Remember Indiana Pearson and the Quest for the Lost Circle? Well, that glorious and heroic tale has faded away recently with the discovery that there never was a lost circle and that it was, after all, just a romantic fantasy.........
But the media cannot resist a heroic figure fighting against the odds to discover some peculiar version of the truth. And bang on cue, with the broadcasting of the latest Stonehenge blockbuster ("Mysteries of Stonehenge", first broadcast last Sunday) along comes Sherlock Bevins, magnifying glass in hand, with furrowed brow, wandering amongst the rocky crags of Preseli, hunting for clues that will lead him to the source of the Sacred Stone.........
There has to be a distinguishing feature, of course, and in this case it is the ubiquitous Aussie bush hat! No doubt the director wanted Richrd to wear it for "branding" purposes during filming, and Richard obliged.
I have to admit to being rather disappointed. I had seen Richard as a responsible scientist who was prepared to hold back some of the wilder fantasies promoted by MPP and his team, and promote the virtues of sound science, responsibly used. Not any longer. He has been popping up all over the place in the media, not urging caution but acting as the chief apologist for the MPP narrative, a very handy scientist wheeled out to win the trust of the public and show the media how geochemistry and petrology can be used in the solving of difficult Stonehenge puzzles. He has even gone on the record, in this latest TV extravaganza, as saying that on the provenancing of the Stonehenge bluestones (including the Altar Stone) his reputation is on the line...........
Anyway, he is now solidly on the record as one of the key creators of the quarrying / human transport narrative -- and I was appalled by the manner in which -- in the latest Channel Four documnentary -- he threw caution to the winds and espoused the most extreme and fantastical elements of the MPP story. The section on Rhosyfelin was quite extraordinary, in which he pretended that the quarrying of foliated rhyolites was an established truth and even implied that this was the key location from which most of the Stonehenge bluestones had been taken. That, of course, is complete tosh -- there is not a single bluestone monolith at Stonehenge which is known to have come from Craig Rhosyfelin, and Richard knows that perfectly well.
And so archaeological science continues its inexorable slide...........
2 comments:
Salisbury Plain is flat and surely shaped by glacier(s) so more likely that ice moved the stones to the area where Stonehenge was built? As a student at Bournemouth Grammar School our Geography teacher Mike Webb took us on a field trip to Wales to see the amazing striations in rock carved by passing glaciers something I have never forgotten. Your comments on the Bluestone “ quarries” in Wales puts the idea of humans moving huge stones to Salisbury in its rightful place as fantasy. Well done! Ian Whiteley, Bournemouth. Ps But what about the Pyramids? Your thoughts on that would be very interesting!
I found the programme amateurish and full of misdirection. And these "scientists" expect us to believe the Altar Stone came from Orkney. Even though this idea has been dropped!
I would love to believe that Stone 80 came from northern Scotland by glacial action or manpower. But show me a lump of it, dug up from somewhere in Scotland, and then I might believe it.
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