Summer solstice madness........
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.
Phil Harding revealed this back in March when I attended a Wiltshire Museum Conference in Devizes. Just before then, over lunch, I asked him about the glaciation hypothesis for the Stonehenge bluestones. Met with a quizzical look, I asserted we knew there was evidence of glaciation 25 miles away in the Bathampton area and near Box. I'd asked him what was his interpretation of a piece of bluestone a farmer had shown him some distance north of Stonehenge. He said people
ReplyDeletehad been chipping bits of the monument for ages, and declared there had been NO glaciation on Salisbury Plain. This is the bloke who is virtually untouchable in Wiltshire, I think he is still Deputy Lord Lieutenant. He is also revered by both Wiltshire AND Salisbury Museum and their members. He sat in the audience at Devizes with his hat on.
Tim Daw to his credit has written on his Sarsen.org blog about his scepticism as regards Harding's claims, I encourage everyone to read his Post, added on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIt's not often that Tim Daw, Roberty John Langdon and I agree on anything, but it seems we are united in our condemnation of the premature publication ot the latest Stonehenge blockbuster story -- namely Phil Harding's narrative of the Bulford "solstice posts.". We are, I think, united in thinking that a gushing press release from Wessex Archaeology is not an adequate basis for claiming anything at all -- in the absence of any published evidence. We are also, I think, disappointed that august journals like National Geographic and New Scientist have regurgitated what may well be nothing more than a fantasy -- demonstrating the same level of gullibility as the local press and the mainstream national UK media. The inexorable slide of academic and journalistic standards continues unabated.......
ReplyDeleteFirst I heard it was a circle, and now it seems to be two post holes pointing in the general direction of the solstice sunrise. I say general because the sunrise position does not move much around the solstice itself.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous here - Chris
ReplyDelete