tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787185370858787658.post4890255680740050730..comments2024-01-30T06:35:10.103+00:00Comments on www.Sarsen.org: It's been emotional, it's been a real journey...Tim Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667360714222841797noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787185370858787658.post-33479382607027160692016-06-08T14:33:56.313+01:002016-06-08T14:33:56.313+01:00I agree with most of this.
Unlike today (for the ...I agree with most of this.<br /><br />Unlike today (for the most part) the people then stayed in one place for long periods, having originally settled there for conventional reasons, ie: plentiful food, water and security. Those places became imbued with significance as the folks developed local ideas and the eventual homogeneous rationale which defined their society.<br /><br />A natural corollary would be to lug remembrances from the original home to a new place as the growing culture spread.<br /><br />All of us today have such remembrances from places we've visited or lived at, and the reasoning is very similar. Julian Richards is on the right track.<br /><br />I can neither confirm nor deny that I have four shards of sarsen collected from the Stonehenge work site, and that these chipped slivers are among my most prized possessions. They have come on an extremely long journey to a place where the workers who fashioned them could scarcely have imagined. By nature of this provenance they'd be museum pieces here, c.3000 miles away.<br /><br />Often missing from the narrative is the timeline. Those folks lived in their various locations for extremely long periods, so the move to new environs would have been culturally significant. 500 years is pretty lengthy when the life-span averaged only 40. In most of these discussions we lightly bandy time in terms of thousands of years. So taking a series of native bluestones with them would probably have been a natural act, regardless of the labor involved.<br /><br />If we ever discover the source of all the various types of bluestone represented at the Pile, I believe we'll find the nearby settlements of the people who eventually moved them. It's here that the work of MPP & Co will prove important.<br /><br />But, at this point, I believe the Sarsen used at Avebury and Stonehenge was the product of expedited convenience, rather than a culling of 'The Ancestors' or some such other hogwash. This tough stone was nearby, they used them - end of story.<br /><br />But in the beginning, the Blues were the thing, and a pursuit of their sources will prove to be enlightening in the context of that long-lived culture.<br /><br />NeilND Wisemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11925248433335448747noreply@blogger.com