The other bits and pieces on the table, might, I suppose, include bits of foliated rhyolite, unspotted dolerite, volcanic ash and Lower Palaeozoic sandstone.
Given that there are around 46 types of bluestone known from Salisbury Plain, I hope the diggers are being briefed to recognize that anything which is not sarsen or flint might have considerable importance. They should also be keeping an eye open for rounded pebbles, rather than sharp-edged fragments or shards, which could tell us a lot about any Quaternary or Holocene sediments at this site.
Anyway, may they have an enjoyable 10 days or so!!
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-stonehenge-bluestones-46-rock-types.html
12 comments:
I heard Julian Richards give a talk to the Westbury, Wiltshire U3A about a Mesolithic site he discovered near his home in Shaftesbury, Dorset.
Here is the website link:-
https://www.springheadtrust.org.uk/2021/09/hands-on-history
Operation Nightingale is behind the Boles Barrow dig:-
https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/operation-nightingale
Please be aware that Richards takes folks around Durrington Walls and Woodhenge while hiding the fact that the ground plan of Woodhenge proves it to be a moon egg.
And heaven forbid anyone who tries interfering with his lecture like I did. For you will get sounded out by him and removed by his EH opo.
Consequently, Richards's excavation of the Boles Barrow and everything he learns from it, especially the transport of bluestones, cannot be trusted.
So, so much for independent verification when we have a bluestone expert sitting idle in Cilgwyn, Wales, who is only too willing to offer his expertise.
I'm sure that Ixer and Bevins will be pulled in if anything "exceptional" or exotic is found during the dig. So i would assume openness and honesty would trump any beliefs there might be about the "impossibility" of bluestone fragments being found at Boles Barrow. The real problem is spotting them in the first place, in a dirty and muddy excavation pit, where most of the stuff dug up is simply thrown away and where the diggers will be looking above all else for flint flakes / implements............
There may well be another interpretation issue, in that Ixer and Bevins (for reasons best known to themselves) will only recognize as "bluestone" anything that can be associated with one or more of the 43 known Stonehenge orthostats. So they may well simply reject anything that falls outside of their 12 or so "approved rock types" and refer to it as "adventitious" or "introduced" by the MOD or by past diggers on the site. That's completely unscientific, as I have said to them many times -- but as we all know, Stonehenge research and interpretation is driven by politics and marketing rather than science.
I have reason, from personal encounters with Richards, to agree with Tom Flowers as regards Julian's tendency to be abrasive and dismissive of unbelievers in the English Heritage/ Julian C. Richards' marketed orthodoxy. He certainly conforms to the Old, Old Story but, sadly, he is capable of being very engaging. He knows what I think about his dismissive one - liners which appear in his publications such as the oft - revised " Stonehenge " that is sold to its visitors from here, there, and everywhere. A new, completely unprejudiced author is much needed from outside the old guard. I would recommend Jim Leary.
Sadly, I have learnt from Operation Nightingale themselves, that the Boles Barrow excavation finished on Friday and is being filled in. Perhaps Brian has learned more via Twitter, or possibly indirectly from any geologists involved or consulted?
I know that the current Wiltshire County Archaeologist, has visited the site. To my extreme disappointment Roy Canham, MBE, a personal friend, has never been given the opportunity to see the fruits of his decades - long professional campaign to protect and maintain the existence of ALL the archaeological gems that exist within the MOD's SPTA [Salisbury Plain Training Area]. HE would have been a zealous promoter of extreme thoroughness as regards Boles Barrow.
Julian seems to be doing a lot of gratuitous digging without a clear agenda or plan. My preference is to leave stuff in the ground for future generations as long as the context is not threatened by building plans, say. There are big strides being made in analytical methods on the particle level which might be used in future to tell us what the tools were used for. Enthusing younger generations and local people for archaeology is a worthy endeavour but surely there are better methods than digging lots of holes and encouraging people to go scavenging for their own collections. Perhaps I am doing Julian an injustice. I hope so. I know him to be a worthy guy.
I thought they were due to be digging for ten days? They seem to have just scratched the surface with a very shallow dig. I wonder what has been going on in the background?
Yes, I noticed you said 10 days, Brian - no idea at all. I am considering approaching the female County Archaeologist who succeeded Roy, in case she is able to cast light on the longer strategy regarding Boles Barrow. As people will be aware Phil Harding put in an appearance. Both he and Julian are technically more or less retired. Two other folk who may be "in the know" are Dave Field, also retired, and renowned field archaeologist Martin Green who has his own museum on Cranborne Chase and wrote " A Landscape Revealed: 10,000 years on a chalkland farm", 2000. Martin told me he was involved in some of the recent digging on Preseli. I trust both Dave and Martin
Further to my earlier comment about preserving archaeology in situ for future study - which was more a reply to Tony's link t www.springheadtrust.org.uk than Boles Barrow - today I went to a study session with our regional archaeology group. It seems a popular initiative here in Netherlands is to encourage people to dig deep holes in their back gardens in order to stimulate interest in archaeology and perhaps discover something, whatever. It reminds me of what MPP has been doing in Presceli for the last 10 years and I am even more inclined to urge him to spend this September in the pub rather than further vandalise my treasured landscape.
My study day also highlighted the several scientific advances currently developing, together with the early days of "big data" and digital mapping tools, which all combined to confirm my belief that we should preserve what is left in situ unless there is a pressing need to rescue it.
Post a Comment