When was the GBG?

Because the stratigraphy in many of the key sites in Somerset and Avon is difficult to interpret (and difficult to date, in spite of a plethora of modern techniques) the date of the glacial and fluvio-glacial deposits is a matter for conjecture. The latest thinking seems to be that the GBG (Greatest British Glacation) occurred in Oxygen Isotope stage 16 -- ie about 650,000 years ago. That places it before the Devensian Glaciation (the last glaciation, which peaked about 20,000 years ago) and even before the "Anglian Glaciation" -- and puts it into a period known as the Cromerian in the UK. That was a long period of oscillating climate which may have included several glacial and interglacial episodes.

The two maps above show (above) the "conservative" ice limit -- which is certainly too conservative, since we know of glacial traces outside it -- and (below) the "extreme" limit that seems, on present evidence, to accord best with the glaciological modelling. But on this map, there is a lot of "ground truthing" to be done -- ie it must, if it is to withstand scrutiny, be matched up with field evidence of erratics and maybe other ground features. Best of all, some sections have to be discovered in Somerset in which the stratigraphy of glacial and non-glacial deposits can be examined. Watch this space.....

Where are the geomorphologists?

Salisbury Plain -- glaciated or not?

I still count myself as a geomorphologist, although I retired from teaching the subject many years ago. Seeking to understand the lumps and bumps, dips and dales in the land surface is still a fascinating business, and I have tried -- over the past three years or so -- to apply the principles of geomorphology to sorting out the "bluestone question." I should have thought that professional geomorphologists -- and there are plenty of them -- would have been jostling to get in their comments on the bluestone debate. OK -- they have lots to do on the teaching front, and they all have their own pet research projects to follow through -- but surely the bluestone mystery is one of THE great mysteries which has still has to be answered? And it's a classic one in which the earth sciences -- in this case geology, geomorphology and glaciology -- have a huge amount to offer, as against the fanciful theorizing of the archaeologists. We do actually have evidence on the ground, as I have tried to point out in the book and on this blog. But those geomorphologists who have had something to say (including James Scourse, David Bowen and Chris Green) have strangely simply put up the shutters and said "No glaciation on Salisbury Plain. End of story." -- without using their critical faculties to address the manifold shortcomings of the human transport theory. Can it be that they -- like the archaeologists -- are simply afraid of rocking the boat?

The Bluestone Enigma -- the video

I put this little video onto the site in the Spring -- here it is again if anybody hasn't seen it. It's on YouTube, but the quality leaves much to be desired. It makes many of the key points of my argument -- very briefly indeed. If you need more info, you'll have to buy the book, or work through some of the entries on this blog!

Stonehenge Disloyalty

I've been getting a fair bit of stick on one of the other discussion sites on the grounds that I have shown a "lack of respect" to Stonehenge by calling it a tumbledown old ruin, an unfinished jerry-built disaster and various other things. Apparently I am supposed to show it due reverence, and to accept that it is a masterpiece of ancient engineering with wondrous spiritual qualities.........

I'm constantly intrigued that for some, Stonehenge is not just an icon but also something akin to an altar or a cathedral. OK, people can invest Stonehenge with whatever degree of sanctity they choose, but I part company with them when they say that it is somehow disrespectful -- and maybe sacriligious -- to ask serious questions about how it was built, how the stones were transported, and whether it was ever actually finished. And to talk about glaciers and erratics is somehow to question at a fundamental level man's capacity for original thinking, his aspirations and his technical abilities -- and even his spirituality. The epic story of the Neolithic tribesmen targetting and fetching all those bluestones from Wales has taken on a sort of religious significance, and is invested with the same sort of assumed truth that fundamentalist Christians apply to the books of Genesis and Exodus. People WANT to believe it. And when I come along and question the fundamentals of their belief system, they become FURIOUS!!! Strange old world...... a world in which rational assessments of evidence become all but impossible.

Bluestones everywhere

Normanton Barrows from the air

I've been reminded that there are many other bluestone occurrences on Salisbury Plain besides those mentioned in the last post. In the big OU study published in 1991 there are about 30 mentions of bluestone fragments / flakes / pieces found in locations outside Stonehenge. Among the barrows mentioned are Amesbury 51, Amesbury 4, Amesbury 39,Stoke 28, Heytesbury 1 (Boles Barrow), Lake, Winterbourne Monkton, Cursus, Fargo Plantation, and about 20 fragments mentioned by Julian Richards. Some fragments appear to be flakes from axes, but many are not. Included are spotted dolerites, rhyolites, unspotted dolerites, diorite, granodiorite and other bits unidentified. Much work is still to be done on these fragments and pieces. Are they all related to the working of bluestones at Stonehenge? That's very doubtful indeed -- as it is also doubtful that the fragments are all bits or roadstone or "surface litter." Many of the pieces are in barrow soil or fill -- and are not in positions where they might be placed if they were being treated with reverence because of some special "quality."

I think we are beginning to answer those who keep on saying "If the bluestones are erratics, why aren't there bluestones all over the place on Salisbury Plain?" Well, there apparently ARE bluestones all over the place........

Bluestone scatter on Salisbury Plain......

I reported earlier on Geoff Kellaway's conviction that there is (or was) a scatter of bluestones and bluestone fragments (of all sorts) on Salisbury Plain. I've seen a number of references lately to bluestone fragments in the Normanton Barrows complex to the SW of Stonehenge. Now I came across this, in Julian Thomas's 1999 book "Understanding the Neolithic." On p 179 he says: "... bluestone fragments in several Beaker and Early Bronze Age graves, such as Amesbury 51 and Fargo Plantation........ and Amesbury 4......"

Does anybody know anything about these fragments?

The other sandstones

With ref to the recent discussion on the Altar Stone, I just recalled that there are 2 (at least) other sandstone monoliths in the bluestone circle at Stonehenge -- numbered 40g and 42c. They are conveniently forgotten about, because they are just represented as stumps, buried beneath the turf and now no longer visible.

Where have they come from? Well, four sandstone fragments (that may or may not be linked directly to these stumps) have been examined by Dr RG Thomas, Dr Rob Ixer and Dr Peter Turner -- and it turns out that they are not the same as the Altar Stone sandstone, and not from the Cosheston Beds. They may be Silurian sandstones, from western Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion or mid-Wales.