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Trethevy Quoit

Trethevy Quoit​…Cornwall's Megalithic Masterpiece

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Sanctuary S
Sanctuary Apr 1, 2013 15:32:37
Replying to thesweetcheat

thesweetcheat wrote:
Also, I have to agree with Tiompan that more likely explanations (e.g. that the structure is largely as it always was, including a single chamber, and that some bits have subsequently slipped or fallen down) would need to be properly discounted before less likely explanations were seriously considered.
Then you need to read the book Alken. There is too much evidence to show that it is not like it originally was. It's a jigsaw puzzle with some pieces out of place. On initial build all the side stones were supportive. It was a proper 'sealed' chamber unlike it is now with the exception of the two entrances and the broken piece off one of the front flankers caused when the capstone slipped no doubt.
Only a full excavation will prove who is right or wrong (presumably) but when is that likely to happen...never!

T tiompan
tiompan Apr 1, 2013 15:51:21
Replying to Sanctuary

Sanctuary wrote:
[quote="thesweetcheat"]
There is too much evidence to show that it is not like it originally was. It's a jigsaw puzzle with some pieces out of place. On initial build all the side stones were supportive. It was a proper 'sealed' chamber unlike it is now with the exception of the two entrances and the broken piece off one of the front flankers caused when the capstone slipped no doubt.
Only a full excavation will prove who is right or wrong (presumably) but when is that likely to happen...never!
What matters is the quality of that evidence and the fact that is must be extraordianry to support the extraordinary claims .
Thinking along the lines of it being a jigasaw puzzle may not be helpful . It's not about coming up with the most efficient use of building blocks as seen from the perspective of the 21st c .
You could spend forever rearranging the component parts of monuments to suit a particualr aesthetic or the way they " should have been ".
Take Gaulstown http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/1374/gaulstown.html(scroll to 6 th pic ) it has an unsupporting angled sidestone that is angled in the wrong direction to be of any use in the case of collapse does that make it wrong or suggest that there has been a re-arrangenment ?

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 1, 2013 15:54:47
Replying to Sanctuary

No, I'm not suggesting it's exactly as it originally was. It seems perfectly likely that the chamber was sealed, but that could be achieved without a major re-structuring/moving of all the pieces.

What I'm suggesting is that the current structure could have been arrived at by various pieces slipping or falling, rather than by the whole thing being re-built "wrongly".

I assume that large parts of the structure (if not all) would have been covered in a mound? In which case, pieces could shift and move over time underneath, while being kept from collapse by the weight of the earth. (See for example Hetty Pegler's Tump for a chambered barrow where the internal structures gradually weakened and shifted while being kept generally in place by the mound).

It seems more likely to me at least that the current arrangement simply reflects 1000s of years of movement, worsened by the protecting mound disappearing, etc, than a wholesale re-build in a different, "wrong" configuration.