In order to move on from all the hype and excitement of press releases, a few days ago I put together an "Interim Report" on the Mumbles (Limeslade) Giant Erratic. Some will have seen it already. Anyway, it is now on Researchgate, here:
I think it is important to share material like this with others who are interested. I hasten to add that the note has not been peer-reviewed -- and it will inevitably be changed dramatically when our sample analyses are gathered in. I have tried to cover the main discussion / interpretation options in the latter part of the report. The technical part of the report will be written by somebody else.
Then it will be submitted for publication in a learned journal.
Watch this space.......
9 comments:
4 paragraphs from the end of your Interim Report, you refer to a publication "Parker Pearson and others (2021)". This doesn't appear in your list of references.
Yes, that ref is in there, Tony. Check again!
Indeed, indeed, so it is, it is!! Now we're all singing from the same hymn sheet so we are! Forgot to look at your " last page".
I'm amazed there are other 'boulders' still nearby after tens of thousands of years of bashing, washing and moving by the sea.
Though the picture doesn't give a scale, so they could be pebbles. How big are these?
I bet there are many, many such tiny breadcrumbs across the coastline. Wouldn't it be helpful, if you could produce an easy-to-follow identikit. Of course, only lab work could prove definitively and unworkable for a hundred or even thousands. But, still putting a general call out, maybe we could find a pattern. Adds another dimension for beachcombers.
I disagree with you on the unfinished monument idea. That the builders ran out of stones, or energy or currency.
There are plenty of parch marks for the missing stones in the outer circle of sarsens. I can't imagine the architect ordering the holes, only for the foreman to shrug, "no more stones."
Though, I did read somewhere that wood may have been used to fill in gaps.
Plenty of smaller holes exist that could have had 'bluestones' (or wooden posts). The bluestones were certainly reused (some are lintels with mortices) and moved about many times.
Geoffrey of Monmouth popularised the magic and healing of the stones, many desperate rich people would have taken a whole bluestone home to an ill relative. No doubt the legend was well-known before, too. Perhaps a Roman took a complete bluestone all the way to Rome, to cure his ailing wife. Much vandalism can occur during those 3,500 years of apparent disuse.
There are many sarsens still about, though few large enough these days. But, I feel sure there were plenty of big ones around, back then, before they were smashed into smaller bits for boundary walls, houses, etc. Not necessarily from West Wood. One isn't. The other missing stones could be from anywhere, too.
I've mentioned, before, the idea that those pesky Romans may have used a few smashed sarsens for ballast for the precursor of the A303. I wonder if ever the tunnel happens, they'll dig up the A303 and find a jigsaw of sarsen.
With so much effort going into competing local monuments, this area was primetime TV. A great tourist trap. They wouldn't have got bored. And for sure, 'money' would have been flowing in, and visiting dignitaries wouldn't be impressed with an incomplete building site over hundreds of years, for shame : -)
Yes, the stones must have been moved about many times -- that's one of the reasons why I think Stonehenge was never finished. Indecision, changing priorities and not enough stones. The parch marks are not at all conclusive -- there were many parchmarks in dry summers, including many in places where there are no great reasons to think there may have been either pits or stones. Yes, there may have been vandalism and stone robbing, but enought to remove 50% of the stones? Hmmm.....
I still think Stonehenge was built by a nutty chieftain as a folly, or just as something to show off his technical abilities. But his aspirations were greater than his technical and commercial instincts, and in the end he just got bored. Or maybe his grandson did....... Anyway, he never did get round to building a proper Visitor Centre.
Steve -- re smaller boulder etc. Come to Pembs some time, and I'll show you Whitesands, Druidston, Broad Haven etc where there are boulders and cobbles of all sizes that have not been comminuted and dispersed, in spite of being in very similar situations (pebble beach, storm waves etc) to the Limeslade erratic.
re smaller boulder etc.
Yes, I'll bow to your greater knowledge regarding dispersion of boulder fragments. Particularly as I have zero knowledge : -)
But, how big are these boulders in your picture? Football sized? When is a 'boulder' not a 'pebble?'
Steve -- it's confusing since there are no "officially" accepted definitions of different sizes -- I rather vaguely define pebbles as being up to 10 cms across, cobbles as being 10 cms up to skull size, and boulders from there up. Anything bigger than 1m x 1m x 1m I refer to as a giant boulder -- that would be around 3 tonnes in weight, or more. Others may use different schemes!!
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