The commercialisation of the bluestone myth
No wonder Tez and Julie, who live at Rhosyfelin, are furious -- the mythologisation of the Stonehenge bluestones, and the Pembrokeshire sites supposedly associated with them, proceeds apace. Here is one site from which you can purchase a "bluestone slab" about the size of your thumb for $39. Somebody collects lumps of bluestone, cuts them and flogs them to anybody who is gullible enough to believe that they have "power". As ever, the price depends upon the magic and the desirability of the object being flogged.
https://shop.minimuseum.com/products/stonehenge-bluestone-quarry-slab
Just do a search on Google, and you will find scores of sites selling "bluestone" beads, healing crystals, pebbles, chunks, lumps and so forth, incorporated into necklaces, bangles, keyrings and a host of other things. I imagine that geologists Ixer and Bevins, and the archaeologists that they work with, are as appalled as the rest of us by the cheap (sorry, expensive!) tat sold under the "bluestone" banner. They should, perhaps, have paused for a moment before embarking on their high-pressure marketing campaigns --- and they should have realized that high-pressure and uncontrolled commercialisation was an inevitable consequence of the wacky narrative that they have enthusiastically developed.
In case you wondered, a reminder that some of this bluestone stuff is available via the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, along with vividly branded chocolates and a lot else besides!
Are you able to tell us more about what you claim is sold to do with bluestones at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre? I didn't notice anything like that when I popped in there a year or so ago and checked your 2018 "The Stonehenge Bluestones" book was on display for sale still.
ReplyDeleteCan't help you much there, Tony. I just saw an ad from EH promoting bluestone jewellery -- and it must be on sale at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. Wouldn't make any sense anywhere else......
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