Re: The bluestone debate | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Stonehenge and its Environs 134

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The bluestone debate

mountainman Dec 17, 2008 21:55:35

Replying to nigelswift

nigelswift wrote:

No, asking if a video would do was just a leg pull, a reference to the fact you seem rather partial to the opposite theory.

More to the point, what do you think about the missing Stonehenge sarsen drift?

Fair enough! Actually I could send you a nice video of a glacier in action. Tends to be a bit boring, since the thing only moves at about a km per year ----- but it gets there in the end. That's only two centuries needed to get the bluestones from Preseli to Salisbury Plain!

What do you mean by "sarsen drift"? Do you mean a scatter of sarsen stones? If so, we aren't going to get anywhere because we have no way of knowing how dense this scatter might have been, or what components it might have had. These are after all residuals "let down" onto the chalk surface after many millions of years of erosion. In some areas there might have been big concentrations, and in others none at all. See the articles by Somerfield and Goudie, and assorted other guys including Chris Green.

nigelswift Dec 18, 2008 07:42:08

Replying to mountainman

mountainman wrote:

we have no way of knowing how dense this scatter might have been, or what components it might have had.

That's quite true (well partly). But since you are the one that thinks it probably existed and I'm the one that's less sure, it falls to you to be chief speculator doesn't it?

Anyhow, here are my guesses:

1. It may have looked like the nearest known ones, in the Avebury area http://www.english-nature.org.uk/ImageLibrary/web/11/11622.jpg
http://www.walkweb.org.uk/Stone_209.jpg
If so, it contained an awful lot of stones for them to have found enough suitable ones since, as you see, they are in a tiny minority at Avebury.
And if that's the case we need to know why that huge number of rejects aren't there now.

2. Alternatively it might have been only a small scatter. But that would mean there was a high instance of usable stones, else they wouldn't have enough. By usable, I mean about the right size and shape. I guess that's possible (but needs checking with a geologist) but there's a further factor - this tendency to homogeneity would have to be in two forms - suitable upright shape and size AND suitable lintel shape and size. That would be a very strange happenstance, and rather a speculative stretch in the absence of other examples or geologists' confirmation that such things happen.

3. My favourite guess - there warn't no scatter at Stonehenge and they lugged them there.

Incidentally, just for fun, on the subject of pulling big loads and whether it's conceivable, take a look at this, it's amazing what CAN be done that one would probably assume couldn't.... http://www.lakesideinn.net/lakesideinnstory/media/image005.jpg