How much do we know about Stonehenge? Less than we think. And what has Stonehenge got to do with the Ice Age? More than we might think. This blog is mostly devoted to the problems of where the Stonehenge bluestones came from, and how they got from their source areas to the monument. Now and then I will muse on related Stonehenge topics which have an Ice Age dimension...
THE BOOK Some of the ideas discussed in this blog are published in my new book called "The Stonehenge Bluestones" -- available by post and through good bookshops everywhere. Bad bookshops might not have it.... To order, click HERE
Thursday 22 December 2022
Happy Christmas and Peaceful New Year!
All good wishes for the festive season to all who read and participate in our discussions!
Brian
2 comments:
Tony Hinchliffe
said...
And the same to you, Brian, and also to Inger! We all met up (for the second time in RECENT times when it comes to matters concerning this Blog!) opposite Salisbury Cathedral on a very warm, sunny June 14th. This was so that I could help Brian with note - taking with respect to a rock identification. We had been given permission to examine it by the Museum's Director, Adrian Green, who greeted us. Subsequently, after scrutinising and photographing it from many sides and angles, glacial geomorphologist Brian went on to conclude, ( having also shown his photographs to many other earth scientists whose own opinions he sought) that this small boulder, previously known for certain to have been excavated from within Stonehenge itself by the well - known archaeologist Newall in 1924, was undoubtedly a bullet - shaped glacial " clast". [Newer readers will find several Posts on the Blog from mid - June onwards.] Thus, we were looking at definitive, clinching evidence of a bluestone having reached the whereabouts of the future site of the Neolithic monument courtesy of glaciation long, long before the Neolithic (we are talking hundreds of thousands of years earlier).
Yes, I think this is strong evidence of the presence of glacially-transported materials at Stonehenge -- but it's not just based on stone shape. The differential weathering on different faces is crucial too, telling us quite a bit about the stone's complicated history over a very long period of time. One day the stone will be subjected to much more comprehensive analysis, but in the meantime the claim by the geologists that this is just a "broken joint block" is just not good enough.
2 comments:
And the same to you, Brian, and also to Inger! We all met up
(for the second time in RECENT times when it comes to matters concerning this Blog!) opposite Salisbury Cathedral on a very warm, sunny June 14th. This was so that I could help Brian with note - taking with respect to a rock identification. We had been given permission to examine it by the Museum's Director, Adrian Green, who greeted us. Subsequently, after scrutinising and photographing it from many sides and angles, glacial geomorphologist Brian went on to conclude, ( having also shown his photographs to many other earth scientists whose own opinions he sought) that this small boulder, previously known for certain to have been excavated from within Stonehenge itself by the well - known archaeologist Newall in 1924, was undoubtedly a bullet - shaped glacial " clast". [Newer readers will find several Posts on the Blog from mid - June onwards.] Thus, we were looking at definitive, clinching evidence of a bluestone having reached the whereabouts of the future site of the Neolithic monument courtesy of glaciation long, long before the Neolithic (we are talking hundreds of thousands of years earlier).
Yes, I think this is strong evidence of the presence of glacially-transported materials at Stonehenge -- but it's not just based on stone shape. The differential weathering on different faces is crucial too, telling us quite a bit about the stone's complicated history over a very long period of time. One day the stone will be subjected to much more comprehensive analysis, but in the meantime the claim by the geologists that this is just a "broken joint block" is just not good enough.
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