Another edifice built on the sinking sands

Summer solstice madness........

Today the media are carrying the latest fantastical story about the "Stonehenge prototype" found near Bulford.  The narrative is accompanied by much praise for the latest persistent and heroic archaeologist who features in video interviews -- this time not Indiana Jones or MPP, but Phil Harding

It has all been carefully planned by Wessex Archaeology, BBC and Channel 4,  Time Team and English Heritage.  There are excited reports all over the place, in social media and in the news outlets, about a newly discovered "structure" which showed that the locals were all very scientific and religious 500 years before the Stonehenge stone monument was thought of.  Apparently a new (old) circle has been discovered, including two prominent post holes that once held huge vertical wooden posts, and lots of other holes associated with assorted finds that demonstrate the presence of an organized and busy society.    In fairness to Phil Harding and the other archaeologists involved in the Bulford dig, they have not claimed that themselves, but have pointed out that the other pit traces are not on the circumference of a circle but are dotted around in several smallish groups.  The artifacts discovered are not that spectacular either, if truth be told.....

But the two wooden posts deemed to have been prominent features in the landscape are apparently aligned with the midsummer solstice sunrise and the midwinter solstice sunset.  So we are told by  Wessex Archaeology in their press release.  Apparently skyscape archaeologist Dr Fabio Silva has done the sums,  and the coordinates for the 2,950 BC horizon come out exactly right.  Well, not exactly, but almost.........  We are not shown any calculations, so we have to take it all on trust.

There isn't any article either.  We are told that there will be one somewhere, all in good time........  Neither is there a published excavation report that we can look at.

This is all completely unsatisfactory, and it is extraordinary that the media have regurgitated a Wessex Archaeology story that has not been adequately scrutinized by anybody, or even peer reviewed prior to publication.

So archaeology continues on its downwards spiral, preoccupied with banner headlines and heroic personalities -- and convinced that the media will regurgitate almost anything to do with Stonehenge, even where there is no supporting evidence at all in the public domain.