A bit of a spat

Been having an interesting exchange on another blog with a certain well-known archaeologist, arising from the fact that I chastised him (ever so gently) for writing with total certainty that the bluestones on Salisbury Plain were "imported from Wales" by the people who inhabited Salisbury Plain in days gone by. I suggested that the facts do not allow such expressions of absolute certainty, and that it might have been more appropriate to use the phrase "possibly imported from Wales" or some such thing. For my pains, I got a blast to the effect that our hero's "research and understanding" leads him to believe that our ancestors were capable of doing wonderful things which defy rational explanation or current understanding -- and that although there is no EVIDENCE supporting the human transport hypothesis, that doesn't seem to matter that much. In other words, if our hero wants to believe it's true, then it is true.

When one is confronted by senior archaeologists who believe that working hypotheses (such as the one about human bluestone transport) are not hypotheses at all, but are actually TRUE, because they want them to be true, it seems to me that scientific debate becomes impossible. That's actually rather sad...... and it reminds me of a dear friend of mine who terminates every argument that she is losing by saying "I don't believe what you are saying, even if it's true!"

More about that BIG glaciation

UK ice limits of various ages. Source: "Age limits on Middle Pleistocene glacial sediments from OSL dating, north Norfolk, UK." by Steven M. Pawley et al

There have been more recent articles about ice limits in the UK, and how they are defined. there is still much confusion about what happened between the Devensian (Last Glacial Maximum) limit of around 20,000 years ago and the Anglian ice limit dated to around 380,000 - 450,000 years ago. In between there are various glacial deposits and traces variously referred to as Gipping, Saalian, Riss, Wolstonian and by assorted other names. It appears that across England the ice advances (if there were indeed several) appear to be overlapping and confused -- maybe more extensive in some areas and less in others, and sometimes incorporating/recycling pre-existing deposits. All very confusing.

Increasingly it looks as if the Anglian Glaciation occurred during Marine Isotope stage 12, and that the Saalian Glaciation (which may include a multitude of sins) occurred during Marine Isotope Stage 8.

So we are homing in here on the Anglian Glaciation as the time of the GBG (Greatest British Glaciation). There is nothing new there -- Kellaway and others first suggested this decades ago -- but it is gratifying that modern research in East Anglia and elsewhere is confirming this old hypothesis. Now all we have to do is fix the precise glacial limit at this time. As I have argued before, the limit is well beyond the ice edge position shown on the above map -- I'm pleading with geomorphologists to get stuck in on this problem, and to come up with an answer.

Fairy Tale or Sci-Fi Spoof?

Sorry folks -- I have just realized that that stuff about the "new Stonehenge" and the latest earth-shattering discoveries from Salisbury Plain was just an April fool's joke (quite a good one, it must be admitted) that got left over from April 1st....... in my last few posts I have taken it far too seriously.

Just think about it. The Birmingham University University IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre?? Working with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria?? And is the said Prof Vince Gaffney a Virtual Archaeologist?

Perhaps nothing is real? And maybe our friends Wainwright, Darvill and Parker Pearson are really nothing but figments of our imagination? And if they don't exist, maybe Stonehenge doesn't exist either? Maybe it's just a gigantic hologram, paid for by English Heritage and the English Tourist Board to bring foreign currency into the UK and to promote the idea that there are clever archaeologists beavering away on important things, using terribly sophisticated scientific techniques? I'll put a fiver down and bet you that the next earth-shattering development will come from the University of Shrewton Atkinson Institute for Virtual Excavation, with funding from Google Earth and exclusive rights sold to the Murdoch News Empire.

Pitts has a go at Stonehenge media hype

A strange tale of Senior Professors and innocent journalists, all out with the fairies......

On his blog site Mike Pitts has had a real go at the media hype surrounding the latest "spectacular" discovery from the Stonehenge environs, which turns out not to be new and probably not to be a timber monument at all -- as it happens, the "new" site is pretty well known as part of a group of catalogued barrows, and its age is probably very different from that claimed in the press release from Birmingham University.

This is what the hype manufacturing unit at Birmingham came up with:

“History is set to be rewritten after an archaeology team led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria discovered a major ceremonial monument less than one kilometre away from the iconic Stonehenge. The incredible find has been hailed by Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University’s IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre, as one of the most significant yet for those researching the UK’s most important prehistoric structure.”

"History is set to be rewritten" ??!! "....a major ceremonial monument...." ??!! "The incredible find..." ??!! "...one of the most significant yet.." ??!! Come off it, you guys. That is all a load of old cobblers, and you know it. They are all at it -- Parker Pearson, Darvill, Wainwright, and now Gaffney. They are all trying to out-hype one another -- and the ladies and gentlemen of the media, who are as gullible as ever, just regurgitate the nonsense which is fed to them without a moment's thought, let alone critical analysis.

Oh dear oh dear. No wonder archaeology is turning into a laughing stock.

Another flight of fancy?

Here are the two images widely reproduced in the world's media for the new "Woodhenge" found on Salisbury Plain. One might be forgiven for thinking that the scan image (made from a combination of radar scanning and magnetometry) is very interesting, but maybe an inadequate basis for the very fanciful reconstruction of what the site might have looked like c 4,500 years ago. Remember that there has been no excavation on this site. This is an ongoing survey -- and probably many more interesting things will emerge from the work in the environs of Stonehenge.

But why on earth can't the academics involved resist the temptation to go into all sorts of wild speculation about the materials used, the age of the structure, and even its purpose? There is even speculation that this might have been another "Bluestonehenge" -- although in that case there was precious little info to go on, and here there is even less. Mike Pitts has sought to damp down the enthusiasm of the wildest speculators, and Dennis Price has had a real go at them on his "Eternal Idol" Blog. I agree with both of them. But there is a sort of madness that infects people as soon as Stonehenge is mentioned, causing normal rational thought processes to be abandoned........

See here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10726307
http://www.eternalidol.com/?p=7512

The New Stonehenge site

So there´s a new wonderful Stonehenge site? There was a lot of media coverage about it in July. Actually it's not at Stonehenge at all, and appears to have been a timber monument dating from maybe 2,500 BC. As ever, the media was full of hype about its significance, but as in the case of *Bluestonehenge* the amount of actual physical evidence relating to bluestones is remarkably small.

I'll have a good look at the info in the public domain, and will report back......

Back in harness again....

Sorry I have been out of action for so long. Six weeks away in Sweden -- glorious weather, very relaxing, and no broadband connection (except when I managed to sneak in to collect my Emails from a relative's wi-fi setup). A lot to catch up on.....