Stoneshifter wrote:
Can you find anything that links to the boat that was found loaded with stones? I assume it's not ballast cobbles. (That's cobbles, not cobblers!) The bluestones aren't that big, I suppose. When we think of stones being transported to Stonehenge we inevitably envisage the trilithons. One rule of stonemasonry is 'don't move stones uphill' but then, sometimes, you've got to.
Bronze Age stone barge used on the Trent http://www.britarch.ac.uk/BA/ba69/news.shtml The Dover and Ferriby boats would have carried 3 and 4.5 tons cargoes respectively, which covers a lot of the bluestones, 3 to 6 tons.
"One rule of stonemasonry is 'don't move stones uphill' "
A good rule, but Gordon managed to pull a 17 tonner uphill. Worrying whether stones could be pulled is a bit silly IMO. If you pull hard enough, she'll come, end of calculation. I think he used about fifty people to do that, half of whom were desk jockeys. Imagine if he'd had 500 horny handed sons of toil...
The barge idea appeals. You could pull bluestones up the river to within a mile or so of Stonehenge, dead easily.
