Sampled locations (green dots) on Orkney. The Ring of Brodgar and the Stenness standing stones lie within the green box.
You could not make it up. Yet again, powerful bias and a wilful refusal to examine physical processes.
Yesterday, Bevins, Ixer, Pearce et al said that the Altar Stone came from Orkney, and today (in a new paper) they say that it did not. Archaeology is already in the doldrums because of all the fantastical claims of MPP and his merry men, and now geology appears to be on the slide as well -- demonstrating to the world that publication is all that matters and that thinking is out of fashion.
Was the Stonehenge Altar Stone from Orkney? 2024
Bevins, Richard; Pearce, Nick; Hillier, Stephen; Pirrie, Duncan; Ixer, Rob A.; Andò, Sergio; Barbarano, Marta; Power, Matthew R.; Turner, Peter
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 58
DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104738
Citation:
Bevins, R., Pearce, N., Hillier, S., Pirrie, D., Ixer, R. A., Andò, S., Barbarano, M., Power, M. R., & Turner, P. (2024). Was the Stonehenge Altar Stone from Orkney? Investigating the mineralogy and geochemistry of Orcadian Old Red sandstones and Neolithic circle monuments. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 58, Article 104738. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104738
ABSTRACT
Recent petrological, mineralogical and geochemical investigations of the Stonehenge Altar Stone have negated its source in the Old Red Sandstone (ORS) Anglo-Welsh Basin. Further, it has been suggested that it is time to look wider, across northern Britain and Scotland, especially in areas where geological and geochemical evidence concur, and there is evidence of Neolithic communities and their monuments. In this context the islands of Orkney, with its rich Neolithic archaeology, are an obvious area worthy of investigation. The same techniques applied to investigations of the Altar Stone and ORS sequences in southern Britain have been applied to two major Neolithic monuments on Mainland Orkney, namely the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. In addition, field samples of ORS lithologies from the main stratigraphic horizons on Mainland Orkney have been investigated.
Portable XRF analyses of the five exposed stones at the Stones of Stenness and seven of the exposed stones at the Ring of Brodgar show a wide range of compositions, having similar compositions to field samples analysed from both the Lower and Upper Stromness Flagstone formations, with the stones at Stenness appearing to have been sourced from the Upper Stromness Flagstone Formation while the Ring of Brodgar stones possibly being sourced from both formations. Examination of the mineralogy of ORS field samples and the Stonehenge Altar Stone, using a combination of X-ray diffraction, microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and automated SEM-EDS shows there to be no match between the Orkney samples and the Altar Stone. Only two samples from Orkney showed the presence of baryte, a characteristic mineral of the Altar Stone. Another key discriminant is the presence of abundant detrital K-feldspar in all of the Orkney field samples, a mineral which has only very low abundance in the Altar Stone. In addition, the regularly interstratified dioctahedral/dioctahedral smectite mineral tosudite is present in the clay mineral assemblage of the Altar Stone, but not detected in the Orkney samples.
It is concluded that the Altar Stone was not sourced from Mainland Orkney, despite considerable evidence for long-distance communications between Orkney and Stonehenge around 3000/2900 BCE.
============================
I have only had time for a brief reading so far, but as usual when I am reading articles by these geologists, I find myself shouting at the computer.
The authors refer to the "date of arrival" of the bluestones at Stonehenge, with no consideration of the possibility that they might have come from an erratic cluster. The paper is very technological (as distinct from very scientific), concentrating on pXRF readings on the stones at the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness. They decide that there is "no match between the Orkney samples and the Altar Stone" -- using Altar Stone readings already published. They refer over and again to the builders of the monuments "sourcing" (or fetching) the stones they needed, and there are several mentions of the Vestrafiold Quarry and other putative quarries -- without ever seeking to prove that there was a quarry or that the stones could have been picked up from a ore-existing scatter of glacial erratics. They say that 7 of the Ring of Brodgar stones show "a wide range of compositions, having similar compositions to field samples analysed from both the Lower and Upper Stromness Flagstone formations, with the 5 stones at Stenness appear to have been sourced from the Upper Stromness Flagstone Formation. There ios no geology map or glaciation map. As far as I can see, there is no mention anywhere in the artricle of ice movement directions or erratic transport, given that the ice flow across the island was from SE towards NW. Also, there seems to be no attempt to differentiate between samples actually taken from the Altar Stone and samples from fragments assumed to have come from the Altar Stone. That's not good enough. Then they say there is ".......considerable evidence for long-distance communications between Orkney and Stonehenge around 3000/2900 BCE". That's a travesty. As far as I can see, there is no evidence at all to support the idea of a 700 km sea or land transport effort involving a 6 tonne lump of rock.
It is extraordinary in this day and age that a group of senior geologists can discuss in a learned paper the sourcing of some very famous Orkney standing stones without once mentioning glaciation or erratic transport! Do these people ever look at the landscape or consider landscape or landform surface processes?
Whatever next, I wonder?
=============
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309242436_The_last_glaciation_in_Orkney_Scotland_glacial_stratigraphy_event_sequence_and_flow_paths
The last glaciation in Orkney, Scotland: glacial stratigraphy, event sequence and flow paths
October 2016
Adrian M. Hall, James B. Riding and John Flett Brown
Scottish Journal of Geology 52(2) DOI: 10.1144/sjg2016-002
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2023/04/did-vestra-fiold-quarry-provide.html
I thought it was now agreed that the altar stone MAY have come from a souvenir shop near Wick on the Mainland?
ReplyDeleteRather disappointed that our erstwhile rock doctor is chasing headlines these days in preference to scientific achievement.
Yes, I think we can probably assume that the Altar Stone was a stock clearance item, going cheap. Buyer to collect........
ReplyDeleteYou mention your disappointment that no mention is made by these multiple authors of even the possibility that the Stonehenge bluestones might have reached the vicinity of said monument as a cluster of glacial erratics. I am disappointed that it took all those MULTIPLE authors to cluster together and come up with this staggering conclusion in this Paper. Nil points out of ten, folks.
ReplyDeleteHi Brian, I can’t remember reading anywhere that they said the Altar Stone came from Orkney? They may have suggested Orkney would be worth investigation due to links with Wessex (Grooved ware etc). As far as I was aware they had said the closest match (by age?) was with the Old Red Sandstone of the Orcadian Basin. Could you point me to the text where they state that the Altar Stone comes from Orkney please?
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of speculation on social media that the findings meant it could only come from Orkney, but the paper doesn't actually say that.
ReplyDeleteQuite. Thanks Jon.
DeleteYes, the article suggests Orkney as the probable source for the Altar Stone, but is careful in its wording. But there is no doubt that they were arguing for Orkney rather than Caithness or anywhere else in the Orcadian basin. Their chosen sample for Orkney (bought from a rock shop, and therefore of uncertain provenance) supposedly came from Cruaday Quarry, very close to the Vestrafiold "Quarry" promoted by Colin Richards. Why didn't they choose a sample from somewhere else on Orkney? Then they flag up the Orkney "cultural link" in the discussion part of the paper. Heather Sebire talks of the samples coming from "a quarry" -- so that heads us towards Vestrafiold as well. I haven't seen the press release linked to this paper, but the publicity campaign was planned in minute detail. I haven't had the time or the inclination to trawl through all of the media coverage, but here is a typical quote from joint author Nick Pearce, in dismissing a glacial transport hypothesis: “From Orkney, I can’t see a way that the stone hikes a ride on half a dozen glaciers in the right order to end up on Salisbury plain.”
ReplyDeleteSure, but that's a quote? For example, if he was saying that the Glacial Hypothesis is still in the running if it came from some of the land surrounding the Moray Firth (which is, apparently, now much more likely), then the above quote in last paragraph makes sense.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, if it came from Svalbard (the "polar bears did it" hypothesis) or Orkney, then the glacial hypothesis would be out.
This gets a bit convoluted, Jon. It's clear to me that Orkney was the prime candidate source location for the Altar Stone when the Clark et al paper was written -- the basic issue is that this whole fiasco is linked to a completely inadequate sampling strategy. This is what other geologists are telling me.
ReplyDelete