Extract from the 2021 Newsletter:
The Association received a generous legacy from the late Rev Michael Coombe of £2000
which was placed in the Research Fund. Unsurprisingly in view of the contraction,
cancellation and deferment of many research activities, there were fewer applications than
usual in October 2020, but two fresh applications were considered in February 2021. A
number of projects for which grants had been made in 2019 have not yet been able to go
ahead.
which was placed in the Research Fund. Unsurprisingly in view of the contraction,
cancellation and deferment of many research activities, there were fewer applications than
usual in October 2020, but two fresh applications were considered in February 2021. A
number of projects for which grants had been made in 2019 have not yet been able to go
ahead.
Note: this is by far the biggest grant of the current round:
£2330 to Professor Mike Parker Pearson for excavation at Waun Mawr stone circle, Preseli.
The planned third and final season of excavation for which a grant was made in 2019 could
not take place in 2020 and is now planned for 2021. Waun Mawr appears to be a part dismantled
stone circle whose size is closely comparable to Stonehenge and is close to the
proven quarry sources for Stonehenge’s bluestone and rhyolite stones. Stones from Waun
Mawr may have been transported to Stonehenge.
£2330 to Professor Mike Parker Pearson for excavation at Waun Mawr stone circle, Preseli.
The planned third and final season of excavation for which a grant was made in 2019 could
not take place in 2020 and is now planned for 2021. Waun Mawr appears to be a part dismantled
stone circle whose size is closely comparable to Stonehenge and is close to the
proven quarry sources for Stonehenge’s bluestone and rhyolite stones. Stones from Waun
Mawr may have been transported to Stonehenge.
============================
It looks as if the boys and girls will be back again in September 2021 for yet more digging at Waun Mawn, in spite of the fact they they showed scant regard for the conditions that should have applied during the 2018 dig -- to the point where they got a pretty severe rap over the knuckles from Natural Resources Wales. I don't know when this application for funding for "Waun Mawn Season Three" was submitted, but whenever it was, the application was submitted under false pretences. If they had any sense at all, the Cambrian Archaeology Research Fund managers should have known that the "Waun Mawn stone circle" is not an established fact but a speculation; that the phrase "whose size is closely comparable to Stonehenge" is meaningless; and that the "proven quarry sources" are hotly disputed and unsupported by the evidence. Also, the sentence "Stones from Waun Mawn may have been transported to Stonehenge" is disingenuous in the extreme, since there is not a scrap of evidence in support of the speculation. Sadly, CAA staff seem to be completely unaware of the scepticism about the Waun Mawn "findings" across social media, and unaware that established archaeologists including Tim Darvill and Mike Pitts have said that the evidence presented by MPP and his team thus far just does not stack up.
No doubt MPP and his team will be delighted by the new funding -- but one has to wonder what the application looked like, and one has to wonder at the gullibility of those who are charged with looking after the Association's research funds. From where I stand, the CAA research grant will simply be used for the perpetration of an elaborate myth.
2 comments:
Why is the spelling of the land Parker Pearson and his cohorts spelt Waun Mawn by you, but Waun Mawr by the Cambrian Archaeological Association in their write - up here?
It seems the identification and classification of archaeological features up there is not the only thing that is under dispute!
Simply a careless spelling mistake. I suppose.
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