Engleheart on Boles Barrow and the Bluestones

On looking again at the Boles Barrow material, I was reminded of this comment from Rev Engleheart, tagged onto the end of the article by Howard Cunnington in the 1924 Wilts Magazine, p 432.

https://archive.org/stream/wiltshirearchaeo421922192#page/436/mode/2up

He has his dates all wrong, which is not terribly surprising-- and he tells a nice tale about the Neolithic bluestone argonauts passing by Heytesbury, dropping and breaking a bluestone monolith, and then chucking the pieces into Boles Barrow along with many chunks of sarsen collected from the vicinity.  But the reverend gentleman was a pretty good observer, and he states quite categorically that the bluestones at Stonehenge "were not quarried but were picked up as boulders, more or less worn and smoothed by the action of the ice and exposure through ages to the weather."  A man after my own heart -- agreeing with Thomas about a glacial transport process, and saying what I have been saying for years about the characteristics of the Stonehenge bluestones (apart from a few which have clearly been worked).

And talking of those fragments in the debitage -- "one at least shows unmistakable ice-striation".  That's rather interesting.  I wonder what happened to that fragment?

As I have said before, the quarrying fantasy did not start with Thomas, but with Atkinson and those who followed him.  So that particular myth is really only about 60 years old. 

The earliest Wiltshire standing stones?

 The illustrations from the Cunnington article of 1924

On p 59 of the new book by David Field and David McOmish, there is a mention of three long barrows -- assumed dates around 6,000 - 5,500 BP -- which appear to have had standing stones or foreign stones built into them.

One of these is Boles Barrow, and in referring to the Cunnington observations, the authors seem quite happy to accept that the old fellow did indeed find a bluestone boulder inside it. Was it the "broken" boulder currently in the Salisbury Museum?  Others have of course suggested that if a chunk of a larger standing stone went to Haytesbury House and ended up in Salisbury, maybe the rest of the standing stone is still there, inside Boles Barrow, or maybe somewhere nearby?
William Cunnington, who dug into Boles Barrow in 1801, died in 1810.  Here is the original record from Howard Cunnington, in The Wiltshire Magazine, June 1924:
https://archive.org/stream/wiltshirearchaeo421922192#page/n477/mode/2up
 
He was of course completely certain that the provenance of the stone was correct, and that it came from Boles Barrow, and not from Stonehenge.  I too am convinced -- the documentary trail is completely authentic, and the only debate about provenance related to a piece of granite that appears to have had nothing to do with either Boles Barrow or Stonehenge.  HTT of course confirmed that the Boles Barrow stone was spotted dolerite, virtually identical to the stone which is well represented in the Stonehenge bluestone assemblage.

By the way, wasn't there supposed to be a definitive geological study of the Boles Barrow stone, with new laser imagery and new petrography?  I know there was some work reported in the Carn Goedog paper, but I thought there was more on the way......... (we had a bit of a chat about it back in May).

The next one is a long barrow at Arn Hill, near Warminster, on the chalk escarpment, which had "a standing stone set within."  No radiocarbon date, but the earliest example of a standing stone in Wiltshire?

The third one is at Knook, where the authors seem to think there was a standing stone which was later broken up, and the bits incorporated into the long barrow.

I know Tony gave us a steer on all of this a while ago -- but does anybody else have info on any, or all, of these sites?  I tried to find the EH scheduled monument records, but didn't have any success......

Neolithic things near Rhosyfelin?

I'll hazard a guess that this year's quarryman's dig might well be at Pensarn Junction, the location of which is shown on the satellite image above.  The position of a small foliated rhyolite standing stone (about 1.5 m high) is shown in the middle of the field, with Chris for scale, and if I was an archaeologist desperate to find something interesting, that might well be where I would open up a pit. 

There may be other stone sockets in the vicinity, and although the chances are that everything man-made beneath the turf is Bronze Age, maybe -- just maybe -- something older will be found as well. Anything will do -- and of course anything dateable to the Neolithic will be flagged up as a big story, confirming to the archaeologists that Rhosyfelin was a Neolithic quarry from which standing stones were taken for local use.  Not exactly Proto-Stonehenge, but what the hell -- when you are in a spot of bother, anything will do.........

If you are a rational human being, of course, one or more rhyolite standing stones in this area does nothing at all to confirm the quarrying hypothesis -- it simply means that (as was the case all over Pembrokeshire) some old fellows found elongated stones lying around and thought they would look nicer if they were standing.  Occam's Razor applies.

Watch this space.....

The diggers are back.....again....

 One of the photos of the 2016 Pensarn dig, showing the Bronze Age cist burial site at Pensarn -- from Emyr Jones's Facebook page

This is an interesting brief report on one student's involvement in the 2016 digs by MPP and his team.
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/news/ugbursaries-ayres-1.672001

The diggers have moved  back into the area, and news will no doubt filter through about where the 2017 digging is going on.  I'm not going out searching -- I have too many other things to do with my time.   Anyway, I understand that the diggers plan to dig once again in the Pensarn area, not far from Rhosyfelin -- somebody told me that this year's dig is essentially a "training dig" for students, but we can be in no doubt that the search for the Holy Grail is still going on.  These guys will probably not stop until they have found something Neolithic (a passage grave or something similar), maybe with a stone socket hole or two so that they can invest the site with significance.  The real search is of course for Proto-Stonehenge -- because MPP is now hell-bent on selling the idea that Stonehenge was really a Welsh monument, put up initially somewhere between Rhosyfelin and Carn Goedog, and then dismantled and carted off all the way to Salisbury Plain.

The programme of local talks for late September is already organized.  Book your tickets now, folks.......... pay over your money, and do your bit to keep the myth machine in good running order.......

Cunnington on Aubrey Holes and bluestone chips

Purely by chance, this was in the same WANH magazine as the note about the stone axes.  Cunnington here implies that there are bluestone chips in multiple holes -- but he and his colleagues at the time were quite convinced that the holes had NOT contained bluestones, but were simply post holes.  This flies in the face of what MPP claims -- as far as I know, he still promotes the idea of the Aubrey Holes holding a full setting of bluestones at a very early stage in the history of the monument......

THE RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT STONEHENGE,
By Lt.-Col. R. H. Cunnington.
Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine, VOL. XLIV. — NO. CXLIX.  (1927-1929), p 32 

Extract: p 338 The Recent Excavations at Stonehenge.

Since it has been shown that the holes probably contained wooden posts it must be assumed that the depressions were due to the stumps gradually rotting away. The slow sinking caused by the disappearance of the wood would be balanced to a great extent by the growth of turf above, and the filling of the depressions since Aubrey's time shows how quick the process is. But in Aubrey's time there were still depressions, and that implies that the wood had not then, or had not very long before, completely decayed away.

 The presence of blue stone chips so far down in the holes can also be best explained as following down the rotting wood. They were "rarely found below 20in." (Vol. L, 33) and decreased in quantity downwards. One hole, No. 5, shows them at 2ft. 6in. depth, or 15in. below the level of the surrounding chalk (Vol. I., 83), but they were never found quite at the bottom. It is unlikely that the blue stones were chipped until after the posts were erected, for if the chips had been lying on the surface some would have fallen in with the packing, but there is no reason to suppose that any long interval intervened.

 The gradation of stone chips also shows that the filling was never subsequently disturbed by renewal of the posts.

The early reports suggested that the holes might have held a ring of the blue stones before they were trimmed. The only argument for this seems to have been that the numbers roughly correspond. The shape of the holes, round instead of oblong, is almost sufficient to preclude this idea ; they also seem to be too small ; and even without the further blue stone stumps or holes that have been found, they were probably too few. Also if stones had been taken out and the holes filled up, it is hardly conceivable that de- pressions would remain until Aubrey's time, at least 2000 years later.

"Foreign" stone implements from N Wiltshire

 HH Thomas, geologist and antiquarian, 1876-1935

Thanks to Gordon for drawing attention to this -- a record of 21 implements made from "imported stone" -- from an area of Palaeozoic rocks.  Found mostly in North Wiltshire.

NOTES ON STONE IMPLEMENTS OF MATERIAL FOREIGN TO WILTSHIRE IN THE COLLECTION OF MR A. D. PASSMORE.

By H. H. Thomas, F.R.S., and A. D. Passmore.

Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine, VOL. XLIV. — NO. CXLIX. (1927-1929)
1928, Pages 246-247
NB.  This article has been scanned and placed on the web -- so there may be inaccuracies in the following text.  Please check by going back to the original:
https://archive.org/stream/wiltshirearchaeo441927/wiltshirearchaeo441927_djvu.txt


(ADP) Amongst thousands of stone implements in my own collection from N. Wilts and the adjoining part of Berks are twenty-one specimens made from imported blue or green stone probably obtained in prehistoric times by barter for flint ; thirteen of these are from N. Wilts and consist of polished axes or parts thereof, four with circular cutting edges, pointed butts and nearly round sections are of an early pre-dolmen type ; three with straighter cutting edges, flattened oval sections, and thin butts are later. One fine axe has a slightly curved cutting edge, flattened oval section, thin butt with the side edges ground square, and is the latest of all. The remainder are fragments or lower halves of axes with flattened oval sections. The large perforated hammer axe herein illustrated has a peculiar history. Found in 1840 alongside the Roman road, south of Ogbourne St. George, towards Bytham Farm, it was placed on a mantel shelf and kept in the finder's family till acquired by the writer in 1923. Its length is 6in., its greatest breadth 2in., and its height 2in (i.e., length of perforation). The hole measures 32 mm. in diameter in one direction and 29 mm. in the other. Traces of the original polish may be seen inside. Outside the whole surface is much decayed and pitted by weathering. It weighs 2 lbs. 13 ozs. The hammer end is round in section ; at the centre in the region of the perforation it is square ; while near the cutting edge it is oblong. The hammer end is slightly lower than the other.

All these implements are surface finds, and in no way connected with barrows or earthworks. As a whole they afford valuable evidence of origin, and in this respect were most kindly examined by Dr. H. H. Thomas, F.B.S., whose remarks are as follows.
A. D. P.

-----------------------

(HHT) The implements are of a variety of stone and include dolerites, rhyolite, quartzite and silicified shale and sandstone. The dolerite implements, of which there are a good many, are easily grouped under three separate heads : —

(I). — A moderately coarse olivine dolerite in which decomposed olivine is conspicuous as red and yellow ochreous spots, and which weathers with a pitted surface.

(II ).— A similarly textured dolerite without conspicuous olivine.

(III.). — A finer grained grey speckled dolerite also with no obvious olivine.

DOLERITES (Group I.).

1. Half of axe from Liddington, a moderately compact blue grey dolerite with ocherous pseudomorphs after olivine and weathering with a pitted surface.

2. Axe from Avebury, blue grey compact dolerite with abundant ocherous pseudomorphs after olivine.

3. Cutting edge of an axe from Medbourne, of flattened oval section. This is of olivine dolerite with a cavernous surface.

4. Pointed butt of axe from Medbourne, blue grey dolerite with abundant pseudomorphs after olivine.

Group II.

5. Large axe hammer from Ogbourne; this is a coarse grained even textured non-porphyritic greenish-grey dolerite fairly rich in ilmenite and weathered in a rough surface.

6. Axe from Aldbourne, with pointed butt, four inches long, made from dolerite without conspicuous olivine, no obvious ilmenite but the similarity to the stone of the above axe hammer is close.

7. Pointed butt of an axe from Liddington Castle, dolerite without conspicuous olivine, rather fine grained but appears to be similar to Nos. 6 and 22 (a Berks specimen not here described).

8. Half of axe, thin-butted and of flat oval section, from line of Kennett Avenue, Avebury, moderately coarse greenish grey ophitic dolerite similar to the axe hammer and No. 6.

9. Top half of axe, long narrow shape with flattened oval section from Liddington, cavernous surface but appears to be dolerite of the kind without conspicuous olivine.

Group III.

10. A small thin-butted axe with very flattened section, 3 inches long by two inches wide and only 1 inch thick, from Aldbourne. A very fine grained grey speckled dolerite or diabase ; it is unlike any included in the other groups and appears to be olivine free.

Sandstones.

11. A small fragment from Liddington Castle, is a fine grained dark grey sandstone not of local derivation.

Indurated Shale.

12. A thin scraper-like implement (probably part of axe) of black silicified shale. At first I thought it was felsite but the material is too soft and it seems to contain flakes of mica. From Liddington.

Rhyolites and Rhyolitic Ashes.

13. Axe from bed of stream south of Lechlade in the parish of Inglesham, is of this group, its red colour is due to accidental firing.

All the implements are imported and made of stone brought from some area of palaeozoic rocks, the types are such as could be procured from N. Wales and the Welsh borders, but other areas of similar rocks are potential sources and our accumulated facts are not yet sufficient to indicate with certainty one region rather than another ; personally, I am inclined to regard Wales as the most likely source.

H. H. T. VOL. XLIV. — NO. CXLIX.

Devensian sediments at Aber Bach (Hescwm)

We actually went in for a swim the other evening,  at Aber Bach (Hescwm), between Pwllgwaelod and Fishguard on the Cardigan Bay coast.  Freezing cold, it was......

Anyway, some good came of it, because I discovered that there is a rather fine exposure there at the moment, at the head of the bay, where the footpath comes down to the pebble beach.  We can see about a metre thickness of beautiful pseudo-bedded slope deposits (made of mudstone fragments from the adjacent cliffs).  On top of that is a layer of "churned" slope deposits, almost certainly attributable to the movement of ice across the old shoreline, pressing south-eastwards.  This is about 50 cms thick.  And above that is classic Irish Sea till, fine-grained, calcareous and containing a scatter of small erratics cobbles and pebbles.  There are some larger clasts as well, but the exposure is obscured by slumping and vegetation, so the thickness is difficult to determine.  It seems to be at least 2 m thick.

So the early part of the glacial cycle is represented here -- and of course the section ties in very nicely with that at Aber-mawr.  Here is the sequence, in its correct stratigraphic position:

Dessicated surface of the exposed Irish Sea till.

"Churned" slope deposits underlying Irish Sea till.  This represents the arrival of Irish Sea Glacier ice coming in from Cardigan Bay

 Pseudo-stratified slope deposits, possibly accumulated during the Early or Middle Devensian. At the base the sediments are contorted.

Without excavation it is not possible to see what happened here during the Late Glacial and post-glacial period.