Parker Pearson's myth is unravelling...........

I'm rather intrigued by the  fact that since the publication of the new Altar Stone paper on 22 March, there has not been the slightest mention of it in the media.  This means that no press release was issued, and this in turn means that the authors do not particularly want any press scrutiny.  Perhaps we should not be too surprised, because researchers do not like admitting that their earlier research proposals and conclusions have been wrong.  (They should be delighted about it, since that is how science works...... but that's another matter.)  Anyway, having encouraged MPP to go on at great length, in a number of publications, about the "A40 Altar Stone haulage route" they are now quietly having to back off on that one, and admit that they really have no idea where the Altar Stone might have come from. (See press item below, from 2020)

This is another huge setback for Parker Pearson, who has always been far too quick to create elaborate narratives based on no evidence whatsoever..........

This is not turning out to be a good year for MPP.  First, he had to admit that the evidence from three years of digging at Waun Mawn had not provided any satisfactory evidence that there ever was a partial dismantled  "lost stone circle" there, let alone a complete one.  Now he has to admit that the proposed bluestone haulage route via Brecon and Abergavenny also has to go onto the bonfire of the vanities. Whatever next?   I keep on telling him and his cronies that there are no bluestone quarries either, but sadly, at the moment, they are not inclined to accept my impartial advice, sincerely offered.  Give them time.  They will get there in the end, having bamboozled the media and the general public for far too long with their pseudo-science and their fantastical narratives.

I have expressed scepticism about some of the Altar Stone work in the past:

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2018/12/new-paper-on-altar-stone-or-is-it.html

and indeed, Bevins and Ixer and their colleagues have themselves expressed (some years ago) the view that the presence of barite cement in "Altar Stone samples" might mean that those samples did not come from Wales at all.  

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/07/geological-notes-on-altar-stone-paper.html

Geologist Richard Thomas has also expressed his concerns about the "matching" of sandstone fragments at Stonehenge with the Altar Stone and the assumption that they all came from a common source in Wales.  It will be interesting to see what he makes of the new data.  Previously, the geologists have discussed garnets in sandstone samples as being key to the provenancing work -- and now barite is clearly in the frame.

==============

In 2020, a big press release.  This time, silence.......

Stonehenge's huge blocks DID arrive over land as archaeologists debunk theory the Neolithic slabs were rafted from Wales to Salisbury Plain
• Archaeologists may have debunked a theory on how the slabs were transported
• Using chemical analysis they found the stones came from near Abergavenny
• This means it is unlikely that the stones were taken on rafts on the Bristol Avon

 
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 23:29, 1 July 2020 | UPDATED: 23:29, 1 July 2020 

It is one of the mysteries of the Neolithic Age – how Stonehenge was created.
Now archaeologists may have debunked the theory that giant slabs of stone were rafted from Wales to Salisbury Plain.
Using chemical analysis, they have matched the six-ton sandstone ‘altar stone’ from Stonehenge to rocks near Abergavenny, just a few miles from the English border.
This finding leads them to believe the boulder was carried across land, in a route roughly following the A40 trunk road that connects Wales with London today.
This could debunk the theory that Stonehenge’s bluestones were taken south to Milford Haven and put on rafts or slung between boats, paddled up the Bristol Channel and along the Bristol Avon to Salisbury Plain.
Dr Rob Ixer, from University College London, who co-authored the study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, said: ‘This totally destroys the raft theory, it blows it out of the water.
‘This is our second re-examination of the bluestones, but it is our first major finding.’