reviewed, which is more than can be said for the work on which much of the vaccine strategy is based. In this post fact era we have moved beyond peer review it seems.
Mind the blood pressure people :)
I emailed Alice and politely recommended to her that she look into an altogether different narrative by reading Brian's 2018 book " The Stonehenge Bluestones". I went on to implore her to kindly weigh up carefully and with full consideration the relative merits of BOTH points of view in Alice's role as Professor of Public Engagement in Science at Birmingham University.
Incidentally, I found this remark made by Alice this year on Twitter:-
"One of the most precious abilities that humans possess is the capacity to learn from mistakes. One of the deepest tragedies is to refuse to admit to a mistake and lose the opportunity to do better".
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