THE BOOK
Some of the ideas discussed in this blog are published in my new book called "The Stonehenge Bluestones" -- available by post and through good bookshops everywhere. Bad bookshops might not have it....
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Sunday 28 August 2016

Mike's Magical Mystery Tours



The Rhosyfelin narrative becomes more psychedelic  with every day that passes......

Came upon this purely by chance this morning -- had to share it!  It's a nice illustration of the manner in which myths develop.  Starting from one of Mike's enthusiastic talks to visitors at the Rhosyfelin dig site, and building on the myth that stone SH48 came from here,  we now have a giant white sleeping boar that apparently had roasted hazelnuts for breakfast before being turned into solid rock.

It's a nice story, and it's quite charming to think that some people are enchanted by it,  but it also demonstrates the universal charm of the fantastical narrative -- much more appealing that boring old science.......

No point in getting upset.  We all have our own realities, some more colourful than others!

8 comments:

Myris of Alexandria said...

Bloody, bloody hell does nobody read the careful and splendid pet rock boys!!
Am I their only admirer? all that brains, beauty and k'risma but no listeners.
The pet rock boys have, at great length and many, many times, said that SH48, one of the four upstanding orthostats, DOES NOT, CANNOT, COME FROM CRIG RHOS Y FELIN.
Hintette a new paper will, after great mental and financial expense, and that is seriously meant, clearly redemonstate this.

Read their papers notably the Debitage dilemma paper.
SH48 is their rhyolite Group E. Craig Rhosyfelin is Groups A-C (probably varieties of Group C.
I believe a volcanics/igneous round up paper is being written as this is being typed, another splendid paper to be misread by hoi paloi. hank the Gods for their ultruism.
A saddened and despairing librarian.

I am afraid it is the A word.

Who is doing the chronostrat?? Good luck to them. Would pedologists not be useful in this context. Now they are bloody incomprehensible.
M

BRIAN JOHN said...

Well, this is fun! I read the pet rock boys very carefully, but is clear that others, who should know better, do not.......

But who cares about all that careful science? Amazing stories are much more fun....

TonyH said...

Never mind The Pet Rock Boys and all their many, sometimes, sadly, mis- heard Hits, we must remember England & California's Richard "Ernest" Harris singing.....

"Someone left Anne Cakebread in the rain,
All the sweet green icing fowing down....."


But who, or what, is/was 'Twrch Trwyth'?? Anne Cakebread seems to know. I'd ask my brother, who lives near Trefin, Pembs., but, alas, despite his noble attempts to saturate himself in the Welsh language, alas, he is just a poor Yorkshire boy, and lacks the fluency. Perhaps MPP knows (intuitively).

TonyH said...

One thing you CAN say about MPP (and his entourage and his hangers - on), he's NEVER boaring.

BRIAN JOHN said...

What?!! You don't know the tale of Twrch and Culhwch? Amd King Arthur and the knights up on Preseli? I feel a story coming on -- I'll do a post about it.

Alex Gee said...

Brian; Well said! Let's not get upset! Why not stick to the weapons of reason,

evidence, mathematical logic, Mockery and ridicule of those responsible for the

latest Stonehenge nonsense!

Anne Fruitcake is just another poor victim of the New Age spivs and charlatans

who's financial income is dependent on maintaining the Stonehenge Fruitcake

circle of trust. A history of fraud and dishonesty that stretches back through the

Victorian druid revival LOL (apart from the giant xylophone theory) they're the

frauds that make me laugh the most; Through the "Battle of the Beanfield"

Known to most reasonable people as the battle for the right to despoil every beauty

spot in

South West England!(I was disgusted by the appalling state they left Savernake

Forest in)! to the present day ;Its my misfortune to live near Glastonbury where

the detritus from this movement make a living from sucking the blood from the

Weak, Vulnerable, terminally ill and recently bereaved, in our community!

As MPP said recently; I'm watching you John!

BRIAN JOHN said...

.....thinking of which, did you see Julian Richards on Countryfile, enthusing about Stonehenge and saying something like "... we are now able to match particular bluestones at Stonehenge to particular quarries in Wales.....", eliciting a response of suitable awe from the rather gullible TV presenter? Total crap, of course, since not one Stonehenge bluestone monolith has been matched to a particular provenance with any certainty. As for the quarries, I suppose the principle is that if you repeat a load of nonsense often enough, and with enough gravitas, people will begin to think you are actually telling them something that is true. Goodbye, science.

TonyH said...

To quote Brian above, our "rather gullible TV presenter" also described Julian Richards as the man who probably knows more about Stonehenge than anyone.

Julian is a nice enough chap, as is Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology, but I doubt very much whether either of them would make that claim - though, admittedly, Julian didn't refute it!

Suppose a statement like that tells you more about the Production team behind the programme than anything else.

I thought by far and away the best part of the whole Countryfile set of features about


Stonehenge was.........the excellent photography of the Stones themselves! Who was it whosaid "If stones could speak"? Oh dear, it may have been MPP. Moving swiftly on.....