Folk memories of the Holocene sea-level rise

There's an interesting article doing the rounds today which argues -- very convincingly -- that Aboriginal stories about "lost lands" off the coasts of Australia cannot have been fabricated or passed on from one group to another, given the enormous distances which separate the various tribal areas.  On that basis, argue the authors, we must have an actual folk memory transmitted in the form of stories over thousands of generations -- going back maybe 13,000 years.

Another point made by the authors is that these stories (based on the post-glacial or Holocene inundation from -120m to more or less present-day sea-level) do not relate to flood stories (like the Biblical Noah's Flood) since they all tell of a PERMANENT loss of land, not a temporary catastrophic inundation.

All very interesting.  Where I part company with the authors is over the matter of how unique these Aboriginal stories are.  They may be unique to the United States and Australia, but in Europe that are by no means uncommon.  Atlantis, Dogger Land etc.........  and the best story of all is of course the tale (or tales) of the Lowland Hundred or Cantre'r Gwaelod in Cardigan Bay, inundated by a rising sea level and never recovered.  I have discussed Cantre'r Gwaelod and the submerged forests of Wales on a number of occasions.  See here, for example:

http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/inundation-of-cardigan-bay-oldest-story.html
The inundation of Cardigan Bay -- the oldest story in Wales?
http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/did-our-ancient-ancestors-have-chain.html
http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/newgale-submerged-forest-2014-exposures.html


and this is a good summary in Wikipedia:

The folk memory of Cantre'r Gwaelod
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantre%27r_Gwaelod
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Deep time: Aboriginal stories tell of when the Great Barrier Reef was dry land
Nick Reid & Patrick Nunn
29th January 2015
The Ecologist


Stories told by Australia's Aboriginal peoples tell of the time, over 10,000 years ago, when the last Ice Age came to an end, and sea levels rose by 120 metres, write Nick Reid & Patrick Nunn. The narratives tally with the findings of contemporary science, raising the question: what is it about Aborigines and their culture than so accurately transmitted their oral traditions across thousands of generations?

http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/Blogs/2711943/deep_time_aboriginal_stories_tell_of_when_the_great_barrier_reef_was_dry_land.html

http://research.usc.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/usc:14264?queryType=vitalDismax&query=indigenous+australian+stories

Indigenous Australian stories and sea-level change

Reid, N
Nunn, Patrick
Sharpe, M

Abstract

Oral traditions, especially contrasted with written history, are typically portrayed as inaccurate. Commenting on native title claims in the US, Simic (2000) made the specific claim: “As a general rule, unwritten legends that refer to events more than 1,000 years in the past contain little, if any, historical truth”. So can preliterate Indigenous languages tell us anything factual about the distant past, or does the transmission of historical facts become inevitably corrupted? Changes in sea levels around the Australian coast are now well established. Marine geographers can now point to specific parts of the Australian coast and know with some confidence what the sea levels were at a particular time before the present. This paper reports on a substantial body of Australian Aboriginal stories that appear to represent genuine and unique observations of post-glacial increases in sea level, at time depths that range from about 13,400–7,500 years BP. This paper makes the case that endangered Indigenous languages can be repositories for factual knowledge across time depths far greater than previously imagined, forcing a rethink of the ways in which such traditions have been dismissed.

Testing to destruction

Carngoedog, Carnmeini and Craig Rhosyfelin -- wonderful spots for picnics and maybe a bit of hunting.... but are they quarry sites?  Hmmm....

We all enjoy a bit of knockabout fun on this blog, and I like to think we are testing the glacial transport hypothesis to destruction.  If it stands up, fine, and if in the end it falls, that's fine too, since the truth will out........

But I don't see much evidence from anywhere of the archaeologists testing the human transport hypothesis to destruction.   Is that debate going on, somewhere behind the scenes?  Or is there a sort of orthodoxy that prevails, and woe betide anybody who strays into the realms of blasphemy?  One has heard rather sad tales of diggers at Rhosyfelin being hauled over the coals  by the powers that be, for daring to question some of the tenets of belief of the high priesthood -- are those tales true or false?

Let's help the process along by asking the archaeologists to address these particular issues and to do a little testing to destruction on this blog, or maybe somewhere else........

Why the obsession with quarry hunting, in the light of all this:

1.  There is no sound evidence from anywhere in the British Neolithic / Bronze Age record of large stones being hauled over long distances for incorporation in a megalithic monument.

2.  The builders of Neolithic monuments across the UK, as a general rule, used whatever large stones were at hand.

3. If ancestor stones were being transported to Stonehenge, why have all of the known bluestone orthostats come from the west, and not from any other points of the compass?

4.  There is no known evidence either from West Wales or from anywhere else of bluestones (for example, spotted dolerite or rhyolite) being used preferentially in megalithic monuments, or revered in any way.

5.  If long-distance stone haulage was "the great thing" for the builders of Stonehenge, why is there no known evidence of the development of the appropriate haulage technology leading up to the late Neolithic, and a decline afterwards?  It is a complete technological aberration.

6. The evidence for quarrying activity in key locations is questionable, to put it mildly.  The Carn Meini "quarry" has now effectively been ruled out by the geologists.  Rhosyfelin next?

7.  The sheer variety of bluestone types  (I still insist the figure is somewhere near 30) argues against selection and human transport.  There cannot possibly have been more than ten "bluestone quarries" scattered about West Wales.

8.  No physical evidence has ever been found of ropes, rollers, trackways, sledges, abandoned stones, quarrymen's camps, or anything else that might bolster the hypothesis.

9.  Bits and pieces of experimental archaeology on stone haulage techniques (normally in "ideal" conditions) have done nothing to show that our ancestors could cope with the sheer physical difficulty of stone haulage across the heavily-wooded Neolithic terrain of West Wales (characterised by bogs, cataracts, steep slopes and very few clearings) or around the rocky coast.  Aubrey Burl made this point forcefully many years ago, and it remains forceful today.

10.  And if there was a "proto-Stonehenge" somewhere, built of assorted local stones and then dismantled and taken off to Stonehenge, where was it?  Herbert Thomas thought it might have been near Cilymaenllwyd (south of Preseli) and now MPP thinks it might have been north of Preseli, either at Waun Mawn or Castell Mawr).  Again, no known evidence.......

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PS. I am trying to avoid the use of that horrible expression "There is no evidence......."  That phrase is the curse of the scientific literature.  It is used as a throwaway line by scientists of all descriptions just to make them sound authoritative and to bolster their arguments.  No doubt I have done it myself, very often.  How many people who have used the phrase have found it returning to haunt them or to bite them on the backside, when somebody comes along and shows that the evidence was there all the time, unnoticed?

What we should actually say is "There is no known evidence......"  or  "There is nothing in the literature to suggest this or that......." or even "There is no unequivocal evidence...."  or  "There is no sound evidence....."  That would all be rather more honest, and would avoid future embarrassment!

Winter wonderland

Another quirky ice phenomenon.  This photo, from the BBC web site, shows "mini icicles" adjacent to a road in Herefordshire during the recent cold weather.  What has happened, apparently, is that a puddle on the adjacent road as been driven through by many cars, splashing water droplets onto the hedge and fence at the roadside.  Because of the sub-zero temperatures, these droplets have frozen on contact or shortly thereafter, and this is what has created these icicle formations.  There is a certain amount of randomness, as you might expect, and more of the drops have hit the lower part of this eccentric ice sculpture, with gravity then playing its part as the moisture has run down each icicle, growing some of them to lengths of almost 20 cms.  Hallelujah!  isn't nature wonderful?

Worth knowing, or not?

I found this rather entertaining -- relevant maybe to our current discussion on whether archaeology, history and museums are worthwhile in the great scheme of things!

Perhaps we should investigate whether archaeologists, not archaeology itself,  are worthwhile......

Stonehenge Lecture -- 31st January

News of a new lecture at the end of the month.  Happy to give it some publicity,  and happy to publish any reports from anybody who manages to go along........

It looks as if this is largely to do with more accurate surveying and recording and with the "visualisation" of the landscape -- so I'm not sure what this will throw up in the way of important new information which will increase our understanding of what went on, and why.    Anyway, let's wait and see......

LECTURE: The Stonehenge Landscape – 31st January

by stonehengenews

There will be a lecture by Sharon Soutar of English Heritage at Devizes Town Hall, Wiltshire, England from 2:30 pm on Saturday, 31 January 2015. 

With the construction of the new Visitor Centre at Airman’s Corner it was vital that Stonehenge and its surrounding landscape were re-presented with the fullest and most up-to-date information available. Fantastic as it may seem very few of the monuments, not even Stonehenge itself, had been surveyed to modern standards. To rectify this English Heritage set up a project to significantly enhance the record and understanding of all upstanding archaeological monuments within the World Heritage Site. The fieldwork was conducted between 2009 and 2012 and the book is nearing publication, while a number of research reports on the different areas are available through the website (see below).

The fieldwork covered just over 15% of the World Heritage Site in detail. It included Stonehenge, the Greater Cursus and all of the principal barrow cemeteries and incorporated sites later in date, such as the medieval settlement earthworks at Lake. English Heritage surveyed almost half of the known or suspected round barrows within the WHS; nearly all of those surviving as earthworks. At the same time colleagues looked at the historic buildings, added high resolution Ground Penetrating Radar [GPR] to complement earlier geophysical surveys and took new photography of the landscape and artefacts found within it. ~English Heritage also commissioned a laser scan of the stones and surrounding henge.

Sharon will describe some of the important discoveries resulting from the project and take a look at the more surprising aspects of the field archaeology in the Stonehenge landscape.

Sharon is a landscape archaeologist specialising in the survey and visualisation of heritage landscapes and data; from maps and site plans right through to infographics. After a number of years interpreting and mapping archaeology visible in aerial photographs and lidar data for different parts of England she was lucky enough to join the team investigating the Stonehenge WHS landscape.

The project webpage is: www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/research/landscapes-and-areas/archaeological-field-survey-and-investigation/stonehenge-landscape/

The project monograph is due for publication in the spring of 2015:
Bowden, M.C.B., Soutar, S., Field, D.J. and Barber, M.J. forthcoming. The Stonehenge Landscape. Swindon: EH.

The 1:10,000 scale map - Stonehenge and Avebury: Exploring the World Heritage Site is available in our shop www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/stonehenge-avebury-map

The various Research Department Reports are available through: research.english-heritage.org.uk

Booking:
Essential. To contact us, either:
* Tel: 01380 727369 to book and pay using credit/debit card (Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm preferred)
* Send an e-mail
Visit the Wiltshire Museum website: http://www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=972&prev=1

Whatever happened to Rhosyfelin?

Time for another gripe.  After four seasons (2011-2014) of excavations at this site by Mike Parker Pearson and his team, all we have to show for it is a terrible mess. (This photo was taken shortly after the end of the 2014 dig; God knows what it looks like now.......)

There have been no published excavation reports, no published radiocarbon dates, no peer-reviewed articles, and nothing at all for interested parties to analyse and discuss.  Assorted pop articles and a chapter in MPP's book are no substitutes for proper reporting and informed discussion.

In place of scientific rigour we have seen endless press releases, media coverage and hype, and evening lectures in the 4 village halls in the local community -- and that's all we have in exchange for thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money.

Has anybody ever done a cost / benefit analysis on all of this?

Does anybody know anything?  What on earth is going on?

The Sleek Stone

Nothing to do with erratics!  Worth sharing.  This is for geology buffs -- the stripped-out core of the pitching monoclinal fold of Sleek Stone, Broad Haven, Pembrokeshire.  A real text-book landform......  the barnacles cover that part of the feature affected by the tides each day.  Almost certainly the "stripping out" of broken blocks of sandstone and shale has been done entirely by wave action in this exposed coastal location.