A Glacier Table

Another in my occasional series of photos of the world of ice.  This is a "glacier table" on a glacier in the Swiss Alps.  A large erratic has blocked incoming solar radiation and has effectively shut off the ice melting process.  So the ice around it has been ablated, or melted away, while the area in shade has been protected.  The result is a pillar of glacier ice -- as you can see, as the season progresses, and as the sun lowers in the sky, the flanks of the pillar become exposed to direct sunlight.  Eventually so much opf the pillar will be melted that the weight of the boulder can no longer be supported.  Then the whole thing will collapse -- and maybe the process will start again next year.

From the wonderful "Glaciersonline" web site.

Terrorist Assault on Ancient Monument

Having followed with interest all that stuff about soldiers and bardic chairs, I found this on the Facebook site with the link provided by Bucky.  Hope she's happy to see the picture reproduced here.

A hoody with a bow and arrow, intent upon the destruction of Stonehenge.  Isn't it ruinous enough already?  Does EH know about this?  Given the security measures from which we have all suffered in the past, I assume that this poor fellow must now be in the safe keeping of the security forces.  Guantanamo, maybe?

Maybe he missed his target, and I hope somebody will be able to assure us that he's OK after all, having been let off with a caution.....

The Great Bardic Chair Hunt -- all is revealed

Well, good for them!  Here is the latest info.  Don't expect too much accuracy.  Well, it's just a radio programme.  From the broadcast, it appears that the soldiers were heading for a "bluestone mine"  --  apparently very ancient and unique.   I wonder if they have come and gone yet, or if they are still hunting for the mine?

Very disappointed to hear that they are not hunting for bardic chairs after all in them thar hills -- just a dragon plaque presumably made from bluestone by one of the natives.........

 http://www.bfbs.com/radio/article/historic-march-for-larkhill-soldiers

A group of soldiers from Larkhill based 32 Regiment Royal Artillery on Salisbury Plain are making history this week, as they march 260 miles from their barracks to collect a very special stone.

It’s all linked to Stonehenge, its neighbouring town Amesbury, as well as to help raise funds for their local hospital.
Eight soldiers from 18 Quebec Battery set off from their base at Roberts Barracks on Monday (30th April), taking with them a scroll given to them by the mayor of Amesbury.
The men and woman will make their way through the West and into Wales and up to Pembrokeshire to the Preseli Hills where they will visit Carn Meini, an ancient mine located at the top of the Preseli Ridge and once there they will pick up a polished bluestone in the form of a dragon plaque to take back to the Heritage museum at Amesbury. The stone will be placed in a Bardic chair. Bluestones are the same type of stone that the ancient monument of Stonehenge is constructed from.
Click on the play button to hear from the team with BFBS's Shirley Swain.

A bit of fieldwork

I went up Carningli today, and heard the cuckoo for the first time this season.  So all is right with the world.  He's so late this year that I thought he must have been shot by a violent Frenchman on his way over from the Congo.....

Some interesting samples that require more expert analysis than I am able to conduct.  Click to enlarge.

What I think we are looking at here:

1.  Bedrock from near the summit of Carningli -- dolerite

2.  Very coarse volcanic agglomerate / ignimbrite (??) from the southern flank of Carningli.  Not sure whether the outcrop is bedrock or a very large erratic.

3.  The strange rock found on the shore of the estuary, across the ricer from the Parrog, Newport.  Felsite, maybe from North Wales?  See my post dated 23 Feb.

4 - 8.  Erratics exposed during land clearance off the Cilgwyn Road, about a mile from Newport.

4.  Fine-grained grey igneous rock (or could it be sandstone?) -- knocked off a nice rounded boulder.

5.  Dark reddish marl -- from the Cambrian sandstone series?  Flaky -- almost a shale...  from a rough sub-angulat boulder.

6.  Medium-grained purple sandstone.  Cambrian?  From a nice rounded boulder. Origin -- SE Ireland?

7.  Fine-grained red sandstone.  Cambrian?  From a bigger rounded boulder.  Origin -- SE Ireland?

8.  Rough  greyish volcanic ash //agglomerate?  Has vesicles -- highly variable crystal structure.  From a large sub-angular boulder.  Don't think this is local.....

I don't think any of these will match with anything from Stonehenge -- but you never know.......

I await with interest the opinion of Myris of Alexandria and other ancient Egyptians........

Lawrenny and the Altar Stone

 
 

Another re-telling of the old story.  I found this on the Lawrenny web site. Obviously the writers of this narrative have not come across the Ixer / Turner paper which argued forcefully for the Cosheston Beds having nothing to do with either the Altar Stone or with any other sandstones at Stonehenge.  They said that Altar Stone had come from the Senni Beds,  some way to the east on the other side of Carmarthen Bay.  

I'm interested also that the authors here are still going on about the "lost bluestone."  Ah well, it makes for a good story......

But hang on -- I was talking to a senior geologist the other day who suggested that the "Cosheston Beds" theory is back on again, following some more petrography..... not sure if this is published yet.  Ah, the joy of science!!  When I know more, all will be revealed.

By 1700 B.C. Milford Haven was well known as a seaway, for it was about that time that the famous bluestones were moved from the Prescelly Mountains to Canaston Bridge and down the Milford Haven to Stonehenge. Altogether some eighty stones weighing up to four tons each were transported overland to Milford Haven where they were lashed to rafts for the next stage of the journey to Stonehenge. The distance as the crow files was 135 miles and the operation must have involved at least 5,000 men.

 
Further up stream the huge altar stone 16' x 3' x 13' was being hewn out of the Cosheston beds at Langwm, while just around the corner from Lawrenny Ferry another gang was at work on the bed of micacious sandstone at Mill Bay. Somewhere in the Haven between Lawrenny and Coedcanlas is supposed to be one of the huge stones having sunk on is way from Prescelly.
We do not know the purpose of this Herculean task. Certainly it had religious significance. The Beaker people of Wessex, in their trade with Ireland, then the principal source of metal in N.W. Europe, no doubt came to hear of the spotted dolerite which was to be found in abundance on the Prescelly Mountains. Here was the material for their primitive tools and axe-heads which contributed to their economic and military strength. This part of Wales abounds with cromlechs of that period testifying to the existence of an earlier civilisation here. But the beaker tribes of Wessex were the dominating force and transferred the religious centre of power to Stonehenge and Wiltshire.

Bronze Age use of mauls and hammerstones

 

Grateful thanks to Phil for this excellent pic of mauls / hammer stones found in the Bronze Age copper mines of Parys Mountain on Anglesey.  Here we can see the stones used for the purpose of bashing off chunks of rock containing copper ore in one of the mine chambers.  I presume that the rough rock fragments are the ones containing the ore material destined eventually to be smelted into liquid copper.

Apparently some of these workings are dated to c 3,500 BC.  That's very old.......

The stones use for smashing and crushing the bedrock are smooth and manageable -- clearly brought in from river or even beach deposits in the vicinity of the mountain.  They probably have percussion marks and fractures consistent with their use for bashing things.

What's this go to do with Stonehenge?  Well, as we know there are mauls and hammerstones all over the place at Stonehenge, many of them exposed only when major excavations take place.  Many of them seem to have been used as packing stones or wedges, when the pillars were placed in their sockets and placed upright.  It will be interesting, when more evidence of Rhosyfelin emerges, to see whether there are any genuine mauls and hammerstones there, and whether these rounded stones show any evidence of actual use --  if they are really damaged, as a real maul or hammerstone should be, then we might be more inclined to believe that there might have been a quarry there.

The Hunt for the Carn Meini Bardic Chair Factory

 This is the Wet Withens Chair -- not on Preseli at all.  But no doubt there is a cultural link with the megalithic bardic chairs made in Preseli about 5,000 years ago.

 I am sure that the Salisbury Journal is a very fine newspaper, but I must admit that I almost fell off my chair when Mr Google contacted me this morning through some digital miracle,  and informed me that I'd better check out a certain URL.  So here it is:

Soldiers to march for Amesbury artefact

 30th April 2012 

By Jill Harding
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/9679021.Soldiers_to_march_for_Amesbury_artefact/


MEMBERS of the 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery have set themselves the task of obtaining the first artefact for the new Amesbury Museum.
Lieutenant Colonel Craig Palmer, commanding officer of the regiment, has set off to march the 250 miles from Amesbury to Presili in Pembrokeshire, where the inner stones of Stonehenge originally came from, to pick up a Bluestone Bardic Chair. Lt Col Palmer made the announcement to a civic service for the mayor and mayoress of Amesbury, Andy and Rebecca Rhind-Tutt at The Abbey Church of St Mary and St Melor at the weekend.
 In his mayoral address Cllr Rhind-Tutt said: “I have always believed that Amesbury was one of Britain’s best kept secrets – a treasure trove just waiting to be unlocked.
“My theme for the year was all about bringing our community together during the build-up to the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee in events and activities and encouraging everyone to think about Amesbury.”
Cllr Rhind-Tutt’s mayoral year has seen a number of community events in the town.
Amesbury Museum opened for the first time during the Easter holidays after the town council bought the former Melor Hall for the purpose.
There are hopes the hall will one day be replaced by a purpose-built visitor centre where the Bluestone Bardic Chair will be given pride of place.

This is all very wonderful, but I can't help thinking that there are health and safety issues here, not to mention human rights.  This poor soldier has obviously been encouraged to start trudging all the way off to the wilds of West Wales on some wild goose chase.  What equipment does he have with him?  Has he packed his winter woollies, in view of the unseasonably cold weather we are having?  Has he remembered his hot water bottle and his pen knife?  Is he prepared for the hazards that lie ahead -- roaring rivers, dense woodlands, hostile natives, wild animals lurking in the undergrowth?  As we speak, he is probably swimming across the Severn Estuary, with the port of Cardiff up ahead.  At least, he can pop in to one of those nice restaurants on Cardiff Bay, dry himself off and get a warming cup of Costa Coffee.

But what happens, in due course, if he survives the journey, when he staggers up onto those windswept slopes of the Eastern Preseli Hills and hopes to find bardic chairs lying about all over the place?    He will be utterly distraught, poor fellow, when he discovers that there is not a single one to be had, let alone a selection.  The distress that he will feel hardly bears thinking about. 

But hang on -- does he know something that the rest of us do not know?  Ah yes, he must have had words with Profs GW and TD, who have given him the grid coordinates to a secret bardic chair factory that is as yet unreported in the literature.

So that's it then.  We look forward to reading progress reports in future editions of the Salisbury Journal, and trust that the intrepid Lt Col Palmer will return home safe and sound, after his tour on active service.