I started this blog a few years ago because I wanted a forum for the discussion of Stonehenge and bluestone issues, from a standpoint other than the archaeological one. For an understanding of that iconic old ruin, we cannot simply depend on what the archaeologists tell us -- as has been increasingly apparent in recent years, with a series of ever more fanciful TV spectaculars which seem to have the objective of boosting TV ratings rather than giving balanced reportage on recent investigations. These "TV wars" are more than a little absurd -- and have brought archaeology into disrepute. Geologists, geomorphologists and glaciologists all have meaningful things to say about Stonehenge, and I am trying, in this blog, to report on their newly published (and unpublished) research -- insofar as it has a bearing on Stonehenge.
One of the problems I face, in trying to encourage researchers and students in these fields to "get stuck in" on the Stonehenge debate, is the natural reluctance of specialists to stray onto "foreign territory." That's a pity, since it allows senior academics in archaeology to control the landscape and -- to an extent -- to control the research agenda. That is the way in which nonsensical myths are perpetrated ad infinitum, without anybody mounting a serious challenge from inside the archaeology establishment.
But silly fantasies cannot be maintained for ever, since there will always be some people around who are capable of independent thought -- and it is quite exciting to see that there is change in the air. In the most recent hefty publication from English Heritage (Field and Pearson) there is -- at last -- an admission that the bluestones might be glacial erratics, that Stonehenge was possibly never finished, that its builders were indecisive and maybe even confused, and that the sarsens were probably collected up in the vicinity of the monument. Amazing -- the authors are in effect saying the same things I said on my YouTube Video called "Stonehenge Unhinged" and in my book called "The Bluestone Enigma." Does this represent a beginning of a meaningful dialogue? Let us hope so.
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