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robvxvx wrote:
It might just be me being dense (not an entirely unknown event), but even if people were chipping away at the fragments removed to form amulets of desired shape, wouldn't the chippings themselves be efficacious ( in their minds at least) for something?.....

for sprinkling in the foundations of a new structure maybe, etc.....would they just be discarded there, like so much useless ....errrr.....stone chippings?.....

Just a thought

Why though?

If I'm a guy who wants to make and sell "healing amulets" there's no reason that I need to believe in the healing power of the stones, just so long as I know there's a market of willing believers out there who are going to buy my goods.

So I wander up to stonehenge and chip off ten "amulet sized" chips for fashioning. In the process I cause a shower of smaller fragments to fall into the grass at my feet. I'm not going to necessarily get down on my hands and knees and collect every last one if they don't have any value to me as an amulet maker and seller.

As I've said earlier, there's no way to confirm this theory so it's all just speculation and I'm certainly not saying "it's definitely right". But it's not that difficult to construct a plausible scenario such as the one I've just mentioned.

And you can construct other equally plausible ones no doubt to support other theories. But there's nothing fantastical about the 'healing amulet' idea.

"But there's nothing fantastical about the 'healing amulet' idea."

I agree, but there does seem a bit of uncertainty about some of the things that have been reported as supporting the theory - like that bits of bluestone were found in a lot of burials in the area (but no-one seems to know which these might be) and on Silbury (and we now know that's probably not true).

Also, it does seem like "another day, another theory". Not long ago we were hearing about a dirty great fence keeping all but the elite from approaching the monument. Now we've got a low brow horde breaking bits off! I guess the place has been around for so long it has had time to be treated in lots of different ways.