Press Notice: 10th September 2008 ----------------------------- STONEHENGE BLUESTONES: NEW RESEARCH DISPROVES HUMAN TRANSPORT THEORY ------------------------------------------- The bluestones used in the iconic megalithic structure at Stonehenge are glacial erratics after all. That is the clear message coming out of new geological research into the nature and provenance of the stones. In the last few years the bluestones (the smaller stones that stand in the shadows of the mighty trilithons) have been subjected to an unprecedented battery of geological tests, and it is now apparent that they cannot possibly have been collected from West Wales by our Neolithic ancestors. In a number of publications arising from studies by an Open University team, the following results are reported: ** The bluestones have come from at least fifteen different localities in West and South Wales, and other areas as yet unidentified. It is inconceivable that a Neolithic "stone collecting expedition" can have collected all these stones, of many shapes and sizes, from so many different locations. ** The bluestones were present on or near Salisbury Plain at least a thousand years before the first stone monument was built at Stonehenge. ** Some of the bluestones at Stonehenge (for example, made of volcanic ash and soft sandstone) are "rubbish stones" which would never have been selected for incorporation into a megalithic monument. They were used simply because they were conveniently located close to the building site. ** There is no evidence that the "spotted dolerite" so beloved of archaeologists was ever viewed as sacred or magical. It was never used preferentially, either in Wales or Wiltshire, in megalithic structures or burial sites. ** Studies of hand axes made of spotted dolerite and found in England suggest that they were actually made from the same stones that were built into the monument. In other words, Stonehenge was at one time the site of a stone axe factory. ** None of the stone settings at Stonehenge was ever finished. Whatever might have been the grand designs of the "architects", the builders never had enough stones to finish the job. New research into the glacial history of southern England also suggests that at one time the ice of the great Irish Sea Glacier came in from the west and reached at least as far east as Bath, the Mendip Hills and Glastonbury. It is still uncertain whether the ice covered Salisbury Plain, but it is now thought that an "erratic train" of stones of all shapes and sizes was left in the landscape to the west of Stonehenge. It was an easy matter for the Stonehenge builders to follow this trail westwards, and to collect up one stone after another, until they were all gone. In a new book to be published shortly, Dr Brian John will report on the new research (some of it previously unpublished) and will challenge many of the assumptions made by archaeologists relating to the transport and use of the bluestones. "For too long," he says, "the world has simply accepted the myth of the human transport of the stones, because we are all reluctant to let the truth get in the way of a good story. But it's now time for this clapped-out theory to be ditched, on the basis that there is just no evidence in support of it. Archaeologists must now accept that there is a massive convergence of evidence showing that these stones were transported by glacier ice." ENDS Contact: Dr Brian John, Tel 01239-820470
NOTES FOR EDITORS 1. The new book, entitled "The Bluestone Enigma: Stonehenge, Preseli and the Ice Age", was published by Greencroft Books on 3rd November. For a review copy, please contact Greencroft Books by Email: greencroft4@mac.com 2. Recent published research: 2008 Report just posted: Stonehenge Riverside Project: 2007 Excavation VI New light on the bluestones http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge/stonehenge07-06.html Christer Jansson and Neil Glasser 2008. Modification of peripheral mountain ranges by former ice sheets: The Brecon Beacons, Southern UK. Geomorphology Volume 97, Issues 1-2, 1 May 2008, Pages 178-189 Olwen Williams-Thorpe et al 2006. Preseli Dolerite Bluestones: axe-heads, Stonehenge monoliths, and outcrop sources, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 25 (1), pp 29-46 Chris Jones. 2008. Don't mention Stonehenge! Significance, March 2008, 5 (1) pp 44-48 Rob Ixer & Peter Turner, 2006. A detailed re-examination of the petrography of the Altar Stone and other non-sarsen sandstones from Stonehenge as a guide to their provenance. Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine 99, 1–9. | ||
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