tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post8829620442603399843..comments2024-03-28T22:13:17.139+00:00Comments on Stonehenge and the Ice Age: The Stonehenge bluestone lithology listBRIAN JOHNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00413447032454568083noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-48232130490259259782015-01-14T19:31:06.355+00:002015-01-14T19:31:06.355+00:00Alex -- how close are we to seeing the results of ...Alex -- how close are we to seeing the results of your work on those anomalously large conduits beneath the Mendips? Is there anything in print thus far?BRIAN JOHNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00413447032454568083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-56372807424747184682015-01-14T19:18:59.185+00:002015-01-14T19:18:59.185+00:00oops my mistake
Alexoops my mistake<br /><br />AlexAGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-10895225027342419022015-01-14T17:52:15.605+00:002015-01-14T17:52:15.605+00:00As most of the folk on this Blog are well aware, t...As most of the folk on this Blog are well aware, the terrain of Salisbury Plain is predominantly occupied by The British Army. What we could do with is a project to involve some of H.M. Forces and the Salisbury Training Areas' Archaeologist, Graham Brown I think that is.<br /><br />This might involve the National Grid Referencing of sundry exotic rocks noticed on the Plain. This recording by NGR's would be the first step towards analysing their geology. Hopefully, rocks with a similar provenance in the North Pembrokeshire area would thus be identified.<br /><br />Since the Stonehenge element of the Avebury & Stonehenge World Heritage Site attracts over a million Visitors each year, surely such a trawl of the Plain would be justifiable. I have no doubt "Stonehenge" receives scores of millions of "hits" every year from all over the Globe. Marketing of matters Stonehenge is self - propelling. The Audience is increasingly knowledgeable and educated, and would welcome such a systematic investigation.TonyHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-80317728948726971102015-01-14T17:49:48.750+00:002015-01-14T17:49:48.750+00:00Very true, Chris. The Carngoedog spotted dolerite...Very true, Chris. The Carngoedog spotted dolerites could have come from a dolerite sill outcropping across a couple of miles of countryside; and the foliated rhyolites could have come from a patch of territory including Rhosyfelin and Pont Saeson. So you could argue that if there were determined quarrymen around, they might have quarried in several neighbouring places while they were about it. On the other hand, if you are a glaciologist you might argue that the glacier bed conditions that allowed entrainment from either Carngoedog or Rhosyfelin would also have applied to wider patches of the landscape in the vicinity of each.......... BRIAN JOHNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00413447032454568083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-78884892530557951662015-01-14T17:02:03.069+00:002015-01-14T17:02:03.069+00:00On the splitter or clumper distinction it is worth...On the splitter or clumper distinction it is worth pointing out that the sites under discussion are a couple of miles apart at most.<br /><br />chris johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16210890033354730381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-79345178437524037142015-01-14T10:09:56.405+00:002015-01-14T10:09:56.405+00:00Alex -- where did you get that figure of 50-60 ton...Alex -- where did you get that figure of 50-60 tonnes for the Altar Stone? The conventional wisdom is that it weighs between 6 and 7 tonnes. Does anybody have a better estimate?BRIAN JOHNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00413447032454568083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-51272892896673170242015-01-13T22:44:01.571+00:002015-01-13T22:44:01.571+00:00Alex Gee
I have difficulty accepting the quarry t...Alex Gee<br /><br />I have difficulty accepting the quarry theory although because of the way the joints and bedding are, I can quite understand the ease with which a 2-4ton bluestone could have been quarried. <br /><br />I do however wonder how the quarrying of a 50-60 ton block of sandstone for the altar stone was achieved?AGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-64579595369946320772015-01-13T09:57:17.749+00:002015-01-13T09:57:17.749+00:00Myris -- thanks for the confirmation that the list...Myris -- thanks for the confirmation that the list is broadly right, and that there is a great need for ALL of the orthostats and stumps to be resampled systematically. Keep on banging away at EH......<br /><br />I too think that differences in listing lithologies comes down to whether one is a lumper or a splitter. Another matter is whether there is such dramatic variation in petrography within a very small area that four or five "different" lumps of rock might have come from quite a small outcrop or group of outcrops. So could four different rhyolite rock types all have come from Rhosyfelin, or could four different dolerites all have come from Carn Goedog? It seems to me that that is what you are suggesting......<br /><br />We will agree to differ on whether the other smaller "inconvenient" stones (classed as packing stones, hammer stones and mauls or even as "adventitious" stones) are included in the list. Leaving those aside, are we dealing with about 10 lithologies and therefore -- if you are so inclined -- 10 quarries? As I have said before, I have a few problems with your interpretations -- for example where several types of debitage might be assumed to have come from the same destroyed orthostat.....<br /><br />It seems to me that there are far more than 10 basic rock types, if one includes your various groups of dolerite and rhyolite (at least 3 of each and some anomalies) and then the different tuffs, other volcanic rocks, old sandstones and newer sandstones. So I'm going to stick to about 20 rock types / provenances for these various rocks that you have looked at, for reasons I have enumerated in my detailed considerations of your papers. Maybe the real answer is "around 15" provenances represented in the orthostat and debitage groups ??!!<br /><br />Battle on -- all very intriguing.<br />BRIAN JOHNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00413447032454568083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-53836249668541762892015-01-13T09:22:00.533+00:002015-01-13T09:22:00.533+00:00Typo alert.
I wish to publically state that I am n...Typo alert.<br />I wish to publically state that I am not anti-Acer, indeed some of my best plants are acers and I have five, one very large and beautiful, in my rear garden.<br />It is New Agers, mind you most are now drawing their wrinkly pensions by now so about as new as last week's chip paper.<br />M<br />Myris of Alexandrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-13457993957028453662015-01-13T09:08:26.351+00:002015-01-13T09:08:26.351+00:00Kostas -- the stones and fragments are NOT restric...Kostas -- the stones and fragments are NOT restricted to the Stonehenge monument itself. They are quite widely scattered, as some of the old (and new) research shows. If we like, we can even include the Boles Barrow bluestone boulder......<br /><br />And yes, I did receive your earlier post. I told you ages ago that I will not accept any further posts which talk about frozen lakes in crazy places and entirely unknown processes, based upon a misunderstanding of the local topography. That edict still stands! <br />BRIAN JOHNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00413447032454568083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-18694363732224163792015-01-13T08:33:28.001+00:002015-01-13T08:33:28.001+00:00No I think the pet rock boys would broadly accept ...No I think the pet rock boys would broadly accept that. It is a splitters list and the prb have been moving towards a more clumpers feel.<br />The ferret club offering for 2015 starring another Giza clumps some of the tuffs.<br />Like St Thomas I would like to thrust my hand into the void and see the petrography of the tuffs/calcareous tuffs in the buried orthostats. I suspect they would reduce to a smaller number,<br />About 10 lithologies seems about right.<br />It makes the transporting agency maddeningly eclectic if not eccentric. Matched only by the foibles of the Researchers and those that watch and comment and of course the New Acers and the whingers.<br />MMyris of Alexandrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1228690739485734684.post-53324626854855410812015-01-13T03:28:51.065+00:002015-01-13T03:28:51.065+00:00Brian,
If your impressive list of some 30 various...Brian,<br /><br />If your impressive list of some 30 various stones found at Stonehenge are from a hypothesized glaciation of Salisbury Plain, shouldn't such also be found more widely spread on the Stonehenge surroundings? Why only confined within that circular area that defines Stonehenge? <br /><br />Please post this along with your explanation!<br /><br />Kostas<br /><br />Ps I have submitted an earlier comment two days ago under your "Mount Hood" post. Do you know what happened to it? Should I resubmit it?Constantinos Ragazasnoreply@blogger.com