What was Callanish for?

The Callanish No 1 stone settings, seen from the air

How about this for an hypothesis? "If you draw a straight line from stone 2 to stone 5 of the Callanish Circle, it hits the horizon at the precise location of the brightest star in the constellation Magnus Minor on the 5th day of February every 54th year. This suggests that the builders of the circle were technically very advanced, with a detailed knowledge of the heavens, and that the tribal groups involved performed certain rituals on every occasion that this auspicious event occurred. It also suggests that the movements of the stars, and not the sun, were the events that governed the key ceremonies of the tribal year."

OK -- that's all a bit far-fetched, but it's not all that far removed from the most popular hypothesis relating to the PURPOSE of Callanish.

According to at least some of the literature, Callanish is where it is, and is designed as it is, because the moon skims especially low over the southern the horizon once every 18.6 years, "dancing along the distant hills like a great god visiting the earth." So, the theory goes, those who were blessed with the knowledge of this event (the proto-astronomers) were invested with earthly authority by simple folks whose daily lives were governed by the great cycles of the tides, the seasons, the movements of the sun and the moon and the stars. As fas as romantic twaddle goes, this is almost as delightful as the Magnus Minor hypothesis.

So let's get real here. The stone setting as we see it today consists of the following elements:

1. A circle that is not quite circular or symmetrical, with irregularly spaced stones of many different heights, and a large central monolith that is not quite in the centre of the ring.

2. A southern stone row with irregularly spaced monoliths which is almost aligned N-S, but which is actually slightly curved.

3. An avenue consisting of 19 stones on the northern side of the "circle" -- with two rows that are not parallel. They are actually converging towards the circle. Again, the spacing of the stones is quite irregular. There are considerable gaps in these rows -- have the missing stones been removed, or were they never put up in the first place?

4. Two short alignments of stones roughly at right angles to the avenue, one to the west of the circle and one to the east. They are not truly aligned E-W, and the one is not lined up with the other. They are actually a little to the south of the centre of the circle, and so the big central stone is not on an alignment of either the western arm or the eastern one. Again the spacing of stones in these arms is irregular, and there appear to be gaps.

5. There are two eccentric stones to the south of the stone circle, one to the west of the southern row and the other to the east of it.

The Callanish stone "circle", seen from the centre of the avenue

Some of the stones of the "circle", with the tallest central stone left of centre.  The ruins of the chambered cairn are irrelevant to the present discussion.

The magnificent central stone and some of the others of the circle.  Here we also see the ruins of the chambered cairn.

The stones are mightily impressive, but if truth be told the settings are a bit of a shambles, and one has to do a great deal of stretching of credibility to see any precise geometrical arrangements at Callanish, let alone any attempt on the part of the builders to align their stones with auspicious heavenly happenings.

So what was Callanish for?  I can understand why Colin Richards now says that the final form of the monument was not important in places like Callanish --  indeed, why would lots of clever people want to build a stone monument in which nothing quite fits, and in which the circle is not circular, and the lines are all curved and wobbly?  One would have to conclude that they were either careless or incompetent, or even plain stupid. So if you want to maintain a belief in the cleverness of your Neolithic tribesmen, you might well argue instead, as Colin has done, that the final form was immaterial and that the REAL reason for Callanish lies in the skillful quarrying of the stones from auspicious places and the transportation of said stones to a single place where they could be used as status symbols or for ritual purposes.  The ACTIVITIES themselves were the things that mattered, creating social coherence and demonstrating the organizational abilities of the leaders and the technical skills of the workers.

Hmmm.  Don't like any of that either.  It's almost as fanciful as the Magnus Minor hypothesis. Colin is shifting the centre of attention from the stone settings in the ground to the quarries.  That means he has to find quarries by hook or by crook............ even if there aren't any........

So here's my theory.  The Callanish stone settings are where they are because that is where the stones were.  A lot of STONE GATHERING went on (I use that term quite deliberately, instead of the term "quarrying", since the latter implies a degree of technical skill and organization that I currently see no sign of).  The broad ridge to the north of the glaciated rocky knoll called Cnoc an Tursa was relatively dry and stable, with sediments thick enough for stone sockets.  There was also a good solid surface for dragging and arranging the stones into the positions chosen for the stone settings.  I think the builders were attracted by patterns and not alignments, although there may have been some desire to align the axis of the monument  with the highest point reached by the sun in the middle of summer, with the avenue directed roughly towards the darkest part of the winter sky.  The cross arms might have been deliberately pointed roughly towards the equinox sunset and sunrise. The emphasis is on the word "roughly" -- and I do not think that the builders were especially bothered about accuracy.

Given that a lot of human effort was expended here at Callanish, what was it for?  We may never know the answer to that, and we can speculate till the Highland cattle come home about rituals, but I think Callanish was all about status -- built by people who simply wanted to impress their neighbours.  A grand folly, just like all the other grand follies that continue to be built by arrogant (and even mad) people to this day.

The stones are mightily impressive, but if truth be told the settings are a bit of a shambles, and one has to do a great deal of stretching of credibility to see any precise geometrical arrangements at Callanish, let alone any attempt on the part of the builders to align their stones with auspicious heavenly happenings.

So what was Callanish for? I can understand why Colin Richards now says that the final form of the monument was not important in places like Callanish -- indeed, why would lots of clever people want to build a stone monument in which nothing quite fits, and in which the circle is not circular, and the lines are all curved and wobbly? One would have to conclude that they were either careless or incompetent, or even plain stupid. So if you want to maintain a belief in the cleverness of your Neolithic tribesmen, you might well argue instead, as Colin has done, that the final form was immaterial and that the REAL reason for Callanish lies in the skillful quarrying of the stones from auspicious places and the transportation of said stones to a single place where they could be used as status symbols or for ritual purposes. The ACTIVITIES themselves were the things that mattered, creating social coherence and demonstrating the organizational abilities of the leaders and the technical skills of the workers.

Hmmm. Don't like any of that either. It's almost as fanciful as the Magnus Minor hypothesis. Colin is shifting the centre of attention from the stone settings in the ground to the quarries. That means he has to find quarries by hook or by crook............ even if there aren't any........

So here's my theory. The Callanish stone settings are where they are because that is where the stones were. A lot of STONE GATHERING went on (I use that term quite deliberately, instead of the term "quarrying", since the latter implies a degree of technical skill and organization that I currently see no sign of). The broad ridge to the north of the glaciated rocky knoll called Cnoc an Tursa was relatively dry and stable, with sediments thick enough for stone sockets. There was also a good solid surface for dragging and arranging the stones into the positions chosen for the stone settings. I think the builders were attracted by patterns and not alignments, although there may have been some desire to align the axis of the monument with the highest point reached by the sun in the middle of summer, with the avenue directed roughly towards the darkest part of the winter sky. The cross arms might have been deliberately pointed roughly towards the equinox sunset and sunrise. The emphasis is on the word "roughly" -- and I do not think that the builders were especially bothered about accuracy.

Given that a lot of human effort was expended here at Callanish, what was it for? We may never know the answer to that, and we can speculate till the Highland cattle come home about rituals, but I think Callanish was all about status -- built by people who simply wanted to impress their neighbours. A grand folly, just like all the other grand follies that continue to be built by arrogant (and even mad) people to this day.

Watch this space -- now that I have stopped travelling, I'll soon put up another post about the geology and landscape of Callanish, with some further thoughts on the purpose of the stone settings.

Brithdir Mawr Stone Circle

 The Brithdir Mawr stone circle, with Carningli in the background.

Acknowledgement to Ian Pegler and Megalithic Portal for this pic, which is the nicest one I have been able to find while I am absent from my own photo library.

The stone circle at Brithdir Mawr is not supposed to be there -- ie it is not recorded on any maps or on the Welsh archaeological sites data base.  But there it is, not far from the road, and clearly visible from the summit and flanks of Carningli.  The details are from hearsay, but as I recall, about 20 years ago somebody from the Brithdir community noticed a couple of recumbent stones in a field and thought they looked interesting.  so they were investigated, and as a result of dowsing by various people it was realised that there was a whole circle of recumbent stones buried in the turf.  Without any consents or notifications, a sort of long-term project was started, and over the course of several years many people were involved in digging up the stones and placing them in their "proper" positions.  The task was completed in 2002.

Is the site really important, or is it a piece of fantasy?  Should the members of the community have consulted with Cadw or Dyfed Archaeological Trust before taking it upon themselves to "reconstruct" the circle?  If they had, there would have been decades of bureaucratic nonsense to cope with, and there is no way the circle ever would have been reconstructed.  Have the stone erectors done untold damage to a valuable site?  Who knows........

The stones now in position in the circle are for the most part short and stumpy -- less than 2m high.  They are also well spaced, and there is no way they could have supported lintels.  If the site is a genuine prehistoric site (and this remains to be demonstrated) it will be more closely related to Gors Fawr and other Pembs circles than to Stonehenge or Callanish.  Watch this space.....

Here is an extract from the "Powerful Places" web site:

On my return, I was immediately asked by friends to go to Brithdir Mawr, a community in Pembrokeshire, and while sitting talking, I noticed a picture of a standing stone on the wall. When I asked where it was situated, my friends said it was in their field. They wanted me to look at it as they thought it might be the remnant of a stone circle. Indeed, buried in the ground were 20 or so stones, forming a fairly coherent circle. I offered to help bring them out of the ground to remake the circle for all to see.

I had blithely assumed that the stones would be of a comparable (small) size to the only stone circle left in the area, Gors Fawr, and be around 1-2 tons at most. But when we started digging them out, they were actually more like 5-9 tons, and our original plan to get them up over a weekend had to be abandoned!

Over the next two years we spent several weeks at the site, moving approximately three stones each time, with levers and wooden rollers, until an amazing, beautiful circle emerged. Most of the stones were already in position, i.e., they were suitably placed to mark the rising and setting points of the sun and moon over the course of the years and the months. This seems to have been a major feature of most ancient circles, making them stone calendars. We moved a few to mark points not covered already. The finished circle is an amazing place to be and, when dowsed, has many energy leys running through and around it.

Many people saw this circle, and soon another friend asked me to create a circle for her for a new Community Woodland project. This was also in the Preseli Mountains, and we found many bluestones around the edges of the fields to use for the circle. The old maps of the place showed a stone row and a burial chamber/dolmen. So we decided to make a new dolmen too, and to resurrect at least one stone from the row, in the centre of the field leading up to the circle, and another next to the circle, as an outlier. This is a common feature in Welsh circles.

http://www.powerfulplaces.com/blog/a-modern-creator-of-stone-circles/

Breaking News! Proto Stonehenge discovered near Newport!

So there we are then.  One of the followers of this blog has kindly brought a press release to my attention.  With a notable lack of self-doubt, our old friend Robin Heath (see some earlier entries on this blog) has announced that he has found the original version of Stonehenge, near Newport in Pembrokeshire.  To quote:  "Breathtakingly accurate, what has been discovered is a work of creative genius, completely lost until now and totally absent from our history books."

I'm always happy to promote (or at least mention) the work of other Stonehenge researchers -- so check the links to Robin's sites, or keep an eye on Megalithic Portal if you want to know more.  Unfortunately, there is no mention of any of this on Robin's sites -- maybe more info will be posted shortly.

The location of the earth-shattering site is clearly a closely guarded secret, known only to a few initiates.  I thought my ear was fairly close to the ground in the Newport area, since that is where I live -- but this is all news to me.  All I can assume is that Robin has been working at the "reconstructed" stone circle at Brithdir Mawr -- but I am just speculating.........

Hang on in there, folks.  Robin will reveal all in a carefully stage-managed event on 22nd June, which is of course just after the summer solstice.
 
-----------------------------------

Grateful thanks to Megalithic Portal for this info, published today.
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?thold=-1&mode=flat&order=0&sid=2146414202#52705

'Proto Stonehenge' discovered in West Wales 

 submitted by dodomad

Here's what Robin Heath claims to have discovered. Over to him:

The rumours are already about, at least here in West Wales, that I've discovered a Welsh Stonehenge. 'Tis true, I own it, and I call the artifact the Proto Stonehenge, because it dates earlier than the pile of impressively large stones on Salisbury Plain, and it uses the same design rules as were later to be applied to the earlier (pre-sarsen circle) stages of the monument.

It provides a second and unconnected link between the Preseli hills and Stonehenge, supporting the argument that the bluestones were taken to Stonehenge ' at vast expense of toil' by human action.

This is a significant moment in our understanding of what Thom called megalithic science and what most archaeologists have called the lunatic fringe. It is going to be very hard to dismiss what I have found, and I have involved several significant others in checking it out. Green lights from them all.

STONEHENGE – The Welsh Connection
Presentation, Exhibition, Book Launch and Q&A session by Robin Heath
At the Small World Theatre, Cardigan, Wales on Sunday the 22nd June at 1:30 pm

A (very) Brief History of Modern Attempts to understand Stonehenge. Stonehenge evolved over fifteen centuries. The early phases of the monument began around 3150 BC and consisted of a 380 foot (115m) diameter circular bank, which created a ditch outside the circle. Inside the circular arena was an alignment to the solstitial sunrise, through a break in the bank to the Heel stone. A century later, 56 large holes were dug around the perimeter of an accurate 283 foot (86m) circle, now known as the Aubrey circle after the antiquarian John Aubrey, who discovered the remains of these holes. Current ideas are that these holes may once have held wooden posts or even bluestones.

About a century further on, a bluestone semi-circle was built in the centre, which had lintels carried aloft long 8ft slender uprights. This was truly a proto-Stonehenge, for in the middle of building this first architectural structure, a much more ambitious project was about the be initiated, that of hauling seventy five huge sarsen sandstones, some weighing in at forty tons, from the Marlborough Downs, twenty miles north of Stonehenge, near Avebury stone circle. This became the 100 ft diameter sarsen circle and the trilithon horseshoe. Prior to the arrival of these monsters, perhaps around 2800 BC, four standing stones were placed around the perimeter of the Aubrey circle to define a ‘near perfect’ rectangle whose side lengths were in the ratio 5:12.

The sarsen structures at Stonehenge, the circle and the five bigger trilithons that rise up inside the circle, are the logo that everyone thinks of when the word Stonehenge is mentioned. However, this is the grandiose later structure, and the earlier phases are just as important. There are still the remains of most of the bluestones on site. Some were very polished, some still have the tenon or mortice joints that must have once enabled them to form a trilithon structure in the earlier bluestone ‘henge’. These recycled bluestones were placed in a bluestone circle within the sarsen circle or in a horseshoe arrangement within the trilithons.

Stonehenge in Modern (post-Roman) Times

The link between Stonehenge and West Wales goes back much further than one might think, Carmarthen-born legend Merlin claimed that the Stones arrived from Ireland, in a fanciful tale invoking giants, yet in his lifetime, West Wales was administered by the Irish and even the language spoken here was Irish. But there’s another problem with Merlin’s tale – the stones to which he refers are the giant sarsen stones, which weigh up to 40 tons, not the bluestones which weigh in at a tenth of this.

In 1603 a local Pembrokeshire nobleman, George Owen, who, according to a brass plaque in Nevern church was ‘The Patriarch of English(!) Geologists’, made a connection between the stones and the design of Pentre Ifan and Stonehenge. And in 1655, Architect General to the King, Inigo Jones made the first well popularised (and very inaccurate plan) of the inner part of Stonehenge, for King James I. Major archaeological surveys of the monument have been undertaken during the last two centuries.

Sir William Flinders Petrie, the ‘father of modern archaeology’, accurately surveyed the inner part of Stonehenge in the 1870s, before he was twenty years old. IN the early part of the twentieth century, Col Hawley spent years excavating the site, adding greatly to our knowledge of what Stonehenge had once been. In the 1950s professor Richard Atkinson, from UCSW, Cardiff, devoted many years to another major survey, and one outcome was a bestselling book called simply, Stonehenge, published in 1956 by Hamish Hamilton. In 1973, Atkinson asked ‘the father of modern archaeoastronomy’ professor Alexander Thom, to undertake ‘the most accurate survey ever undertaken of the monument at ground level’.

The Matter of the Bluestones

In the Preseli mountains of coastal West Wales, there are several volcanic outcrops that during the past ninety years have been identified as the source of the bluestone megaliths at Stonehenge. In 1923, Geologist Dr H H Thomas published an academic paper suggesting that many of the Stonehenge bluestones had come the Preselis. This discovered has fuelled along standing debate, acrimonious at times, as to whether these stones arrived at Stonehenge through deliberate human intent, or by the action of glacial flow.

Recent work by professor Mike Parker Pearson (UCL), and geologists from Aberystwyth University, has employed improved petrological analyis to begin the process of identifying the source of each of the bluestones  that now remain at Stonehenge.

Supposing it can ever be proved that human endeavour was responsible for moving these 4 ton monsters all the way from Preseli to Salisbury Plain, then beyond marvelling at the engineering and cooperative skills shown by our distant ancestors, a much bigger question needs to be answered. That question is why they should have moved these stones over 150 miles? What purpose was being served by moving them? Robin Heath now claims to have an answer.

Robin is an independent researcher and author of three books on Stonehenge. He has been working for over twenty-five years to find an answer to this question, and that answer is to be found in the landscape of West Wales, near Newport, Pembrokeshire. In the summer of 2013 he discovered a previously unknown megalithic complex, a Proto Stonehenge, forging a second link has been forged between the Preseli region of Wales and Stonehenge.

This discovery, duly surveyed with modern theodolites , GPS and satellite imagery, reveals that Stonehenge was the end result of a long project undertaken over several centuries. The goal was to develop a Neolithic technology capable of accurately measuring and recording time and space. Breathtakingly accurate, what has been discovered is a work of creative genius, completely lost until now and totally absent from our history books. Once understood, it allows us to lift the capabilities of Neolithic culture to a new level and reveals a practical prehistoric science with which to integrate the rhythms and cycles of the sky with those experienced on earth.

The Small World Theatre Event

The forthcoming presentation of this discovery takes place at the Small World Theatre, Cardigan, and is appropriately timed for the midsummer solstice period, on Sunday June 22nd. A small exhibition with large models will also be available, and Robin will be launching his new book, Proto-Stonehenge in Wales, to begin telling a new story about how Stonehenge came to be, and why, and how our ancestors forged the earliest known beginnings of astronomy and surveying in West Wales.

Biography

Robin Heath is an independent researcher and for over twenty five years has lectured widely, in Britain, Ireland and France, undertaking tours, presentations, workshops and media interviews on the ancient megalithic  sciences. An internationally published author of seven books on the subject of megalithic science, including four with Stonehenge in their title, Robin’s book Stonehenge (Wooden Books, 2000) has remained a best-seller at the monument. Previously the head of technology at Coleg Ceredigion, for the past thirty years Robin has lived in the Preseli region of West Wales.

Bibliography

Robin Heath is the author of A Key to Stonehenge (1993), Sun, Moon & Stonehenge (1998), Sun, Moon & Earth (1999), A Beginner’s Guide to Stone Circles, Hodder-Headline (1999), Stonehenge (2000), The Measure of Albion (with John Michell, 2004), The Lost Science of Measuring the Earth (2006), Powerpoints (2007), and Bluestone Magic (2010).

Further details are available at www.skyandlandscape.com or www.robinheath.info

The East Greenland Albums

I've been compiling a number of photo albums in connection with my new novel set in East Greenland during the Cold War. Incidentally, the albums contain some fantastic images of glaciated terrain and glaciers -- by all means take a look and enjoy!  The links should work OK.

Arctic Riviera 1.  https://www.facebook.com/brian.john.526/media_set?set=a.702247896457246.1073741827.100000161271278&type=3

Arctic Riviera 2.  https://www.facebook.com/brian.john.526/media_set?set=a.702257586456277.1073741828.100000161271278&type=3

Arctic Riviera 3.  https://www.facebook.com/brian.john.526/media_set?set=a.194066627275378.57631.100000161271278&type=3

Arctic Riviera 4.  https://www.facebook.com/brian.john.526/media_set?set=a.892694900745877.1073741840.100000161271278&type=3

Acts of God.  https://www.facebook.com/brian.john.526/media_set?set=a.720426031306099.1073741830.100000161271278&type=3

East Greenland Seasons.  https://www.facebook.com/brian.john.526/media_set?set=a.794725497209485.1073741835.100000161271278&type=3

East Greenland Trappers' Huts.  https://www.facebook.com/brian.john.526/media_set?set=a.748079405207428.1073741833.100000161271278&type=3

Historic photo -- Oxford Icelandic Expedition 1960

If anybody wondered where all this interest in ice and glaciers came from, it all dates back to 1960 when my mate David Sugden and I decided to mount an intrepid expedition to Iceland.  This pic was taken in my room in Jesus College, Oxford, while we were getting all our gear together.  There's young we look......

In the valley of Kaldalon in NW Iceland I met my first glacier, and it was love at first sight.  Some people hate glaciers, but luckily I have never had any seriously bad experiences on them, so I am probably biased or starry-eyed. (Never been in a crevasse, but there have been episodes of extreme discomfort, not to mention exhaustion in connection with whiteouts and horrible conditions around the firn line........)  Maybe my good luck has something to do with the fact that I have always treated glaciers with the utmost respect, and have never taken stupid risks.

After that 1960 expedition we actually managed to get a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal, Geografiska Annaler, so we were very chuffed.   It wasn't very learned or original, and I suppose the Editor published it just in order to encourage us, but that was the start of quite a few other adventures, not to mention two academic careers!

An undiscovered ring cairn near Gernos Fach?

A friend who frequently wanders in the wilderness in these parts has drawn my attention to an unrecorded feature not far from Gernos Fach, on the flank of Banc Du  --  grid ref SN 077 345.  We can see it faintly on the satellite image above, not far from a little pond.

She says that just now the feature is even more prominent to the naked eye, even from ground level.

If you look carefully you can see a faint change in the vegetation, bringing out a distinct circle of green in an area dominated by moorland vegetation.  It's to the SE of the pond, right in the centre of the photo.  There are lots of modern tracks criss-crossing this area, but this "feature" looks rather different from anything else on this moorland.  So -- might it be a ring cairn like the others on Carningli and Dinas Mountain?

Note that this is less than one km from the Waun Mawn standing stones which were investigated by MPP's team a couple of years ago, in the hope that there might be some remains of a gigantic stone circle there.  I gather that particular hypothesis has gone by the board, since the stones which still remain standing and fallen cannot be fitted onto the circumference of any circle, large or small........

But thinking of man-made features, the summit of Cnwc yr Hydd (just to the north of the main standing stones) is rather interesting, since it is distinguished by a string of small quarries (at least twenty pits) which I find rather mysterious.  They don't seem to be places where large stones can have been quarried, since as far as we can see the bedrock is friable shale and mudstone, partly metamorphosed -- the altered sediments that exist right across this area between the exposures of dolerite and rhyolite belonging to the Fishguard Volcanic series.  More investigations are needed...... there is a chance that the quarries are modern, having been used for roadstone for the Gernos Fach farm track. Click to enlarge the image.

Annual layers

I found this great photo of the annual layers in a snowpatch near a glacier edge in Iceland.  If you try, you can count these in exactly the same way as you count varves or tree rings to assess age.  The dark lines represent the melting or ablation surfaces at the end of each summer, when there is always a lot of dust and other debris on the snow or ice surface.

In Iceland, things can get complicated because of the proximity of volcanoes and the likelihood that in some years layers of ash will fall onto snow and ice surfaces.  If the ash layer is thin, it will absorb heat and accelerate melting; but if it is thick it can act as a protective layer and inhibit melting on the surface.  If the distribution of ash on a cold surface is patchy -- affected by wind turbulence, for example -- then serious complications might set in, because in some places older layers might be ablated away entirely, while in other areas they will be preserved.  So when it comes to interpretations, care is of the essence........

These layers are often transformed into ogives in glacier ice -- sometimes very much distorted by the complexities of ice flow around obstacles.