Parch Mark Paper To Be Published.

A note from Antiquity journal:

REFERENCE: ANT2013/0344

TYPE: Research

TITLE: Parchmarks at Stonehenge, July 2013

AUTHOR(S): Simon Banton, Mark Bowden, Tim Daw, Damian Grady, Sharon Soutar

" I am writing to let you know that your article will be published in Volume 88, Issue 341, September 2014. The volume will be available online at http://antiquity.ac.uk/journal.html from around 26 August and the printed copy of the journal will be available from 1 September."

This relates to the parchmarks revealed here, but there is more to them than I have been, and am, allowed to reveal pre-publication.

Browne's Stonehenge Mystery Stones

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161374225055

AN ILLUSTRATION OF STONEHENGE AND ABURY IN THE COUNTY OF WILTS POINTING OUT THEIR ORIGIN AND CHARACTER THROUGH CONSIDERATIONS HITHERTO UNNOTICED

BY H, BROWNE 

Click to embiggen - quality not good.

Note how Stone 14 is propped up and that there seems to be a visible stone under the north east corner of Stone 55a (the fallen stone of the Great Trilithon's bottom part). It might be a packing sarsen that has been uncovered, but I'm not sure.

Stukeley also pictured 14 propped up, and 59 slightly raised;

Puddingstone Report

http://www.earthheritage.org.uk/ehpdf/EH42_7-14f.pdf - good article about a Puddingstone, a strange type of sarsen, meeting in Hertfordshire.

Periglacial Stripes Visible in the Landscape

http://part-timenaturalist.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/grimes-graves-25th-march-2010.html has some interesting pictures of a visit to Grimes Graves including this photograph of Periglacial stripes showing up through different plant growth. Maybe in the past it happened elsewhere.

White Lines at Stonehenge Experiment

There is some discussion at Mike Pitt's blog about the source of the white lines seen in old pictures of stones at Stonehenge. See http://mikepitts.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/james-bridges-at-stonehenge/ and for my take on it http://www.sarsen.org/2013/06/white-lines-on-stones-in-old-photos-of.html.

I thought an experiment might be in order.

The white stripes showed up on Stone 56 after Gowland had re-erected it.

Gowland doesn't say if he packed between his "stout timbers" and the stone, but the photo suggests there my have been something placed there.

I have a well lichened Sarsen gatepost, originally from West Kennett, and plenty of stout oak timbers so I have strapped one very firmly to the sarsen and will leave it there for a fortnight to see what happens.

After two weeks I removed the timber and the lichen showed a very small amount of discolouration,

And another two weeks later maybe just a bit more, it looks like lichen has died but it is not conclusive.

I will keep observing.

Stunning Stonehenge Images from July 2013

English Heritage Images have just made available some Stonehenge images from last July when the ground was very dry and certain parchmarks were noted.

The photos were taken on 10th July 2013 - Nine days before I noted the parchmarks which had obviously been hiding in full view for some time. Some of the marks are much clearer than the photos taken after 19th July. I especially note the marks around the base of Stone 56 which clearly show the outline of Gowland's trenches.

Available from http://www.englishheritageimages.com/stonehenge-n130038/print/10055393.html

See also: 

http://www.englishheritageimages.com/stonehenge-at-sunrise-n130035/print/10055385.html

http://www.englishheritageimages.com/stonehenge-n130043/print/10055399.html

http://www.englishheritageimages.com/stonehenge-n130045/print/10055407.html

http://www.englishheritageimages.com/stonehenge-n130044/print/10055405.html

Water, Water Everywhere

Neolithic Enclosures: A Perspective From North West England 
by David Barrowclough

https://www.academia.edu/7684902/Neolithic_Enclosures_A_Perspective_From_North_West_England

"Less 
well 
understood
 is 
the 
role 
that
 water
 plays
 in
 the
 location
 of
 these 
monument
 complexes.
In
almost
 every
 case
 study...
they 
sit 
alongside 
a 
river 
or 
water‐course
 in
 close proximity
 to 
a 
spring....The 
presence 
of 
water 
seems
 to 
have 
been 
a 
key 
factor 
in 
the 
initial 
selection
 of

locations.....The
 reason
 that 
water 
is 
so 
important 
is 
perhaps
 because 
of 
its 
religious
 significance, 

which 
explains 
why
 prehistoric 
monuments 
were 
built 
adjacent 
to 
springs 
and 
rivers...."

A fascinating discussion document but let me raise a note of scepticism
.

Firstly I am not convinced that it has been shown that enclosure monuments are significantly in closer proximity to water courses and springs than a random site in the same geographic area. Picking random locations on http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/ gives me "close proximity to water" in the vast majority of cases. This is a wet country. And when Stonehenge, which is out on the waterless plain is used to bolster the argument, then colour me unconvinced.

And secondly it may well be that they are associated with water, it would be odd if they were not. For the mundane and practical reasons of drinking, fishing and transport humans tend to live near water.

I am just not convinced that the specialness of their proximity has been shown or that it has been shown to be for religious rather than practical reasons, especially when the religious or ritual seems to have permeated every aspect of neolithic life.

STONEHENGE AND AVEBURY WHS CLIMATE CHANGE RISK ASSESSMENT 2014

http://www.stonehengeandaveburywhs.org/assets/Climate-Change-RA-for-web.pdf

(As it points out the old rocks have put up with a lot of changes in the past - see http://www.sarsen.org/2013/11/building-stonehenge-in-time-of-climate.html for a graphic I found last year.)

Megalith 2014

This Megalith 2014 Stonehenge and Avebury WHS Newsletter provides information on what has been happening in and around the WHS in the past year or so. You can find out about developments in the management of the WHS such as the appointment of new Chairs for the local WHS committees and the new Stonehenge and Avebury WHS Partnership Panel and the progress of the forthcoming Stonehenge and Avebury WHS Management Plan – the first ever joint Management Plan.

It includes information on a new interpretation panel at Avebury, some excavations taking place this summer on the West Kennet Avenue and events featured in this year’s Festival of British Archaeology. 

Download here

How Little Does it Take to Represent a Face?

How Little Does it Take to Represent a Face?

by David Barrowclough

Publication Date: 2004

Publication Name: Archaeological Review from Cambridge 2004 19(1)

https://www.academia.edu/5137913/How_Little_Does_it_Take_to_Represent_a_Face


See also http://www.sarsen.org/2012/09/seeing-faces-and-meanings-in-random.html
on Pareidolia.

Flying, pigs and Stonehenge - Article from EH Research News 2011

"The 20th century saw the most substantial physical alterations to Stonehenge and its surroundings since prehistory. Here, we feature snippets from just one of these – the appearance and disappearance of the Stonehenge Aerodrome."

Full article - here

All Cannings Cross Midden Reports

"Towards the end of the Late Bronze Age, Plain Ware ceramics are replaced by the more highly decorated Early All Cannings Cross forms. These are more focused on the service of food than the earlier ceramic forms and appear indicative of the importance of public consumption in the negotiation of social relationships. It therefore seems likely that consumption, governed by its strict rules of etiquette, would have served as the primary medium for re-incorporating these disparate groups back into the community. The meetings will have been filled with stories of the journeys undertaken, the people encountered and the activities conducted. Relaxed sexual licence often characterizes such events (Fleming 1985) and the knowledge gained through conversation and the relationships formed would have strengthened the individual’s sense of belonging to the community...."

Black earth, bone and bits of old pot: the Pewsey middens. Recent work by the University of Sheffield.

by Andy Valdez-Tullett
A number of large midden sites, dating from the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age transition, have been discovered in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, over the last 30 years. These middens are characterised by deep deposits (up to 2m thick) of dark humic material, rich in animal bone and ceramics. This paper outlines some of the early findings from a recent programme of research undertaken by the University of Sheffield at All Cannings Cross and Stanton St. Bernard. The two sites appear to have several similarities such as midden structure, but also distinct differences in terms of the artefacts and the taphonomic processes at work. This paper theorises how the construction of the linear earthwork systems on the downs during the Late Bronze Age facilitated an increase in mobility and allowed a burgeoning in the size of the local communities. Whilst this made possible the management of large herds, it meant that larger proportions of the community were dispersed during the agricultural year. Evidence suggests that the sites were involved within a sheep dairying regime and were located at pivotal points in the landscape where large groups of people would be drawn together at certain times during the agricultural calendar. As such the sites were integral to a process reincorporating community ethos for the disparate groups and may over time have become symbolically associated with what it meant to belong to a community.
https://www.academia.edu/173961/Black_earth_bone_and_bits_of_old_pot_the_Pewsey_middens._Recent_work_by_the_University_of_Sheffield

The Pewsey middens: centres of feasting or symbols of community?

by Andy Valdez-Tullett

"During the 80’s and 90’s a number of discoveries highlighted the occurrence of a number of large midden sites in and around the Vale of Pewsey consistently dated to the Late Bronze Age / Earliest Iron Age transition. Consisting of 1-2m deep dark humic deposits, rich in animal bone and ceramics, the dramatic nature of the midden sites is highlighted by the huge numbers of animals slaughtered on an annual basis and its implication on the population that such sites could support. Initial explanations for these sites have focused on the manipulation of social relations through cycles of competitive feasting (McOmish 1996).
This paper reviews recent work by the University of Sheffield on the faunal data from the middens at All Cannings Cross and Stanton St. Bernard. Whilst these sites were the scene of large seasonal congregations that augmented a full time population during the year, it argues against feasting as the primary driver of midden creation. It suggests that changes to the landscape on the downs during the Late Bronze Age represent a rise in transhumance and dispersal of communal elements. Evidence suggests that the midden sites were located at pivotal points in the landscape where large groups of people would be drawn together at certain times during the agricultural calendar. As such, in contrast to the socially divisive results of competitive feasting, it suggests the sites were integral to a process reincorporating community ethos for disparate groups and may over time have become symbolically associated with what it meant to belong to a community. 

https://www.academia.edu/173964/The_Pewsey_middens_centres_of_feasting_or_symbols_of_community

Debarking Stonehenge

‘Seahenge’, at Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk . Here, the setting of the upturned base of a fallen oak, carefully trimmed and debarked, at the centre of an elliptical timber palisade, all but one timber of which was set with the bark to the exterior....

(From http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/neolithic-and-bronze-age-landscape/199-263chapter4final.pdf )

Francis Pryor in Seahenge: a quest for life and death in Bronze Age Britain makes a point about the process of debarking of the tree stump at Seahenge and what ritual significance this may have had.
He notes other cases where posts have been debarked and also where the ground was deturfed before barrow building.  He says (p249) that the processes  "were essentially to do with purification and cleansing. The outer, soiled, layer was being removed to expose the purity beneath. I knew that rites of this sort are often associated with death and the spirit's journey to the next world. Was this the explanation?"

It made me think of the removal of the rough stone cortexes at Stonehenge, for similar reasons?