Thursday 20 March 2014

University of Buckingham - MA in Archaeology: Stonehenge a Landscape Through Time

MA in Archaeology: Stonehenge a Landscape Through Time


The University of Buckingham has introduced as part of its London-based Programmes a new research MA in Archaeology: Stonehenge a Landscape Through Time which offers a unique opportunity to study the subject of archaeology and the celebrated site.
The World Heritage Site of Stonehenge has intrigued scholars for centuries, with each succeeding generation learning more about the site and its setting, amongst the other henges and richly furnished burial barrows located on Salisbury Plain. This groundbreaking London-based programme is led by David Jacques, director of the internationally significant excavations at Vespasian’s Camp, near Stonehenge, and supported by the latest generation of archaeologists to work in the area. Located just 1,500m from Stonehenge, and 500m from Blue Stonehenge, the Vespasian’s Camp site is providing new evidence for the first humans to occupy the Stonehenge landscape during the Mesolithic period. Tantalising new evidence from these excavations suggests that this site may begin to explain why Stonehenge was built where it was.
Stonehenge
There will be opportunities for students to take part in field work at the site as well as to visit the archaeological sites in the Stonehenge landscape.
The programme runs from October 2014 to September 2015 and will consist of a series of ten research seminars, supplemented by two optional three-day weekend fieldtrips, each of which combines visits to major archaeological sites with first-hand fieldwork at Vespasian’s Camp, and two dissertation workshops. There will be a buffet dinner at the end of each seminar.  Examination will be by original dissertation of no less than 20,000 words.

The course

The research seminar programme has two strands. The first offers a broadly chronological survey of British prehistory focusing on the internationally important landscape of Salisbury Plain and the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, enabling students to place their own individual research within the broader context of developments in human society and culture since the end of the last Ice Age.
The second strand offers support to students considering how to devise a successful research project, and structure a dissertation. The seminar series complements their individual research project and dissertation; and at the heart of this MA is the close working relationship between student and supervisor. Dissertations may be either library- or fieldwork-based, and address themselves to any of archaeology’s sub-fields. While the final thesis topic is chosen by the student and must be an independent work, it is the supervisor who offers advice on refining the topic as necessary, on primary sources, on secondary reading, on research techniques and on writing the final text, which should be not less than 20,000 words. Supervisors and students will meet frequently throughout the year, and not less than twice a term; and the supervisor is the student’s primary contact for academic advice and support.
This is a London-based course. The seminars will be held in the Wheeler Room within the handsome surroundings of the Society of Antiquaries in central London (Burlington Gardens, London W1S 3ES). The nearest London Underground Stations are Green Park (Victoria, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines), Bond Street (Central and Jubilee lines) and Piccadilly Circus (Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines).
Society-of-Antiquaries
Each seminar lasts approximately 90 minutes and will begin at 18:30.  The seminars are followed by a post-seminar dinner, for those who wish to attend, where there will be an opportunity to continue the seminar discussion in an informal environment.
The indicative contents are as follows:

Part One: Fieldwork: Site visits and Excavations.

There will be an opportunity to take part in two field trips each term, taking place over a long weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This element of the course is not compulsory and so will not be assessed, but for those intending to conduct excavations of their own, they provide the student with an indispensible introduction to the techniques involved in archaeological fieldwork. The cost of fieldwork transport, subsistence and entrance fees is not included in the course fee. Fieldwork will take place in October 2014 and spring 2015, and will be centred at the Vespasian’s Camp archaeological site, near Stonehenge. Full training will be given in field techniques by David Jacques and two other professional archaeologists, Tom Philips (Oxford Archaeology) and Tom Lyons (British Museum).
Trench-19
During each weekend, students will also have the opportunity to take part in guided tours. Sites visited over the two weekends will include the World Heritage Sites of Stonehenge, and its associated Cursus, Avenue, and barrow fields as well as the site of Blue Stonehenge, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. There will also be an opportunity to visit Avebury, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow together with the Amesbury and Avebury Museums and Stonehenge Visitor Centre.
Accommodation in Amesbury will be arranged and each weekend will include a dinner for all those taking part.

Part Two: Stonehenge a Landscape Through Time: The History, Theories and Practices of Archaeology seminars

Seminars will be held on Tuesdays at 18:30 and will be of 90 minutes’ duration.
7 October 2014. David Jacques (University of Buckingham): Course introduction.
Professor Lord Colin Renfrew (University of Cambridge): Stonehenge and the radiocarbon dating revolution.
16, 17, 18 October 2014. David Jacques, Tom Phillips (Oxford Archaeology), Tom Lyons (British Museum): Fieldwork Weekend Number 1.
27 October 2014. David Jacques (University of Buckingham): The post-glacial occupation of Salisbury Plain (the focus will be on recent excavations of the Mesolithic site at Vespasian’s Camp).
4 November 2014. Professor Tim Darvill OBE (Bournemouth University): Neolithic Monuments: first phases of Stonehenge, long barrows, the early Henges, the Cursus.
11 November 2014. Dr Barry Bishop (Lithics Society): The development of prehistoric flint-work in the Stonehenge World Heritage site – changing uses and influences from the Mesolithic to Bronze Age.
18 November 2014. Dr Mark Bowden (Senior Investigator for Stonehenge, English Heritage): Bronze and Iron Age: later phases of Stonehenge, round barrows, defended sites ‘hillforts’: Vespasian’s Camp, Danebury and Old Sarum, Roman period.
25 November 2014 (TBC). Dr Nick Branch (University of Reading): Changing environments in the Stonehenge area from post glacial times to the Iron Age.
2 December 2014.  Professor Peter Rowley-Conwy (Durham University): New approaches to evaluating the use of animals in the Stonehenge landscape in the prehistoric periods.
9 December 2014. Course Christmas Dinner.

Part Three: Dissertation Support Seminars

13 January 2015. Devising a viable project: examples from different contexts and media.
20 January 2015. Recording and data analysis: field survey, object identification, use of library and archival sources including JSTOR, the Historic Environment Record and Portable Antiquities Scheme databases, statistical analysis for archaeologists, interpretation of aerial photograph and satellite imagery.
27 January 2015. Writing up and the production of archaeological knowledge. Guidelines for writing a successful dissertation.
17 February 2015. Dissertation Workshop One.
6, 7 and 8 March 2015. Fieldwork Weekend Number 2.
7 April 2015. Dissertation Workshop Two.
The MA degree is awarded on the basis of the dissertation, which should be not less than 20,000 words.  The supervisor provides advice in identifying and defining a research topic, assisting the candidate in locating sources and developing approaches to the chosen topic.  Supervisors and students meet regularly, and the supervisor is the student’s primary contact for academic advice and support.

How much will it cost?

Tuition fees and methods of payment, including discounts for advance payment, can be found on our postgraduate tuition fees page.  The fees for 2014-15 for UK/EU students are £6,500 for full time students and £3,250 for Associates.  Fees include seminar dinners and hotel expenses at Amesbury for full-time students and seminar dinners for Associates.

Associate Students

For those taking the course as Associate Students, this seminar programme may be enjoyed as a self-contained survey of Stonehenge and its landscape and of British prehistoric archaeology. This status will enable the student to attend the ten research seminars and take a full part in the seminar and buffet dinner discussions, as well as optional field trips, but does not require the submission of written work. Associate Students are not registered for, and do not receive, the MA degree.

About the Society of Antiquaries

The origins of the Society of Antiquaries date to 1586 and the foundation of the College of Antiquaries, but it was not until 1751 that the Society was granted a Royal Charter and took on its present form. The role of the Society was, and continues to be, ‘the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of antiquities and history in this and other countries’. Since 1874, the Society has been based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, which also houses its museum, gallery and library.

Bibliography

Books:  general introductions
  • Cunliffe, B., Britain Begins (OUP, 2013)
  • Darvill, T., Stonehenge: The Biography of a Landscape (Tempus, 2005)
  • Lawson, A., Chalkland: An Archaeology of Stonehenge and its Region(Hobnob, 2006)
  • Parker Pearson, M., Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery(Simon Schuster, 2012)
  • Renfrew, C. & P. Bahn, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (Thames and Hudson, 1996)
Specialist
  • Butler, C., Prehistoric Flintwork (Tempus, 2005)
  • Bradley, R., An Archaeology of Natural Places (Routledge, 2000)
  • Legge, A. & P. Rowley-Conwy, Star Carr Revisited: A Re-analysis of the large mammals (Birkbeck College, 1998)
  • Jones, A., G. MacGregor et al., Colouring the Past (Berg, 2002)
  • McOmish, D., D. Field & G. Brown, The Field Archaeology of the Salisbury Plain Training Area (English Heritage, 2002)
  • Rainbird, P. et al., Monuments in the Landscape (Tempus, 2008)
  • Whittle, A., A. Bayliss et al., Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of South Britain and Ireland (Oxbow, 2011)
Articles
  • Higgs, E.,  “The Excavation of a Late Mesolithic Site at Downton near Salisbury, Wiltshire”, Proceedings  of the Prehistoric Society 25 (1959), 209-232
  • French, C. et al., “Durrington Walls to West Amesbury: A Major Transformation of the Holocene Landscape”, Antiquaries Journal 92 (2012), 30
  • Hunter-Mann, K., “Excavations at Vespasian’s Camp Iron Age hillfort”,Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Magazine 92 (1999), 39-45
  • Jacques, D., T. Phillips & M. Clarke,  “A Reassessment of the Importance of Vespasian’s Camp in the Stonehenge Landscape”, Past 66 (2010), 11-13
  • Jacques, D., T. Phillips & T. Lyons.,  “Vespasian’s Camp: Cradle of Stonehenge?”, Current Archaeology 271 (2012).

Course enquiries and applications

For enquiries about applications: Claire Prendergast, School of Humanities, University of Buckingham. Tel: +44 (0)1280 820120; Email:claire.prendergast@buckingham.ac.uk.
For enquiries about course content: David Jacques, Course Director. Email:david.jacques@buckingham.ac.uk.

18 comments:

  1. No lectures/seminars by anyone who directed digs by the SRP which has told us more about the landscape than any other project!!!

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  2. " We have two new radiocarbon dates, 7596-7542 BC and 5469-5320 BC (see CA 275). These are hugely significant because they mean we have a sequence of dates running through every millennium from the 8th-5th millennia BC, seriously strengthening the argument for regular visits to the site across this period. The early date chimes connects directly with the date of post ‘B’ in the Stonehenge carpark, and is in range of the other post. When Josh Pollard, Mike Parker Pearson, and Peter Rowley Conwy visited the site in April 2013, Josh Pollard said: ‘your team has found the community which put up the first monument at Stonehenge.’ according to David Jacques

    Sadly, that was something I predicted in my book some three years before this 'revelation' appeared in print - perhaps I should be on the lecture list? or just sell the students a copy of my book which would not only save them £6,485 but tell them a hell-of-a-lot more about the Stonehenge environment and landscape, than any current MA.

    RJL

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  3. What did you "predict " that had never previously been suggested ?

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    Replies
    1. That the construction of Stonehenge began in the 8th millennium BC as shown by the post holes dates obtained from the Visitors Car Park - which at the time was still supposed to be unconnected to the main site and archaeological 'numpties' (probably with MA's) suggested 'totem poles' were erected

      The book suggested that there was a direct connection to these dates and other sites such as Durrington Walls, Avebury and Old Sarum, which lay on the same flooded river (The Avon).

      So guess what other site is in the middle on the same river course between Stonehenge and Durrington Walls - 'Vespasian's Camp' - shock, horror!!

      Not exactly rocket science!! - but it has taken archaeologists 47 years to find there is a connection (which is quite fast for academics!) and other sites.

      RJL



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  4. You have failed to mention what you “predicted “ that had never been previously suggested .
    “That the construction of Stonehenge began in the 8th millennium BC as shown by the post holes dates obtained from the Visitors Car Park - which at the time was still supposed to be unconnected to the main site .”.
    The car park post holes are not the “main site “ and they don’t provide a date for building of the “main site “ .

    “The book suggested that there was a direct connection to these dates and other sites such as Durrington Walls, Avebury and Old Sarum, which lay on the same flooded river (The Avon). “
    Apart from the obvious period and Wessex connection between these sites ,and you could include multiple other examples , what evidence of any particular direct connection have you suggested that is evidence based ?

    “So guess what other site is in the middle on the same river course between Stonehenge and Durrington Walls - 'Vespasian's Camp' .”
    It won’t be the last prehistoric site to be found in the area , any numpty could predict that .

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  5. "You have failed to mention what you “predicted “ that had never been previously suggested"

    You need to read the answer again and slowly Sherlock!!

    "That the construction of Stonehenge began in the 8th millennium BC...that there was a direct connection to these dates and other sites such as Durrington Walls, Avebury and Old Sarum, which lay on the same flooded river (The Avon).

    Its very straight forward - even for you!!

    I predicted the date of construction and that other sites along the Avon (which would include Vespasian) are of the same date.

    So what part of these simple fact do you still not comprehend?

    "The car park post holes are not the “main site “ and they don’t provide a date for building of the “main site “ . "

    What a lot of Nonsense!!

    So (according to your logic) the Avenue has nothing to do with Stonehenge either?

    This is just absurd archaeological gobbledygook from someone who has no idea of what are these post holes - if you did, you would not make such flawed and incorrect statements!!

    "Apart from the obvious period and Wessex connection between these sites ,and you could include multiple other examples , what evidence of any particular direct connection have you suggested that is evidence
    based ?"

    BGS alluvium deposit mapping (Britain beneath our feet, 2004) of the Avon River is now accepted to have been laid within the last 10,000 years (ie. after the last ice age) supported by D,Maddy (2000) Geomorthology 33. Showing river terraces of the Avon (T5 - T10) at the same height as Stonehenge, Durrington Walls and now Vespasian Camp.

    So, what evidence do you have to support your nonsense?

    "It won’t be the last prehistoric site to be found in the area , any numpty could predict that"

    Yes but this 'numpty' predicted the dates correctly, unlike 'pseudo-experts' (like yourself) that read nonsense and regurgitate even more nonsense, usually by quoting the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods for these sites which are 5000 years after the sites were originally constructed!

    This MA is made for you Sherlock - garbage in / garbage out - with a piece of paper testifying that you know nothing!

    RJL


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  6. RJL
    Forgive me for trying to wade through your senseless vitriolic hyperbole once again ...

    Is it your contention that the Car Park Posts and the site at Stonehenge are connected in some way?
    If the dating scheme that I'm aware of is off by even as much as 25% it still pushes the two sites apart by a couple of thousand years.
    If it's bulls-eye accurate, it's as much as 4,000.

    The dates at Stonehenge are pretty firm. There may have been a campground of some type at the site 8-odd thousand years ago, but Tim Darvill's cereal grain does not make a Monument.

    The Car-Park 'Totems' are from a completely different Age, erected for a different purpose. They would have been rotted to dust in their holes long before the North Barrow was even dreamed of.
    They are just another example which demonstrates there was something about this area that was incredibly special for a very long time.

    But there isn't the remotest shred of evidence that physically or temporally connects the two discrete sites.

    Catch a clue, Bucky ...

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  7. If you predicted that the construction of the bank ,ditch and megalithic monument was Mesolithic then you are wrong .
    As mentioned earlier any numpty could suggest that Mesolithic, or later for that matter , sites will be found in the area .

    “This is just absurd archaeological gobbledygook from someone who has no idea of what are these post holes - if you did, you would not make such flawed and incorrect statements!!”
    What was the flawed and incorrect statement ? The post holes are just that . Maybe you can give us a laugh and with your interepretation .

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  8. Neil

    Sorry to disturb you from you academic slumber - but at least you finally 'get it!'.

    Of course the Car Park is connected to the Stonehenge Site - its were they moored the boats that brought the stones from Preseli.(Hence the post holes!!) and yes that makes Phase I of the site 5000 years older.

    Hence the book and blog site (are you so unaware?)

    "But there isn't the remotest shred of evidence that physically or temporally connects the two discrete sites."

    A piece of Rhyolite (that's bluestone Neil and other uninitiated academics) was found in Pit 9580 the soil above and below were dated at 7560/7335 BCE and as you friend Brian will tell you fragments of bluestone are only found on the main site.

    Now I understand this is a hard one for you Neil and you might need to talk to Sherlock to connect the dots - But how does a piece of Stonehenge Bluestone get into 'tottem pole' holes 5000 years before it was constructed??

    Without a clue?

    I presume you must be Sherlock's Watson - what a complete pair!

    RJL

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  9. "A piece of Rhyolite (that's bluestone Neil and other uninitiated academics) was found in Pit 9580 the soil above and below were dated at 7560/7335 BCE and as you friend Brian will tell you fragments of bluestone are only found on the main site. "

    It would help if you read the and understood the literature .
    Pit 9580 is unlike the other post pits in that it was "backfilled ,altered and redesigned" .The rhyolite fragment was found in the tertiary context at 0.2m ,it is suggested that the layer "was not earlier than , and probably contemporary with , the dressing of the bluestones " .

    Fragments of Bluestone are not confined to the "main site " .
    Cunnington and Colt –Hoare had reported bluestone fragments in round barrows to the west of the monument .In 1943 Young found bluestone fragments near the cursus and Fargo Planation. In1947 Stone found bluestone fragments near the cursus and also in the car park . In 2006-2008 test pits in the cursus field found further bluestone fragments .

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    Replies
    1. "It would help if you read the and understood the literature"

      Quite so Sherlock!!

      "it was "backfilled ,altered and redesigned"

      Yes in the 7th-8th millennium BC thousands of years before the so called first phase of Stonehenge according to you numpties.

      The facts are:-

      It was found on top of soil (9582) carbon dated at 7580 - 7090 BCE and you would have us believe that this level remained untouched and unfilled by weather for 5000 years until a piece of bluestone fell on top of this soil and then by some miraculous intervention filled the hole to the top over the next 5000 years?

      What absolute Nonsense!!

      Soil 9582 (below the stone brown "silty clay" dated at 8400 years ago)
      Soil 9581 (above the stone reddish brown "silty clay" undated (WHY???)

      Silty Clay - is 70% sand a product of a river subsoil NOT top soil as today or in 3000BC - my dear Sherlock!!

      It just shows how fundamental flawed and wrong you are in your perception of archaeological history.

      A clear example why this MA is a waste of time as it is full of such uneducated rubbish and propaganda, constructed by academics for the simple minded, who do not have the intelligence to question dogmatic nonsense.

      RJL

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  10. I'd make your nom de plume; "Moriarty", but that would actually be a compliment in this case.
    A bumbling Inspector Lestrade is more like it ...
    Fit the evidence to the theory.

    Dude, there's Bluestone chips all over the place. There's a chip in the posthole, yes - about 3 inches down - not 60.
    Stop the Presses!

    They're in the Cursus, the SH Ditch, and Hey! There's even a couple in the Y&Z scours. Does that mean they were brought to the site in 1,600 BC?
    I think not.
    Does their presence date the Holes to 45-million years?

    While the Bluestones arrived very early at the site, they do not pre-date the Aubrey Holes, and we have some good round dates for those. This means that the Car-Park Posts had been gone for - conservatively - 2500 years.

    At the work-station just North of the Heelstone the ground is littered with remnants. You can literally go out there right now and pick up any number of pieces. God knows - I live 3,000 miles away and even I have a pocketful of them ...

    In the so-called 'Stonehenge Layer" the number of BS chips heavily outweigh those of the Sarsens. But in the big Stone sockets the reverse is true.
    They were banging away on Bluestones for so many years it's a wonder there's any standers left. They carted the bits all over the place as a result.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Dude, there's Bluestone chips all over the place. There's a chip in the posthole, yes - about 3 inches down - not 60"

      Well 'dude' that sums up what you know about the subject!!

      Please let me know if you have a qualification in archaeology - it will so make my day!!

      Especially, when you don't understand that finding a bluestone in a hole (according to YOU) not connected to the site, which has been carbon dated as 5000 years older than the site, without good explanation is impossible.

      I suggest Watson you go and read what I said to Sherlock and pick up that book you reviewed but clearly didn't read accurately and take another look (its got lots of pictures if the words get you a bit confused!).

      I love being being savaged by these dead sheep" !!

      RJL


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  11. "A piece of Rhyolite (that's bluestone Neil and other uninitiated academics) was found in Pit 9580 the soil above and below were dated at 7560/7335 BCE "
    Now that you have re-read the report you now realise that "Soil 9582 (below the stone brown "silty clay" dated at 8400 years ago)
    Soil 9581 (above the stone reddish brown "silty clay" undated "
    If only you had read and understood the first time you wouldn't have made another error for the catalogue .
    In the same sentence yiou had added "and as you friend Brian will tell you fragments of bluestone are only found on the main site. "
    yet another error , do you need the evience again to remind you why .?

    Not that the fantasies have anything to commend them , but as soon as you mention anything that is falsifiable you get it wrong , then further attempts to wriggle out of the problem produces even more errors . Which when highlighted leads to the large chip on the shoulder producing bile in inverse proportion to anything resembling a sensible commentary on the original point .

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    1. Was you not in the queue when God was giving out the brains Sherlock?

      I don't know who's worse you or Watson??

      Lets go through it slowly....

      Pit WA9580 is full of SILT (SILT is 70% sand as it is produced by water) so far so good??

      This means that the car park of Stonehenge was by a river once upon a time - still with me?

      We can date this riverbank by the charcoal in the pit 9580. There are several layers of SILT in the pit from 8090 BCE to 7090 BCE - which is a long time ago!

      A piece of Bluestone was found within the top layer sitting on a layer dated 7090 BCE - so the date it fell in must have been close to that date.

      I know that this is the tricky part for you but you will get there eventually (but not necessarily in this life-time) the layer that covered the stone was also SILT so the river must have STILL been there.

      Now if the stone was laid down at say 3000 BCE the river would be gone - dried up and disappeared like now the stone would have been covered with top soil not SILT.

      Therefore, the pit not only proves that Stonehenge was built 5000 years earlier than 'experts' suggest but moreover, it was built by a river (Avon) and the post holes were probably held mooring posts.

      Do you understand now Sherlock?

      Now if you have an explanation which differs from above - let us have it, I need a good laugh.

      RJL

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  12. OK , lets go through it slowly .
    First you said “A piece of Rhyolite (that's bluestone Neil and other uninitiated academics) was found in Pit 9580 the soil above and below were dated at 7560/7335 BCE “ That was wrong .The soil above was not dated , as you eventually realised when you tried to cover up the error by the usual bluster ,caps , exclamation marks and primary school attempts at rudeness . “Soil 9581 (above the stone reddish brown "silty clay" undated (WHY??? ) . Notice the contradiction ?, and the two comments separated by only a matter of hours .
    In the same sentence you then said “and as you friend Brian will tell you fragments of bluestone are only found on the main site. “ .Wrong yet again . The evidence is -Cunnington and Colt –Hoare had reported bluestone fragments in round barrows to the west of the monument .In 1943 Young found bluestone fragments near the cursus and Fargo Planation. In1947 Stone found bluestone fragments near the cursus and also in the car park . In 2006-2008 test pits in the cursus field found further bluestone fragments .
    That’s just one sentence , although not the record for the greatest amount of mistakes from you , with less syllables than a haiku .
    You can’t respond to facts , apart from the usual tiresome childish bluster . Do you actually imagine that anyone doesn’t see through that nonsense .

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    Replies
    1. So you 'don't have a clue' how the bluestone got into the Mesolithic silt layers?

      That's OK Sherlock - you should have said so in the first instance. We all have our limitations.

      RJL

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  13. Was that slow enough , you now realise you had made two major errors in one sentence ,but find it difficult as always , to face up to that .
    If you get the basics wrong ,as you regularly do , building fantasies on these errors only compounds the problem and takes even longer for you to understand .
    Even after the basic errors have been highlighted your "thinking" gets you into deeper pits . i.e. "A piece of Bluestone was found within the top layer sitting on a layer dated 7090 BCE - so the date it fell in must have been close to that date." At least you now accept your original error but "close to that " should be "after that " .

    ReplyDelete