Preseli -- the naked truth

A very revealing story from the Pembrokeshire Herald, for all those who are interested in Stonehenge and the bluestones.  In case you wondered, the tor in the photo is Carn Bica, and the pic was taken from Bedd Arthur, one of the places where King Arthur is buried.  Has Arthur risen from the grave, to save us from Brexit, just as he promised to do?  Watch this space -- I shall report any further sightings of this mysterious figure..............

Preseli Hills: Shocked walker photographed naked ‘feral looking’ man

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May 28, 2017
http://www.pembrokeshire-herald.com/35187/preseli-hills-shocked-walker-photographed-naked-feral-looking-man/

A WALKER says that he encountered a feral looking naked man on his walk on the Preseli Hills yesterday (May 27)

The astonished visitor says that he managed to keep cool, calm and collected and even managed to take photographs of the mystery individual on the well known trail near Eglwyswrw.

Nick Pentecost told The Herald: “It was the weirdest afternoon walk yesterday ever!  I went for a wander, as I regularly do, into the Preselis.

“I was walking to the top of Carn Goedog with no one around as usual except in the distance I suddenly thought I saw this figure and as I looked closely it turns out I was right. To my amazement and shock I realised I was looking at a feral looking man, hunched over looking at the ground.

“I paused and managed to get my phone out and take a few snaps.

“I watched him walking around kind of calmly and sort of aimlessly for about 20 seconds then I think he noticed me and I very quickly turned and sped back down the mountain to my car.

“I looked back to see if he had followed me but didn’t see the figure again.  Very, very strange!"

Stuart Piggott at work (not Atkinson)

I love this picture from the Atkinson collection at English Heritage.  The great man is the one with the pipe.  This was taken in the good old days, before safety was invented.......

Postscript:  Originally I headed this post with a reference to Richard Atkinson  -- but thanks to Simon we now know that the fellow on his knees, smoking a pipe, wearing a natty boiler suit,  is Stuart Piggott.

Pentre Ifan video

Here is a new CGI video from Cadw, showing what Pentre Ifan is assumed to have looked like.  All very dramatic and moody........

Shared from BBC News:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-south-west-wales-29380830/watch-cadw-s-cgi-video-of-pentre-ifan-in-pembrokeshire

Preseli: the eastern tors

I rather like this photo, taken a couple of days ago!  Click to enlarge......

Carn Meini (the craggy area at top left) is often described as the most prominent feature of the Preseli skyline,  and this is used as an explanation for its desirability as a sacred site and as a quarrying site.  Actually the prominence of the skyline features is very dependent upon where you are standing.  If you are a Neolithic trader wandering along the "Golden Road" or ridge trackway, on the spine of Mynydd Preseli, Carn Meini is not particularly prominent, and from this viewpoint (on Foel Dyrch) the most prominent of the tors is Carn Gyfrwy -- the one towards top right.

Anyway, whatever the perceived desirability and significance of particular crags might have been, this is a rather wonderful landscape.......

Stonehenge and the arrival of the Beaker hordes

An interesting article in the paper today:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/20/dutch-invaders-stonehenge-ancient-britons#img-1

It suggests that during the construction of Stonehenge there was a major incursion into Middle England of the Dutch tribes bearing beakers.  Must check out how strong the evidence is -- there is clearly some debate.  But it's suggested in the article that this all happened before "the Stonehenge project" was completed.  So does this back up my thesis that Stonehenge never was completed?  I have always had concerns that the "immaculate Stonehenge" made of c 80 sarsens and c 80 bluestones -- as imagined by generations of archaeologists, tourist operators and artists -- is not actually supported by hard evidence on or in the ground........

I'm also intrigued by what this new research means for all the current hype relating to Durrington Walls.  Were the gigantic hog roasts much beloved of MPP and others jolly international affairs to which the Dutch were invited, or were they the last hurrahs of a culture about to be replaced?

 Postscript:  Is migration making a comeback, at the expense of acculturation?  And the idea that beer was a key component of the movement of beakers and tribes is an interesting one.  Maybe all those wild BBQ events at Durrington Walls really were drunken orgies initiated by the Dutch invaders?

From Wikipedia:
Migration vs. acculturation
Given the unusual form and fabric of Beaker pottery, and its abrupt appearance in the archaeological record, along with a characteristic group of other artefacts, known as the Bell Beaker "package", the explanation for the Beaker culture until the last decades of the 20th century was to interpret it as the migration of one group of people across Europe. However, British and American archaeology since the 1960s had been sceptical about prehistoric migration in general, so the idea of "Bell Beaker Folk" lost ground, although recent genetic findings lend renewed support to the migratory hypothesis. A theory of cultural contact de-emphasizing population movement was presented by Colin Burgess and Stephen Shennan in the mid-1970s.^[29]
Under the "pots, not people" theory the Beaker culture is seen as a 'package' of knowledge (including religious beliefs and copper, bronze and gold working) and artefacts (including copper daggers, v-perforated buttons and stone wrist-guards) adopted and adapted by the indigenous peoples of Europe to varying degrees. This new knowledge may have come about by any combination of population movements and cultural contact. An example might be as part of a prestige cult related to the production and consumption of beer, or trading links such as those demonstrated by finds made along the seaways of Atlantic Europe. Palynological studies including analysis of pollen, associated with the spread of beakers, certainly suggests increased growing of barley, which may be associated with beer brewing. Noting the distribution of Beakers was highest in areas of transport routes, including fording sites, river valleys and mountain passes, it was suggested that Beaker 'folk' were originally bronze traders, who subsequently settled within local Neolithic or early Chalcolithic cultures creating local styles. Close analysis of the bronze tools associated with beaker use suggests an early Iberian source for the copper, followed subsequently by Central European and Bohemian ores.

Pwllderi Cliffs, Pembrokeshire

This pic has nothing very much to do with the Quaternary, and nothing at all to do with Stonehenge, but I post it herewith simply because I like it!  This is the most impressive cliff rampart in Pembrokeshire, with cliffs over 120m in height.  (Normally around this coast the cliffs are 30m high, or less........)

The light on the cliffs when I took this photo was perfect -- when the cliffs are completely in the sun, or completely in shade, you see far less detail.

Click to enlarge.

Ice-moulded features near Strumble Head

These images are from the west coast of the Pencaer Peninsula in Pembrokeshire, between Pwllderi and Strumble Head.  I have shown some images from here before, demonstrating the extent of ice moulding.  Had a most pleasant walk there on Sunday, in glorious weather -- so I did some more photography.

Here the Devensian ice of the Irish Sea Glacier was moving directly onshore, and the extent of "debris cleaning" and ice moulding is very impressive.  I have not seen any obvious striations.  We can only assume that these features are of Devensian age, although of course we cannot discount the possibility that some are inherited from earlier glacial episodes.

There are of course other areas of ice-moulded bedrock in N Pembs -- and I have already illustrated this in locations like Garn Fawr, Carningli, Carn Meini and Carnllidi.

It would be rather interesting to get some cosmogenic dates for these surfaces........