Stonehenge: controversies of the bluestones

How and why the bluestones arrived at Stonehenge, the UK's most revered ancient monument, has long held people's imagination. The key to understanding these questions relies heavily on the location of their sources. Following early studies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which proposed various places but in particular southwest England, H.H. Thomas, in 1923, suggested that they came from the Mynydd Preseli, in north Pembrokeshire, Wales. Thomas proposed a number of key locations for the geographical origin of the stones. However, recent investigations have called those locations into question, identifying different sources albeit from the same broad area in north Pembrokeshire. Identification of these proposed new sites has led to archaeological excavations and important new discoveries including new suggested routes for the transport of the bluestones from the Preseli Hills to Stonehenge some 230 km away.

Archaeology International

Draft paper for Till, Rupert (2009) Songs of the stones: the acoustics of Stonehenge. In: The Sounds of Stonehenge. Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth. CHOMBEC Working Papers No. 1 . Hadrian Books. ISBN 9781407306308

2011

This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of music and sound in the life of an aural/oral culture, and its importance as ritual technology. It goes on to provide background about the site in prehistory and in popular culture. Thomas Hardy's writing about Stonehenge raises the question of whether there are significant acoustic features at the site. There is then a study of the acoustics of Stonehenge, beginning with existing work on the subject and a theoretical consideration. It goes on to study the acoustics of a full size replica and a digital model before discussing the results of field tests in the stone circle itself. It concludes that the sonic features of Stonehenge were noticeable and significant, and that it is likely that they were a part of the ritual culture of the site.

IASPM@journal, 2011

This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of music and sound in the life of an aural/oral culture, and its importance as ritual technology. It goes on to provide background about the site in prehistory and in popular culture. Thomas Hardy's writing about Stonehenge raises the question of whether there are significant acoustic features at the site. There is then a study of the acoustics of Stonehenge, beginning with existing work on the subject and a theoretical consideration. It goes on to study the acoustics of a full size replica and a digital model before discussing the results of field tests in the stone circle itself. It concludes that the sonic features of Stonehenge were noticeable and significant, and that it is likely that they were a part of the ritual culture of the site.

This letter contains an assessment of the following article: Parker Pearson, M. 2016. "Secondhand Stonehenge? Welsh Origins of a Wiltshire monument." Current Archaeology 311 (2016), pp 18-22. It is concluded that the article contains abundant speculations that are not supported by evidence on the ground . The radiocarbon dates cited in this article simply demonstrate a long history of intermittent occupation at the sites mentioned. The article is devoid of scholarly rigour, and simply reads as a calculated "quarry promotion exercise"..