The stonehenge bluestones
Book cover (Designed by Martin John)
ESSENTIAL INFORMATIONGreencroft Books, 256 pp, 110 illustrations. Full-colour A5 paperback.
Cover price £15.00 ISBN 9780905559940 Publication Date 1st June 2018 Contact details: Greencroft Books, Trefelin, Cilgwyn, Newport, Pembrokeshire SA42 0QN. Tel: 01239-820470. Email: [email protected]. Web: www.brianjohn.co.uk Distribution: Welsh Books Council, Aberystwyth. Brief author biographyBrian was born in Carmarthen, by accident. He studied at Haverfordwest Grammar School and at Jesus College, Oxford, where he read Geography from 1959 to 1962 and went on to obtain a D Phil for a study of the Ice Age in Wales. He worked as a field scientist in Antarctica and spent eleven years as a geography lecturer at Durham University. He has travelled widely in the Arctic, Antarctic and Scandinavia. Since 1977 he has made his living as a writer and publisher. He publishes under the Greencroft Books imprint.
Brian is also actively involved in environmental and community organisations; in 1980 he founded Eco Centre Wales in Newport and is one of the leaders of the community group GM Free Cymru. He is the author of innumerable articles and 90 books, including university texts, walking guides, coffee table glossies, and books of popular science. His "Glaciers and Landscape" (written with David Sugden), a university textbook, remained in print as a geomorphology classic for almost 30 years. In recognition of his contributions to polar geomorphology, a glacier in the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica has been named John Glacier. He also writes on topics of local interest related to Wales: tourist guides, books of local jokes, walkers' handbooks, and titles on local folklore and traditions. In 2012 he won the Wishing Shelf Gold award for his children's book called "The Strange Affair of the Ethiopian Treasure Chest". In 2001 Brian published his first novel, set in North Pembrokeshire and called “On Angel Mountain”. It became an instant best-seller, and has now sold 37,000 copies. Its very imperfect heroine, Martha Morgan now features in another seven novels. The eight-volume Angel Mountain Saga now has accumulated sales of 84,000 copies. Another of Brian’s abiding interests is the local connection between the Stonehenge bluestones and the Preseli Hills. His first book on this topic has gone through several printings and is now sold out, and a more controversial sequel, called “The Stonehenge Bluestones”, is published in June 2018. CONTENTS LIST1. The Enigma of the Foreign Stones Sarsens and bluestones The Pembrokeshire connection The Preseli tors Notes 2. Stonehenge and the Bluestones The holes and the stones Earthworks and pits The stone settings Reconstructions Many pits, but how many stones? The origins of the sarsens The origins of the bluestones The Stonehenge Layer 3. The Bluestone Transport Myth Once upon a time..... Testing the myth The Millennium Stone fiasco 4. The Fable of Merlin the Wizard Concerning the prophecies of Merlin The back story Politics and marketing Proto-Stonehenge 5. Spreading the Myth Variations on a theme Dating the bluestone expeditions Other dating methods The starry sky The Boscombe Bowmen Barbecued beefburgers The Neolithic argonauts The Enchanted Land The healing springs The 2008 Stonehenge dig Neolithic diplomacy The stones of the ancestors Orthodoxies and Dissidents 6. The Bluestone Quarrying Myth The Carn Meini “quarry” The Rhosyfelin “quarry” The Carn Goedog “quarry” The making of the myth 7. The Science of the Stones The geological evidence Modern research Packing stones and mauls Axe-heads and battle axes The Altar Stone Those other sandstones The Berwick St James mystery The volcanic ashes Other inconvenient stones The clay-with-flints puzzle The “periglacial stripes” The bluestone assemblage 8. The Work of Ice The wider context Glacial features of eastern Preseli Glacial traces in the South-West Reconstructing the glacier Glacier modelling Ice movement and entrainment Erratic transport The bluestone erratics train Erratics, magic and mythology A Matter of Convenience 9. The Balance of Probabilities On human quarrying and transport On glacial entrainment and transport Keeping it simple 10. Conclusions References |
THE AUTHOR
ADVANCE INFORMATIONOne hundred years ago it was discovered that the Stonehenge bluestones had come from a small area in West Wales. Since then, the stones have been at the centre of one of the greatest controversies in prehistory. Geologists and archaeologists have argued about how and when they were moved, and for what purpose. In the discussions, myth-making has unfortunately been a greater priority than sound science. In a dramatic development, following a forensic examination of the evidence from many disciplines, and drawing on exciting new research, earth scientist Brian John now shows that the stones were not quarried or transported by our Neolithic ancestors. Instead, they were carried eastwards by the great Irish Sea Glacier almost half a million years ago, and used where they were found by the builders of Stonehenge. And when the stones ran out, the great building project ground to a halt.......... the great prehistoric icon always was a ruin.
This book is a detective story with a difference. Written in an easy and accessible style, and lavishly illustrated, it will cause a fundamental reassessment of “the science of the stones”, upset many archaeologists, and enhance our sense of wonder about the forces at work in the natural world. Of interest to a general readership and also to those who study archaeology, landscape, the history of science, geology and cultural heritage. The author Brian John is an earth scientist who has a special interest in the Ice Age. He has more than 90 books to his name, including the best-selling 8-volume Angel Mountain Saga. He lives in the source area of the bluestones, and has studied it in detail for many years. SOME ILLUSTRATIONs from the book
BACK COVER BLURBThe mysterious bluestones of Stonehenge have caused heated debate for a hundred years, following the discovery that they came from West Wales. Were they quarried and carried on sledges and rafts all the way to Salisbury Plain by our Neolithic ancestors? And did the famous monument ever look as immaculate as the archaeologists have imagined it?
Following a meticulous examination of exciting new research from Stonehenge and West Wales, earth scientist Brian John tests a number of fondly-held beliefs to destruction. He concludes that the bluestones are all glacial erratics, carried eastwards by the Irish Sea Glacier almost half a million years ago and gathered up not far from the monument. This book is a detective story with a difference. It will cause a fundamental reassessment of “the science of the stones” and enhance our sense of wonder about the forces at work in the natural world. GREENCROFT BOOKS ISBN 978-0905559-94-0 £15.00 CONTACTSFor media interviews and background information, please contact the author directly on 01239-820470
or by Email: [email protected] For review copies of the book please contact: Greencroft Books on 01239-820470 or by Email: [email protected] For trade enquiries and orders for multiple copies of this book, contact: Welsh Books Centre (Distribution) Unit 16, Parc Menter Glanyrafon, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3AQ Tel: 01970 624455 Web: gwales.com Book trade info: http://www.wbti.org.uk/index.html |
