Famed British Geologist Was Spectacularly Wrong About Stonehenge

Live Science ^ | July 6, 2018 | Laura Geggel, Senior Writer

[SunkenCiv]

In 1923, famed British geologist Herbert Henry Thomas published a seminal study on Stonehenge, claiming to have found the precise spots where prehistoric people had quarried the stones.

There was just one problem with his analysis: It was wrong. And it has taken geologists about 80 years to get it right, a new study finds.

To debunk Thomas' work, Bevins and Ixer donned their Sherlock Holmes hats and examined Thomas' maps and rock samples. Thomas (1876-1935) was a geologist for the British Geological Survey who spent just one day in December 1906 surveying Mynydd Preseli...

During his Preseli Hills visit, Thomas collected several samples of distinctively spotted dolerite, a type of bluish gray stone of the same kind used in Stonehenge's smaller bluestones, at an outcrop called Carn Meini. About 10 years later, the Society of Antiquaries of London had a package containing debris from Stonehenge's bluestones (named for their bluish tinge when wet or broken) sent to Thomas and asked him to determine the stones' provenance.

Upon opening the parcel from the society, Thomas immediately recognized these Stonehenge samples as being identical stones of Carn Meini, the researchers wrote in the study. Thomas also identified another spot on the southern slope of the Preseli Hills, called Cerrig Marchogion, as a spotted dolerite outcrop.

Thomas was so widely respected that nobody questioned his work for decades. Moreover, it led to the idea that, after getting the bluestones from Carn Meini, the prehistoric people then traveled southward, downhill, to Milford Haven, where they apparently picked up Stonehenge's purplish-green altar stone (made of sandstone) and then possibly boated the stones though Bristol Channel as one leg of the trip back to Salisbury Plain, Ixer said.

[Disambiguator]

In before the first Spinal Tap reference...

[Disambiguator]

Or not.

[SunkenCiv]

It's also interesting that the order of construction has been researched in recent years using improved technology, and it was found that the bluestones were moved from their original place within the structure.

[PAR35]

Advanced European Neandertals before they were almost exterminated by the so-called modern humans.

[trisham]

Interesting.

[PAR35]

“But Salisbury Plain really is flat.”

I had always pictured it as flat when I was young. The terrain is a lot more rolling than I had expected.
https://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/explore/salisbury-plain
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/reservists-train-on-salisbury-plain

[Mears]

The most disappointing place I have ever visited.

.

[x]

Don't tell me.

He said it was a natural stone formation?

Or a launching pad for ancient aliens?

Or a primitive birth control device?

[SunkenCiv]

:^) Yup, too late for this crowd. ;^)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3670479/posts?page=3#3

[JustaTech]

The idea that Stonehenge was created by a glacier is ludicrous on its face. Glaciers may move stones, but they don't cut them to size, dig spaced pits and stand them up in a circle, and stack lintel stones (ALSO precisely cut) on the standing stones.

I guess if they can believe random chemicals came together and created a encapsulated living being with the ability to find/intake/metabolize compounds for energy, sense its surroundings, move about in its surroundings, and reproduce itself precisely - if they can believe that, they can believe Stonehenge is the handiwork of a huge chunk of ice.

[SunkenCiv]

That isn't what the claim is -- the claim is, humans didn't quarry stones in Wales and drag them or raft them to the Salisbury Plain, instead, the stones were glacial erratics, gathered from the vicinity, and shaped as needed.

[BEJ]

Thomas was so widely respected that nobody questioned his work for decades. Moreover, it led to the idea that, after getting the bluestones from Carn Meini, the prehistoric people then took a bus and traveled southward, downhill, to Milford Haven, where they apparently picked up some lunch and Stonehenge’s purplish-green altar stone (made of sandstone) and then possibly boated the stones on the Laxton Ferry though Bristol Channel as one leg of the trip back to Salisbury Plain, Ixer said.

[Pelham]

Settled science.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

[seawolf101]

[TheNext]

LEVERAGE

Leverage is a secret scientific principle that only one man can move the Empire State building if he has the right leverage.

Need no icebergs or ancient aliens.
Just cut rock and move it.

[JustaTech]

Thanks, but when you say "gathered and shaped" without saying how, do you mean such gathering and shaping happened over eons by chance forces of wind and water (gradualism), or would you allow the likely role of human intelligence in the creation of the Stonehenge monument? Why the apparent academic bias towards discounting human agency in this particular case when common sense virtually screams otherwise?

Humans didn't quarry the stones, nor place them at the site, nor anything else? What is it about Stonehenge that we aren't supposed to know?

[SunkenCiv]

You can't read. And you're a troll. STFU.

[NorthMountain]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also enjoyed walking around the mounds on the other side of the road.

[Mears]

“I thoroughly enjoyed it. “

—

Just curious,was it completely fenced in when you were there?

.

[P.O.E.]

Bevins and Ixer donned their Sherlock Holmes hats

...and said "Stay off the moors!"