tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41117823051909300442024-03-24T00:10:02.381-07:00science buzzSwitching between subjective and objective modes is the essence of the scientific <i>modus operandi</i>. Not many people seem to appreciate that. Science is all about riding two horses, maybe not in concert, but certainly alternately - and knowing when to switch from one to the other.sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.comBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-26843194588038741592021-07-29T06:53:00.015-07:002021-08-17T03:44:30.431-07:00Limited back yard area? Think "vertical garden". Think BioWall!<p><br /></p><p>Here's the so-called "BioWall" as seen some weeks ago on my first viewing at a major supplier/installer.</p><br /><p><br /></p><p> I've since taken an extra 3 piccies, separated by a week or more, showing the relative constancy of its impressive appearance. <i>(Point and click to enlarge). </i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgJGyz-AhBDL3YE-LYdr2E1Rpc2UwcJSrtZI54n1lbuNTdLqRUw4Yq6Vg1Q-R90S5Hpq3jEto7pemwreaOChu98zJ8FqHmEi4bSw1Rp69OXelI3t5ae-U-g7NZ2HepgsN4_iZ-UT0ctYI/s1674/Pioneer+BioWall%252C+4+different+dates+given.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="1674" height="60" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgJGyz-AhBDL3YE-LYdr2E1Rpc2UwcJSrtZI54n1lbuNTdLqRUw4Yq6Vg1Q-R90S5Hpq3jEto7pemwreaOChu98zJ8FqHmEi4bSw1Rp69OXelI3t5ae-U-g7NZ2HepgsN4_iZ-UT0ctYI/s320/Pioneer+BioWall%252C+4+different+dates+given.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Why am I showing it here?</p><p>Yes, free advertising, one might say. But there's a separate, more important reason. </p><p>Wife and I have just had one installed in our back yard! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ChnLvUVgFFfFSwDIaaddacZkXQ3z0Y01iV_3XDcmYFfR_aN11bPxa1MyiNssD_ejOX4klgyqMuloGzKrrb12O9w5cGyk6U4uzc7RU-R_00K4EJozQXySTpmdkiB1CrI-pL6BYMaeCMVA/s5152/IMG_3712+pussies++plus+new+biowall.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ChnLvUVgFFfFSwDIaaddacZkXQ3z0Y01iV_3XDcmYFfR_aN11bPxa1MyiNssD_ejOX4klgyqMuloGzKrrb12O9w5cGyk6U4uzc7RU-R_00K4EJozQXySTpmdkiB1CrI-pL6BYMaeCMVA/s320/IMG_3712+pussies++plus+new+biowall.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Here's how our own BioWall looked immediately after installation, together with our two curious kittenish cats.</p><p>We're most impressed - not just by the appearance, but by the underlying science (especially the largely automatic system that keeps the 432 perennial pot plants regularly watered - but NOT overwatered.</p><p>More to follow - especially as regards the brilliant irrigation system...</p><p><b>Friday July 30</b></p><p>Yes, let's take a closer look at the irrigation system, which though largely invisible in the end-product, was captured in the piccies I took while installation was in progress.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi6C-cTgI8vEL78-pcMtpPfPjJY-tIfuhxOMBu52WP7RMx9fU7uvoarrRftddsKwqaf7VEs1PEr-fiLvkK-fjyilr220D-TFr9um0jYYc1L9gHuTP83SQRId-c2l87c9Vh2sX0vuxK7EBF/s5152/containers.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi6C-cTgI8vEL78-pcMtpPfPjJY-tIfuhxOMBu52WP7RMx9fU7uvoarrRftddsKwqaf7VEs1PEr-fiLvkK-fjyilr220D-TFr9um0jYYc1L9gHuTP83SQRId-c2l87c9Vh2sX0vuxK7EBF/s320/containers.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Above you see some of the 144 containers (each comprising 3 separate pots) that have been attached to the timber framework. Yes, they are linked. We'll see how shortly.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here's a follow-up picture with some of the containers occupied, and with one of the two installers doing some careful measurements nearest the back door:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfjvA1CpNewlNXzBy9Wtx9sTOeTuQ1Bve2cMm-1qXIpQOZwgBuhHKIfNyhXsVX7B7fBpiXKgysNVgI1WyqpE2s2ORjGSj7Z30TBaZBRLUHbq6llExWje7zRq61SyQF2WuFFonpF5bkuQI/s5152/containers+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfjvA1CpNewlNXzBy9Wtx9sTOeTuQ1Bve2cMm-1qXIpQOZwgBuhHKIfNyhXsVX7B7fBpiXKgysNVgI1WyqpE2s2ORjGSj7Z30TBaZBRLUHbq6llExWje7zRq61SyQF2WuFFonpF5bkuQI/s320/containers+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p> Here's a clue to the top-to-bottom irrigation system that keeps the BioWall supplied with a life-preserving water supply.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtfQThwB8CFolFGN0In2oKjiLUwMtNicvswU7lWnnhlXOZFTLLardVwHjSbEjxipRwJRG_bnJ09AkxsTAsVWbFS1QADxNg0sculJCpOHTd9nioK2h-be37A5nJ23RiQWwfab6AlHuxWdZ/s5152/water+supply+1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtfQThwB8CFolFGN0In2oKjiLUwMtNicvswU7lWnnhlXOZFTLLardVwHjSbEjxipRwJRG_bnJ09AkxsTAsVWbFS1QADxNg0sculJCpOHTd9nioK2h-be37A5nJ23RiQWwfab6AlHuxWdZ/s320/water+supply+1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Yes, you can see the inlet water-supply hose snaking up the side, then running behind the top horizontal spar of timber to the highest tier of containers.</p><p>An here's where the water supply came from - namely an outside tap. It was fitted with a second tap and hose, as you can see on the right, the one on the left being the original.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHr1-A-r3WHC8_rOy1y6kmHHp0UGbRli3h2iplymIbuprPAE87WblbQRzx2gIyHJJMKa5ApHvZwUfB460DApGOLhae1NP6Qrf0f2gR0sQ4YWn_GsczdbO2HJAlvhY0I44oViHkY8Vqftm/s5152/tap.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHr1-A-r3WHC8_rOy1y6kmHHp0UGbRli3h2iplymIbuprPAE87WblbQRzx2gIyHJJMKa5ApHvZwUfB460DApGOLhae1NP6Qrf0f2gR0sQ4YWn_GsczdbO2HJAlvhY0I44oViHkY8Vqftm/s320/tap.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><b>July 31st, 2021</b></p><p>Here's a few details regarding the irrigation system.</p><p>First, here's an elevated view taken from the far end, furthest from the inlet feed to the highest tier:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfvrdw5PNE6Ido-pYGQPt4EwBLQtcGgCLuD5h0d8YqFsPpeO9UgYB4gJUkqJTuvjVCX4bOiUZl0E9rvRh0F2MaKR_q77CnN3XoinYA90UB3bcqsJbZ97MFKe_zGKDd3xISI4nsEiAOz9W/s5152/water+supply+to+highest+tier.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfvrdw5PNE6Ido-pYGQPt4EwBLQtcGgCLuD5h0d8YqFsPpeO9UgYB4gJUkqJTuvjVCX4bOiUZl0E9rvRh0F2MaKR_q77CnN3XoinYA90UB3bcqsJbZ97MFKe_zGKDd3xISI4nsEiAOz9W/s320/water+supply+to+highest+tier.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Note the side tubing which takes water into each container. From this angle one cannot see where the tubes go, or how they end. That info is available, however, in a piccy that I took from the opposite end, i.e. from water-supply:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8SPASN4pLxF2wDCsXi9KG_mctJuRci6Tcvz-dMjo2xlQBBLPtyHF1o2s0ni3UqCJWs-qzp9TXTmk1gvzqp4CqcYxmcA2Fg9zt-j7JFfCEjxmdajbi3TeFSUwIZeAJxkD6EdBh0HD9mLZ/s5152/wtar+supply+2+-+highest+tier+from+door+end.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8SPASN4pLxF2wDCsXi9KG_mctJuRci6Tcvz-dMjo2xlQBBLPtyHF1o2s0ni3UqCJWs-qzp9TXTmk1gvzqp4CqcYxmcA2Fg9zt-j7JFfCEjxmdajbi3TeFSUwIZeAJxkD6EdBh0HD9mLZ/s320/wtar+supply+2+-+highest+tier+from+door+end.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>The side tubes dangle freely into the containers. But what are those ribbed black objects, of which two are visible in the above piccy? To find out, I went down to a lower level and removed a single pot plant from an end-container to investigate in more detail.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZV81Any2-tibNaAzpMVLgaBDU9c-b5mtvNkuZZ0u-E7X8Ab73Ar_qze3rsJ2yxvghxdMSEAlEDHkda7eGqPPSg42IeSiLi5WrKVaiTihyWUD3Af7GaBRR2jZr_tlX5Q6X3w8beS1E70TD/s1562/container+with+without+tick+and+cross.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="1562" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZV81Any2-tibNaAzpMVLgaBDU9c-b5mtvNkuZZ0u-E7X8Ab73Ar_qze3rsJ2yxvghxdMSEAlEDHkda7eGqPPSg42IeSiLi5WrKVaiTihyWUD3Af7GaBRR2jZr_tlX5Q6X3w8beS1E70TD/s320/container+with+without+tick+and+cross.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><p>I've placed a tick against the black-ribbed item. (Ignore the hole marked with a cross - it seems irrelevant from a brief glance).</p><p>Next I tugged lightly on the black ribbed item. It lifted off, being the grid-protection for a drain exit for surplus water.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWV0vCwdHnXH0gxCghm_LC9CTDPpLBnWk8Uz5kDuLo7xyqOrFbs3jM4qJNdKWNkbr5ok8gR3Quvrlk4l6q8ZdRDMNewjc4VxqGdQDVbVBeoEnRs80pmuKjCFpkLpe1AnUuYNEYc55cuUMP/s5152/IMG_3738+with+yellow+arrow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWV0vCwdHnXH0gxCghm_LC9CTDPpLBnWk8Uz5kDuLo7xyqOrFbs3jM4qJNdKWNkbr5ok8gR3Quvrlk4l6q8ZdRDMNewjc4VxqGdQDVbVBeoEnRs80pmuKjCFpkLpe1AnUuYNEYc55cuUMP/s320/IMG_3738+with+yellow+arrow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>(I've marked the location of the vertically-oriented exit drain with a small yellow arrow). </p><p><b>Sunday August 1</b></p><p>So, starting at the highest of 13 horizontal tiers, a shallow layer of inlet water from an outside tap builds up under each pot, sufficiently high to reach the base of the compost but no higher. (One relies on subsequent capillary action to gradually wet the entire compost + plant roots). It then proceeds to overflow into a drain pipe, running down to the next tier below, and thus it continues.</p><p>Then what? </p><p>Answer: the surplus finally runs into a gutter installed along the base.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLKsir5F0k-snsJGfD8SIuVuplSwib5Bl9_ouCvQZvpgMIrkkB6pZFIyXNpVwIfTXAhwpTOPaTF8ZXEiFYm4nBwbYnfp35zCD_YgmEmb7pECtJVgzrCPHgHWDyu08SjPGPfKemwf0V2_z/s5152/IMG_3731.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLKsir5F0k-snsJGfD8SIuVuplSwib5Bl9_ouCvQZvpgMIrkkB6pZFIyXNpVwIfTXAhwpTOPaTF8ZXEiFYm4nBwbYnfp35zCD_YgmEmb7pECtJVgzrCPHgHWDyu08SjPGPfKemwf0V2_z/s320/IMG_3731.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Finally, one sees overflow into a conveniently-situated drain:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpI2AvbEBrwhtt0V3tmgjlQYZvjBBqg3cKohzap-_q6PgI7Obt0DvdfEFYZszy3aOhZ9b20jhzWpJoJIZkNX0ke0-Hiy-yu3Pt1WMsLnfEyCc4UkXdL8I4tAaC_wJG0FmUr-cNmsXiVQyD/s5152/IMG_3732.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpI2AvbEBrwhtt0V3tmgjlQYZvjBBqg3cKohzap-_q6PgI7Obt0DvdfEFYZszy3aOhZ9b20jhzWpJoJIZkNX0ke0-Hiy-yu3Pt1WMsLnfEyCc4UkXdL8I4tAaC_wJG0FmUr-cNmsXiVQyD/s320/IMG_3732.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Time to turn off the inlet tap (which can be up to 20 mins or so after turning on, depending on when the pots were last watered).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Link to BioWall website:</b></p><p><a class="" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="1" href="https://www.biowall.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://www.biowall.co.uk</a></p><p><i><b>(Added note: have deleted the inserted image of a colourful BioWall ad' in a free magazine that came through the letterbox. Why? Answer: this posting disappeared completely from a search engine listing shortly thereafter! Cause and effect - or mere coincidence? Let's see if the posting reappears or not.)</b></i></p><p>Have also just discovered that <a href="https://www.biowall.co.uk/blog">BioWall has a blogsite</a>!</p><p><i>I'll now take a break, and wait to see what, if any, this posting attracts by way of feedback.</i></p><p>.</p><p>####################</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div><br /></div></div>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-43673467420689118292021-07-20T08:36:00.025-07:002021-07-29T04:17:19.763-07:00Ace2Ace carpet cleaner - one truly amazing invention!<p> I'm not in the habit of promoting commercial products, but I shall now make an exception. Why? Because I'm truly gobsmacked at what it does, what it achieves within the domestic environment.</p><p><br /></p><p>I'll do this posting in instalments. First, here's a snapshot, taken a few minutes ago, of the product in question, i.e. the Ace2Ace carpet cleaner:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAs3zDhlZq9jDYCis9cz4gSA8fvkPctkeuuujSg5pffhYunVA-NeE_0tm_K3Vr9qKiskSpFk1pvU3HxCZOmVmRIMpWcej4S6zJHTTG6dBFcKxh8M0tNcw8-e5my_2jQgVsp6aNEMiUfQR4/s5152/IMG_3482.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAs3zDhlZq9jDYCis9cz4gSA8fvkPctkeuuujSg5pffhYunVA-NeE_0tm_K3Vr9qKiskSpFk1pvU3HxCZOmVmRIMpWcej4S6zJHTTG6dBFcKxh8M0tNcw8-e5my_2jQgVsp6aNEMiUfQR4/s320/IMG_3482.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I've shown the device (hand, not power-operated) alongside what it's picked up from my household carpets (despite recent vacuuming!).</p><p>More to follow...</p><p><b>2nd Instalment (July 21, 21)</b></p><p>Enter Ace2Ace into search engines, and what do you see? Answer: prominent references to "pet hair removal" from carpets. Indeed, that's how I first came across the device. Our two new(ish) cats had been leaving visible hair on our carpets, it had not been vacuuming up as easily as expected. Answer: I deployed an old-fashioned clothes brush initially, noting it was better than the vacuum cleaner, but not entirely successful. Thus the initial internet search under "carpet" and "pet hair", thus the initial introduction to Ace2Ace, followed by a payment of £13.99 to a well-known internet provider, and next day delivery. </p><p>That's when I got the surprise of my life. Why? Because while the device did indeed scoop up pet hair, consigning in to a compartment, it did much, much more that that, of which there's scarcely a mention in the online literature.</p><p>The Ace2Ace device rejuvenated my ancient carpets (inherited from a predecessor). How, you may ask?</p><p>Answer - by removing more than pet hair - much much more! Yes, scarcely visible <i>in situ </i>with the naked eye, but oh-so-visible when viewed in the Ace2Ace collection compartment - which needed re-emptying at regular 5 minute intervals!</p><p>I have just given a mention, correction, plug, ;-) to this site and its latest posting. Where? On my Shroud of Turin website:</p><p>https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2020/06/20/shroud-of-turin-final-report-of-my-8-year-learning-curve-entirely-consistent-with-my-final-flour-imprinting-model-10-crucial-second-stage-roasting-of-a-medieval-body-contact-imprint-to-mimic/</p><p>Apols. (I'll spare you the reasons, except to say this: website visibility via a major internet search engine doth play a role!).</p><p><br /></p><p>Hare's a piccy showing the compartment in which the fluff is collected. It is easy to access - one simply lifts a flap on the topside of the device:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhum5Gu_ShktAdUKWYrF3ZwlzysOIiFo5kfcM7iTNwcQ7avQpINKsQUMjeaBx-eDI0PCCj2wQ3a3u_TxbntEQq6Z4ARpyspGkEgivCZuQDb1y3OGnl8Tla-CiUq4OSUYqz2T5znk4U4he5a/s5152/IMG_3475.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhum5Gu_ShktAdUKWYrF3ZwlzysOIiFo5kfcM7iTNwcQ7avQpINKsQUMjeaBx-eDI0PCCj2wQ3a3u_TxbntEQq6Z4ARpyspGkEgivCZuQDb1y3OGnl8Tla-CiUq4OSUYqz2T5znk4U4he5a/s320/IMG_3475.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>Third instalment (July 22, 2021)</b></p><p>It's hard to know how best to sum up the internal geometry of the Ace2Ace carpet cleaner. It's both simple AND complex at the same time. Yes it looks simple, viewed intact from the outside, or even with the 'fluff collecter' flap opened to reveal and dispose of what's been collected. It's when one takes a closer look that one sees the simplicity (combined with effectiveness ) of its design. Why do I say that?</p><p>First, when you look at the underside, what do you see? Answer, at first sight it looks like a cylindrical roller lined with short stubby bristles, designed to dislodge hair (and dust!) from carpets. But no - the dislodging surface is not a single continuous bristle-lined cylinder. That's why one doesn't use the tool for long continuous runs across a carpet. There are in fact TWO wide strips of the 'dislodger' mounted on the cylinder with intervening gaps. That's why one uses the tool as if a paint roller, i.e. rolling back and forth over a shortish distance. That engages each of the strips in turn - one on the push stroke, one on the pull, gathering detritus onto the separate strips each alternately and in turn. But that alone would not transfer the muck to the collector. How is that achieved one might ask? Answer: simple - but one has to look carefully within the guts of the tool to find the answer.</p><p><b>4th instalment, July 23</b></p><p>So let's see what the Ace2Ace is able to collect from a carpet, correction, a marked-out square metre of carpet. </p><p><br /></p><p>I've chosen a stretch of carpet that is not noticeably strewn with pet hair, despite having one of our two kittenish-cats in attendance:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQMX7alNDIsUp-E0k-RPumPp6SdUxS1nPWy5A2Z4U7H7xRtHZB_tYT4CluiDCVMsJVpMq8x1p8tBnLflXusZzPHubJTmfPOy65_9Yiy38zIbh3y4YYIFJ_IutyTYFtUnVCD56JdAZSepU4/s5152/1+cat+plus+unruled+carpet.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQMX7alNDIsUp-E0k-RPumPp6SdUxS1nPWy5A2Z4U7H7xRtHZB_tYT4CluiDCVMsJVpMq8x1p8tBnLflXusZzPHubJTmfPOy65_9Yiy38zIbh3y4YYIFJ_IutyTYFtUnVCD56JdAZSepU4/s320/1+cat+plus+unruled+carpet.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Next step - use a pair of steel rules to mark out a square metre:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXyE7U5DwBQFH08drkGCcW0WAZn2ePcw0eYt8vp7uHlsda3KeIAgdNQRGfDgh_XqW-YgJQvCgQL2dMme26PJX6Elt8MYPB-r46ZT4GT0nryiMhMVjn_MGQgnnC9PErO_f6kqn-k1n9Gag/s5152/2+ruled+off+carpet+%252B+ace2ace+closed.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXyE7U5DwBQFH08drkGCcW0WAZn2ePcw0eYt8vp7uHlsda3KeIAgdNQRGfDgh_XqW-YgJQvCgQL2dMme26PJX6Elt8MYPB-r46ZT4GT0nryiMhMVjn_MGQgnnC9PErO_f6kqn-k1n9Gag/s320/2+ruled+off+carpet+%252B+ace2ace+closed.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Next step: take a close-up photo of the Ace2Ace with an emptied fluff-collecting compartment:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6q3YmtAha2M_RqitZYFZKpnSu4dVRpokbf0i9GK814twh2TZgnEW8z97yB9xjpd2yrlJa3g1-m8FniolpLy2u549xSsQRTZBKNa6DNpyrhPFKyRRRAE0tV3kq7Dck0cdOTffbo8oJpxpp/s5152/3+ace2ace+open+compartment.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6q3YmtAha2M_RqitZYFZKpnSu4dVRpokbf0i9GK814twh2TZgnEW8z97yB9xjpd2yrlJa3g1-m8FniolpLy2u549xSsQRTZBKNa6DNpyrhPFKyRRRAE0tV3kq7Dck0cdOTffbo8oJpxpp/s320/3+ace2ace+open+compartment.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here's the fluff collected and stored from just half that square metre of carpet:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJOeRE6LtAROX2F7uL2V-uLDVUghaCrGumPSul0PqlBVL0ydclJp5l8Ll7mTCLQuJ6YtMtKjcmuzkYzwR9Zva7Fj21ikmLk4W4htaIGsH86PIRzkTTwBsdiPNIltiQm7Fd-FZ8xUFgORct/s5152/fluff+from+half+carpet+only.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJOeRE6LtAROX2F7uL2V-uLDVUghaCrGumPSul0PqlBVL0ydclJp5l8Ll7mTCLQuJ6YtMtKjcmuzkYzwR9Zva7Fj21ikmLk4W4htaIGsH86PIRzkTTwBsdiPNIltiQm7Fd-FZ8xUFgORct/s320/fluff+from+half+carpet+only.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Now move to the unbrushed left side of the carpet (with t'other pussy in attendance):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV8sAld42naeFZQDjDenFpC4aZk1A9KJHmUoGdInK7WycQIVhBV605-sETdULB5sQlwsZyHTEKiBSmWhtdb9aqP249Z3kmr746Hf6dl-nALuX0bWe_S5NeNHP5KJQD2KZjT90feBjm_huI/s5152/2.+now+move+to+left+side+carpet+with+cat.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV8sAld42naeFZQDjDenFpC4aZk1A9KJHmUoGdInK7WycQIVhBV605-sETdULB5sQlwsZyHTEKiBSmWhtdb9aqP249Z3kmr746Hf6dl-nALuX0bWe_S5NeNHP5KJQD2KZjT90feBjm_huI/s320/2.+now+move+to+left+side+carpet+with+cat.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>And here's what one sees inside the fluff-collecter compartment after doing both halves of that marked-out square metre!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsnP27P31HSvHj_ajN5wWwnJoyqQ71n9LYn8rFs1mweZg6sB5UIcFWVE_9WY3-jk5varxKPcpZH7bVSls_wJeysH8LI15fHyiVN0srW12zco43BGeWvKx2jHm_K26hSbZ_jK6vNIFhYjEk/s5152/3.+floss+plus+fluff.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsnP27P31HSvHj_ajN5wWwnJoyqQ71n9LYn8rFs1mweZg6sB5UIcFWVE_9WY3-jk5varxKPcpZH7bVSls_wJeysH8LI15fHyiVN0srW12zco43BGeWvKx2jHm_K26hSbZ_jK6vNIFhYjEk/s320/3.+floss+plus+fluff.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>So how does the fluff get from the roller strips to the collecter compartment? One has to peer closely into the narrow gaps between the cylinder and its outer casing (I did consider trying to get a piccy but thought better of it). In short, the answer is both simple yet ingenious from a mechanical point of view: the fluff-acquired cylinder makes contact with two additional strips of bristly/stubble coating on the inside of the casing. They gently and efficiently scratch off the fluff, the latter being dumped into the collector compartment. </p><p>As indicated earlier, I find the combined efficiency and mechanical simplicity of the Ace2Ace simply gobsmacking. It's not to be seen purely as a device for collecting pet hair. As stated earlier, it picks up months, nay years of microscopic grey fluff and dust, giving one's ageing carpets a new lease of life. The Ace2Ace inventors have maybe not qualified (yet) for a Nobel Prize. But a consolation Loud Bell Prize of some description, internet- or (better still) MSM-mediated - is definitely warranted!</p><p><i>I'll leave it there for now. Comments welcome...</i></p><p><b>July 26, 2021: </b>Back again. Why? While keeping an eye open for interesting new additions to the shelves in retail outlets, here are two more to which I intend to give brief exposure. (Strictly interest only - no commission payments whatsoever, whether invited or received!).</p><p>I'll start with a piccy of the two new additions, parked side-by-side, taken just a few minutes ago:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTCFefUvA_g27QHCqwHiFAwo05xAeg8B-ZDRJ9_MPrkjBQN0AE7paLqVn06TDZ4F7qh1GKEZifz7APjLJPTskW_5l_vEvhbS26W7qrBQqZ0ZuJ-yUgDgBpJJ5EfE24-InLkIpEGEfUtJGH/s5152/IMG_3662+extension+plus+casa.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTCFefUvA_g27QHCqwHiFAwo05xAeg8B-ZDRJ9_MPrkjBQN0AE7paLqVn06TDZ4F7qh1GKEZifz7APjLJPTskW_5l_vEvhbS26W7qrBQqZ0ZuJ-yUgDgBpJJ5EfE24-InLkIpEGEfUtJGH/s320/IMG_3662+extension+plus+casa.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>One is a unusual Chilean white wine (from a climate-blessed grape-growing zone region slightly inland from Valparaiso which wife and I visited in late 2018). The other is a novel vertical floor-standing outlet for electrical appliances.</p><p>More to follow hopefully in a day or two. </p><p><i>(My mind right now is preoccupied with yet another retail product that is being installed on our patio tomorrow, namely a "BioWall". (See local retailer/installer display item below):</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Xboz2iDQI5tKllZmqoJLzVH7L8g2nO8CeN4pvFcPLIO4ZT4nyvJwG2pR7BPSjbLo1Umsd24dFTFoQ78Kr53X6J_j9pxMSGxxk_OVTMckdLApqpbAgYX8NfjzOw86MnfBVUfXE-YVkKbt/s5152/for+sbuzz+BioWall+3+-+21+july+21.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Xboz2iDQI5tKllZmqoJLzVH7L8g2nO8CeN4pvFcPLIO4ZT4nyvJwG2pR7BPSjbLo1Umsd24dFTFoQ78Kr53X6J_j9pxMSGxxk_OVTMckdLApqpbAgYX8NfjzOw86MnfBVUfXE-YVkKbt/s320/for+sbuzz+BioWall+3+-+21+july+21.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>#########################</i></p><p><i><b>Late insertion - July 27:</b></i></p><p><i>My very own "Biowall" was installed today. Pussies are investigating: </i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOIOwjM0kdgytWGoI0-TQ_HerBIQQu1sklyFoHlMrel-o3uBLtbarjixi1j8xGgRI3oyXcYcOlfeR111cpLQlFwq90n8nhHvbG1dGGV4O80wQeKbuHSgoiJq0ml5WrdKwrWdwNUBcgXjt6/s5152/IMG_3712+pussies++plus+new+biowall.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOIOwjM0kdgytWGoI0-TQ_HerBIQQu1sklyFoHlMrel-o3uBLtbarjixi1j8xGgRI3oyXcYcOlfeR111cpLQlFwq90n8nhHvbG1dGGV4O80wQeKbuHSgoiJq0ml5WrdKwrWdwNUBcgXjt6/s320/IMG_3712+pussies++plus+new+biowall.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Yes. A real treat of an addition to the back yard of one's otherwise humble household! Read: instant garden (correction, "vertical garden" !) </i></p><p><i>The suppliers have ok'd it being subject of a new posting - expect in a few days or so...</i></p><p><i>#################################</i></p><p><i>"BioWall" may well be the subject of a separate future posting - from a strictly botanical point a view (432 perennial plants in 144 angled containers - creating a "vertical garden" suited to confined spaces!) </i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Going back to earlier, here are some close ups of the label of that "unusual" (oh so distinctive!) Chilean white wine:</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOD4QxYVY8gJKIZ2MaxZBgVaq1u_5FoP9vsuRfZOyXIEDXIibX-g5o40iYANfbEMhra-9CTlthJGhM8iBijeHL0EmVGKEAEawzpXurXfAkg2gAbuZZyamG4y5QLWJWkrkXAkQBBYPrwSKl/s5152/wine+1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOD4QxYVY8gJKIZ2MaxZBgVaq1u_5FoP9vsuRfZOyXIEDXIibX-g5o40iYANfbEMhra-9CTlthJGhM8iBijeHL0EmVGKEAEawzpXurXfAkg2gAbuZZyamG4y5QLWJWkrkXAkQBBYPrwSKl/s320/wine+1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i>Yes, it's a plain-old " Chardonnay". But much else besides. Read on..</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGJaYEbHSfCkGgLNOIo4ZGF4f-f4p8iMn2KQOgCOEbFmzg-1rJIJiMB4BBneXNO7kZRie-oa4_QLrj8usvNAcAdDLWZzOQHM1ebpMS57NAYaemXDjxTlC86w6V8mTuys-GxjAAGGwuluQ/s5152/wine+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGJaYEbHSfCkGgLNOIo4ZGF4f-f4p8iMn2KQOgCOEbFmzg-1rJIJiMB4BBneXNO7kZRie-oa4_QLrj8usvNAcAdDLWZzOQHM1ebpMS57NAYaemXDjxTlC86w6V8mTuys-GxjAAGGwuluQ/s320/wine+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i>Label reads: "Overflowing with tropical fruit flavours and citrus notes".</i></p><p><i>How come, one might ask? (Not that I was complaining - having taken my first sip , and thinking " Oh boy, oh boy, that makes one helluva change from regular, routine white wine"). But beware - there's a tiny sting in the tail... see what else appears on the label </i></p><p><i><b>New instalment: July 27</b></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/no-mr-barrie-m-schwortz-sturp-did-not-provide-an-example-that-future-shroud-researchers-can-use-to-carefully-plan-their-own-work-sturp-showed-how-not-to-plan-or-execute-objectiv/">Here's a piccy I posted on my Shroudie site (tail end!)</a> back at the, er, tail end of 2018:</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiL5U-hWMqzYqPo_fFX8J8Gg0jZ-aA3tncl5dMYt9v1YMSY8UpZCBh6XrMKo2rIAHUnoG-cl3nlH4t6PJv_kUM9CmCgpkypUJhUL3Bzq1LS5ZV3WtC5B0EP6bPJSxVBCdSz2etbkQexmV9/s648/2o18+ref+to+chile+trip.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="648" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiL5U-hWMqzYqPo_fFX8J8Gg0jZ-aA3tncl5dMYt9v1YMSY8UpZCBh6XrMKo2rIAHUnoG-cl3nlH4t6PJv_kUM9CmCgpkypUJhUL3Bzq1LS5ZV3WtC5B0EP6bPJSxVBCdSz2etbkQexmV9/s320/2o18+ref+to+chile+trip.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i>It showed where missus and I stayed briefly on our 2 week excursion to far-flung Chile, up in the Andes.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>But most of our stay was in Santiago (the capital) plus the adjacent Pacific coastline to the west - seaside-resort Algorrobo and (then) the characterful Valparaiso port city a short way to the north.</i></p><p><i><i>En route </i>, we traversed the much-acclaimed (ideal-grape-cultivation climate ) wine-making region with "Casablanca" a prominent place name:</i></p><p><i>Here's a map of that part of the particular (long skinny) stretch of Chile, with our travels approx midway north to south of that amazingly-elongated country (with amazing contrast between mix of coastal hill and plain, with nearby Andes to the east). </i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoB2TRV9msTcoAcNdXq4Ey09ZrrHBfdZ0uT54h5Gy1NiNYF0Lm_SrLQnfCIVHWuPosRoKSeSzpaohFOYzCcOP_tnaS0iDB3kD-p48EFwzmjbYiG3xOraHJyx31LD3HWqnnaVzug9PNJ2VA/s1244/valle+de+casablanca.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="841" data-original-width="1244" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoB2TRV9msTcoAcNdXq4Ey09ZrrHBfdZ0uT54h5Gy1NiNYF0Lm_SrLQnfCIVHWuPosRoKSeSzpaohFOYzCcOP_tnaS0iDB3kD-p48EFwzmjbYiG3xOraHJyx31LD3HWqnnaVzug9PNJ2VA/s320/valle+de+casablanca.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p>Back to that newly-sampled wine from that oh-so-special region of Chile.</p><p>Here are two piccies of the label in close-up:</p><p><i><br /></i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwaK4YmxzWsuCRWRrsjVLFVF5vG9_bz7-P8Qp98Z18-Jn-HMCsBPd13u39NNXL_H03Y6ehlL-9bZVlWXk_tAZxqssHHmvE4I-cHv5k2HArQJhFznK_50XzE0QPFyrwDy3K7ou82BN82LaS/s5152/wine+4.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwaK4YmxzWsuCRWRrsjVLFVF5vG9_bz7-P8Qp98Z18-Jn-HMCsBPd13u39NNXL_H03Y6ehlL-9bZVlWXk_tAZxqssHHmvE4I-cHv5k2HArQJhFznK_50XzE0QPFyrwDy3K7ou82BN82LaS/s320/wine+4.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p>Yes, it talks up (and rightly so) its exceptional flavour. </p><p>But here is the sting in the tail, flagged up earlier, when on reads the adjacent small print:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_G5IMSHgXTRyMuSe_W9XOehl95eFE9TSDkQ3c1JeizIc4CZYbGcZZWpVEJxYLQ_cdpuDrQYOEjpvdzE3K5Z9bdUaiTx9FS8AMGpGxn5IN5HngU1IoGTH99nsew9XcEgI_9LkV9tmXub-/s5152/wine+5.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_G5IMSHgXTRyMuSe_W9XOehl95eFE9TSDkQ3c1JeizIc4CZYbGcZZWpVEJxYLQ_cdpuDrQYOEjpvdzE3K5Z9bdUaiTx9FS8AMGpGxn5IN5HngU1IoGTH99nsew9XcEgI_9LkV9tmXub-/s320/wine+5.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Yes, it reads: " It is recommended that that this wine be consumed within one year of purchase". </p><p>?????????????????????????????</p><p>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!</p><p>Why? Why ? Where's the explanation? Where's the SCIENCE?????</p><p>It is totally news to me that any wine (exceptionally flavourful or otherwise) should be consumed within ONE YEAR OF PURCHASE. Never before in my wine-sipping life have I ever encountered that message before. What's the reason? What have I (and probably others) missed regarding wine - which we thought improved (not deteriorated) on storage?</p><p><i>Here, after a quick internet search, is a website that gives the answer as to why some wines store and improve better than others:</i></p><p><a href="https://oureverydaylife.com/wine-not-expire-33989.html">https://oureverydaylife.com/wine-not-expire-33989.html</a></p><p>It's to do with what accompanies the alcohol, the flavour etc. The accompaniments to the alcohol etc (notably acids etc) may affect the durability of the wine!</p><p>That is/was news to me. Am I the only one to be surprised by what for me was an eye-opener - arriving oh-so-late in life ?</p><p>So, you pays your price. You may get exceptionally "fruity" flavour etc in the new wine - a year or two old - but there's a big big price to pay. Consume while the wine is still young".#</p><p>Enough said re wine ...</p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>More to follow:</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-53034163094063400862021-02-21T06:43:00.025-08:002021-03-30T06:46:32.191-07:00An entirely new explanation for Woodhenge - and probably the initial Stonehenge too: a protective enclosure for livestock when coming under arrow attack<p><i> This posting, over a year since the "last" on this blogsite, is intended simply to stake this retired academic's claim for <b>an entirely new "take" on Woodhenge (and with it the original Stonehenge too!).</b></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Here's a modern-day photograph, borrowed from a farming website (link later) - one that conveys the gist of the new thinking.</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBR08m7qh8Bw2NoHWDLfq9ZnET3edp5SE5GafVJ6Jhhvw3bbo2HjR8w2Kbqn8UqfeOdwifntBTGBlhduMg9pjqQA34wLM9HSJr3NuVlB0zjZykCtXgdgL-ZOESwrkUmkfTgm7AcqdAAISm/s1394/Final+tethered+cow+graphic.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="1394" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBR08m7qh8Bw2NoHWDLfq9ZnET3edp5SE5GafVJ6Jhhvw3bbo2HjR8w2Kbqn8UqfeOdwifntBTGBlhduMg9pjqQA34wLM9HSJr3NuVlB0zjZykCtXgdgL-ZOESwrkUmkfTgm7AcqdAAISm/w640-h286/Final+tethered+cow+graphic.png" width="640" /></i></a></div><i><br /></i><p><i>Oops. the caption is only partly visible. I'll try fixing later. For now, here's the caption separately: </i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSb1N-ZxZX81XHqdFQztMnaLzwWpYdh2BLqQ3tVeswGEzR-BKXvMPPQANmki_crzypMqAauXVVUWxRztrtQXj5_u2LE0Y3129ZOU-X1qWn7pryrwAVAoCGpsRqeywfmvRI_vWxQw_6-x3/s690/title+of+graphic+with+tethered+cow.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSb1N-ZxZX81XHqdFQztMnaLzwWpYdh2BLqQ3tVeswGEzR-BKXvMPPQANmki_crzypMqAauXVVUWxRztrtQXj5_u2LE0Y3129ZOU-X1qWn7pryrwAVAoCGpsRqeywfmvRI_vWxQw_6-x3/s320/title+of+graphic+with+tethered+cow.png" width="320" /></a></p><p></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Relevance to Woodhenge? See the wiki entry on Woodhenge. I've attached an abbreviated version I've added below. </i></p><p><i>So what's the new idea? </i></p><p><i>Answer: the folk who decided to settle in and around Salisbury Plain were farmers by trade, keeping a range of grazing animals (cattle, sheep, pigs etc). They periodically came under attack from the indigenous population of hunter-gathers, looking to supplement their intake of meat. Which weapons would the attackers have deployed? Answer: flint-head spears and (especially) ARROWS. </i></p><p><i>So what would have been the sensible response on the part of the farmers? Answer: retreat behind a timber stockade with livestock. Attach the livestock to timber support posts towards the centre of the structure where the animals would have been largely shielded from arrows.</i></p><p><i>No, Woodhenge (and probably later Stonehenge too) had nothing whatsoever to do with solstice celebration. There were other reasons for the NE opening into both Woodhenge and Stonehenge. (In the case of the first, the opening was in the direction of the nearby River Avon, offering some protection from arrow or other attack from that direction).</i></p><p><i>More to follow in due course. (I am thinking of creating a new blogsite, dedicated mainly to Woodhenge as the likely clue as to the real purpose of Stonehenge, at keast as originally conceived).</i></p><p><b><i>Abbreviated version of the wiki entry on Woodhenge:</i></b></p><p><i> "<b>Woodhenge is a Neolithic henge and timber circle monument within the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in Wiltshire, England. It is 2 miles north-east of Stonehenge.</b></i></p><p><i><b>The site consists of six concentric oval rings of postholes, the outermost being about 141 by 131 ft wide. They are surrounded first by a single flat-bottomed ditch, 7.9 ft deep and up to 39 ft wide, and finally by an outer bank, about 33 ft wide and 3.3 ft high. With an overall diameter measuring (360 ft) (including bank and ditch), the site had a single entrance to the north-east. </b></i></p><p><i><b>Most of the 168 post holes held wooden posts, although Cunnington found evidence that a pair of standing stones may have been placed between the second and third post hole rings. Excavations in 2006 indicated that there were at least five standing stones on the site, arranged in a "cove". The deepest post holes measured up to 6.6 ft and are believed to have held posts which reached as high as 25 ft above ground. Those posts would have weighed up to 5 tons, and their arrangement was similar to that of the bluestones at Stonehenge. </b></i></p><p><i><b>Further comparisons with Stonehenge were quickly noticed by Cunnington: both have entrances oriented approximately to the midsummer sunrise, and the diameters of the timber circles at Woodhenge and the stone circles at Stonehenge are similar.</b></i></p><p><i><b>Over 40 years after the discovery of Woodhenge, another timber circle of comparable size was discovered in 1966, 230 ft to the north. Known as the Southern Circle, it lies inside what came to be known as the Durrington Walls henge enclosure.</b></i></p><p><i><b>There are various theories about possible timber structures that might have stood on and about the site, and their purpose, but it is likely that the timbers were free-standing, rather than part of a roofed structure. For many years, the study of Stonehenge had overshadowed work on the understanding of Woodhenge. Recent ongoing investigations as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project are now starting to cast new light on the site and on its relationship with neighbouring sites and Stonehenge.</b></i></p><p><i><b>One suggestion is that the use of wood rather than stone may have held a special significance in the beliefs and practices involving the transformation between life and death, possibly separating the two sites into separate "domains". These theories have been supported by findings of bones of butchered pigs exclusively at Woodhenge, showing evidence of feasting, leaving Stonehenge as a site only inhabited by ancestral spirits, not living people. "</b></i></p><p><i><b>##############</b></i></p><p><i><b>Here's a diagram of the Woodhenge site with its 168 postholes that has been erected in the actual location. Note the 6 concentric rings aka ovals of timber posts (albeit some fainter scarcely-visible ones). Note the outermost ring that constitute what I have term a stockade/palisade. (Will decide later which of those two is the better description!)</b></i></p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7sO6R4ebWfKoUknR5EFZIykVsmk9Y33RYcgPlrRYlF2GggLiNO_h34hxc9Ktj-T5fMl6vGD9izrSLI9Rs_9WmgJoSzfqJnjU5pEZXsNlAczbF2TMWXbn1f5srsZ6w4zXs5IofwAsDJFa/s330/Woodhenge_Karte_DB.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7sO6R4ebWfKoUknR5EFZIykVsmk9Y33RYcgPlrRYlF2GggLiNO_h34hxc9Ktj-T5fMl6vGD9izrSLI9Rs_9WmgJoSzfqJnjU5pEZXsNlAczbF2TMWXbn1f5srsZ6w4zXs5IofwAsDJFa/s320/Woodhenge_Karte_DB.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></div><i><br /><b> Diagram of Woodhenge</b></i><p></p><p><i><b>Update: Tuesday Feb 23, 2021</b></i></p><p>See today's article by Callum Hoare in the Daily Express, summarising the new ideas developed - and communicated in short order - by ... guess who?</p><p><b><i>https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1401630/stonehenge-neolithic-farmers-wales-salisbury-wiltshire-bbc-archaeology-news-spt</i></b></p><p>Yup, your truly... 😊</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>########################</b></p><p><i><b>Update, Friday 26 Feb</b></i></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><p><i><b>The thinking on my "livestock defence" model for Phase 1 Stonehenge, aka proto-Stonehenge, has expanded these last few days to include the site's forerunners, near and far.</b></i></p><p><i><b>I'll provide only the briefest of summaries here, being totally disillusioned, nay despairing of the internet as a means of getting one's ideas into the public domain.</b></i></p><p><i><b>Here are a mere handful of sentences to summarise the gist of the broader thinking.</b></i></p><p><i><b>Initially there were the so-called "causewayed enclosures" scattered across continental Europe and England. The key feature was the external ditch, together with the inner bank. The combination served to create a fortress - not just for human defenders - but t primarily to protect livestock as well, either at settlements or further afield.</b></i></p><p><i><b>But a rethink became necessary, once attackers armed themselves with bows and flint-tipped arrows. They could rain their arrows down from a distance, such that the outer ditch ceased to be an initial impediment. That's when the henge evolved in England - constructed in the reverse order, with an outer bank and an inner ditch - the bank protecting both occupants and livestock against arrows, short-range especially..</b></i></p><p><i><b>Stonehenge we're told began as a causewayed enclosure - i.e. the classical defensive configuration, but was then provided with an outer bank - albeit incomplete, converting it to henge configuration. A circular ring of 56 holes was then added, just inside the inner bank, being used to house timber posts initially, i.e. a defensive palisade, maybe installing more substantial bluestones later, albeit in temporary locations, being uprooted later and shifted elsewhere. Timber posts were then installed within the enclosure to act as further shielded/defensive tethering points for livestock.</b></i></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><p><i><b>See the wiki entries on:</b></i></p><p><i><b>(a) causewayed enclosures </b></i></p><p><b><i>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causewayed_enclosure</i></b></p><p><b><i>The separate internet pdf on the Crickley Hill hilltop enclosure near Cheltenham is especially illuminating, given the reference to 400 or so flint arrow heads retrieved from the site:</i></b></p><p><b><i>https://www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/sites/default/files/2018-07/Crickley%2520Hill%2520history%2520panels%2520GCC%5B1%5D.pdf</i></b></p><p><i><b>(b) the later henges, specific by and large to England:</b></i></p><p><b><i>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henge</i></b></p><p><b><i><br /></i></b></p><p><b><i>Repeat: I say that Phase 1 Stonehenge was intended mainly for protection of precious livestock against enemy assault, especially when the latter were armed with bows and flint-tipped arrows</i></b></p><p><b><i>Update: Saturday Feb 27</i></b></p><p><i>Have finally (phew!) figured out - I believe - the purpose of the mysterious so-called Aubrey Holes at Stonehenge, a short way in toward the centre from the main (original inner) embankment.</i></p><p><i>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_holes</i></p><p><i>Why were those 56 equally-spaced holes (aka <b>pits </b>- a more accurate description) installed (whether to accommodate timber or stone posts) in the first instance? Why were the pits then cleared out, refilled with chalk etc., only to be used again(?). Thus far a complete mystery, by all accounts.</i></p><p><i><b>Answer? </b> Simple. <b>The Aubrey Holes/Pits were used to house/accommodate temporary tether points for livestock whenever the enclosure came under arrow attack.</b> Livestock would be quickly shifted from the centre to the lee of the embankment, i.e. offering effective shelter. </i></p><p><i>Maybe the tether post would be moved at the same time as the animal, dropping the post into a suitably-situated vacant hole or pit, choosing the best-situated from a complete circuit of post holes. Later, when the threat had receded, the animal AND its tether post would/could be moved back to the centre of the enclosure.</i></p><p><i>We're getting there, methinks, ever so, ever so gradually. </i> :-)</p><p>Reminder of my specialist site title: "Sussing Stonehenge". (See elsewhere - a report of an 8 year learning curve, amply provided with wrong turnings - such is the nature of science!)</p><p>https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/</p><p>Forget that romantic fixation with "solstice celebration" on the longest and/or shortest day of the year. Neolithic herdsmen had more important things on their mind - like defending their precious livestock against surprise raids from the local hunter-gatherers, ensconced within nearby woodland!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Update: Sunday Feb 28</b></p><p>Have been wondering if or how the 4 Station Stones can be fitted in to the arrow-defence model for early(ish) Stonehenge.</p><p>Here's a graphic I've pinched from the English Heritage Tourist Guide, which I purchased on site in 2012 (same year I created my specialist Stonehenge website). I've signposted each of the 4 Station Holes with red/white arrows:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9AcFdlztGBrRzx4uBN60mMTBpWi_sLp1EcfcMtKnxhLU_8zwina9Ecw3GPYTQvHOJyCHYuVU8uoVcZm6UZdFOMBFxDZvx0jC4FrbdKd2TSHWYEkCggvHNwczLtGaSFa1XDFUTa0hoeo34/s5064/4++Station+Stones+-+labelled+with+arrows.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3705" data-original-width="5064" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9AcFdlztGBrRzx4uBN60mMTBpWi_sLp1EcfcMtKnxhLU_8zwina9Ecw3GPYTQvHOJyCHYuVU8uoVcZm6UZdFOMBFxDZvx0jC4FrbdKd2TSHWYEkCggvHNwczLtGaSFa1XDFUTa0hoeo34/s320/4++Station+Stones+-+labelled+with+arrows.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Yes, there is a way they can be accommodated.</p><p>What you see above is labelled "The Early Stone Phase" in which the circles of outer "Aubrey Holes" proposed as temporary tether points for bank-sheltering of livestock were replaced with central stones (arranged in the above diagram as a double arc). </p><p>That meant that the livestock need not be moved if/when enemy arrows come streaming in - the stone columns providing adequate protection. </p><p>So why the need for those 4 Station Holes? </p><p> Brainwave: many of the livestock were cattle - a mix of cows and bulls. </p><p>But one only needs a few bulls to serve their essential role in breeding livestock. (Bulls would have been the trickier of the two sexes to shift at short notice from centre to periphery.) </p><p><b>Answer:</b> <i><b><u>restrict one's cattle herd to just 4 bulls maximum</u>, keeping them <u>permanently tethered to those sturdy sarsen posts in their Station Holes </u>in the outer (i.e. safer) near-bank location (where the chances of being struck by arrows were essentially zilch).</b></i></p><p><i><b>Addendum (still Feb 28)</b></i></p><p><i>Here's the graphic supplied by English Heritage on the following page for the nascent stone circle at Stonehenge at its more highly-developed "Late Stone Stage".</i></p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGsopaoc411mt8NtQ1DtnWSGqOVpd388upcyYmJMyJYO4VQuoggjBJBo6mrCuI2WnDTwqk18pOVnVi0DDjJVYNVhsJh9y_UTCniaF0DN_LiLK_PKZKRo5SQg84n-dRnnXPiKhozxFoW4J/s5152/ditch+round+2+of+4+station+holes+with+arrows.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3498" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGsopaoc411mt8NtQ1DtnWSGqOVpd388upcyYmJMyJYO4VQuoggjBJBo6mrCuI2WnDTwqk18pOVnVi0DDjJVYNVhsJh9y_UTCniaF0DN_LiLK_PKZKRo5SQg84n-dRnnXPiKhozxFoW4J/s320/ditch+round+2+of+4+station+holes+with+arrows.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></div><i><br /><b><br /></b></i><p></p><p><i>Two of the 4 "station posts" - marked with blue/white arrows - have now been supplied with individual encircling ditches. One can only guess as to why it's only 2 of 4. But it's not hard to see why the two were supplied with the circular ditches in the livestock model.<b> The ditches confined two of my proposed tethered bulls to a restricted area around its individual tether post!</b></i></p><p><i>#</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><b style="font-style: italic;">Tomorrow's update:</b><i> </i>have suddenly remembered that arrows got a mention on this site, way, way back in May of 2012. </p><p><i>https://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-unified-theory-for-stonehenge.html?m=0</i></p><p>But it was in connection with PIGS (at Durrington Walls, some 3 km NE of Stonehenge), not, repeat NOT Stonehenge, not cattle.</p><p><i><b>Those pigs, and the circumstances in which they were slain by arrows, will be the subject of tomorrow's update!</b></i></p><p><i><b>But here - by way of clue as to what is to come - is a screen-grab of the relevant section from my 2012 posting (the latter being early-days 90% claptrap!):</b></i></p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhayvYi2SKvUaJljhq_EdQGFLY1NQAgcsK7B3NF6dpza7Kak-tSnoxJVcp9PitZgXhamXpRdJaK6gyCGZzzYLbvpS3OxO3hPuZeu-EvnTBAUsZ3Q623i3n-sITmOxGzme2Nx07zhpKlYucv/s653/screen+grab+sbuzz+may+2012+pigs+midwinter+feasting+edited.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="503" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhayvYi2SKvUaJljhq_EdQGFLY1NQAgcsK7B3NF6dpza7Kak-tSnoxJVcp9PitZgXhamXpRdJaK6gyCGZzzYLbvpS3OxO3hPuZeu-EvnTBAUsZ3Q623i3n-sITmOxGzme2Nx07zhpKlYucv/w308-h400/screen+grab+sbuzz+may+2012+pigs+midwinter+feasting+edited.png" width="308" /></a></i></div><i><br /><b>Update: March 2, 2021</b></i><div><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div><i>Here's the Addendum 3 - highlighted in blue - on that May 19 posting from 2012, with the final word on that alleged "winter-feasting " on "arrow-slaughtered pigs": <span style="color: red;">N</span><span style="color: red;">ote especially what I've highlighted with in red<b>. </b></span></i></div><div><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div><i style="background-color: #01ffff; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"> </i><b style="background-color: #01ffff; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;">Addendum 3</b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: #01ffff; color: #474b4e; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"> ...</span><br style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;" /><br style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;" /><i style="background-color: #01ffff; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;">"</i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="background-color: #01ffff; color: #474b4e;"> </span><i style="background-color: #01ffff; color: #474b4e;"> "The village was shown to be about 4,600 years old, the same age as Stonehenge and as old as the pyramids in Egypt. The village is less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from Stonehenge and lies inside a massive manmade circular earthwork, or “henge,” known as Durrington Walls.<br /><br />Remains found at the site included jewelry, stone arrowheads, tools made of deer antlers, and huge amounts of animal bones and broken pottery. These finds suggest Stone Age <b>people went to the village at special times of the year “to feast and party,”</b> says Mike Parker Pearson from Sheffield University in England.</i><i><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000;">He said many of the pig bones they found had been thrown away half-eaten. He also said the partygoers appeared to have shot some of the farm pigs with arrows, possibly as a kind of sport before barbecuing them.</span></i></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><i>No. I say that the wrong conclusions have been drawn from the archaeological evidence! The pigs were NOT slaughtered with 'sport-fired' arrows for winter feasting. </i></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><i>They were victims of arrow-onslaught from outside. The marauding invaders then stormed and entered the enclosure, filling their bellies quickly on the dead and dying livestock (after quick roasting of carcases) throwing away their bones - <b>plus much uneaten meat - </b> in the process!</i></span></span></div><div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><i>No, not winter-feasting on the part of site occupants, but winter-feasting on the part of successful site invaders!</i></span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">##################</span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Update: Wed March 3, 2021</span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Hey. Guess what? Callum Hoare has penned <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1404857/stonehenge-breakthrough-wales-preseli-hills-salisbury-waun-mawn-archaeology-spt">another article on Stonehenge for the Express. </a></span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_NKSRG87ZtnBG6Eo5_XzKV_Ek1j932yYfkqWbct6ZKry1ZYjLG2XWWvQfM1BeHcPfXqL1-sGWsVvuPbY0VABQJYrWswyeK6jCsZTaiV1fkvlSmT6yfPyOIjPeeftzUI-Kp-r_shWUpQNb/s974/cropped+all+headlines+express+mar+3%252C+2021.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="974" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_NKSRG87ZtnBG6Eo5_XzKV_Ek1j932yYfkqWbct6ZKry1ZYjLG2XWWvQfM1BeHcPfXqL1-sGWsVvuPbY0VABQJYrWswyeK6jCsZTaiV1fkvlSmT6yfPyOIjPeeftzUI-Kp-r_shWUpQNb/s320/cropped+all+headlines+express+mar+3%252C+2021.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Express Home Page, Wed March 3, 2021 - see the article on Stonehenge bottom right:</span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><i>The focus is initially on Mike Parker-Pearson - the distinguished archaeology prof who recently made the fascinating link between the Waun Mawn circle of standing bluestones on the Preseli Hills (or rather, what's left of them!) and proto-Stonehenge. The prof maintains those 80 or so bluestones, with geology matching an extraction point just 3 miles away to the north-east, were lugged via human transport all the way to Salisbury Plain. I agree wholeheartedly! <b>(Where the two of us might differ is the purpose those stones may have served not only at destination, but additionally en route</b></i><b>!)</b></span></span></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">But guess who gets lengthy quotes towards the end of the article? Yup, yours truly, that "retired scientist and academic"!</span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2FA2EnSlRbrgNMBcPyjs4XSmeh6L-HDKv3bJRlaSTGOT0Td6Vd3ZXu8tbHALJIYxn8if0X_RfIWHwTHETFqhSqlWe8nsH5Bq0luq9DryDXjOd3ZY9YeblM5ZhuQoljKp-NXYCaHsqTjSs/s906/cropped+monolith+porters.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="669" data-original-width="906" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2FA2EnSlRbrgNMBcPyjs4XSmeh6L-HDKv3bJRlaSTGOT0Td6Vd3ZXu8tbHALJIYxn8if0X_RfIWHwTHETFqhSqlWe8nsH5Bq0luq9DryDXjOd3ZY9YeblM5ZhuQoljKp-NXYCaHsqTjSs/w400-h295/cropped+monolith+porters.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">No mention as yet of 8 or 9 years posting online to the internet - a scientific, often self-debunking learning curve - an attempt to edge closer and closer to the truth via detailed critical scrutiny and natural elimination. Never mind. One can't expect the world to fall into one's lap immediately - not where the MSM is concerned!</span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">###########</span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Update: Thursday March 4, 2021</b></span></i></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Yes, have had a brand new insight as regards late Neolithic era stone circles - with Stonehenge representing the grandest manifestation of all - but still serving the same practical purpose - at least initially. (And what was that you may ask? Answer: a compact, well protected place within which to tether and feed one's precious livestock, especially cattle - cows and a few bulls. Well protected from what? Initially, raids by hunter-gathers, crossing the outer ditch and inner bank of the Mark1 pre-standing stone causewayed enclosure. Later, they initiated their attack from a safe distance, archers firing off volleys of their then new-fangled flint-tipped arrows.).</span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I shall now switch to using my specialist Stonehenge site, putting this one on the back-burner. But the "suss" site is in need of a total revamp, having received what I described a year ago as its Final Model 3! </span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2ojjJVZioaLSu7-SfvGc_PBqJWE9W0zoIruugILycvnVA665zwUqkwuFYgKGx6reDGtjpWV0LY30IAIFs_DyDQ0WIAyI19VpEnHxIddnB0wXFo-tR2FlYS_OZnkeoJNzwTPm-jGiAAAC/s761/suss+site+home+page%252C++march+3%252C+2021.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="717" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2ojjJVZioaLSu7-SfvGc_PBqJWE9W0zoIruugILycvnVA665zwUqkwuFYgKGx6reDGtjpWV0LY30IAIFs_DyDQ0WIAyI19VpEnHxIddnB0wXFo-tR2FlYS_OZnkeoJNzwTPm-jGiAAAC/s320/suss+site+home+page%252C++march+3%252C+2021.png" /></a></div><br /></i></b></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(Shortly-to-be-revamped Home Page of my sussingstonehenge stops-and-starts learning-curve blogs</span></i></b><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">ite)</span></i></b></div></div></blockquote><div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Oops. I spoke too soon. Model 4 and now 5 have arrived, with standing stones serving normally as a tether point for wander-constrained livestock, with that added protection for livestock and their herdsmen against ENEMY ARROWS!</span></i></b></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><b><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></b></div><p></p><p><i><b># Update: March 7, 2021:</b></i></p><p><i>Here's a screen grab with the new posting that has been placed on my specialist Stonehenge site (the topic now widened to include Neolithic stone circles in general - plus timber forerunners):</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOGpet9XTndAXdxjKKQPAckfh6mgRQ-O8_te2tslxE2ZjmaZwLg9Zy7XRRYNCyI4BL8ky8yv3uSyOsoM2Atektim182Net1Ng48xpLr4KpGC0EwcmtY3WxuUwOy3spirGe7lz3uzv8BLJ3/s784/cropped+revamped+suss+site+home+page%252C+mar+7%252C+21+cropped.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="769" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOGpet9XTndAXdxjKKQPAckfh6mgRQ-O8_te2tslxE2ZjmaZwLg9Zy7XRRYNCyI4BL8ky8yv3uSyOsoM2Atektim182Net1Ng48xpLr4KpGC0EwcmtY3WxuUwOy3spirGe7lz3uzv8BLJ3/s320/cropped+revamped+suss+site+home+page%252C+mar+7%252C+21+cropped.png" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i><a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2021/03/04/here-for-2021-is-an-entirely-new-theory-for-late-neolithic-stonehenge-and-its-real-purpose-at-least-original-read-wait-for-it-a-monument-for-advertising-livestock-protection-from-incoming-e/">Link to the above posting.</a></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><b>And here's the final conclusion (apols for the prelim. cartoon version) reached at the end of the above posting as regards the true role of Stonehenge, notably those trilithons - with their two massive stone uprights and an equally massive bridging lintel:</b></i></p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCop99pSE99TQetXSDJ7UYNcK4cB2K4ywmaOZy22_H5hi1g3gOWsDPN1yAFhLaF4tZvUVfgsKzXfISRbEYltAi6a3SRyYFE-sS3abXVelFs_JswXFXDMOYiKWPmuEMOfFfvE1pJapI07mL/s826/Phase+4+-+LINTEL+CROSSPIECE+two+tethered+bulls.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCop99pSE99TQetXSDJ7UYNcK4cB2K4ywmaOZy22_H5hi1g3gOWsDPN1yAFhLaF4tZvUVfgsKzXfISRbEYltAi6a3SRyYFE-sS3abXVelFs_JswXFXDMOYiKWPmuEMOfFfvE1pJapI07mL/s320/Phase+4+-+LINTEL+CROSSPIECE+two+tethered+bulls.png" width="320" /></a></i></div><i><br /><b><br /></b></i><p></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><p><br /></p><p><b><i>######################</i></b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i><b> </b></i></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><div><i><b>Appendix:</b> I have the impressive Homestead Bloggers Site to thank for providing my summary graphic of the tethered cow.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>http://homesteadcatholic.blogspot.com/2014/06/to-tether-cow.html</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-3062189809581082192019-12-31T16:02:00.000-08:002020-01-21T15:02:04.430-08:00Here for 2020 is an entirely new and original model for Stonehenge. It proposes, among other things, DUAL REASONS for carting those bluestones all the way from the Welsh mountains to Salisbury Plain. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here, provided, UK time, at 0.01 am, New Year's Day, 2020, is my novel broadview take on Stonehenge,<i><b> or rather its proposed bluestone origins.</b></i><br />
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<i><b>Late insertion of this posting's novel message: </b></i><i><span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Stonehenge as we know it was (initially at any rate) intended as a late Neolithic celebration of a remarkable journey - made with a labour-intensive transportation of nightly Welsh bluestone-wall protected monolith- constructed BLOCKHOUSE for a revered high priest or similar. </span>(Let's forget about those excarnating seagulls for now, the focus of previous postings - whether attracted initially to Stonehenge - or its predecessor sites - Bluestonehenge etc - on the wing from afar by accident or design ...). </i><br />
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Yes, I do believe the bluestones originated in the Preseli Hills of Wales, probably the northern fringes thereof, and yes, I do believe they were transported via human labour all the way to Salisbury Plain, and yes, I do believe the route was entirely overland (and over-river) NOT using sea-going vessels.<br />
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And no, I don't believe that the transport was an accident of nature (glaciation littering Salisbury plain with exotic non-local "erratics" etc). The final Stonehenge with its mighty sarsen megaliths (trilithons with cross-piece lintels) was no accident of nature, so why imagine that its humbler beginnings as assemblies of exotic man-size bluestones was? Yes, a case of human selection from the word go, but for reasons that for now one can only guess at.<br />
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But guesswork plays a vital role in science. That is alluded to in the strap alongside this site's title, that has appeared for many years at the top of my Science Buzz home page. Similar sentiments were expressed on Page 2 of the splendid book by Prof Mike Parker Pearson (" Stonehenge - Exploring the greatest Stone Age mystery "):<br />
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<b>"... the process of piecing together the past can be compared with assembling a jigsaw puzzle only so far. We may be able to see what fits together but this will not necessarily reveal how it fits together.<br />There must be a deductive insight - a flash of perception - that explains the hows and whys. This is where we need theories and hypotheses - the starting points of all scientific endeavour ..."<br />Theories provide new ways of seeing, new understanding of the facts, and new lines of evidence to be sought out. Theories are not articles of faith or belief; they are there to be tested to breaking point. When we discover that an existing hypothesis doesn't explain new findings, that hypothesis must be discarded or modified. Consequently the history of knowledge is strewn with the debris of rejected theories. In archaeology the most powerful theories are those that match and explain evidence produced by new discoveries; if the new evidence doesn't support the theory's predictions then the theory is wrong."</b></blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc-soTCvXkVV3Gh1RH1DEoGHBnDesuJ-wG57QwJulQv2GL2OHCV2ic6LB65yIkdCr4Mh54S82SCuKfXbf8Cx7aFDV2Iv_Gh1LC-FehXK6NI9rnZ8k2cQ36DTHX64E9LWbQCYd1mj9WaqJW/s1600/tavistock+sq+2016+sycamore+sleigh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="858" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc-soTCvXkVV3Gh1RH1DEoGHBnDesuJ-wG57QwJulQv2GL2OHCV2ic6LB65yIkdCr4Mh54S82SCuKfXbf8Cx7aFDV2Iv_Gh1LC-FehXK6NI9rnZ8k2cQ36DTHX64E9LWbQCYd1mj9WaqJW/s320/tavistock+sq+2016+sycamore+sleigh.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One can see Prof.Mike Parker Pearson approx top-centre in the back ground of this photo from the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/05/23/stonehenge-wasnt-so-hard-to-build-after-all-archaeologists-disco/">Telegraph</a>, taken in May 2016 at Gordon Square, London (he's wearing a light-coloured short-sleeved shirt with hands crossed ). He's talking to someone on his right. Yup, that's me!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Yes, there we are (the two of us circled, exchanging viewpoints, low profile me, high profile MPP!)</b></td></tr>
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Yes, science only starts with guesswork. It doesn't stop with guesswork. Guesswork is a key stage in enunciating and developing models that then need to be ruthlessly tested (This retired biomedical scientist considered and discarded 9 models before settling on his final Model 10 for the 'Shroud of Turin').<br />
Link (just one of many that could be cited):<br />
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https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2017/08/24/a-solution-at-last-to-the-turin-shroud-based-on-my-5-years-of-continuous-experimental-research/<br />
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There's also my model for man-made Silbury Hill, a short distance from the Avebury Stone Circle, published on the Ancient Origins site in 2016, was arrived at somewhat faster:<br />
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https://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-editorials/was-neolithic-silbury-hill-designed-welcoming-home-omnivorous-upwardly-mobile-020800<br />
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So this New Year's posting unveils my Model 2 for Stonehenge (let's skip the details of Model 1, which was always a shot in the dark, essentially non-testable.<br />
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Model 2? The bluestones were NOT transported from Wales to the vicinity of Stonehenge, some 140 miles away, merely as components of a planned megalithic monument, to be used only after arrival and assembly. They served a more practical immediate purpose.<br />
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First, let's be clear about what we mean by "bluestones".<br />
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Here's a compendium gallery that I've put together using Simon Banton's "Stones of Stonehenge" site that lists them in the numerical order first deployed by Flinders Petrie, along with, in some two thirds of cases, their estimated above-ground weight.<br />
http://www.stonesofstonehenge.org.uk/<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbMtI_rpb8dSAbt0igHrTzdtIfSP-6iGfUDPU1S24hqjnnYIAjpdnIzgeXtt-fmntHlh9JRf5WeFttHxHsUuiOrPT3RP63cQZc0zaRpkdXCTjb1DlEn3GahZ0uwTU35FmJVWXPtkYFCL60/s1600/All+bluestones%252C+grouped+and+labelled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="899" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbMtI_rpb8dSAbt0igHrTzdtIfSP-6iGfUDPU1S24hqjnnYIAjpdnIzgeXtt-fmntHlh9JRf5WeFttHxHsUuiOrPT3RP63cQZc0zaRpkdXCTjb1DlEn3GahZ0uwTU35FmJVWXPtkYFCL60/s320/All+bluestones%252C+grouped+and+labelled.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Source of the bluestones? <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2015/dec/stonehenge-bluestone-quarries-confirmed-140-miles-away-wales">See this handy and readable article from 2015. </a><br />
<br />
The chief type (see above) , i.e. <b>spotted dolerite</b>, which has been pinpointed to a <a href="http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/stonehenges-bluestones-06924.html">rock outcrop at Carn Goedog</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Rjhk-rsP9svV-Q1OqsoFkWY3xi4FbLNx1gw9hLZcG88OJ6sjUr7fDFWDrb5QkcYjrWNEL9HTfW4IWHckcAnkgqg0p2Ccx6tYI7GGmM0WGxqhKgGVYtVsFLtcyRJNjAYlPWp6w27gjy_M/s1600/Carn-Goedog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="580" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Rjhk-rsP9svV-Q1OqsoFkWY3xi4FbLNx1gw9hLZcG88OJ6sjUr7fDFWDrb5QkcYjrWNEL9HTfW4IWHckcAnkgqg0p2Ccx6tYI7GGmM0WGxqhKgGVYtVsFLtcyRJNjAYlPWp6w27gjy_M/s320/Carn-Goedog.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The source of less common rhyolite has been traced to this one at nearby Craig Rhos-y-felin:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_h3C8Cq9lE9cg0BoN2jtWAv2KOXQqr8Mv3BAtWZo1aQPE1MumjlhTN3nHICdZYkp9Sncp0RlATSnuO5BubSLu0CntmoVJ_b6IvSDvrlCW6hRlDIEDHj0fFMo8SG11Ab5n3MV33ZhxASai/s1600/Craig+Rhos-y-felin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="768" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_h3C8Cq9lE9cg0BoN2jtWAv2KOXQqr8Mv3BAtWZo1aQPE1MumjlhTN3nHICdZYkp9Sncp0RlATSnuO5BubSLu0CntmoVJ_b6IvSDvrlCW6hRlDIEDHj0fFMo8SG11Ab5n3MV33ZhxASai/s320/Craig+Rhos-y-felin.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Craig Rhos-y-felin source of the rhyolite bluestones. This and the Carn Goedog site are referred to in both articles as "quarries". I prefer to call them natural rocky spurs or outcrops, given the ease with which monoliths can be extracted, dear old Mother Nature having done most of the preliminary fracturing and separation of one portable stone from another. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Weight of the bluestones? The estimated above-ground weights (reckoned to be about two-thirds the total on average) are given on the Banton site for the same proportion of bluestones. I've listed them in the table below:<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Weight range of the surviving bluestones </b>(where given for some 24 of 32 bluestones)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>0 - 0.49 tons 8</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>0.5 - 0.99 tons 4</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>1.0 - 1.49 tons 7</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>1.5 - 1.99 tons 2</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b> 2.0 - 2.49 tons 3 </b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
The average is around 1 ton ( but with 3 being over double that weight). That concrete block you see being manually hauled on a sleigh-on-rails in the 2016 Gordon Square picture was also a ton-weight approx.<br />
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I've indicated earlier that I consider there to have been a <b>DUAL USE for the bluestones</b>, with an immediate one used in transit over those 140 miles separating (a) the likely source of the bluestones in Pembrokeshire, west Wales and (b) Salisbury Plain, location of Stonehenge (and its likely predecessor, "Bluestonehenge" about which more later).<br />
<br />
Here's a hint from wikipedia as to what's to come, based on some 7 years of reading and reflection by this retired scientist:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclVqFcU7u4lSICPtsi0M8J9yzjaFuX-s9HYMLKflp2p9j6-O5BzCXTnXLl6naTBP2impMk-frJV1UNm57dX3th9s5MlA-HawQ0q6PWox7eiMPu4oNCe6PgOOUI1xFlvIvshPIUpfT0pSt/s1600/blockhouse+wiki.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="1600" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclVqFcU7u4lSICPtsi0M8J9yzjaFuX-s9HYMLKflp2p9j6-O5BzCXTnXLl6naTBP2impMk-frJV1UNm57dX3th9s5MlA-HawQ0q6PWox7eiMPu4oNCe6PgOOUI1xFlvIvshPIUpfT0pSt/s400/blockhouse+wiki.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Yes, a blockhouse, more specifically a <b>protective military blockhouse. But not just any old blockhouse. </b>Oh no, we're talking about a blockhouse with a difference - namely one that can be assembled and dismantled with reasonable speed, using stone blocks, approximately a ton or two in weight, ones that are portable (just!) even if having to be dragged asa distinct from carried!<br />
<br />
In passing, my novel straight-off-the-drawing board blockhouse idea was initially flagged up on <a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2019/12/stonehenge-bluestone-glaciation.html">Tim Daw's sarsen.org site</a> just a few days ago, tail-end 2019, ago, but there I used the first descriptive term that came to mind, namely "air raid shelter". Shelter from what one might ask? Answer: Neolithic flint-tipped spears and arrows. Protection of whom (or what)? Watch this space - more to come later in the day (still New Year's Day, 2020).<br />
<br />
Here's an image I put together hastily for reporting to Tim Daw's site (see above link). It shows the manner in which three monoliths can be put together above ground to create what I termed an "air raid shelter":<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimib7OdwlFYIo0Z9x08SJlYfnOA0aS_JdrJc0YDutHS6fbNAtMJmc544WtjkKnZ0hWIRfBGcjxGT8VsbCauPqYSvv3yZSsCAp8osvqcUrYk_d95svE8CgX71i34GC5NhxXhk-GuFlQl6w_/s1600/Neolithic+airaid+shelter+blue+top.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="1421" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimib7OdwlFYIo0Z9x08SJlYfnOA0aS_JdrJc0YDutHS6fbNAtMJmc544WtjkKnZ0hWIRfBGcjxGT8VsbCauPqYSvv3yZSsCAp8osvqcUrYk_d95svE8CgX71i34GC5NhxXhk-GuFlQl6w_/s320/Neolithic+airaid+shelter+blue+top.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Primitive air raid shelter assembled from 3 monoliths, whether or not bluestone., though not a lot of headroon (best to lie down at this stage!). (The blue is merely to distinguish the lintel/capstone from the uprights).<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Notice straightaway that we have s feature in common with Stonehenge - yes, a trithon! Straightaway we have a possible rationale for a key feature of Stonehenge which, to the best of my knowledge, has never been explained in all the millions of words about how the monument served to align with the summer or winter solstices, or failing that spring or autumn equinoxes, or failing that phases of the moon etc etc. Alignment, if real and not accidental, or serving some other purpose unrelated to that dubious archaeoastronomy, only requires uprights. Why the cross-pieces, whether narrow (lintels, as at Stonehenge) or broader (better described maybe as "capstones"). Have we stumbled on the significance of the crosspiece stone, however labelled?<br />
<br />
First, let's ask how the headroom in the above set-up could have been improved. There are two ways. 1. Keeping the structure above ground, merely double up on the number of uprights, mounted one above the other.<br />
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Here we have bluestones double-stacked to create additional headroom:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTYD-NgCO5d8Dg1pWqIRdA1odNad4y-W_ULQgoWYWPxyboJkVg_66s1q3gKK9PRdb6mIBm3834G2b00UXdKtmLk235h9lOZhYK3EHbwoYGTK9Xu4swEVKtFYar_wgPo3Ag8CO_0Ww6cT19/s1600/bluestones+double-stacked+for+greater+headroom.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1600" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTYD-NgCO5d8Dg1pWqIRdA1odNad4y-W_ULQgoWYWPxyboJkVg_66s1q3gKK9PRdb6mIBm3834G2b00UXdKtmLk235h9lOZhYK3EHbwoYGTK9Xu4swEVKtFYar_wgPo3Ag8CO_0Ww6cT19/s400/bluestones+double-stacked+for+greater+headroom.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
One could go on stacking, but at the risk of decreasing stability, increasing ease of having the structure knocked over to expose and/or injure the one or more occupants initially seeking shelter. Alternative? First dig a trench in the ground. Then line the sides with one's monoliths:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZpA0CmuGQWjBpDdVV93z3s68JcXqpV1Ddo0FPBIrbwE-97Dxf6jH6ZOVX1DDwpOodnLNK5HaCw9gDsdJA4huwWtI5w74ZJi3E50jPnK_-mEfYIc7jQHxFvvPAhk8sreXwUqMO6tbXVOGE/s1600/Neolithic+air+aid+shelter+with+trench.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1600" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZpA0CmuGQWjBpDdVV93z3s68JcXqpV1Ddo0FPBIrbwE-97Dxf6jH6ZOVX1DDwpOodnLNK5HaCw9gDsdJA4huwWtI5w74ZJi3E50jPnK_-mEfYIc7jQHxFvvPAhk8sreXwUqMO6tbXVOGE/s320/Neolithic+air+aid+shelter+with+trench.png" width="320" /></a></div>
But that requires a lot of extra labour - and digging soil would never have been easy in pre-Bronze Age Neolithic times when all one had were antler picks!<br />
<br />
So what's the qanswer - if needing to protect one or at most two people from spears and arrows, especially at overnight stopping points where intruders could maybe sneak up in the dark, undetected until too late?<br />
<br />
Answer: how about a compromise? Construct a two layer of one's semi-portable but sturdy bluestones, surrounding a narrow, easy to excavate ditch into which one could place a bedstead - or the Neolithic equivalent?<br />
<br />
"We'll never know" would be the obvious answer. But is there maybe at least circumstantial evidence that such an arrangement was adopted in practice, later giving rise to folklore memories celebrated first in art, and later in the shape and form of Stonehenge itself - a permanent reminder of the spirited and courageous manner in which it was conceived and born?<br />
<br />
Evidence from art? Maybe. Go to Page 227 of Mike Parker Pearson's book. Look for these two images described as "chalk plaques" and the accompanying text:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVoGr8pl7SWBjA2Q3ewASrbp5U3glMI5x7-XpNNSbwG5op0m64eO96HqHasmWea9Ts5Emrf8QhgWWJZvelBVladrFa_ixJHuAYebnNMBXz-Nxg5fqknx7SCYr4rK-Wg8Q-1zxqBp3anE0/s1600/chalk+plaques%252C+p+227%252C+MPP%2527s+book++CROPPED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="1151" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVoGr8pl7SWBjA2Q3ewASrbp5U3glMI5x7-XpNNSbwG5op0m64eO96HqHasmWea9Ts5Emrf8QhgWWJZvelBVladrFa_ixJHuAYebnNMBXz-Nxg5fqknx7SCYr4rK-Wg8Q-1zxqBp3anE0/s400/chalk+plaques%252C+p+227%252C+MPP%2527s+book++CROPPED.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Caption to images (MPP's own): <i><b>The chalk plaques found in a pit east of Stonehenge, during road-widening in 1968. The small plaque is 56mm across. </b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b>Quote from MPP's book re the above chalk plaques:</b><br />
<br />
(it concerns archaeological finds, two in particular, discovered in a pit on the side of a ridge that lies between the River Avon and the nearby site of Stonehenge (precise dates and locations can wait for now, The <span style="color: red;">red highlighting font</span> is mine!)<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"Within this pit lay two peculiar carved chalk 'plaques' and an antler pick dating to 2900-2580 BC. Fragments of similar plaques have been found within the Neolithic and Copper Age village at Durrington Walls. The pit finds are earlier than the finds from the Durrington settlement, and are <span style="color: red;">decorated with unusual and elaborately carved Grooved Ware-style designs.</span> One <i>(ed. right of the two above images)</i> has chevrons and criss-cross motifs bordered by horizontal lines and more chevrons. The other <i>(ed: left of the two images)</i> has rectilinear meanders bordered by dotted lines. </b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b> The meaning and purpose of such carved chalk plaques is entirely unknown. Such objects are extremely quick and easy to make., and the raw material is ubiquitous throughout the region. Yet these decorated pieces of chalk are surprisingly rare; <span style="color: red;">they must have had some special value which we can only guess at.</span>"</b></blockquote>
<br />
So what might the designs represent. Providing answers to those questions is the prime motive in my posting today, Jan 1, 2020!<br />
<br />
Yes, there are "chevrons", Mike, and plenty of them. Here's a definition of chevron from the internet.<br />
<br />
<div class="WI9k4c" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: table; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; word-break: break-word;">
<div class="GgmXif jY7QFf" style="font-size: 28px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; min-height: 36px;">
<div class="DgZBFd" style="line-height: 36px; vertical-align: top;">
<span data-dobid="hdw">chevron</span></div>
</div>
<div class="S23sjd" style="color: #70757a; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;">
<span class="XpoqFe">/ˈʃɛvrən/</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=how+to+pronounce+chevron&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMIfcRoyS3w8sc9YSmDSWtOXmPU4uINKMrPK81LzkwsyczPExLmYglJLcoV4pbi5GJPzkgtA8pasSgxpebxLGKVyMgvVyjJVygACuYD9aQqQFUAAE_YrahZAAAA&pron_lang=en&pron_country=gb&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiGme_JvuLmAhUxREEAHSx2D-MQ3eEDMAB6BAgGEAg" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">
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<i>noun</i></div>
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<b>a V-shaped line or stripe, especially one on the sleeve of a uniform indicating rank or length of service.</b></div>
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<b>an ordinary in the form of a broad inverted V-shape.</b></div>
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<b>The essence of a chevron is its V-shape.</b><br />
<br />
But look more closely, and what does one see? The chevrons only appear where a diamond lattice abuts onto a line edge, the line essentially cutting off the top half of the diamond, leaving just the V.<br />
<br />
Then look beyond the line edge, and there's a a new chevron the other side, with another diamond lattice beyond. So what's being represented?<br />
<br />
Here's my considered opinion for what it's worth. Suppose you wanted to make something shaped like an inverted lid-less shoe box (for reasons we'll come to shortly). Suppose you wanted that structure before there was cardboard (which would not have served one's intended purpose anyway). Suppose you made it from a series of diamond lattices, one broad rectangular in shape, the 4 others, for the sides at right angles, also with diamond lattices, but with the diamonds bisected at the edges before attaching to the main sheet.<br />
<br />
Now why would you want to do that, and what would you use to make the diamond lattices?<br />
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Materials first: I suggest you would make your diamond lattices from long slim tree twigs that are interlaced., and then bound edge wise through the severed midpoints of the diamonds, rather than at the pointed tips.<br />
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You have then created your shoe box , which you can then turn upside down, with the base - sleeping surface - facing up, the open side facing down.<br />
<br />
Why? Because you have created what could be described as a Neolithic bedstead with sprung base for lying on (overlaid with a Neolithic "mattress".<br />
<br />
Here's a crude representation, put together with MS Paint, with the " diamond lattice" and "chevrons" a bit jumbled up no doubt:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRveR8pZvBaaJv-FxyvmBNF9RwhwmVGyqhsLPEzCXLytpBo6nRYT0vLsel8mCbvZBGd0tXnZozFVrrQFrKA0pAA3d4Kiqqr7HDMpXUmHx1UKOYGad0H_1U5_KpuoilrmOk6V8uA1Fp7xp/s1600/bluestones+double-stacked+for+greater+headroom++plus+bedstead.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1213" data-original-width="1137" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRveR8pZvBaaJv-FxyvmBNF9RwhwmVGyqhsLPEzCXLytpBo6nRYT0vLsel8mCbvZBGd0tXnZozFVrrQFrKA0pAA3d4Kiqqr7HDMpXUmHx1UKOYGad0H_1U5_KpuoilrmOk6V8uA1Fp7xp/s320/bluestones+double-stacked+for+greater+headroom++plus+bedstead.png" width="299" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Might this have been the approximate overnight sleeping quarters for our protected VIP in his or her mobile blockhouse, with an above-ground trilthon structure created with pillar- or slab-like bluestones plus a twig-constructed bedstead in a shallow trench? Was this the arrangement that inspired someone to scratch those images onto the two chalk plaques?</b></td></tr>
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<i> (Late insertion: the near end of the 'lattice-box' is shown open in the above diagram, as it would appear in cross-section. In practice, the two ends would be diamond lattices as well, to give necessary strength, rigidity, resistance to buckling under the weight of the VIP adult). </i><br />
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Relevance to the proposed bluestone blockhouse? Yes, dig a shallow trench first, just big enough to accomodate your Neolithic bedstead and mattress. Have a surrounding protective wall of bluestones, probably at least two courses high, maybe one or even two more.<br />
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That I propose is what is being depicted in the right hand picture - a Neolithic bedstead, constructed from twigs for use by a VIP on a long overland journey involving weeks, probably months of overnight stops. The left hand image depicts the complexity of the arrow-deflecting trilithon wall surround (which may or may not have been below as well as above ground - maybe the mirror images above and below the horizontal midline symmetry hint at there being a below as well as above ground surround, if only to make the bedstead sit in its own excavated then walled surround as distinct from bare cut-edge soil with all that implies - moisture, plant roots, insects eartthworms etc.<br />
<br />
What you see above is just the blockhouse "bedroom". I haven't even started to think about separate living rooms, dining room, WC etc , which together could account for some 80 or more bluestone monoliths of varying shapes and sizes. What you see above is the germ of an idea. I hope the germ will be seen as an essentially friendly, non-pathogenic bacterium!<br />
<br />
There you have it folks, - the main thrust of today's posting on the new 2020 model for Stonehenge, starting with its proposed initial use as a <b>mobile blockhouse</b>. I'll add a few more words, later today. Expect <strike>another 4 postings in the month of January at approx. weekly intervals</strike>, more later in 2020 expanding on the above theme of there having been a planned and deliberate DUAL USE for those human-transported Welsh bluestones, celebrated in those chalk plaques and much else besides (like the final megalithic sarsen-stone phase of Stonehenge with its LINTELLED UPRIGHTS, with bluestones relegated to minor circles, ovals or horseshoes!<br />
<br />
I have said nothing thus far as to the likely identity of the "VIP", transported across 140 miles of less-than-friendly territory (?) at such cost in time and effort. Who could possibly justify this enormous input of planning and execution?<br />
<br />
Looking at the subsequent known, or even vaguely suggested history of the late Neolithic period, involving Bluestonehenge, Durrington Walls, Woodhenge, Stonehenge in all its developmental phases, to say nothing of what was happening some 20 or so miles away at Avebury and, later, Silbury Hill, I consider there's a probable answer to my question re the identify of the highly-protected VIP. He (or she?) was some kind of revered High Priest, one who set the entire development of the aformentioned sites in progress.<br />
<br />
That's the end of my Instalment 1. Expect Instalment 2 <strike>in a week's time,</strike> later in 2020 focusing on those predecessors of Stonehenge ("Bluestonehenge" etc). Thanks again to Mike Parker Pearson and his UCL and other colleagues for opening our eyes to the likely history of Stonehenge. I repeat: his book is a a model of good scientific writing , aimed at non-specialists, but admirably detailed while reader-friendly, a model of its kind. Those who have recently impugned his scientific credentials need to take a long hard look at themselves!<br />
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PS: Comment (No.15, italics ) submitted to Tim Daw's sarsen,org site (now awaiting approval, unlike previous comments):<br />
<br />
(Some editing):<br />
<br />
<i><b>On most blogsites, it's the poster who awaits feedback, via his or her Comments facility</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b> Here it's the opposite. It's the commentator who awaits feedback!</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>We live in a strange world. </b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>I blame social media myself (Facebook, Twitter etc).</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b> It/they snuffed out any possibility of the internet providing not just a social media but (</b></i><i><b>a more upmarket) "scholastic media" as well </b></i><i><b>, a quickie alternative to those stick-in-the-mud refereed journals for getting new ideas quickly into the public domain.</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>Maybe consider re-inventing your internet persona and blogsite re Stonehenge for 2020, Tim? </b></i><br />
<br />
<br />
<i>PPS: No more comments from this co-blogger to your site , Tim, unless/until you make you and your blogsite more user-friendly towards us purveyors of new ideas (science-based ideas that is - testable in principle - I hasten to add) ...</i><br />
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<b>Appendices</b><br />
<br />
Appendix 1: From Simon Banton's introduction to his splendid<a href="http://www.stonesofstonehenge.org.uk/search/label/Stone%20031"> "Stones of Stonehenge" website: </a>site's<br />
<br />
<b>Stone Numbering System</b><br />
<br />
The numbering system for the stones is that devised by W.M. Flinders Petrie in the late 19th century and which is still in use by researchers and archaeologists to this day.<br />
<br />
<b>Extension of the arrow-defence idea to the Stonehenge sarsens:</b> yes, the theory proposed here for use of the first-generation bluestones in transit to Salisbury Plain, has now been extended to the end-stage sarsens used at Stonehenge to construct the stone circle and inner trilithon horseshoe. Yes, protection against arrows - the primary function, I now maintain, nay assert forcibly, of Stonehenge in the first instance! You read it here first. See my follow-up <a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/stonehenge-why-its-alleged-chalk-embankment-timber-stockade-infancy-foretaste-of-the-american-wild-west-primarily-a-defence-against-enemy-arrows/">posting to this one on my specialist Stonehenge site</a>.<br />
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Title of new posting: <br />
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<h2 class="entry-title" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/stonehenge-why-its-alleged-chalk-embankment-timber-stockade-infancy-foretaste-of-the-american-wild-west-primarily-a-defence-against-enemy-arrows/" rel="bookmark" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stonehenge – why its alleged chalk embankment/timber stockade infancy? Foretaste of the American Wild West – primarily a defence against enemy arrows?</a></h2>
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sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-51115971575181493882019-11-18T23:40:00.000-08:002019-12-23T03:37:39.857-08:00Forget all those cosy assumptions about Stonehenge (solstice celebration etc). Think pre-Bronze Age SKY BURIAL on growing industrial scale. Think signposting for long-haul coastal gulls. Think uprights and lintels serving as (shhh!) megalithic BIRD PERCHES!<br />
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<b>Changed format: </b> I'll simply provide my take-away message.<br />
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Links will be provided now and again to more detailed justifying arguments, supplied elsewhere, notably my<a href="https://wordpress.com/view/sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com"> specialist Stonehenge site</a>, set up in early 2012.<br />
<br />
But the main aim is to provide a flavour (beware: strong stuff, definitely not for the faint-hearted) of the main conclusion arrived at, as summarised in the title of this posting!<br />
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<b>1. Geographical location of Stonehenge</b> : upper reaches of the Hampshire Avon, approx 20 km (12 miles) as the crow - or seagull- flies from source at Pewsey , and approx 50 km (30 or so miles) from estuary almost directly due south on English Channel at Christchurch. So it was a means second to none for getting progressively inland, remaining close to lush river valley, easily navigable with simple crafts - wood logs as recently suggested. (Link)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglRcS30ZC1Sn4kD4FfldxT7-R7SNW8jbhmtPWzkQJFIYPK6gxm4-6auiJW7iRoSIc0irM4qQRdmFPFjuJwhcCOxSerGzml7EGbnn7EmCLng89NrenOEqmSmDg1YjGskJW1TnxeTdB-Z3Ed/s1600/Fig.1++Seagull+route+from+coast+to+Stonehenge+via+Avon+S+to+N.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1236" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglRcS30ZC1Sn4kD4FfldxT7-R7SNW8jbhmtPWzkQJFIYPK6gxm4-6auiJW7iRoSIc0irM4qQRdmFPFjuJwhcCOxSerGzml7EGbnn7EmCLng89NrenOEqmSmDg1YjGskJW1TnxeTdB-Z3Ed/s320/Fig.1++Seagull+route+from+coast+to+Stonehenge+via+Avon+S+to+N.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Fig.1: </b> Map with (a) Stonehenge (b) Amesbury (c) Christchurch (d) River Avon<br />
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Now a modern day picture of the Avon at Amesbury - easily navigable.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikc6LLTKgMFMHAXJdJ6zwAfxIhbMkpNLZ77fuIb0sc3kBd7-_Sn_nshrQwl_ibJu5tibofa7iNstAo-Fdpi9Dz1-DoFCgG89BEQ_JN3mMjpD4ubRSHTjlStGkosKaJruwUMD6VUyPFECeS/s1600/Fig.2++River_Avon%252C_Amesbury_-_geograph.org.uk_-_864007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikc6LLTKgMFMHAXJdJ6zwAfxIhbMkpNLZ77fuIb0sc3kBd7-_Sn_nshrQwl_ibJu5tibofa7iNstAo-Fdpi9Dz1-DoFCgG89BEQ_JN3mMjpD4ubRSHTjlStGkosKaJruwUMD6VUyPFECeS/s320/Fig.2++River_Avon%252C_Amesbury_-_geograph.org.uk_-_864007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Fig.2:</b> Description. English: River Avon, Amesbury Amesbury is an attractive small town embraced by a loop of the River Avon as it cuts through the high plateau of Salisbury Plain.<br />
Date<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>28 June 2008;Source<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>From geograph.org.uk; AuthorTrish Steel <br />
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<b>2. As riverside population grew so did the demand for funeral services</b>. The modern day Amesbury on an unhelpful U-bend became seen as a good location for specialized funeral service. Bodies of the deceased could be transported to nearest access to the River Avon, then taken up to Amesbury via log raft etc.<br />
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(Consider a link to one or other Jacques articles - though I have to say there's much in his narrative to which I have no great enthusiasm. But he's right to emphasise the advantages offered by Amesbury as a place for human settlement - those curious warm water spring, allegedly with year-round constant temperature of 11 degrees (really?), ease of access by river etc etc<br />
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Link:<br />
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/11/02/britains-first-city-discovered-archaeologists-say-home-people/<br />
<br />
See refs to Profs Albert Lin and David Jacques.<br />
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<b>3. But there was a problem with "simple" means of body disposal, whether (a) burial aka inhumation (b) cremation (whole-body)</b>.<br />
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Why? Neither was simple, not in pre-Bronze Age era.<br />
<br />
Reasons? Let's not dwell on the detail except to say<br />
<br />
1. Burial<br />
(a) Lack of metal digging implements requiring antler picks etc (b) simple burial raised fears of entrapment of body spirit, need for 'soul release'(c) no means of writing, no means of a headstone inscription indentifying the buried individual.<br />
<br />
2. Cremation (whole body): slow, needing constant attendance, probably incomplete etc etc<br />
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<b>4. Our Neolithic forbears adopted a practice what might shock some modern folk (despite being used to this day in some parts of the world).</b><br />
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Technically it's called excarnation , i.e. initial defleshing of body to semi-skeletal state. That's then followed by end-stage cremation (faster and more fuel efficient that whole body cremation). Excarnation can be done manually, with sharp flints (or later with metal blades). But there was an alternative, one that was seen as offering advantages. I refer to "sky burial", where body is exposed to elements, where it's spotted by scavenger birds who then proceed to make short work of it, at least under ideal conditions.<br />
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Links to just one of several of my initial postings on sky burial, May 2016:<br />
https://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.com/2016/05/was-mark-1-stonehenge-initially.html<br />
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But that's the problem: achieving those idea conditions such that sky burial becomes practical, reliable, able to be completed in a reasonable time-course etc etc.<br />
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<b>5. Making sky burial more practical, more dependable on a day-to-day basis</b>, maybe year-round, maybe not: there are a number of ways.<br />
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(a) strip the turf off a chalky soil, lay body out. Hope birds spot it.<br />
(b) provide elevated perches in form of bank, with adjacent ditch from which chalk was excavated<br />
(c) timber posts (bird perches) maybe with cross pieces to provide greater room.<br />
(d) Display animal remains in quiet periods to keep the birds on site.<br />
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Here's that iconic Pentre Ifan dolmen in Pembs, with some fascinating (and illuminating) detail...<br />
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Fig.3: Pentre Ifan versus Stonehenge (image from Brian John site). Note parallels with Stonehenge (uprights bridged with capstone (dolmen) or lintel (Stonehenge)<br />
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Design as a bird-friendly "feeding table" explains not only the capstone, but its overhangs, its resting on pointed uprights. How? It's designed to make it difficult for ground-based scavengers to get access to the 'free meal', deterring birds.<br />
(e) standing stones<br />
(f) stone circles (show graphic)<br />
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<b>See Appendix 1 for a key passage in the wikipedia entry for "dolmen"</b>, making clear that there's no justification whatsoever for defining the dolmen simply as a "burial chamber".<br />
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It's a point I made strongly on the <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6019#comments">Megalithic Portal site</a> (which I have now abandoned, once and for all, given its persistent control freakery!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Jue-4F0XLDZfKXxjsJiTVdKKotZSLOYbjxUJewNr6aZbd0SVAFcORrBN2YeOzSxFj0utNPNxK9OZK3qM-6z4NPA6otkgdSDdiZl_RY0q5I4e4OW2eAAeK3DmkuSQcYg3xDc_kOGgnH5r/s1600/Fig.+4+Avebury+stone+circle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Jue-4F0XLDZfKXxjsJiTVdKKotZSLOYbjxUJewNr6aZbd0SVAFcORrBN2YeOzSxFj0utNPNxK9OZK3qM-6z4NPA6otkgdSDdiZl_RY0q5I4e4OW2eAAeK3DmkuSQcYg3xDc_kOGgnH5r/s1600/Fig.+4+Avebury+stone+circle.jpg" /></a></div>
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Fig.4: Small part of the vast Avebury stone circle:<br />
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(g) stone circles with cross-piece lintels. (Yes, we have finally arrived at Stonehenge). Refer to earlier graphic - comparison with dolmen. Stress the practical function of the lintels! No need to mention so-called carpentry joints.<br />
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<b>6. Next step: how to make one's "sky burial" site better visible from the air? </b><br />
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Answer: introduce the so-called cursus ( two chalk embankment, approx 80 to 100 metres apart, with their excavation ditches (external to banks) also exposing chalk, doubling the area of 'gleaming white' visibility.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiVFT7FOXOUTLZ_54-5B9l2FSzhu6eiHelHzMawHFYItvKsJPNOmpn8cwRj_zg9TZWIGQ5Xyb2AmIgE5GA224Ad6MbDLB7RPiUFga9lv7UgALPXWAoGBhm2n15xjlxTCAZiLc2bvud95W3/s1600/Fig+5+SHenge+Cursus+with+and+without+white+stripe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="1081" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiVFT7FOXOUTLZ_54-5B9l2FSzhu6eiHelHzMawHFYItvKsJPNOmpn8cwRj_zg9TZWIGQ5Xyb2AmIgE5GA224Ad6MbDLB7RPiUFga9lv7UgALPXWAoGBhm2n15xjlxTCAZiLc2bvud95W3/s320/Fig+5+SHenge+Cursus+with+and+without+white+stripe.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Fig. 5: Stonehenge Cursus (a) as is, from air (b) with highlighting to re-create bird's eye view with gleaming white chalk<br />
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Orientation of the cursus is critical: it has to be visible 'square on' to the best of the UK excarnators, that being? Answer: the gull, aka seagull, migrating inland up the Avon river from the Channel. Look at the orientation of the River Avon and the Stonehenge cursus: approx N-S and E-W respectively, i.e. mutually at right angles!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzqD3VCju_nyZYmq8CTaiMeDZFOPGk4IBEiiM67Qgs9neyqYev_DPAbykEX4wV20hAJUa6SqjHJ5tir9BumIMlQeSCfLdW5xooq11h3_CtCyWqZhhH-8Gw4xpS1Yr73FlMcSU4t1RRe4P/s1600/Fig.+6+stonehenge+cursus%252C+shenge%252C+river+avon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="510" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzqD3VCju_nyZYmq8CTaiMeDZFOPGk4IBEiiM67Qgs9neyqYev_DPAbykEX4wV20hAJUa6SqjHJ5tir9BumIMlQeSCfLdW5xooq11h3_CtCyWqZhhH-8Gw4xpS1Yr73FlMcSU4t1RRe4P/s320/Fig.+6+stonehenge+cursus%252C+shenge%252C+river+avon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Fig.6: Stonehenge Cursus: orientation with respect to River Avon and other landscape features<br />
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<b>7. How was the idea of the Cursus as a direction pointer hit upon?</b><br />
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Was it entirely planned from word go? Maybe, one will never know. But it could have been arrived at by accident. How? Someone exposed chalk on which to lay out a corpse to give it greater visibility to LOCAL bird life. Over period of time they noticed that the exposed chalk was attracting more and more gulls. They extended the area of exposed chalk, far more than needed for body display, and, hey presto, summoned up still more gulls!<br />
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The future Stonehenge - industrial scale Stonehenge- was in the making, albeit in its infancy.<br />
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So the idea took hold that one could use two separate areas of exposed chalk: a smaller one for display, and a larger, much larger one for signposting the free offering. The display area alone was initially a causewayed enclosure, apols for slipping in that technical term, see link, with excavated pits used to provide chalk that was then perhaps scattered across the central area. That later evolved into the "henge" (another technical term, see link) excavated as a complete, bar the odd one or two openings. The external bank provided added advantage privacy!<br />
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Let's at this point make brief reference fo Thornborough Henge with its dressing of imported white gypsum - designed we're told by wiki to render site more visible. Correction: "visible from the air".<br />
Thornborough henges (give wik link) . Some references single out the central of the 3 henges as dressed with imported white gypsum. Others say all three were coated.<br />
Quote from wiki entry on Thornborough Henges:<br />
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"Archaeological excavation of the central henge has taken place. It has been suggested that its banks were covered with locally mined gypsum. The resulting white sheen would have been striking and visible for miles around".<br />
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<b>8. Initially, the sky burial site was reserved for the elite of society,</b> whose relatives paid the necessary fees for what was a specialized service available to the privileged only. what's more the cremated remains were in some, maybe most cases, interred on the spot of what was seen as a privileged location.<br />
Maybe an image of Stonehenge's cremated bone. Maybe a mention of La Varde with evidence of prior excarnation.<br />
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Fig.7: interred cremated bones from Aubrey Hole at Stonehenge> Some hint that individual's bones were separately packaged prior to interment in something that has since decayed away (leather pouches?).<br />
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But there was a problem, as well as a compensating advantage. As demand for the site's facilities grew, space for interment of cremated bone began to become scarce. But as demand grew, so did the population of resident birds. So did "knowledge" of the site's whereabouts to coastal gulls, aided by the river and the end-stop Cursus.<br />
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<b>9. A bold step was taken. The service offered by the site was opened up to less wealthy folk</b>, the first step towards industrial-scale Stonehenge, but on one condition: , namely that relatives collected the cremated remains and took them back home, for storage or disposal as they saw fit.<br />
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<i> (Probably wrong on part of some to suggest that absence of later absence of cremated bone implied cessation of cremation. Reminder: absence of evidence in archaeology should not be taken to imply evidence for absence!). </i><br />
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Second: the need was seen for a bigger and better Cursus approx halfway between the Channel and Amesbury that will serve as a better 'signpost'. Cue the Dorset Cursus - still some 80-100 metres in width, but length now extended, first to about 5 then to 10km no less!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7TVk-eJkMrfj-2Hdx1djGF6M1kChcTSM-lN-SG5aNvJRweL6SX-PN2lBOQLxRdpbyfqP346UXoZXBeE5n9blwvGCdPh65LmEZ2sBFKFdLaX6Yl9DlkzkPQCqmgHtLASqlnDvic8a7fqZ/s1600/Fig+8++bold+red+arrow+to+Dorset+Cursus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1236" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7TVk-eJkMrfj-2Hdx1djGF6M1kChcTSM-lN-SG5aNvJRweL6SX-PN2lBOQLxRdpbyfqP346UXoZXBeE5n9blwvGCdPh65LmEZ2sBFKFdLaX6Yl9DlkzkPQCqmgHtLASqlnDvic8a7fqZ/s320/Fig+8++bold+red+arrow+to+Dorset+Cursus.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Fig 8: Graphic showing the location and orientation of the Dorset Cursus.<br />
Show that same earlier map, but with an extra large inserted RED arrow to show the location of the Dorset Cursus approx halfway between the coast and Stonehenge.<br />
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<b>10. We have an explanation for the (a) Heel Stone and (b) nearby Slaughter Stone at Stonehenge.</b> (Stone 16 also while we're about it, also with bird bowls/bird bath).<br />
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Graphics of Heel Stone and Slaughter Stone (close ups, why few if any mentions of shape - at least not in the major internet sites!). What are you afraid of?<br />
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Fig 9: proximity of Heel and Slaughter Stone<br />
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Fig.10: close-up of Heel Stone (!)<br />
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Alignment of the open end of the innermost trilithon horse shoe to the Heel Stone. (Also ensured illumination of displayed offerings first thing on midsummer sunrise <strike>AND last thing on mid-winter sunset).</strike><br />
<strike><i>(Have erased that winter sunset link, since the only light at dusk would be coming through the narrow space between uprights, there being only one open-end to the inner trilithon horseshoe!)</i></strike><br />
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<b>11. We now have an explanation for the Altar Stone</b> and why it is where it is, both in terms of (a) alignment (b) depth of embedding in turf. Graphic: Altar Stone? say there's scarcely any visible above ground.<br />
Shoe the B.John diagram with its strategic-situation.<br />
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Image to be added shortly<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccZMN57OnMpDRQeeaX8not-4LT0S3A-44YH5ohYrQJ0Gl5VMfP5xtR6IYMoMAF_zp-HJuEvOi0ZkFNslI9jjOjmIe75NcwYzj9m0po-fJiaN5Xl0LyYciz4hCIY4xLSf2CdpS0uAD6a5b/s1600/Fig+11++Location+of+Altar+Stone+BJ+diagram+coloured.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="640" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccZMN57OnMpDRQeeaX8not-4LT0S3A-44YH5ohYrQJ0Gl5VMfP5xtR6IYMoMAF_zp-HJuEvOi0ZkFNslI9jjOjmIe75NcwYzj9m0po-fJiaN5Xl0LyYciz4hCIY4xLSf2CdpS0uAD6a5b/s320/Fig+11++Location+of+Altar+Stone+BJ+diagram+coloured.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Fig.11: Location of the near-totally obscured/buried Altar Stone.<br />
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Image to be added shortly<br />
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Fig 12: Close up of scarcely-visible Altar Stone, immediately above red arrows (ignore fallen pillars on top, shown with red crosses)<br />
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<b>12. Most important of all, we have an explanation for the lintels, and indeed the stone circles. </b>(perch v light'shadow).<br />
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<b>Fig. 13:</b> Birds congregating on Stonehenge lintels<br />
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<b>13. We now have an explanation for the salt-tolerant lichens at Stonehenge</b><br />
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<b>Fig 14:</b> Photo of Lintel Page, 2011 Visitors' Guide to Stonehenge<br />
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Heading (top left, under title "Lichens") reads: "Many of the lichen species found at Stonehenge usually grow only on exposed coastlines:their presence at Stonehenge remains mysterious".<br />
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<b>14. We have an explanation for Seahenge (one that briefly attracted the e-word from the BBC in its 1999 Report).</b><br />
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Display the 1999 BBC Page (to come shortly)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiFOxkueFPiOS1u-O7JwduaX5DB63WhLdOLG3CtPp7OuaUdSlFBFx6uZIyQe77smll9ZwwIFwpZcDKkBdOvo8bh4M8ByZuILUwDoLWIMVlNa_-4HpokF_zDSYNzUxVgfY6EJ18P6qoVXxG/s1600/BBC+1999+seahenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiFOxkueFPiOS1u-O7JwduaX5DB63WhLdOLG3CtPp7OuaUdSlFBFx6uZIyQe77smll9ZwwIFwpZcDKkBdOvo8bh4M8ByZuILUwDoLWIMVlNa_-4HpokF_zDSYNzUxVgfY6EJ18P6qoVXxG/s1600/BBC+1999+seahenge.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Fig 15</b>: Seahenge, BBC 1999<br />
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The timbers are now on display in a local museum, with no e-word in the internet page, indeed little on the site itself, more on what the neighbouring human settlement would have looked)! Nuff said. (Give link to my recent posting on the Museum's display).<br />
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<b>15. We now have an explanation for the Thornborough Cursus, cutting across the central of the three henges:</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://megalithix.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/httpwp-mepi6d8-1fy/">https://megalithix.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/httpwp-mepi6d8-1fy/</a><br />
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More to come<br />
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<b>16. We now have an explanation for innumerable (150+) yet, even now, mysterious cursus in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.</b> I'll be putting the spotlight on one of the three in Ireland in the next day or two.<br />
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17. We now have an explanation for ????? More to follow.( Yes, am keeping an option in reserve, one of several).<br />
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<b>18. We now have an explanation for the location of Woodhenge and Durrington Walls .</b><br />
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Woodhenge a proto-Stonehenge,constructed as the name indicated with earlier timber. Durrington: Housed the sky burial specialists , not too close, not too far from Stonehenge itself. A discreet distance. How remunerated? Maybe with livestock. maybe with sustenance for lives. Cue the versatile pig, which could have been housed in pens at Durrington, the accumulations of their bone mistaken for "winter feasting". (The seasonal link was based on the assumption that the pigs were born in spring. Why? Pigs are happy to breed year round!).<br />
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<b>19. We now have an explanation for Silbury Hill.</b><br />
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<br />
"Silbury Hill is the largest artificial prehistoric mound in Europe. Probably built over a short period between about 2470 and 2350 BC, it is one of the most intriguing monuments in the prehistoric landscape of the Avebury World Heritage Site"<br />
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Note it came relatively late. Maybe sky burial was going out of fashion. Maybe manual excarnation with copper or bronze blades, then making their first appearance.<br />
See my posting on Ancient Origins (give link - or maybe screen grab) with a suggested role for earthworms as soil rather than sky "burial".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTtd4G7kO_rGGLSHApMzJNP34Vqn4GuleEeP8e1M-CI28LbVqsAlM8KL6e9xBqUhdbyznDLYfTjKNjl-qpO4ySNqCv9cwzmykg0U_1JE9bZ0d3R1Ck_XOajyT3Cm_FdgArrEkhu4hH2SLU/s1600/silbury+hill+earthworms+ancient+origins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTtd4G7kO_rGGLSHApMzJNP34Vqn4GuleEeP8e1M-CI28LbVqsAlM8KL6e9xBqUhdbyznDLYfTjKNjl-qpO4ySNqCv9cwzmykg0U_1JE9bZ0d3R1Ck_XOajyT3Cm_FdgArrEkhu4hH2SLU/s1600/silbury+hill+earthworms+ancient+origins.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Fig.16:</b> screen grab, my Ancient Origins posting on proposed function of man-made Silbury Hill.<br />
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Link<br />
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<b>20. We now have an explanation for the curious route taken by the "Avenue",</b> initially in the direction of upstream Durrington/Woodhenge, then turning sharply down to a more southerly stretch of the Avon, avoiding that awkward bend.<br />
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Fig 17: Circuitous route, Avenue (graphic from current posting)<br />
Graphic showing the curious route taken by the Avenue. (Yes. There's the interesting claim that it follows natural chalk stripes, created by melting ice in Ice Age, but there are as many questions as answers).<br />
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20. Why the difficulty in getting one's message across? Answer: when a claim is made via a newspaper headline, the search engine displays the headline as clickbait, and those clicks then assist its rise in rankings. When an internet blogger such as myself composes what one hopes is an eye-catching title for the latest posting, guess what?<br />
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Here's a partial screen grab of 2014 Mail Online article on Amesbury as the "London" of Neolithic Britain.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrPvQkB2hBPZXimRNnQJ7_p-BCH0b6lgm7a_n_8XiEEyJJTajQkMVx-6bFIjq6IyDeenQ7UILuMxuB2uHe4sj2W2eZPSPSlwJY8VjkLRG3o0FzKE4r9SFWn6CPFKfUFMcCRONDWzGj4E2/s1600/Mail+Mesolithic+London.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="791" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrPvQkB2hBPZXimRNnQJ7_p-BCH0b6lgm7a_n_8XiEEyJJTajQkMVx-6bFIjq6IyDeenQ7UILuMxuB2uHe4sj2W2eZPSPSlwJY8VjkLRG3o0FzKE4r9SFWn6CPFKfUFMcCRONDWzGj4E2/s320/Mail+Mesolithic+London.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The title of one's new (poaaibly newsworthy?) postings is invariably ignored! The (major) search engine may give some of one's SITE (<i>not</i> posting) title. It may pull a few words from one's posting, eye-catching or otherwise, it may give a date (usually from an older posting, months, even years earlier, but rarely the date of one's latest posting) but it never, repeat NEVER displays one's posting title. So is it any wonder that one's idea(s) fail to get a look-in, alongside those trumpeted through newspaper headlines like the one above! Use of the internet as a a real-time learning curve (esp by retired scientists no longer with lab access and other back-up facilities ) is a total waste of time for as long as the present state of affairs continues. Learned societies - kindly get your oar in. Register a protest on behalf of retired scientists and other professionals. Condemn the system for its gross inadequacies!<br />
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This posting will probably the last on Neolithic Britain where new observation, new content is concerned. I shall now sit and await reactions, from whatever quarter - internet initially, hopefully (later on) from academe and the media too (though holding out no great hope where 'being noticed' is concerned, lacking as I do a published paper in a refereed journal, Press Officer. But think of the hundreds of papers in those refereed journals, instantly flagged up by the media, all promulgating the same old 'solstice celebration" narrative (or as some woukld say, fantasy). Evidence: virtually zilch, not counting correlation ("the axis of Stonehenge faces the Heel Stone, then the Avenue, then the north-east. <i>Ipso facto</i> Stonehnge is oriented towards the midsummer sunrise, or maybe the midwinter sunset, or if they don't quite fit, substitute something else that is vaguely astronomical, like either of the two equinoxes, or, if really desperate, phases of the Moon bla bla....).<br />
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My view on alignment, orientation? Stonehenge was aligned originally with the Heel Stone, a sarsen that was probably where it is, or nearly so, prior to the arrival of Neolithic man, who was immediately taken with its bird-like features, especially when turned upright from an initial recumbent position. But Stonehenge could have been at any point on the compass, facing the Heel Stone. Why point it at Heel Stone AND the north-east? Answer: nothing to do with summer or winter solstices as such (longest and shortest days respectively). How could one celebrate one or other day at sunrise or sunset if the sky were cloudy? Why construct a vast monument to celebrate just one or maybe two days a year? Who would want to celebrate a winter solstice late in December?<br />
No, there's a more down to earth explanation for a north east orientation, towards the Heel Stone AND the north east. It ensured that there was illumination of the central 'business area' of the trilithon horseshoe first thing (i.e.crack of dawn) in the summer months and, as an added basis, last thing (sunset) in the winter months. We're talking now about optimizing to seasonal sunlight, i.e. over months, not singling out particular days of then year to put garland in our hair and dance around pillars, with mighty labour-intensive lintels (probably over decades) serving no role beyond mere decoration.<br />
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<b>Postscript: Saturday Nov 23</b><br />
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On Monday, in two days time, I'll try a slightly different tack as a means of getting the sky burial explanation for Stonehenge better known (without at this stage involving the mass media). That's industrial-scale sky burial you realize, which explains why things were done (finally) on a megalithic scale, having evolved from much humbler beginnings (henges, timber posts, single standing stones etc).<br />
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Here's what I intend to do. I have drawn up a list of 22 points that each contribute some indirect, i.e. circumstantial, evidence that support the sky burial thesis. They will be divided into a First X1 and a Second X1, cricket-style. Each of the stronger points selected for the First X1 will come with a brief, nay telegraphic summary, so as to provide a quick takeaway mental checklist. (I'll withhold a similar back-up screed for the Second X1 for the moment, so as not to overload the reader).<br />
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Why the reluctance on the part of the internet-readership in general thus far to signal acceptance of what's set out in this posting, to say nothing of previously since early 2012?<br />
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Answer? The chief one is clearly to do with the mechanics of sky burial, aka excarnation, aka defleshing. Accompanying plus points as regards soul-release, or reference to cremation as a final clean-up seem to make little impact. Sky burial is simply seen as somehow alien to Britishness, not just modern but Neolithic too (overlooking the new evidence that the builders of Stonehenge sailed in originally from the far away eastern end of the Mediterranean (Aegean Sea, Anatolia etc) , only to be subsequently displaced by the Beaker folk ). But I suspect its also to do with the nature of the evidence - not compellingly direct , but a less dramatic accumulation of indirect evidence, brick by patiently introduced brick...<br />
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Meanwhile, English Heritage continues to promote its solstice celebration narrative as if rock-solid fact. Not so, English Heritage. There is a dearth of evidence to support your narrative, nay rose-tinted fantasy. I say its time you began to address hard fact, time to start articulating the likely function of Stonehenge as an industrial-scale site devoted entirely to sky burial, followed by cleansing end-stage cremation of left-overs.<br />
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<b>Further postscript, Nov 24, 2019</b><br />
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Have just responded to Andy Burnham, founder of the Megalithic Portal website. Here's a screen grab (yes, naughty I know) with his response first to my complaint against "dolmen" being equated with "burial chamber", followed immediately after by my own:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDC-qSkxjuMMZBpQF70hvo-EPSXsGzrvdLKq7WlOViFTV2JXQu4qJ4eSLnmieUfKhWvvgUsV3qZ2lEqG31CcCGCOTmNV9mv2De0wOZ8fCdbS-RQv-01y79MTAiXqiT95e3PZGyOgtcflqs/s1600/my+reply+to+AB+on+MegF+on+subject+of+dolmen+as+burial+chamber%252C+24+nov19.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1519" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDC-qSkxjuMMZBpQF70hvo-EPSXsGzrvdLKq7WlOViFTV2JXQu4qJ4eSLnmieUfKhWvvgUsV3qZ2lEqG31CcCGCOTmNV9mv2De0wOZ8fCdbS-RQv-01y79MTAiXqiT95e3PZGyOgtcflqs/s640/my+reply+to+AB+on+MegF+on+subject+of+dolmen+as+burial+chamber%252C+24+nov19.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Apols. It's somewhat faint and blurry. Try clicking to enlarge. Alternatively, you may prefer, dear reader, to visit the above thread, via the following URL:<br />
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<a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6019#comments">https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6019#comments</a><br />
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<b>Further PS (Tuesday Nov 26, 2019)</b><br />
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The comment above, posted to Megalithic Portal. protested initially at a particular "dolmen" being categorized by a fellow commenter as a "burial chamber". Imagine then my surprise at being told by site founder Andy Burnham that it was <i><b>official site policy </b></i>to treat the dolmen as a<i><b> sub-category of burial chamber,</b></i> and allow the two to go unchallenged in so-called News items . Anyone disagreeing with that policy should place, correction, bury their protest on a particular "Forum" section of the site's bewildering array of tabs (labelled "sacred", "mystery"!). Talk about control freakery!<br />
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My contempt for that site grows by the day, attempting as it does to call the shots on all matters related to megalithic additions to the landscape.<br />
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At least my comment above is still where I placed it - under the offending News item. It has not been shunted into a Forum or elsewhere, which is more than one can say for yesterday's latest crossing of of swords with the control-freak owner of Meg Forum.<br />
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Latest run-in?<br />
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Another "News" item appeared yesterday, one which referred to<a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=46071"> "rock art" and "decorations" on prehistoric stones, </a>lying horizontally in the turf at the "Whitehall" site in east Dunbartonshire. I have taken the liberty of reproducing here the accompanying image:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGzZ6qytXYCPZtR-4oTKgPu8ssEDgPOYheWj97olxNPYcg2gjl2Yk6PIm4aF0DJMyrxcFCVXydjVF2LnrskjYiy-kn7N_MYjwMvHSj_1x9c667mtYYXCuwWEcXMgKllSAnMSOo4aTPhLA/s1600/whitehill5-4+so-called+rock+art+decoration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGzZ6qytXYCPZtR-4oTKgPu8ssEDgPOYheWj97olxNPYcg2gjl2Yk6PIm4aF0DJMyrxcFCVXydjVF2LnrskjYiy-kn7N_MYjwMvHSj_1x9c667mtYYXCuwWEcXMgKllSAnMSOo4aTPhLA/s320/whitehill5-4+so-called+rock+art+decoration.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here was my immediate comment sent to the same "News" item (no, not to an obscure forum):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-wh17K0OsvyfYy1P_7RKAw5ysxP4A8wTah5MaM_ZzwZegjvzZ9n27AmBpkqZFwkkECFu3xxI8VWJWMTZGYYUrk3AXhVe5IFpwSgLwggA_DqlkweqLbBnl1OIV75oxDT1DmLoXm6vw7gZ2/s1600/bird+bowls.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="1600" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-wh17K0OsvyfYy1P_7RKAw5ysxP4A8wTah5MaM_ZzwZegjvzZ9n27AmBpkqZFwkkECFu3xxI8VWJWMTZGYYUrk3AXhVe5IFpwSgLwggA_DqlkweqLbBnl1OIV75oxDT1DmLoXm6vw7gZ2/s640/bird+bowls.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Here's a bolder version of what I wrote:</b><br />
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<i><b>Get real, for heaven's sake! Cup-marked stones, with or without surrounding concentric circles and linear drainage channels, served not as art but as rainfall reservoirs for sky burial platforms. Read bird bowls. </b></i><br />
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<i><b>Here's a detailed account of those thoughtful (bird-friendly) man-made additions, correction, subtractions (gouged-out rock).</b> </i><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/7769868/Portals_to_Other_Realms_Cup-Marked_Stones_and_Prehistoric_Rock_Carvings">Link </a> </span><br />
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<i><b>Shame about the failure on the part of an otherwise excellent review to put two-and-two (conceptually) together.</b></i><br />
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Colin Berry<br />
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But you won't find it there any longer. Why not? Because Andy Burnham popped up, saying I had been warned that my kind of comment had no place under a "News" item. Yes, it's been moved, goodness knows where, possibly deleted for all I know. (Oh, but my link to that detailed 2012 review on cup-marked stones etc has been retained, though don't ask me where).<br />
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I just had time to return with a short message, saying that this retired non-nonsense scientist had no time for the Forum sections of Meg Portal's site, that anytime it wishes me to resume informed comment on its NEWS items it has only to let me know. In the meantime, I shall stay away from Megalithic Portal. with its mental blitz of tabs, many of them repetitive , to say nothing of its galloping control-freakery.<br />
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You need to curb your controlling bullying tendency, Megalithic Forum. You need to acquaint yourself with the scientific method, which takes an exceedingly dim view of those who deploy loaded terminology that attempts to pre-empt scientific enquiry, to stunt scientific progress. I say that it's wrong, entirely wrong to pre-classify dolmens as burial chambers. I now say it's also wrong, entirely wrong, to pre-classify those cup-shaped markings on kerbs, dolmen capstones etc as mere decorative art. Both are related , I say, to the practicalities of modifying megaliths to serve as sky burial platforms, i.e. to make them bird-friendly.<br />
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<b>Start of late insertion (Nov 30, 2019)</b><br />
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I say that Meg Portal - to say nothing of a few other websites - is acting as an internet roadblock to an understanding of our nation's TRUE hitherto concealed, totally unadorned, PROTO -industrial history.<br />
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Yes, monumental Stonehenge represented the highest point of a steadily-growing pre-Bronze Age industrialized development of THE preferred means of human body disposal.<br />
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Method? Answer: two-stage body disposal, namely via (admiitedly unsightly) SKY BURIAL , followed by (admittedly unsightly|) end-stage CREMATION of left-overs. But that two-stage process was considered marginally superior to (a) "simple" inhumation (burial) or (b) "simple" whole-body cremation.<br />
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Reasons? Ask Neolithic man! He would given you any number of reasons, all now lost in the mists of time to our modern-day <i>Homo interneticus, </i>bar it seems this single unsentimental hard-headed, lone voice it an otherwise the online wilderness. !<br />
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If that be the modern world - then so be it. I and the modern world will now go their separate ways! May your mind rest easy with those spoon-fed fond delusions, dear reader, constantly sustained by those dodgy supportive websites, pandering continually to your fancy, rarely if ever to hard, albeit unsavoury facts.<br />
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<i><b> You read it here first, dear reader, starting in a small way on this very website some 7 years ago! </b></i><br />
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Why hide one's light under a bushel when pretty well everyone else, on and off the internet, is trying to hide one's "tell-it-the-way-it is, no-holds-barred" torch-light?<br />
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I say it's time that we as a nation faced up to truth regarding our own history - bestowed to us via those allegedly 'enigmatic' megalithic monuments. Yes, they continue to litter our national landscape, all having served essentially the same purpose - to assist with disposal of the dead via sky burial, culminating in Salisbury Plain's spectacular end-stage Stonehenge! Then copper and bronze tools came along (spades, picks etc) simple burial became a faster practical option, and sky burial quickly went out of fashion.<br />
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Memories of sky burial were gradually lost. Some better-informed folk (centuries ago) recoiled no doubt at the sight of those dolmens, knowing or suspecting their true function, and proceeded to cover some of them over with mounds of earth (causing later generations, the current one in particular, epitomized by Megalithic Portal) to mistake them for "burial chambers"! Kid yourselves if you wish, Meg Portal. Just don't expect the rest of us to swallow your fanciful rewriting, indeed gross misrepresentation, of pre-Bronze Age history...<br />
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<b>(End of late insertion)</b><br />
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Here's a screen grab of the front cover of that flagged-up Varner review:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghzmHab0wEaQrp5vogHqLhMkwKZHZIsQfWNCNGgugwRR_b0BvJbCq56-m5Z1WjNs4bMMDKIkJY6l0OnP1mJsEyCw6e5JgBwLjckYTL04G8u3_sU2Vt6Dvsmasrw90KwMTDONhfGteKhHXd/s1600/portals+to+other+realms+varner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="586" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghzmHab0wEaQrp5vogHqLhMkwKZHZIsQfWNCNGgugwRR_b0BvJbCq56-m5Z1WjNs4bMMDKIkJY6l0OnP1mJsEyCw6e5JgBwLjckYTL04G8u3_sU2Vt6Dvsmasrw90KwMTDONhfGteKhHXd/s320/portals+to+other+realms+varner.png" width="270" /></a></div>
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Why on earth would anyone bother placing "decorative art" (read "cup-holes") on the upper surface of a so-called "burial chamber" (read "dolmen capstone")?<br />
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For heaven's sake, Megalithic Portal! Cease mixing up ideas with your mangled semantics. You are a disgrace to the world of knowledge... It is folk like you, Megalithic Portal, who give the internet a bad name, shunned and/or ignored by academe and mainstream media alike. You queer the pitch for everyone else (this retired scientists included) trying to use the internet as a responsible medium of communication.<br />
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Sorry to have to say it (graphically) but...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIuelJypp5rhPrbYE3hFTSbIX_UOu3uDUZ-MM-8plXPNFg-FYufVjcSzo0IbcvxjP1AkEWMshVhHK7lWcJ_nYYQsjCs4juvgHVrYqowWk0pHhF-9qGpCOc2at6bfacuGxeFaclEgAR8KK-/s1600/Megalithic+Portal++-+polluting+the+stream.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="1048" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIuelJypp5rhPrbYE3hFTSbIX_UOu3uDUZ-MM-8plXPNFg-FYufVjcSzo0IbcvxjP1AkEWMshVhHK7lWcJ_nYYQsjCs4juvgHVrYqowWk0pHhF-9qGpCOc2at6bfacuGxeFaclEgAR8KK-/s320/Megalithic+Portal++-+polluting+the+stream.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Further postscript (still Nov 26)</b><br />
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The internet hugely bores me right now, at least as a medium for communicating original and dare I say informed viewpoints, developed over many years of patient study, leaving no stone unturned. Like, you know, Stonehenge as a site for sky burial (on a ceremonial, indeed industrial scale)<br />
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I've decided to return to an older interest, albeit intermixed with existing focus, namely current affairs, City and business issues especially, climate change, nutrition and health etc<br />
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Here's a comment I've just placed on the Telegraph Business Section. It was a quickie response to Juliet Samuel's article entitled " Johnson dare not risk losing this election for the sake of tax cuts". <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/11/25/boris-johnson-would-love-cut-taxes-problem-darent/#comments"> Link to Comments: </a><br />
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<b>Appendices</b><br />
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<b>1. Key passage in the wiki entry for DOLMEN (my bolded italics)</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><i>It remains unclear when, why and by whom the earliest dolmens were made</i>.</b> The oldest known are found in Western Europe, dating from c 7,000 years ago. <i><b>Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it</b></i>. They are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, <i><b>despite the absence of clear evidence for this.</b></i> Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Radiocarbon dating">radiocarbon dating</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmen#cite_note-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup>:<br />
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2. Here are three comments I have placed on Tim Daw's sarsen.org site (Friday 20 Dec):<br />
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<cite class="user" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">sciencebod</a></cite><span class="icon user " style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text" style="margin-left: 6px;"><a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2019/12/stonehenge-bluestone-glaciation.html?showComment=1576823383219#c6366844458921743341" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">20 December 2019 at 06:29</a></span></div>
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Seriously, I think it's time to consider two factors that might rationalise the deployment of megaliths via human-transport alone, over a vast distance (140 odd miles or so, old currency) but with no pressing time scale (indeed, one in which leisurely progress was considered not just tolerable but desirable).<br />
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I am presently in the process of replacing my Model 1 (chiming bluestones) with Model 2. (I make no apologies, having discarded 9 models before arriving at my final Model 10 - flour-imprinting/radiant heat roasting - for the Turin Shroud).<br />
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I'm more than happy to unveil Model 2 here on Tim's site - even here, buried in Comments, should anyone be seriously interested.<br />
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Here's a handful of clues. Think difficulty but effective mobile air raid shelter for migrant Neolithic pastoralists. Think warm cuddly lambs (and a few less cuddly pigs for good measure), both needing protection from spears and arrows fired by dangerously close hunter-gatherers lurking in nearby woodland. Think Phase 1 lengthwise (not crosspiece) bridging lintels serving a highly practical (defensive!) purpose. Yes, air-raid shelter for both migrants and their accompanying livestock! Go figure!</div>
<span class="comment-actions secondary-text"><a class="comment-reply" data-comment-id="6366844458921743341" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #993322; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px;" target="_self">Reply</a><span class="item-control blog-admin blog-admin pid-801743398" style="display: inline;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=5787185370858787658&postID=6366844458921743341" style="color: #993322; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Delete</a></span></span></div>
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<cite class="user" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">sciencebod</a></cite><span class="icon user " style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text" style="margin-left: 6px;"><a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2019/12/stonehenge-bluestone-glaciation.html?showComment=1576829103887#c7723148826731196318" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">20 December 2019 at 08:05</a></span></div>
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Here's a link to the notion flagged up in my above comment, hastily put together with the aid of MS Paint.<br />
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https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIc5PVTUwo5xXwggISWgzwN0VTTQqLpd9mBsBg8waRhcx8lpx1MSec4FiF_0WUtNRRPkOA2caXSV-l-UQjGVrq-dZZND_ACkvSNL2t4W2jZiRCGY3bocuzoHNFtKLIad3SO_Qu53JH9jn/s400/Neolithic+airaid+shelter+blue+top.png<br />
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The "lintel" (colour-coded blue) might better be described as a (dolmen-like) capstone, albeit serving its own unique purpose for protecting migrants and unfamiliar territory, <i>en route</i> to the safer open expanses of the elevated chalk downland of Salisbury Plain.<br />
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<span class="comment-actions secondary-text"><a class="comment-reply" data-comment-id="7723148826731196318" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #993322; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px;" target="_self">Reply</a><span class="item-control blog-admin blog-admin pid-801743398" style="display: inline;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=5787185370858787658&postID=7723148826731196318" style="color: #993322; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Delete</a></span></span></div>
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<cite class="user" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">sciencebod</a></cite><span class="icon user " style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text" style="margin-left: 6px;"><a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2019/12/stonehenge-bluestone-glaciation.html?showComment=1576829363101#c6945428416527600927" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">20 December 2019 at 08:09</a></span></div>
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Apols for the omitted passage: that should have read:<br />
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The "lintel" (colour-coded blue) might better be described as a (dolmen-like) capstone, albeit serving its own unique purpose for protecting migrants and their livestock,<b> venturing into unfamiliar territory</b>, <i>en route</i> to the safer open pastures of the elevated chalk downland of Salisbury Plain.</div>
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<b>Thus far (midday, Sat 21 Dec) - no feedback</b>! (Oh well, that's the so-called INTERnet for you!). What a waste of time and energy (at least where flagging up of new science-based thinking via progressive modelling is concerned - as distinct from endless mulling over of old largely discredited ideas is concerned).<br />
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Here's a hastily-assembled image created in MS Paint needed to 'unveil' a new theory for 'proto-Stonehenge", which I'm placing on <a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2019/12/stonehenge-bluestone-glaciation.html">Tim Daw's current sarsen.org posting:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIc5PVTUwo5xXwggISWgzwN0VTTQqLpd9mBsBg8waRhcx8lpx1MSec4FiF_0WUtNRRPkOA2caXSV-l-UQjGVrq-dZZND_ACkvSNL2t4W2jZiRCGY3bocuzoHNFtKLIad3SO_Qu53JH9jn/s1600/Neolithic+airaid+shelter+blue+top.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="1421" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIc5PVTUwo5xXwggISWgzwN0VTTQqLpd9mBsBg8waRhcx8lpx1MSec4FiF_0WUtNRRPkOA2caXSV-l-UQjGVrq-dZZND_ACkvSNL2t4W2jZiRCGY3bocuzoHNFtKLIad3SO_Qu53JH9jn/s400/Neolithic+airaid+shelter+blue+top.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Dec 22: </b> Have just submitted the following comment to <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1228690739485734684&postID=5820244744788029864">a recent Brian John posting on his "Stonehenge and the Ice Age" site</a> (awaiting moderation):<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Two days ago I flagged up on Tim Daw's site what I believe to be a new and original alternative to glacial transport, one that might, just might, provide a rationale for human transport of megaliths over the 140 or so miles from Wales to Salisbury Plain. It's what I dub the "air raid shelter" model (my <b>Model 2</b>!). Thus far there has been absolutely no response to my invite to deploy a 'shop window' site different from my own to supply more detail (making more efficient use of the internet, notably those quirky search engines, one in particular, that look for initial cross-linking of websites).<br />
If Brian is in the market for what I consider a realistic and challenging alternative to his Model 1 (if only as a seasonal goodwill gesture!) then he has only to give the green light, and I'll send this site a concise 250 word summary, probably between Christmas and New Year. </blockquote>
<b>and followed it up later (still Sunday) with this one:</b><br />
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<i>... they disagreed with those who have claimed that ice transport was "impossible" ...</i><br />
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But it's not a question of whether ice transport was impossible, at least, not in strictly scientific terms at any rate. It's a question of whether human transport over the 140 or so miles from Wales was possible or not, given sufficient motivation.<br />
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I say it was possible, and indeed went so far as to provide a reason in a comment submitted earlier today (still awaiting "moderation", Brian, read approval).<br />
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I say (Model 2) the megaliths that comprise present day Stonehenge arrived in small instalments, as mobile "air raid shelters", designed to protect long-distance pastoralist migrants from the spears and arrows of disgruntled hunter-gatherers, resentful of their territory being intruded upon, albeit <i>en route </i>to a distant location. The latter - extensive Salisbury Plain - was probably of little interest to them, but no doubt attractive to those seeking new safe open, largely unforested grazing for their livestock.<br />
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<b>and have followed up today (Monday Dec 23) with this one</b>, again to Tim Daw on his sarsen site:<br />
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<cite class="user" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">sciencebod</a></cite><span class="icon user " style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text" style="margin-left: 6px;"><a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2019/12/stonehenge-bluestone-glaciation.html?showComment=1577098202239#c9198856311650435934" rel="nofollow" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">23 December 2019 at 10:50</a></span></div>
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Am trying to remain positive, despite the deafening silence.<br /><br />Here's my plan, given the festive season. I'll hold off posting formally on Model 2 (initial deployment of bluestones in transit from Wales to Salisbury Plain for use as overnight air raid shelter (protection from enemy spears and arrows).<br /><br />I'll post the broad outline first on my sussingstonehenge site The more self-critical science-based evaluation will be on my sciencebuzz site shortly after.<br /><br />Expect to see another new input: it's to do with the precise route taken from Pembrokeshire (etc?) to Salisbury Plain. I personally do not buy into sea transport, sharing the views of Mike Parker-Pearson and others. But that still leaves rivers, notably the Severn as major obstacles.<br /><br />There's a point just a few miles downstream from Gloucesterwhere where the River Severn is a mere 100 yards or so across, just before widening out into the Severn Estuary. Rafting bluestones across would still be challenging assignment, especially if there were 80 or so to be shifted.<br />I suspect cross-river transport at that major point was assisted by a regular-as-clockwork phenomenon that occurs 130 days per year in response to tidal phases of the moon. Yup, it's called the Severn Bore, a mighty wave of heaped-up water which flows not just straight down the middle, but at certain bends in the river from one side to the other. Go figure! I reckon that wave was exploited by Neolithic bluestone transporters, needing to get their air raid shelter components from one side of a major river to the other...<br /><br /><br /><b>Colin Berry</b></div>
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Here the key passage (with typo correction) <br />
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<i>Expect to see another new input: it's to do with the precise route taken from Pembrokeshire (etc?) to Salisbury Plain. I personally do not buy into sea transport, sharing the views of Mike Parker-Pearson and others. But that still leaves rivers, notably the Severn as major obstacles.<br /><br />There's a point just a few miles downstream from Gloucester where the River Severn is a mere 100 yards or so across, just before widening out into the Severn Estuary. Rafting bluestones across would still be challenging assignment, especially if there were 80 or so to be shifted.</i></div>
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<i><br />I suspect cross-river transport at that major point was assisted by a regular-as-clockwork phenomenon that occurs 130 days per year in response to tidal phases of the moon. Yup, it's called the Severn Bore, a mighty wave of heaped-up water which flows not just straight down the middle, but at certain bends in the river from one side to the other. Go figure! I reckon that wave was exploited by Neolithic bluestone transporters, needing to get their air raid shelter components from one side of a major river to the other.</i><br /></div>
sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com1United Kingdom55.378051 -3.4359729999999912.203021 -86.05316049999999 90 79.18121450000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-7372088339775928822019-08-20T12:21:00.000-07:002020-04-17T01:40:11.003-07:00Re that wrongly named Shroud of Turin: let's try rewriting STURP's deplorable 1981 Summary ...<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b>Above is a screen grab of the 1981 STURP SUMMARY (available on the <a href="https://www.shroud.com/78conclu.htm">site of STURP's Documenting Photographer</a>)</b><br />
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<b>CLICK TO ENLARGE!</b></h2>
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<b>Below is my annotated version, showing how <span style="color: red;"><i>I think it should have been presented</i>,</span> given the yawning gaps and uncertainties in the data, given the blind spot for the negative image, given the infatuation with 3D-rendering software, given the tunnel vision where alleged yellowing of largely inert cellulose is concerned as a mechanism for creating the body image ...</b></div>
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<b><br /></b><b>STURP's original: black font. My preferred version - <i><span style="color: blue;">blue italics</span></i>!</b></div>
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<b><b>(Photo-gallery to follow)</b></b></div>
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<b>STURP Summary</b></div>
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<b>No pigments, paints, dyes or stains have been found on the fibrils. X-ray, fluorescence and microchemistry on the fibrils preclude the possibility of paint being used as a method for creating the image. </b><b>Ultra Violet and infrared evaluation confirm these studies. </b><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><i>No <b>conventional</b> pigments, paints, dyes or stains have been found on the fibrils. X-ray, fluorescence and microchemistry on the fibrils preclude the possibility of an artist's paint palette playing a role in creating the image. </i></span><i style="color: blue;">Ultraviolet and infrared evaluation confirm these studies. </i><br />
<i style="color: blue;"><br /></i>
<i style="color: blue;">What cannot be ignored is the negative (tone-reversed) nature of the body image. Artists would hardly elect to paint a subject as a negative unless wishing to suggest the image had been IMPRINTED onto the linen. But a better more convincing representation of an imprint is obtained, not with freehand brush, loaded with paint, but by actual IMPRINTING. How? Answer: by coating the subject from head to foot with a suitable imprinting agent, and either pressing subject onto linen, or, more probably, vice versa - by pressing linen down firmly onto the subject!</i><br />
<i style="color: blue;"><br /></i>
<i><b><span style="color: red;">(Note: nowhere does the STURP Summary make any mention whatsoever of (a) the tone-reversed negative or (b) the likelihood of a negative image having been acquired via imprinting- as distinct from painting . Bizarre! Truly bizarre! ) </span></b></i><br />
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<b>Computer image enhancement and analysis by a device known as a VP-8 image analyzer show that the image has unique, three-dimensional information encoded in it.</b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Computer image enhancement and analysis by a device known as a VP-8 image analyzer show that the 2D image responds well to 3D-rendering computer software. However, that is equally true of imprints generally, and indeed any 2D figure or graphic with variations in image intensity, the latter being elevated proportionately onto an imaginary z axis. That is not say there won't be distortions etc, especially where paintings and photographs are concerned, due largely to shadowing (equally responsive as main image to 3D software!). <b>Summary: the 3D-response contributes nothing to one's understanding as to how the body image was produced.</b></span></i><br />
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<b> Microchemical evaluation has indicated no evidence of any spices, oils, or any biochemicals known to be produced by the body in life or in death. </b><br />
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<b> </b><i><span style="color: blue;">Microchemical analysis has failed to detect the presence of any spices, oils, or indeed any biochemicals known to be produced by the body, either in life or in death.</span></i><b> </b><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;">T</span><span style="color: blue;">hat could be seen as further evidence against the Linen being a burial shroud, whether authentic or simulated, and by default, supplies circumstantial evidence in favour of it as Joseph of Arimathea's actual transport linen, or more probably a medieval mock-up thereof.</span></i><br />
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<b>It is clear that there has been a direct contact of the Shroud with a body, which explains certain features such as scourge marks, as well as the blood. </b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">It is clear there has been a direct contact with a body - or a facsimile thereof - given the dimensions, negative image etc. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;">Features such as blood and scourge marks, while serving to reinforce that impression, need to be treated with caution: none of the blood stains, scourge marks included, display any indication of torn or punctured skin in the body image, and may accordingly have been applied separately, either as genuine blood, artificial blood, or a combination of the two, not necessarily simultaneously (e.g. either real or artificial blood as later touching up to restore or enhance colour, given that blood darkens with age).</span></i><br />
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<b>However, while this type of contact might explain some of the features of the torso, it is totally incapable of explaining the image of the face with the high resolution that has been amply demonstrated by photography.</b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">One noteworthy feature deserving of comment is the imprint of the face: it displays a superior definition than the rest of the body, even if some aspects are distorted - notably a flattened and somewhat distorted nose. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;">It is possible that the imprinting procedure for the face differed from that used elsewhere. Reasons? One can only speculate, but if the body image was of medieval fabrication, as seems likely (see above), a compromise was reached between conveying the notion of a seemingly realistic albeit somewhat fuzzy whole body imprint left in age-yellowed sweat and blood to signal a victim of crucifixion, while communicating greater detail in the face alone to signal that it was indeed a particular victim of crucifixion with beard, moustache, shoulder length hair etc.</span></i><br />
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<b>The basic problem from a scientific point of view is that some explanations which might be tenable from a chemical point of view, are precluded by physics. Contrariwise, certain physical explanations which may be attractive are completely precluded by the chemistry.</b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Omit - lacking specifics</span></i><br />
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<b>For an adequate explanation for the image of the Shroud, one must have an explanation which is scientifically sound, from a physical, chemical, biological and medical viewpoint. At the present, this type of solution does not appear to be obtainable by the best efforts of the members of the Shroud Team. </b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Omit - lacking specifics</span></i><br />
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<b>Furthermore, experiments in physics and chemistry with old linen have failed to reproduce adequately the phenomenon presented by the Shroud of Turin. </b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Omit - lacking specifics</span></i><br />
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<b>The scientific concensus is that the image was produced by something which resulted in oxidation, dehydration and conjugation of the polysaccharide structure of the microfibrils of the linen itself. Such changes can be duplicated in the laboratory by certain chemical and physical processes. A similar type of change in linen can be obtained by sulfuric acid or heat. </b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">The most immediate and obvious recipient of the body image is the linen itself, comprising mainly cellulose, but with minor components as well (hemicelluloses, lignin etc). </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;">Endowing cellulose with colour is not easy, needing not just dilute sulphuric acid to model in the test-tube, but <b>concentrated </b>acid (both a powerful chemical dehydrating agent as well as oxidizing agent as well - if hot)- but scarcely realistic or credible. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;">So a question mark needs to be placed over chemical modification of the major linen component, and by the same token, heat alone. In the context of medieval fabrication, in which an imprinting medium may have been deployed, consideration needs to be given to extraneous non-linen components. Candidates? One can but speculate.</span></i><br />
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<b>However, there are no chemical or physical methods known which can account for the totality of the image, nor can any combination of physical, chemical, biological or medical circumstances explain the image adequately.</b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">There is a possible clue that might guide future research. It is the finding that the body image fibres are bleachable with any of three different chemical reagents - namely diimide, hydrazine and alkaline hydrogen peroxide - all having something in common (they interrupt colour-conferring conjugated systems of single and double bonds in organic molecules). Firstly that finding should serve to exclude from consideration inorganic paint pigments referred to earlier. The chromophore is <b>organic</b>, i.e. carbon-based. Dr.Walter McCrone please note!</span></i><br />
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<b>Thus, the answer to the question of how the image was produced or what produced the image remains, now, as it has in the past, a mystery.</b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">The question as to how the image was produced or what produced the image remains a matter of speculation unless or until that is we have more detailed chemical information on the nature of the body image chromophore. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;">Modified cellulose? Improbable! Maybe a type of extraneous addition to the linen that lends itself better to introduction of conjugated double bonds, maybe via thermal or chemical input, and thus development of yellow coloration. Melanoidins? (High molecular weight i.e. particulate solid endproducts of complex Maillard reactions between reduciong sugars and amines involving repeated chemical condensation and polymerization). </span></i><br />
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<b>We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man.</b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">We can conclude that the Shroud image is a representation of the crucified Jesus, imprinted onto Joseph of Arimathea's transport linen. Authentic (1st century)? Or a medieval simulation thereof? The essential next step is radiocarbon dating.</span></i><br />
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<b> It is not the product of an artist. </b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">It is not the product of an artist (but possibly/probably that of one or more medieval artisans who have deployed whole body imprinting, using an unknown imprinting medium, maybe heat or chemically-assisted to generate a faint tan colour as if ancient age-yellowed sweat.</span></i><br />
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<b>The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and also give a positive test for serum albumin. </b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">The blood stains appear to contain hemoglobin and also give a positive colorimetric test for serum albumin, based on dye-binding.</span></i><br />
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<b>The image is an ongoing mystery and until further chemical studies are made, perhaps by this group of scientists, or perhaps by some scientists in the future, the problem remains unsolved.</b><br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Insufficient data are presently available to identify the image chromophore with certainty, or even to rule in or rule out chemical modifcation of the cellulose or some other linen constituent. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;"> Further chemical studies are required. All one can say with certainty is that the chromophore relies on conjugated double bonds for its colour (thus accounting for the bleaching action of the three highly specific double-bond targeting reagents): inorganic paint pigments can be firmly excluded.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="color: red;">If I had to sum up the '81 STURP Summary in just two words, what would they be?</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: red;">Answer: <b>woolly obscurantism.</b>.. yet we're told recently by STURP's Documenting Photographer (now STERA President and the owner of the shroud,com site) that it was a model for good science, a shining example for us modern day scientists to follow! </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: red;">Er no. The project was shot through from the word go with preconceptions and inner contradictions. (Like later claiming that contact imprinting was out of the question, that it was imprinted photograph-like across air gaps, due to lack, we're informed, of<a href="https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/Correlation%20of%20Image%20Intensity%20Jackson%20Jumper%20Ercoline%201984%20OCRsm.pdf"> inescapable lateral distortion,</a> despite the body image having no sides!</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="color: red;">Further reading: </span></i><a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/no-mr-barrie-m-schwortz-sturp-did-not-provide-an-example-that-future-shroud-researchers-can-use-to-carefully-plan-their-own-work-sturp-showed-how-not-to-plan-or-execute-objectiv/">https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/no-mr-barrie-m-schwortz-sturp-did-not-provide-an-example-that-future-shroud-researchers-can-use-to-carefully-plan-their-own-work-sturp-showed-how-not-to-plan-or-execute-objectiv/</a><br />
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<i><span style="color: red;">Photo Gallery to follow! (Yes, this posting is a work in progress)</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="color: red;"><b>Photo Gallery</b></span></i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4XXMQ0Vzqvv-517T455aNbYHg8zecn4PZ8GFesQGxcaIoo-Y8pJmXWr6l6ZR6z_MirDNbr9TEknyosflzvCWfBR7MrcObF2yRER2o3Baw_3-681nllhFgtZOnFfa8LD4pAZMlJIgVRFh/s1600/negative-v-positive-images-my-wet-hand.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="227" data-original-width="466" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4XXMQ0Vzqvv-517T455aNbYHg8zecn4PZ8GFesQGxcaIoo-Y8pJmXWr6l6ZR6z_MirDNbr9TEknyosflzvCWfBR7MrcObF2yRER2o3Baw_3-681nllhFgtZOnFfa8LD4pAZMlJIgVRFh/s320/negative-v-positive-images-my-wet-hand.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fig 1 : Left:</b> a negative image of my own hand (but NOT a photograph in the first instance - merely recorded as such for posterity).<br />
<b>Right</b>: the same image after tone-reversal (which can be achieved either by photography or via digital computer software). <br />
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So how was the initial negative image captured, if not by photography? Answer: as a CONTACT IMPRINT. I simply wetted my hand, and pressed it down onto dark-coloured fabric.<br />
<i> (Note the absence of so-called "lateral distortion" which we were told by STURP's Director precluded imprinting by contact in the case of the so-called Shroud of Turin. Nonsense! Complete and utter nonsense! One simply keeps the sides of the imprinted item away from the cloth: no side contact, no lateral distortion!)</i><br />
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<b>Fig.2:</b><i> </i>Performance of those hand imprints of mine (negative and tone-reversed positive) in modern-day 3D-rendering<br />
software (ImageJ)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rTzdt9YpAvVTav_aOfMHQLtcXlH1u_OmoW_lNWVaCNMQ9E8DO5n9UK5spgra_DvUBducmQC6qiknWibOG09prrbdB47RKIDRaSu_PugPDAqK1uu10uqwGexpLt2Z9-kG4-52oyVjb-6e/s1600/site-banner-4-hand-imprints.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="152" data-original-width="640" height="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rTzdt9YpAvVTav_aOfMHQLtcXlH1u_OmoW_lNWVaCNMQ9E8DO5n9UK5spgra_DvUBducmQC6qiknWibOG09prrbdB47RKIDRaSu_PugPDAqK1uu10uqwGexpLt2Z9-kG4-52oyVjb-6e/s320/site-banner-4-hand-imprints.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Observe that both the original negative and the tone-reversed positive display a 3D appearance after applying the 3D software. The 3D-rendering is due to the software - not the input image. All the latter has to do is supply variations in 2D image intensity, no matter how acquired.<br />
<i>The claim in the '81 STURP Summary that the so-called Shroud of Turin body image displays "unique encoded 3D" is also total nonsense. That fallacious claim is trotted out even now, nearly 40 years later as if established fact. Nothing could be further from the truth. Shame on you STURP for foisting your pseudoscience on the world at large, and continuing to do so, such of you as are still around...</i><br />
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<b>Fig.3:</b> Here's another negative image, again of my hand, and its tone-reversed positive. But on this occasion it was not by liquid - which tends to spread too far - but by SOLID imprinting, using powdered charcoal. Note the near photograph-like quality of the imprint!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxXXyspJtkKOEuxsswfLToADyNJladP5h2C-Kd8eL57tE4puwkqbfQxToSSfIopjUC70mBPS8wbi8ffjTWYUs5rgwhCHDJz2vEevaBfFxqHxYsa4CUqKvjnJeIomW9M9ic4e0VwCtCWRD/s1600/1.-charcoal-pre-versus-post-inversion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="640" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxXXyspJtkKOEuxsswfLToADyNJladP5h2C-Kd8eL57tE4puwkqbfQxToSSfIopjUC70mBPS8wbi8ffjTWYUs5rgwhCHDJz2vEevaBfFxqHxYsa4CUqKvjnJeIomW9M9ic4e0VwCtCWRD/s320/1.-charcoal-pre-versus-post-inversion.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Might a powder have been used to capture the body image on the so-called Shroud of Turin? I say YES! Which powder? Answer: <b>plain white flour,</b> as used for breadmaking. How was the yellow colour produced? Answer: via heat-treatment of course (roasting the imprinted linen in an oven, or even over the glowing red hot embers of a flame-free open fire).</i><br />
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<b>Fig.4</b>:<b> </b>Here are some flour imprints of my hand (not my best, not my worst) obtained with two different variants of the imprinting technique:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZiuaA6cgEmdfhVI7MTAFbzQJ26VUwFt4ZiJahBvDSIwKIwSnSiyv_v-qjPhU3Z9YdnDCPt1BTYoyL35MEdctG2ExeGOPBPAR6zRtO4Lcj2pDMUg8kNoKD5ASGFTNUmW1KbcOlptsXBey/s1600/comparison-wet-slurry-v-dry-powder-imprint.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="640" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZiuaA6cgEmdfhVI7MTAFbzQJ26VUwFt4ZiJahBvDSIwKIwSnSiyv_v-qjPhU3Z9YdnDCPt1BTYoyL35MEdctG2ExeGOPBPAR6zRtO4Lcj2pDMUg8kNoKD5ASGFTNUmW1KbcOlptsXBey/s320/comparison-wet-slurry-v-dry-powder-imprint.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<i><span style="color: red;">(For some reason the following stays red in red font, despite several attempts to replace red with black!) </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: red;">The one on the left employed a thick slurry of flour in water. </span><span style="color: red;">That on the right was obtained by dusting the oil-smeared hand with dry flour, shaking off excess flour, then imprinting onto wet linen. </span><span style="color: red;">Both imprints were then developed with heat to generate the negative images as Maillard browning products<b>.</b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: red;"><b> </b></span></i><i>Note the different character of the two imprints as regards overall definition, sharpness of image boundaries etc</i></div>
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<b>Fig.5:</b> Here's an imprint of my face, obtained using the wet slurry technique.<br />
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No heat development was needed: photoediting alone was sufficient to enhance the natural faint yellow colour of plain white flour:<br />
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<i>Who says the nose makes it impossible to imprint the face? Not if one presses hard to flatten and distort the nose - as appears to have happened to the nose of the Man on the Linen!</i><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Fig 6:</b> contact imprint from a miniature plastic figurine, just 14cm in size, obtained via the dry-flour imprinting technique onto wet linen followed by heating of the imprinted linen.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMHnv3xEWOGoJofCPgCBZXSFlL_ipzg0P8Mikp9P25INUTjOGTIQFueK7boBxcNRrssYgRJVGsBCKf4qExGHBJIObzITzJ-iek09x6uCy6d4YlML_BK7gpHjIjTZHSibc2stjKwSCjJ6my/s1600/galaxy+warrior+v+roasted+flour+imprint.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="900" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMHnv3xEWOGoJofCPgCBZXSFlL_ipzg0P8Mikp9P25INUTjOGTIQFueK7boBxcNRrssYgRJVGsBCKf4qExGHBJIObzITzJ-iek09x6uCy6d4YlML_BK7gpHjIjTZHSibc2stjKwSCjJ6my/s320/galaxy+warrior+v+roasted+flour+imprint.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><i>Observe absence of any "lateral distortion" of the image. Why? Because the figurine was first smeared with vegetable oil, and the flour then sprinkled vertically from above, making scarcely if any contact with the sides (which could have been wiped off had that been the case). As before, the flour imprint was heated in an oven to develop the colour of the negative imprint. The negative, tone-reversed image you see is, I consider, a miniature of that on the Turin Linen, obtained via essentially the same procedure. In short, it is wrong for numerous websites to claim, as they do, that the body image on the so-called Shroud continues to elude science, 40 years post that hugely flawed STURP investigation . No it does not. It is easily explainable as a contact imprint, one whose colour has been developed by thermal means.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Fig.7: Imprinting with sweat and blood (whether authentic or 14th century simulation) not a new idea:</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;">See this paper by Dorothy Crispino, with its reference to <a href="https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi02part6.pdf">Cardinal Gorrevod implicating sweat and blood </a>as early as the late 15th century: </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Fig.8</b>: Indeed, the idea of imprinting by contact immediately after descent from the cross, and receiving into Joseph of Arimathea's "fine linen" (whether with bodily sweat, or possibly anointing oils - see pot in foreground) was taken up by early painters, notably Roviere in the 16th century:</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJJbTw_o1bF_Oj3bNAcsFWgSwkAsRxKBuIo1W4QNBN2I3PJFbdyZKNnH5M4UBF_bJPADq2pGk1JdOK6w4G8p0niBbNiD43207iq2Z1w-hDiw9TNLI_a8-gZoDQx9YlAnND4ESo4i7o6DaO/s1600/2.-full-rovere-painting.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="353" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJJbTw_o1bF_Oj3bNAcsFWgSwkAsRxKBuIo1W4QNBN2I3PJFbdyZKNnH5M4UBF_bJPADq2pGk1JdOK6w4G8p0niBbNiD43207iq2Z1w-hDiw9TNLI_a8-gZoDQx9YlAnND4ESo4i7o6DaO/s320/2.-full-rovere-painting.png" width="221" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;"><i>So what happened to cause the immediate post-crucifixion First Day imprinting narrative to be summarily dismissed, and be replaced by supernatural Third Day resurrectional auto-photography (mediated we're told by a burst of corpse-generated radiation). </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;"><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;">Answer: look to STURP, notably its Director and prime initiator, John Jackson PhD plus colleagues, and their <a href="https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/Correlation%20of%20Image%20Intensity%20Jackson%20Jumper%20Ercoline%201984%20OCRsm.pdf">allegedly cause-and-effect correlation of image intensity with "cloth-body distance".</a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;"><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;">Fig.9:</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbauDp_-Y1C_RNaZw1qeL-cu106I0Tc9_M3ZBhT7r82-1Qjz7tIWGBmB-IG2GGHwyjkmudLJVvlLIHajo_TAPRTbp-Spo9cfGYpQH6i2KDrK9L_S01CcFpngYt3q3EFRtIYfMu7uOz5soO/s1600/Jackson+et+al.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="1020" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbauDp_-Y1C_RNaZw1qeL-cu106I0Tc9_M3ZBhT7r82-1Qjz7tIWGBmB-IG2GGHwyjkmudLJVvlLIHajo_TAPRTbp-Spo9cfGYpQH6i2KDrK9L_S01CcFpngYt3q3EFRtIYfMu7uOz5soO/s400/Jackson+et+al.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;"><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;"><i>The key sentence in the above paper is this one: "</i>The frontal
image on the Shroud of Turin is shown to be consistent
with a body shape covered with a naturally draping
cloth in the sense that the image can be derived from a
single global mapping function of distance between
these two surfaces".</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;"><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;">Yes, but stating something to be consistent is not the same as demonstrating a real cause-and-effect relationship. Most if not all textbooks of statistics include a warning about the the danger of spurious correlations (my Yule and Kendall back in the 1960s illustrated with a graph showing a near perfect correlation between year-on-year increase in alcohol consumption and that of schoolteachers' salaries!).</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;"><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;">There is an alternative explanation for the APPARENT correlation between image intensity and cloth-body distance, measured on a subject with loosely-draped linen. It's the model that's wrong, assuming that loosely-draped linen. <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/no-mr-barrie-m-schwortz-sturp-did-not-provide-an-example-that-future-shroud-researchers-can-use-to-carefully-plan-their-own-work-sturp-showed-how-not-to-plan-or-execute-objectiv/">See my earlier 2018 posting on the subject</a>, one in which linen is pressed firmly down on the subject, with imaging at the contact points ONLY!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Fig.10:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><b>Quickie comparison of two rival imaging models: </b></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigX-26vEcZ4Z8lhzWajTFa8nbc_f6sClTwdDXhy6yo_ovlJMnyeOgPPyCYnZjM-h2OQCaPQ1REwfWd58BYrcYR1cM1JALjn-_FCg91NkMAuADehEijSBvJ0cg2DQVbObZJVHCIy2Gb2kWh/s1600/loosely+draped+v+pressed+linen+red+and+yellow+pointers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="967" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigX-26vEcZ4Z8lhzWajTFa8nbc_f6sClTwdDXhy6yo_ovlJMnyeOgPPyCYnZjM-h2OQCaPQ1REwfWd58BYrcYR1cM1JALjn-_FCg91NkMAuADehEijSBvJ0cg2DQVbObZJVHCIy2Gb2kWh/s320/loosely+draped+v+pressed+linen+red+and+yellow+pointers.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b style="color: #444444;">(A)</b><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: 400;"> the quasi-photographic model of Jackson et al featuring pro-authenticity loosely-draped linen, permitting imaging across air gaps, </span><span style="color: red;"><b><i>see red pointers</i></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: 400;">, albeit weaker; </span><b style="color: #444444;">(B)</b><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: 400;"> the non-authenticity medieval-imprinting model, strictly imaging-by-contact only, where prominences like the nose are subject to greater contact pressure , </span><span style="color: yellow;"><b><i>see yellow pointers,</i></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: 400;"> to permit physical contact with lower relief.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><br /><b>Fig.11: Here's a current Page 5 entry under a Google Any Time search for (shroud of turin). </b></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrNq1X3vAVbv319th3uxdihZZNNB0jHaVlJ2ja5LeDAhVXBWWRj2XVrF2UcU4pDY-bCJTsB9NcuAV0l36_R62Fr-5wvksvvd4YDs7UnyAFxgaz_p9IGDRI6s18jawgEUzrvhm8fUhKLy7/s1600/mccrone+res+institute+page+5+listing.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="715" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrNq1X3vAVbv319th3uxdihZZNNB0jHaVlJ2ja5LeDAhVXBWWRj2XVrF2UcU4pDY-bCJTsB9NcuAV0l36_R62Fr-5wvksvvd4YDs7UnyAFxgaz_p9IGDRI6s18jawgEUzrvhm8fUhKLy7/s320/mccrone+res+institute+page+5+listing.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br />Click on the above link to the Chicago-based McCrone Research Institute, and what do you find? Be prepared for a surprise. Correction - a cobweb-festooned 40 year old surprise that should by rights have departed gracefully from the literature decades ago!</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKy_dU9R44R3nJr8R4ZL6aeToXIZhtVWxWkCu3Jo4LBR6HXm9NkmgqaaiuGYJu37Mo8MrXCThacCNdY6SsCr8F79Ctr_FGECaRsGwegE-8G-qv1pMhyphenhyphenV1k70uKgcpIURgOuhr02FTcLhGo/s1600/mccrone++website+red+ochre.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="1028" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKy_dU9R44R3nJr8R4ZL6aeToXIZhtVWxWkCu3Jo4LBR6HXm9NkmgqaaiuGYJu37Mo8MrXCThacCNdY6SsCr8F79Ctr_FGECaRsGwegE-8G-qv1pMhyphenhyphenV1k70uKgcpIURgOuhr02FTcLhGo/s400/mccrone++website+red+ochre.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Fig 12: Yes, McCrone, or rather his survivors, are still maintaining that the tan-coloured body chromophore is "red ochre", i.e. inorganic iron oxide, Fe2O3, would you believe it?</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Here's a copy of an email I sent the McCrone Research Institute 6 days ago (blue font, thus far no reply or acknowledgement):</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span>
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<b>Title: <span style="color: blue;">Er, why do you continue to promote your founder's fallacious iron oxide paint pigment claim re Turin Shroud body image?</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b>
<b>From:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>sciencebod01@aol.com></b><br />
<b>To:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>info@mcri.org></b><br />
<b>Date:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Fri, 16 Aug 2019 </b><br />
<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: blue;">Hello folks</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: blue;">I've just been reading, correction, re-reading your founder's views re that so-called "Shroud", still prominent in Google rankings.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">They start with this statement:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><i>"The faint sepia image is made up of billions of submicron pigment particles (red ochre and vermilion) in a collagen tempera medium. The pigments red ochre and vermilion with the collagen tempera medium was a common paint composition during the 14th century; before which, no one had ever heard of the Shroud."</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">I can understand the image chromophore being mistaken for iron oxide (aka red ochre) 40 years ago. But why is that view still being promoted?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">40 years ago, STURP's Adler and Heller showed that the image chromophore was organic, i.e. carbon-based, through being bleachable by reducing agents (diimide, hydrazine, alkaline hydrogen peroxide) that act on conjugated C=C double bonds . One cannot expect an inorganic metal oxide like Fe2O3 to be bleached by any of those three agents!</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">So why continue to promote an early misidentification, even if understandable at the time?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: blue;">I personally (a retired PhD biomedical scientist) have been researching the so-called Shroud for well over 7 years. I too believe it to be of medieval manufacture, but NOT a painting (instead a roasted organic whole-body negative IMPRINT, where the final sepia-coloured chromophore is almost certainly a mix of high molecular weight melanoidins, as first proposed by STURP's Chemical Director, Raymond N.Rogers). However, I consider your founder was correct about one thing - in identifying the chromophore as solid and microparticulate (sub-micron in size). </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: blue;">So how about publishing an updated version of your founder's message, ensuring that his particle microscopy does not get dismissed through having been over-hasty with the chemistry?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">Let me know if you would consider a joint paper between myself and your research institute as an updated corrective. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: blue;">Do you by any chance still have any of Walter McCrone's image fibres from 1978? If so, they could be the basis for a new round of microscopy - focused on the precise location of the body image chromophore (which I maintain to be inside the SCW cores, not restricted to the PCW as maintained by modern-day sindonologists, keen to promote their miraculous pro-authenticity image-formation mechanisms (corona discharges, uv pulsed laser beams, sub-atomic particles, earthquakes etc etc).</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">Kind regards</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Colin Berry</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: blue;">Herts, UK</span></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
So then, what is the way ahead assuming (a) Turin allows a limited STURP Mk2 (?) and (b) it it's restricted, as before, to - at best - individual image fibres, maybe dissected out with a blade rather than contaminated with sticky tape?<br />
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Answer: not easy, given the likely paucity of specimen for analysis. As before, microscopy would seem to bw the best bet, also given priority in STURP Mk 1 with the dispatch of Rogers' stripped-off sticky tape sample to microscopist Walter McCrone in the first instance. However, what mustn't be repeated in a second round is the exclusive focus, at least initially, on microscopy, unaided by microchemistry. (Thank goodness for Adler and Heller's later testing, notably the image bleaching studies, when they finally received samples from McCrone).<br />
<br />
So is there a straightforward, previously omitted chemical test that can be applied to image fibres, not to exclude iron oxide (already performed, hat tip to Adler and Heller) but to confirm Rogers' alternative to oh-so-speculative prematurely-aged cellulose, namely those high molecular weight Maillard browning products, aka melanoidins? I wish I could say there was, but years of literature searching have failed to unearth a simple or even involved test for those pesky entities we call "melanoidins" (read: chemical Mount Everest).<br />
<br />
So what's the stand-in solution(s) where any STURP Mk2 is concerned?<br />
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There are two that come to mind.<br />
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The first is to acquire some tentative evidence at least for a melanoidin chromophore. Methodology? Still at the planning stage, maybe exploiting two known properties of melanoidins: (a) their anionic character - due to negative electric charge (carboxyl groups?) and (b) linked to that same anionic character, their ability to bind metal ions, which might conceivably be exploited to develop a colorimetric or fluorimetric test.<br />
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<b>Fig. 13: Here's what I consider might be a useful and potentially informative way forward worth considering for STURP Mk 2</b>. It's a graphic from a <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/colinbs-cunning-plan-for-re-dating-the-shroud-of-turin/">posting I did way back in late 2012</a>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHPwovK8JOoi3FgCQ0uVnaub3UAu9TyDIGgOFX16UzdPCE6iT3NCzRWD11hRv_06X4hEioeNrgxo4ZFQnMqqNS4DTAXkii9llAFCr0B68YtfLWRc5w4_XWLZSn0IWH9lQqgEM6iMTMz_Vo/s1600/cuprammonium-3-stages.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="640" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHPwovK8JOoi3FgCQ0uVnaub3UAu9TyDIGgOFX16UzdPCE6iT3NCzRWD11hRv_06X4hEioeNrgxo4ZFQnMqqNS4DTAXkii9llAFCr0B68YtfLWRc5w4_XWLZSn0IWH9lQqgEM6iMTMz_Vo/s400/cuprammonium-3-stages.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Cellulose, the incredibly resistant polymer that makes up the bulk of the plant kingdom (as cell walls) CAN be dissolved, or at any rate disaggregated as semi-solubilized. How? By adding a solution of copper (II) hydroxide in excess ammonia, which contains the Cu (NH3)4 ++ ion ("cuprammonium ion". What's more, the cellulose fibres can be re-precipitated, merely by acidification.<br />
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So how might that chemistry come in handy? It was McCrone's belief that the body image chromophore on the Linen was in the form of minute sub-micron particles, and while his attempts to identify those particles as iron oxide came to naught (and rightly so) Raymond N.Rogers later offered an alternative more credible explanation - the particles comprise high molecular weight melanoidins , i.e. Maillard browning products. This scientist will go one stage further and propose that those particles are locked away inside the cores of the SCW (secondary cell wall) of linen fibres. How did they get there? Answer: by entering the fibre cores as a liquid at high temperature, released from roasting white flour imprint, whereupon that liquid then rapidly polymerised and became entrapped in the SCW cores. That's what McCrone saw through his microscope!<br />
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Testing the hypothesis: take image-bearing fibres from the Linen. Disperse in the cuprammonium reagent to "dissolve" the cellulose of the SCW, releasing the chromophore particles. Spin off those solid micro-particles to separate from the solution. One then has free liberated chromophore that can then be tested with this or that chemical reagent - or examined with one or other physical technique - in order to pinpoint more precisely the chemical nature of the chromophore.<br />
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<b>Fig.14: Here's a pair of graphics I posted in 2017 to the International Skeptics Forum site, <a href="http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316851&page=5">greeted with much derision </a> (that, namely derisive catcalling, being the speciality of that now abandoned site !).</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsGuSedwQ38suQpzcfEyO7zV6fjP9SPXQMK2Hm0gccfgu6LNe2wYYL4_FA91TQX9_VmFKOPyDAjQm64kAXZdzOu-HPZ8Pztu93fqatbtKITG8KfOkxyJsUPF52rS_-lBvNbZvQMHehFd0/s1600/body+image+pre+post+zeke+filter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="637" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsGuSedwQ38suQpzcfEyO7zV6fjP9SPXQMK2Hm0gccfgu6LNe2wYYL4_FA91TQX9_VmFKOPyDAjQm64kAXZdzOu-HPZ8Pztu93fqatbtKITG8KfOkxyJsUPF52rS_-lBvNbZvQMHehFd0/s320/body+image+pre+post+zeke+filter.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Why? Because I deployed a filter available in Windows 10 called "Zeke". What it does is to accentuate anything that is already particulate in nature, whether body image or blood, allowing it to stand out better from background (artefactual maybe, but useful nonetheless - a kind of contrast-enhancement tool).<br />
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<b>Fig.16: As stated elsewhere on many occasions, this investigator believes that the Linen with its imprinted image (as if left on Joseph of Arimathea's 'transport' stretcher) was inspired, nay prompted, by the pre-mortem Veil of Veronica.</b> Here's a few lines from the wiki entry:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"During the fourteenth century it (the Veil of Veronica ) became a central icon in the Western Church; in the words of art historian Neil Macgregor: "From [the 14th Century] on, wherever the Roman Church went, the Veronica would go with it." The act of Saint Veronica wiping the face of Jesus with her veil is celebrated in the sixth Station of the Cross in many Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Western Orthodox churches."</i><br />
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There's a large number of artistic representations of the Veil. I've chosen just one.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_-cMg2Mnjy6447jlgYs2Hxs3haI4u-JwUNY-Sxxsqonf9PI22RbbJGwgz7Md8BOF9MFxQhS-HFGxYrcbkW6ZwrscFGt8IPzMm-nWLU9he3ZP2L5H0RSx4sSfIgJspbthDF-w3m1eQfc9/s1600/veil+veronica+pre+post+3D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="147" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_-cMg2Mnjy6447jlgYs2Hxs3haI4u-JwUNY-Sxxsqonf9PI22RbbJGwgz7Md8BOF9MFxQhS-HFGxYrcbkW6ZwrscFGt8IPzMm-nWLU9he3ZP2L5H0RSx4sSfIgJspbthDF-w3m1eQfc9/s1600/veil+veronica+pre+post+3D.png" /></a></div>
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Note the way the face responds to 3D-rendering in ImageJ software! "Unique encoded 3D" as baldly declared by STURP for the Linen of Turin?<br />
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<b>Fig 17: See how an imprint of a 14cm plastic figurine responds to ImageJ software. </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwrzsLMJ_ZuTSZJTW4CePCnzLJn_qtP3i7KY0yVemdC59fN4W1-bG6LfIgZb18_1jSMRwpkjleJGEf2OV4y3NYFJm9ObgD91iZSLM4xPzH2KUP-p93D80YRQGNXWD4p9wlfZHml_VS2Zd/s1600/galaxy+warrior+pre+post+3D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="158" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwrzsLMJ_ZuTSZJTW4CePCnzLJn_qtP3i7KY0yVemdC59fN4W1-bG6LfIgZb18_1jSMRwpkjleJGEf2OV4y3NYFJm9ObgD91iZSLM4xPzH2KUP-p93D80YRQGNXWD4p9wlfZHml_VS2Zd/s1600/galaxy+warrior+pre+post+3D.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>Unique encoded 3D?</i><br />
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<b>Final summary of posting: </b><br />
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The Linen (no, NOT Shroud!) of Turin, fabricated in the mid- 14th century as a bigger and better rival to the Veil of Veronica, was NOT intended to be seen as the final burial shroud.<br />
(So let's forget about resurrection imaging on the Third Day etc).<br />
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No, it was created as a <i>trompe d'oeil</i>, intended to represent the kind of image that might have been left on Joseph of Arimathea's "fine linen", deployed in transport mode from cross to tomb.<br />
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Why is the body image a tone-reversed image?<br />
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Answer: because it it was intended to be seen as a body IMPRINT, created in bodily sweat in the first instance, then yellowed by centuries of ageing.<br />
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(Explaining the blood is a little more problematical: it does not appear to solely blood, or as some might say "blood". Other ingredients appear to be present (red clay according to microscopist Lucotte and Paris-based colleagues). Yes, they can be explained, including the "blood first, image second" chronology deduced by Adler and Heller's experiments with blood-digesting enzyme.<br />
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<i> <b>A possible scenario is as follows: an adult human male was first smeared lightly with vegetable oil from head to foot, then sprinkled lightly FROM ABOVE (while in recumbent, i.e. lying down mode) with plain white flour. The excess of flour was then shaken off, then a slurry of red clay trickled on to represent blood "in all the right places" to identify the mode of death (crucifixion) and what preceded it (scourging, crown of thorns etc) thus identifying the individual's fate according to Holy Scripture. </b></i><br />
<i><b>The imprinted linen was then roasted, maybe in a bread-making oven, maybe over the glowing embers of a charcoal fire - responsible incidentally for those otherwise mysterious "poker holes" - to develop the body image colour as Maillard browning products. The clay areas were then overlaid with blood (real blood, or something that resembled it closely).</b></i><br />
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The final step, post-roasting, pre-addition of ';real' blood, was to wash vigorously with soap and water to remove thick surface encrustation, leaving just a faint, dare one say ghostly image of a man's naked crucified figure.<br />
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Scourge marks? As with bloodstains from "nails", "crown of thorns" etc, they too show no presence in the body image, i.e. are entirely blood (or "blood"). They could have been added at any time (one still awaits data on whether they too are underneath or, conversely, on top of the body image).<br />
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Claims that the Linen could simply have been "painted" to create the body image overlook one crucial feature - namely the negative (tone-reversed) body image. STURP itself gave priority to the oh-so- tiresome "just a painting" claim, which was correctly rejected.<br />
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What was less understandable was the omission of any reference in the '81 Summary to the negative image, or to Adler and Heller's hugely significant finding that the body image chromophore was bleachable by 3 different chemical reagents, known to act on colour-conferring conjugated double bonds, i.e. organic, NOT inorganic chromophores.<br />
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The bleaching discovery should (by rights) have consigned the red ochre (iron oxide) claim of Walter McCrone immediately to the dustbin of history (but for unfathomable reasons did not do so, his successors at the Chicago McCrone Research Institute robotically continuing to trumpet it 40 years later on their founder's website!).<br />
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Let's not beat about the bush: the Turin Linen is a fraud, albeit a very clever one. Its creators tried to conjure up a "1st century" reproduction of Joseph of Arimathea's 'transport linen' that was as realistic as possible, one that looked as if it had been created 1300 years earlier, one that looked as it it had naturally aged for the following 1300 years prior to its (unexplained) appearance at a tiny Champagne village, albeit with a monarch-funded private chapel attached to the property of one of his leading knights in the land (read: King's favourite!)<br />
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<b>The Linen of Turin is by far and away the most successful forgery in entire human history.</b><br />
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Why? Because it wasn't content to "paint" a facsimile version of Joseph of Arimeathea's transport linen.<br />
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Oh no! It set out to reproduce the manner of its making in as realistic a manner as possible, namely by <b>whole-body imprinting</b>, followed by an <b>artificial ageing procedure</b>. In short, it was meticulous in its attention to detail. In modern terminology it was 'nerdy' and thus 'detail-obsessed' in the extreme.<br />
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But then bored under-occupied clerics attached to Geoffroi de Charny's chapel, apparently 6 of them no less (link), employed merely to pray constantly for his warrior soul, forever at risk of being detached from his body in knightly mortal combat alongside his King, had to find ways to occupy their time...<br />
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They certainly made their mark on history - both 20th and 21st century. They opened the door to endless pseudoscience, introducing a cautionary note to the manner in which modern-day "science" can either be applied - or MISAPPLIED!<br />
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Any time you, dear reader, suspect that "science" is being misapplied, ask yourself the following question: is the proponent of this or that seemingly-unscientific proposition addressing IN DETAIL objections from sceptics and other critics?<br />
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Or is their "science" in fact pseudoscience, mere window-dressing intended as part of a marketing exercise, inviting no comment, no objections?<br />
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<b>Personal note (added 8th September 2019)</b><br />
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Here's a link to my attendance yesterday at a <a href="http://dreams-and-daemons.blogspot.com/2019/09/site-revival-september-2019.html">Bishopshalt School Reunion</a>, just 6 days short of my 75th birthday. (I was a pupil there between 1956 and 1963).<br />
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<b>End of posting... (Aug 23, 2019)</b><br />
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<b>Update: March 30, 2020:</b><br />
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<b>Here's a screen grab of my latest Shroud posting:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2kXsZCEgs1gWUJeUShn2csEMDjRtbcs-oEGGulS2LLJDyB1FwMq8rEmz5Iqo1hyphenhyphenOmXf782ShFVK44GxfO_lmPgn_lpbzUOs90Msjg0_4mhoXIfbDhax4vIwpRN9d9dMrgtICzqGe0VQdf/s1600/latest+posting+TS+mon+31+mar+20.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="799" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2kXsZCEgs1gWUJeUShn2csEMDjRtbcs-oEGGulS2LLJDyB1FwMq8rEmz5Iqo1hyphenhyphenOmXf782ShFVK44GxfO_lmPgn_lpbzUOs90Msjg0_4mhoXIfbDhax4vIwpRN9d9dMrgtICzqGe0VQdf/s320/latest+posting+TS+mon+31+mar+20.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Here's the link:</b><br />
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<a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/de-mystifying-the-allegedly-authentic-shroud-of-turin-heres-my-current-10-point-action-plan-posted-march-2020-some-8-years-in-the-making/">https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/de-mystifying-the-allegedly-authentic-shroud-of-turin-heres-my-current-10-point-action-plan-posted-march-2020-some-8-years-in-the-making/</a><br />
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Enjoy (or not) as the case may be!<br />
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Colin Berry (retired PhD biomedical scientist)<br />
<b>....</b></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i><b><i>Postscript, added April 17, 2020</i></b></i></b></span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaj7nEPNgjGx3qXF_mPaHVwTCasSn36qiiRErnD3WdmTvP1h3VKTDvmr-9jLqxSc4W5AGXPi3KrvrW5zz17pyAG7b9baY7shr6vUsYo9oMprjrua5OICXmOsfks7jN-nwkPbUsdhbktrj8/s1600/IMG_4109+100+sterling+prize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaj7nEPNgjGx3qXF_mPaHVwTCasSn36qiiRErnD3WdmTvP1h3VKTDvmr-9jLqxSc4W5AGXPi3KrvrW5zz17pyAG7b9baY7shr6vUsYo9oMprjrua5OICXmOsfks7jN-nwkPbUsdhbktrj8/s320/IMG_4109+100+sterling+prize.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i><b><i><span style="color: #444444;">Yes, 3 days ago I added a new posting to my specialist Shroud site. </span><span style="color: red;">It offers</span><span style="color: #444444;"> </span><span style="color: red;">a prize of £100 for the best 200 word Summary of the present status of the Turin Shroud </span><span style="color: #444444;">(with the emphasis on, wait for it, </span><span style="color: red;">HARD</span><span style="color: #444444;"> </span><span style="color: red;">SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE!</span><span style="color: #444444;">).</span></i></b></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i><b><i>See this link to the posting.</i></b></i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i><b><i><br /></i></b></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2020/04/14/100-prize-on-offer-for-best-short-summary-of-the-shroud-of-turin/">https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2020/04/14/100-prize-on-offer-for-best-short-summary-of-the-shroud-of-turin/</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i><b><i>Submissions are needed in the next 28 days. My wife of 50 years (come July) has been appointed final arbiter...</i></b></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i><b><i>...</i></b></i></b></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></i>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-74301357858894417772018-03-13T01:14:00.001-07:002018-03-16T15:51:59.992-07:00So why does Stonehenge looks the way it does? Try imagining a bird's eye view. It was clearly intended to serve as a megalithic bird perch!I've taken an artist's impression from the English Heritage website of how Stonehenge may have looked shortly after completion, circa 2500BC, with those mighty but mysterious sarsen-stone lintels in place. The latter have been colour coded - yellow for the TOPS of the 5 arch-like trilithons, and pink for approx half of the TOPS of surrounding stone circle.<br />
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I've added a token seagull (sorry it's upside down!). Why? Because what you see is a bird's eye view of Stonehenge that conveys a crucial aspect of that unique and stunning structure, one that is not immediately obvious to a tourist or other visitor viewing from ground level.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTAHnc9iWTsqrOFyAhJnvzkiNg2VM1Yo-FVREpQz5d5ZZo14KJE2CostBd_Y9olKq5iDkZz0LSi6Encj6bWHf_tR2sTCu-KhLuwJuoEDClk06KmziGViflQc564xGyYgTmUfUWNcGUgJKz/s1600/galleryswstonehenge11+yellow+only+for+trilith+yelloe+and+partial+pink+with+gull.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="821" data-original-width="1200" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTAHnc9iWTsqrOFyAhJnvzkiNg2VM1Yo-FVREpQz5d5ZZo14KJE2CostBd_Y9olKq5iDkZz0LSi6Encj6bWHf_tR2sTCu-KhLuwJuoEDClk06KmziGViflQc564xGyYgTmUfUWNcGUgJKz/s400/galleryswstonehenge11+yellow+only+for+trilith+yelloe+and+partial+pink+with+gull.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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STONEHENGE IS ESSENTIALLY A GIANT PERCH FOR BIRDS!<br />
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Why? Followers of this blog will be aware of the scientific "model" that has been developing here and on <a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2018/03/12/to-understand-the-real-purpose-of-stonehenge-5000-years-ago-try-looking-at-if-from-a-hungry-birds-eye-view/">my specialist Stonehenge/Silbury Hill site</a> these last 6 years.<br />
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I believe that Stonehenge was created as a "pre-crematorium", where the newly deceased were first subject to what is euphemistically termed "sky burial", aka excarnation, aka de-fleshing. (Or, as I prefer to call it, AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization) - as still practiced in Tibet and elsewhere.<br />
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More to follow.<br />
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<strong>Addendum: March 16, 2018</strong><br />
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Sorry to repeat myself, but I've decided to add the same image you see above as an addendum to ALL my Stonehenge postings (some 24 in all, here and on my specialist Stonehenge site). Why not – since it’s my considered answer to the ‘mystery’ of the monument’s peculiar architecture, the conclusion to some 6 years of deliberation?<br />
Reminder*<br />
<img src="https://sussingstonehenge.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/galleryswstonehenge11-yellow-only-for-trilith-yelloe-and-partial-pink-with-gull.jpg?w=640" /><br />
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I say Stonehenge was designed as a <strong>giant bird perch</strong>, a ceremonial monument dedicated to ‘sky burial’, i.e. soul release from mortal remains to the heavens via AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization, considered the height of fashion (and practicality) in Neolithic-era 2500BC! The stripped remains were then cremated, so an apt description of Stonehenge might, as previously suggested, be PRE-CREMATORIUM.<br />
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<br />sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-21860323882276292492018-01-18T13:07:00.000-08:002018-10-10T23:32:00.583-07:00Non, il n'y a rien d'unique dans les soi-disant propriétés 3D du Suaire de Turin! C'est une propriété générale de toutes les images imprimées! Même les taches de sang et les marques de rousseur répondent!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: red;">Affichage en construction.</span><br />
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<b>Voici une série de photographies montrant des rendus en 3D d'une gamme d'images - en commençant par des images simples créées sur un ordinateur sans historique 3D, et se terminant par celles qui le font.</b><br />
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Étant donné qu'il n'y a pas de différence évidente dans la réponse 3D - tous réagissent à un logiciel préprogrammé qui convertit simplement la densité de l'image (peu importe son acquisition) en hauteur sur une troisième dimension entièrement imaginaire, autrement dit la hauteur sur un nouvel axe z. J'espère que cet article dissipera une fois pour toutes la prétention que la réponse de l'image corporelle du Suaire de Turin dans les programmes informatiques de rendu 3D est unique ou différente à tous égards de celle d'autres empreintes, ou même de peintures .<br />
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On peut spéculer sur les raisons des différences de densité d'image sur l'image corporelle TS. Bien que l'on puisse supposer ou non que l'image originale et /ou 3D ait été dérivée d'un sujet 3D par un mécanisme ou un autre (impression par contact, photographie), on n'a pas le droit de conclure que la 3D-ness alléguée de l'image améliorée dit quelque chose sur la 3D-ness du sujet d'origine.<br />
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Oui, il est plus que probable que le 'sujet' soit 3D, ou peut-être un bas-relief, mais n'a pas besoin d'être dans le but de générer une réponse 3D dans un logiciel de rendu 3D approprié qui n'a aucun moyen de connaître l'histoire du sujet, ou connaissant la distance entre l'image et le sujet au moment de la capture de l'image.<br />
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Preuve? On peut faire une image grossière de l'image corporelle TS, et montrer qu'elle répond aussi étonnamment bien au logiciel de rendu 3D, bien que l'esquisse n'ait aucune histoire 3D.<br />
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<b>Résumé: Le logiciel de rendu 3D répond simplement aux différences de densité d'image, et ne dit RIEN sur la manière dont ces différences ont été acquises, que ce soit par simple impression par contact ou par des moyens plus exotiques revendiqués par certains en sindonologie.</b><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b>Here's a series of photographs showing 3D renderings of a range of images - starting with simple ones created on a computer with no 3D history, and ending with ones that do. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Given there's no obvious difference in the 3D response - all of them responding to pre-programmed software that simply converts image density (no matter how acquired) to height on an entirely imaginary third dimension, i.e. height on a new z axis above the original xy plane - I hope this posting will dispel once and for all the claim that the response of the Turin Shroud body image in 3D-rendering computer programs is in any way unique, or different in any important respects from that of other imprints, or even paintings. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><b>One can speculate as to the reasons for the differences in image density on the TS body image. While one may or may not suppose the original and/or 3D-rendered image to have been derived from a 3D subject by one or other mechanism (contact imprinting, some kind of photography) one is not entitled to conclude that the alleged 3D-ness of the enhanced image tells one anything about the 3D-ness of the original subject. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Yes, it's more than probable that the 'subject' was 3D, or possibly a bas relief, but did not need to be in order to generate a 3D-response in appropriate 3D-rendering software that has no way of knowing the history of the subject, or knowing the distance between image and subject at the moment of image capture.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Evidence? One can make a crude sketch image of the TS body image, and show that it too responds surprisingly well to 3D-rendering software, despite the sketch having no 3D history whatsoever.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><b><i>Summary: 3D rendering sofware simply responds to differences in image density, and tells one NOTHING about the manner in which those differences were acquired, whether by simple contact imprinting or more exotic means that are claimed by some in sindonology.</i></b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdC9Xu5uaiFdmFc74zEK3hdY1uYiy6-GcdyAxYF9u2MtKnIJJSU_qDv9Za4gmFYkbXtwGJ_fj8aJayUNjLgtI8iL8-uZn0hkiFAJV0QY0ZzEGPmET8d31UMLjxMWRWxku05HaBa59ORL1/s1600/1.+scope+frontal+v+rotated+dorsal+plus+contrast.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="445" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdC9Xu5uaiFdmFc74zEK3hdY1uYiy6-GcdyAxYF9u2MtKnIJJSU_qDv9Za4gmFYkbXtwGJ_fj8aJayUNjLgtI8iL8-uZn0hkiFAJV0QY0ZzEGPmET8d31UMLjxMWRWxku05HaBa59ORL1/s320/1.+scope+frontal+v+rotated+dorsal+plus+contrast.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1. Vue dorsale frontale du Suaire de Turin (Shroud Scope) avec contraste ajouté<br />
<span style="color: blue;">(Frontal v dorsal views of Turin Shroud body image from Shroud Scope with added contrast)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWn1giE0D-ee_0iEys8UGcqCCxpjcJTPX03de8I7ibbckqvDgZVqNzBAU8Vbq-TqS9dH0zGHmlpqoY-7s9qKd7GZRXrcfm_dUzvdJOsbiraKrzNUgb7NpDNXJ-WzVdGzyOKUu25IRaUa0/s1600/2.+3d+frontal+v+dorsal+cropped.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="859" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWn1giE0D-ee_0iEys8UGcqCCxpjcJTPX03de8I7ibbckqvDgZVqNzBAU8Vbq-TqS9dH0zGHmlpqoY-7s9qKd7GZRXrcfm_dUzvdJOsbiraKrzNUgb7NpDNXJ-WzVdGzyOKUu25IRaUa0/s320/2.+3d+frontal+v+dorsal+cropped.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">2. Comme ci-dessus, après le rendu 3D dans le logiciel ImageJ. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">As above, after 3D-rendering in ImageJ software</span></span></td></tr>
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<div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhapA7EVeps1WQZ5ATg8nM160er0Mn2lPuxqDwXPDm3eTd8aKb26EWWUQKjrmLx5Q0uZjJ9P8qloSalobcJqiz9kYbDfmNV-GS21w3jSdK20TSNGoluX9hK16hUcGZYn6_6TPAhkNbZeoeY/s1600/3.+3D+image+shroud+plus+1532+scorch+marks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhapA7EVeps1WQZ5ATg8nM160er0Mn2lPuxqDwXPDm3eTd8aKb26EWWUQKjrmLx5Q0uZjJ9P8qloSalobcJqiz9kYbDfmNV-GS21w3jSdK20TSNGoluX9hK16hUcGZYn6_6TPAhkNbZeoeY/s1600/3.+3D+image+shroud+plus+1532+scorch+marks.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3. <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Retour en 2012, cet enquêteur a souligné quelque chose de totalement inattendu si l'image du Suaire était "unique" comme revendiqué. Les 1532 marques de roussissement ont également répondu au rendu 3D!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">Back in 2012, this investigator pointed out something totally unexpected if the Shroud image was "unique" as claimed. The 1532 scorch marks also responded to 3D-rendering!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nAx7etrmKKS1iYRRxrMDBn456Jk_c5C6hJ-fFywosXSWuG3u1HmITgTMfrqTn4b4s2w8a_dQD7XhI_vfGznJeRe2Jg5p4hGf0nd3BjLyN_68uioMZ8oqynQI3DgQHVUz5zqE_KKJoBEQ/s1600/4.+final+cropped+star+pre+v+post+3D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="575" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nAx7etrmKKS1iYRRxrMDBn456Jk_c5C6hJ-fFywosXSWuG3u1HmITgTMfrqTn4b4s2w8a_dQD7XhI_vfGznJeRe2Jg5p4hGf0nd3BjLyN_68uioMZ8oqynQI3DgQHVUz5zqE_KKJoBEQ/s320/4.+final+cropped+star+pre+v+post+3D.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4. On peut utiliser un logiciel graphique pour créer ses propres images sans historique 3D. Ils répondent également magnifiquement au logiciel de rendu 3D<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">One can use graphics software to create one's own images with no 3D history. They also respond magnificently to 3D-rendering software</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgE3yJg2q9TOYYFsoH6Dvhp5tb6G1pcE_uoNxBHHelMStYUbjKRFTLnBET0_r7H-OzRa7zuQf0Bu8HuiF-1l8dlCJKLrWeogLXxQ0qIS7cGDreBcVnYHsP6XmvbgY9wORIKU8gZvxPOeF/s1600/5.vov-before-v-after-3d-enhancement-then-adg-brightness-contrast-etc-in-ms-o-pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="452" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgE3yJg2q9TOYYFsoH6Dvhp5tb6G1pcE_uoNxBHHelMStYUbjKRFTLnBET0_r7H-OzRa7zuQf0Bu8HuiF-1l8dlCJKLrWeogLXxQ0qIS7cGDreBcVnYHsP6XmvbgY9wORIKU8gZvxPOeF/s320/5.vov-before-v-after-3d-enhancement-then-adg-brightness-contrast-etc-in-ms-o-pm.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5. Même cette peinture ancienne de l'image du Voile de Veronica répond magnifiquement au logiciel de rendu 3D<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">Even this ancient painting of the image of the Veil of Veronica responds magnificently to 3D-rendering software</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_A5eayWAmPTLHqZ0j3yHIEHo77qM7TmRCQC2zW_GF0e1P80sngNXiWt8O5HsMwOis6hRXGUaspZCMRQXffuq-0mejiSCV576sA0y_LiSPzO2bkPoei6WNJ2wowbfA2MNKNvIyC3V6qf7m/s1600/6.+images+plastic+figurine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="158" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_A5eayWAmPTLHqZ0j3yHIEHo77qM7TmRCQC2zW_GF0e1P80sngNXiWt8O5HsMwOis6hRXGUaspZCMRQXffuq-0mejiSCV576sA0y_LiSPzO2bkPoei6WNJ2wowbfA2MNKNvIyC3V6qf7m/s1600/6.+images+plastic+figurine.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">6. Sur la gauche est une empreinte de farine rôtie d'un jouet en plastique 3D (au centre). Cette empreinte a également répondu magnifiquement au logiciel de rendu 3D<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">On the left is a roasted flour imprint of a 3D plastic toy (centre). That imprint also responded magnificently to 3D-rendering software</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGUrdqHfDxQAbIhrO1piMNvKVtWcrQjOChNE6VE-bh2REYLeEvYQDCuQf0Cvz9AArvOZLIK9FtxzS4DqjQ2kLP0Qocpme4jU1If9o3n5KMmDZobIqQokSd0xt06nrx8JCOfQjQ8E2g7QF4/s1600/7.+new+banner+blogsite+with+wet+hand+imprint+pre+post+3D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="1011" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGUrdqHfDxQAbIhrO1piMNvKVtWcrQjOChNE6VE-bh2REYLeEvYQDCuQf0Cvz9AArvOZLIK9FtxzS4DqjQ2kLP0Qocpme4jU1If9o3n5KMmDZobIqQokSd0xt06nrx8JCOfQjQ8E2g7QF4/s320/7.+new+banner+blogsite+with+wet+hand+imprint+pre+post+3D.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">7. L'empreinte la plus simple, comme celle de ma main mouillée sur le tissu, peut générer des images 3D, en commençant par l'image négative (tonalité inversée) ou la même après conversion en positif.<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">The simplest imprint, like this one of my wet hand onto fabric, can generate 3D-images, starting with the negative (tone-reversed) image or the same after conversion to a positive.</span></span><br />
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<br />
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjOx7Q_2sKFZSEC1qlwrzpu8-zaoo6FJjdP1u0hlgwK8zvPkNcRp4tkG_AmY0MfpA6FC-aKQyZxPXCh5o_gzsPT2d6rTdWZuJ1DtvLicSeDyrbFOuYt0lFGlCF_PGsvzM1fbqkEeImq4y/s1600/8.+final+cropped+imprint+my+hand+pre+v+post+3D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="1156" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjOx7Q_2sKFZSEC1qlwrzpu8-zaoo6FJjdP1u0hlgwK8zvPkNcRp4tkG_AmY0MfpA6FC-aKQyZxPXCh5o_gzsPT2d6rTdWZuJ1DtvLicSeDyrbFOuYt0lFGlCF_PGsvzM1fbqkEeImq4y/s320/8.+final+cropped+imprint+my+hand+pre+v+post+3D.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">8. Une empreinte de farine de ma propre main a été utilisée pour produire cette image 3D de type Suaire</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue;">A flour imprint of my own hand was used to produce this Shroud-like 3D image </span></span></h4>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBPifxoLWmq69LCbmvqBBXRdTFsVp7Q4dF57gpKjUgIXPoc5u960000v8lcep4yCkaErWLfmaDJCJxf_nZJ1skFZm7tLhyphenhyphen6c6vA2B3mijTpuRMvdcYh03pp98Jrg2u8OU3cKlWMIK4okB/s1600/9.+new-3d-highly-cropped.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="348" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBPifxoLWmq69LCbmvqBBXRdTFsVp7Q4dF57gpKjUgIXPoc5u960000v8lcep4yCkaErWLfmaDJCJxf_nZJ1skFZm7tLhyphenhyphen6c6vA2B3mijTpuRMvdcYh03pp98Jrg2u8OU3cKlWMIK4okB/s320/9.+new-3d-highly-cropped.png" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9. La farine imprimant mon visage sur le lin a produit cette image, qui a également répondu un peu à la 3D. Le nez déformé était le résultat de presser mon visage dans le linge.<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">Flour imprinting my face onto linen produced this image, which also responded a little to 3D. The distorted nose was the result of pressing my face down hard into the linen.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Lt01vGzr4ZaJhv1ytckcUdhNV8kekP8BB8RfCjGL4CK7x_VcehmPhHmbkhIEClKIJH4Bps_mm-6eU4cE0fq8rUIFTpXAbsRMKjLzhLq_x2XSTpGQgutm2LdIjVd2hHDBJXrI603SSLci/s1600/10.+final-trio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="526" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Lt01vGzr4ZaJhv1ytckcUdhNV8kekP8BB8RfCjGL4CK7x_VcehmPhHmbkhIEClKIJH4Bps_mm-6eU4cE0fq8rUIFTpXAbsRMKjLzhLq_x2XSTpGQgutm2LdIjVd2hHDBJXrI603SSLci/s320/10.+final-trio.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">10. Un croquis de charbon brut du visage de l'Homme sur le Linceul peut être amélioré, d'abord par inversion de tonalité (négative à positive) suivi d'un rendu 3D pour produire une image sans doute avec cette apparence sereine du Linceul!<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">A crude charcoal sketch of the face of the Man on the Shroud can be improved, first by tone-inversion (negative to positive) followed by 3D-rendering to produce an image arguably with that serene Shroud-like appearance!</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcrjmmNadSEoBStrTT67YV9hNrfeadfWHwdVzM0l0Eox6Bul3N9ngyuktYHvZm4L4iCz6WmkVopWOjzvo7SM9Q7WX6qthZiWMlLJuhT5IDYmphovcUXfvW15Vu0diagjokZ4lzGc_GVfBu/s1600/11.+Janis+Winchester%252C+Pasco.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="700" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcrjmmNadSEoBStrTT67YV9hNrfeadfWHwdVzM0l0Eox6Bul3N9ngyuktYHvZm4L4iCz6WmkVopWOjzvo7SM9Q7WX6qthZiWMlLJuhT5IDYmphovcUXfvW15Vu0diagjokZ4lzGc_GVfBu/s320/11.+Janis+Winchester%252C+Pasco.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11. Même si la conférence de Pasco, aux États-Unis, a été aussi récente que l'année dernière, on continue de prétendre que la réponse de Shroud au logiciel de rendu 3D est «unique». Où est la preuve pour soutenir cette demande?<br />
<span style="background-color: blue; font-size: 12.8px;">Even as recent as last year's Pasco, USA conference, the claim continues to be made that the Shroud response to 3D-rendering software is "unique". Where's the evidence to back up that claim?</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZTjK9BtTCgj5KCb1HLND4DvB4rgsUlXJSrMYKFy5gs5yDf-PDsJNZB1PYg_MhiwIZjR15PdPfikFUz2_nwAQYOiRTeqnuwwNvsynaemHd69uALAtsl_sjjM-5JtYgkZT4NT9vtjU8kXV/s1600/new+blogsite+title+with+latest+posting.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="637" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZTjK9BtTCgj5KCb1HLND4DvB4rgsUlXJSrMYKFy5gs5yDf-PDsJNZB1PYg_MhiwIZjR15PdPfikFUz2_nwAQYOiRTeqnuwwNvsynaemHd69uALAtsl_sjjM-5JtYgkZT4NT9vtjU8kXV/s320/new+blogsite+title+with+latest+posting.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">12. Voici la page de titre de la publication actuelle sur mon site de blog Shroud spécialisé<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">Here's the title page of the current posting on my specialist Shroud blogsite</span></span></td></tr>
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https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/how-40-years-of-pseudoscience-and-digital-tomfoolery-deftly-morphed-an-imaginative-14th-century-modelling-of-joseph-of-arimatheas-up-and-over-fine-linen-sheet-probably-intended/<br />
<br />
<b>Update, October 11, 2018</b><br />
<br />
Here's a link to the current posting placed on my specialist Shroudie site!<br />
<br />
https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/no-mr-barrie-m-schwortz-sturp-did-not-provide-an-example-that-future-shroud-researchers-can-use-to-carefully-plan-their-own-work-sturp-showed-how-not-to-plan-or-execute-objectiv/<br />
<br />
<i>(Yes, I take STERA's President to task for holding up the 1978 STURP enterprise as a model of good science! It was anything but - as a read of the inconclusive mealy-mouthed 1981 Summary will demonstrate, given its focus on the strawman 'just a painting' hypothesis, with no mention whatsoever of the unusual negative tone-reversed image. The latter should by rights have prompted STURP to shine the spotlight on imaging via direct-contact imprinting (instead dismissed in a few half-baked tests and negative conclusions).</i>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-4669105736273908462017-02-11T03:14:00.000-08:002019-09-09T13:22:56.335-07:00Quote: "The evidence is OVERWHELMING that the Turin Shroud is authentic!"<div class="tr_bq">
Or so says Perth-based Stephen E. Jones on his (dare one say) rabidly <a href="http://theshroudofturin.blogspot.com/">pro-authenticity blog site.</a></div>
<br />
Here's a comment that I've just posted to that site. It's "awaiting moderation". I don't expect it to appear (none of the occasional ones sent these last 5 years have done so).<br />
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<blockquote>
<i>Evidence for authenticity "overwhelming"? Nothing could be further from the truth. The evidence in fact is paltry and usually circumstantial, and even then, inconsistent and fragmentary.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The radiocarbon date coincides with the first appearance of the TWO-FOLD, HEAD-To-HEAD image seen on the Lirey badge, whose date is self-evident from the De Charny coats-of-arms. All that is missing is a coherent narrative for the history and motivation, and one that accounts for what otherwise might seem enigmatic features - but which aren't in reality, once one has torn oneself away from the authenticity narrative.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>This investigator has supplied the missing narrative, based on 5 years research and the resulting 'Model 10'. i.e. flour imprinting/thermal development/final water-washing.</i></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<i>The motivation? To simulate what a body imprint in sweat and blood onto Joseph of Arimathea's fine linen might look like 13 centuries later, acquired during TRANSPORT from cross to tomb. The TS was intended to be a whole-body rival to the then-celebrated Veil of Veronica, while based on broadly the same principles of image-acquisition. The negative image, 3D properties etc are exactly what one would expect from a contact image obtained with white flour onto wet linen, as I have repeatedly demonstrated these last 18 months, using 3D figurines as well as my own hand and face.</i></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<i>"Overwhelming" evidence for authenticity you say, when there's a rival narrative that ticks far more boxes? How much longer are you prepared to blind yourself and others to the progress of science?</i></blockquote>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One could say more, much more about the tunnel vision of the pro-authenticity 'sindonological' mindset, one that will not admit, far less consider contrary thinking, or even acknowledge its existence on their tub-thumping websites.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Such is the way of the world. The world that is intolerant of ideas contrary to one's own. The world that uses the internet to proselytize one's intolerant viewpoint.<br />
<br />
<b>Update: Tuesday 11th April:</b> See my latest posting - a work in progress- on my specialist Shroud site:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/sturp-space-age-technology-unleashing-religious-propaganda/">STURP: Space-age Technology Unleashes Religious Propaganda</a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b>Update: Saturday 29th April:</b> here's a copy of my 'cold call' request sent yesterday to the Quekett Microscopical Club (it has a page on its site - see link below- for those wishing to make contact).<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Hello all you splendid Queketteers, amateurs and pros alike!</b><br />
<br />
Is there anyone here among you interested in the Turin Shroud? I refer in particular to the ongoing problem as to how it acquired its faint allegedly enigmatic body image (negative, 3D properties, peculiar microscopic properties - like the so-called half-tone effect, colour discontinuities etc)?<br />
Rarely a month goes by without some new mind-blowing scenario - pulsed laser beams, earthquakes, nuclear radiation, Da Vinci dabbling with proto-photography etc etc.<br />
<br />
I've been attempting to model the Shroud image for some 5 years, and have settled on what I call Model 10, aka the roasted flour imprint. Yes, it's mundane alongside the ones just listed, but there you go, that's science bizz.<br />
<br />
<i>(Smear back of hand with vegetable oil, sprinkle with plain white flour from above, shake off excess flour, drape wet linen over flour-dusted hand, press linen firmly to capture a flour-imprint, suspend linen in oven, roast (approx 180-200 C) till the imprint turns yellow or brown, wash vigorously to remove surface encrustation of Maillard browning products, to be left with an 'enigmatic' faint sepia stain - a negative image of one's hand and fingers that gives a 3D response in ImageJ).</i><br />
<br />
It's the microscopy that proving the problem - the cylindrical 3Dness of linen fibres, their light-refracting properties. Having a bargain-basement microscope that relies on a web cam to capture (blurred!) images on a laptop screen does not help either.<br />
<br />
There are two possible solutions:<br />
1. Invest in a better DIY microscope, hoping someone here can give expert advice<br />
2. Seek one or more collaborators who's interested in the Shroud, and willing to be supplied with my Model 10 fibres, maybe with a view to submitting a joint publication to Quekett's own peer-reviewed journal.<br />
<br />
I think my Model 10 is the answer, confirming medieval manufacture in accordance with the radiocarbon dating (1260-1390) but if the image fibres fail to match up to the microscopic properties described by STURP and other investigators, then I'm willing to publically concede defeat (that being an occupational hazard of being a scientist, in this instance long-retired).<br />
<br />
Here's a <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/">link to my specialist Shroud site:</a><br />
<br />
and to one in particular (Sat July 1, 2017) hat addresses the issue of the "second face", arguably the last of the so-called enigmatic properties to be successfully reproduced by this long-term investigator:<br />
<br />
<h2 class="entry-title" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/my-model-10-thermal-imprinting-with-moist-white-medieval-flour-can-account-for-all-the-so-called-enigmatic-properties-of-the-turin-shroud/" rel="bookmark" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My Model 10 – thermal imprinting with moist white medieval flour – can account for ALL the so-called enigmatic properties of the Turin Shroud</a></h2>
<br />
See also the <a href="http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316851">recent thread on the International Skeptics Forum</a>, where I participated as "meccanoman".<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Colin Berry (PhD)</b><br />
<br /></div>
sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-77567933919192615252016-10-13T10:32:00.000-07:002016-12-31T00:20:45.287-08:00Turin Shroud: how the agenda-driven so-called 'science' train came to be derailed.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6POsB790GWGnc0W433vL4a-yL2rrVLbHIvVrV5CNELzwToKlYVmQ3-VKLeSM2vmDXx5iOXiDsinagdFlbtYJhuwk_7exnJuivnrAFgBYbnDE6YWrI1cBidoFZP0bIzHfqvmmkRopdOp5/s1600/derailed+train.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6POsB790GWGnc0W433vL4a-yL2rrVLbHIvVrV5CNELzwToKlYVmQ3-VKLeSM2vmDXx5iOXiDsinagdFlbtYJhuwk_7exnJuivnrAFgBYbnDE6YWrI1cBidoFZP0bIzHfqvmmkRopdOp5/s1600/derailed+train.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The current Flying Shroud of Turin locomotive (flying off its rails).</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Well, I say it happened like this (approx chronological order):<br />
<br />
<b>1. It began with that astonishing landmark Secondo Pia tone-reversal</b> (negative to PSEUDO-positive).<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhALMEH1nfm_o6Zm3d23BV_SwaezXFotzibwyTjjILlWJrVQD-lRXER9j_G8RDNTQ60IYWLrM3eZEFBAWRjYg2NgpQeh6QERbacWnmyWzqENl2cNsP6nepjGXTkJelALYH5gDgjZi263UVB/s1600/shroud-positive-v-negative+aug+20%252C+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhALMEH1nfm_o6Zm3d23BV_SwaezXFotzibwyTjjILlWJrVQD-lRXER9j_G8RDNTQ60IYWLrM3eZEFBAWRjYg2NgpQeh6QERbacWnmyWzqENl2cNsP6nepjGXTkJelALYH5gDgjZi263UVB/s320/shroud-positive-v-negative+aug+20%252C+2012.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Yes, a truly arresting image conversion, deserving of much analysis and interpretation re the photograph-like appearance of that pseudo-positive on the right (above).<br />
<br />
But that has been taken to mean the TS <b><i>is </i></b>a positive photograph, as recently as this last week <a href="http://theshroudofturin.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-shroud-of-turin-as-burial-cloth-of.html">(Stephen E. Jones site)</a>. NO!<br />
<br />
Why not? Watch this space. Discussion will centre on FREE-HAND SKETCHES and IMPRINTS, specifically contact imprints, NOT photographs.<br />
<br />
<br />
As for contact imprints - making the point better than sketches and photographs - they have a long history, going back centuries ( like those brass rubbings in churches and cathedrals).<br />
<br />
The concept of positive-negative would have been recognized long before photography, even if the terms were not employed.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Irrelevance of Walter McCrone's microscopy to the body image,</b> attempting to implicate dispersed solid paint pigments - iron oxide, mercury sulphide etc, given that other STURP members, notably Heller and Adler, discovered that the image was bleachable with diimide (which acts ONLY on organic compounds with C=C double bonds). Same consideration applies to pop historian Charles Freeman - traditional inorganic paint pigments, fresh or faded, can be ruled out.<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>3. Attempts have been made to this day to exclude thermal processes</b>, especially relevant in context of 'appropriate' medieval technology. How? By reference to uv fluorescence. But they are not based on modern experimental data. They are based on the uv fluoresence of the charred edges of the 1532 burn holes, with claim that "all scorches fluorescence under uv". Taking as one's sole reference a centuries-old event involving fire, exceedingly high combustion or carbonization temperatures - ones creating full thickness burns, not mere scorches - is pseudoscience. Scorches incidentally are just one type of thermal change.<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come -watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>4. Rogers' starch-coating theory:</b> good inasmuch as it considered the possibility of the image being an added coating, highly superficial, instead of on the linen <i>per se</i>. But why did he stop at purified starch, and proceed to develop a theory as if starch were equivalent to - or easily transformable to - a reducing sugar? Answer: he cited Pliny, 1st century linen technology, betraying (intentionally or otherwise) a pro-authenticity bias that hitherto had been well-concealed. He should have considered a wider range of coatings, including those that could have been deployed in a medieval context.<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>5. The TS body image responds to computer software programs that map image density as height,</b> ie. creating an imaginary z (vertical) dimension. So what? All imprints and indeed diagrams with no 3D history respond the same - it being a function of the software and the way it re-processes image density - NOT a tool for investigating supposed "encoded 3D information". Yup, starry-eyed hyping - up of the so-called 3D properties of the TS, as if specific for the TS, with inappropriate refs to conventional photographs performing poorly - distortions etc - only to be expected due to lateral lighting, shadowing etc. (focus should be on imprints!).<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>6. The blood story.</b> First on scene was the pathologist Robert Bucklin MD, publishing and proselytizing his pro-authenticity views way back in the 60s, long before STURP, using the terms "bloodstain" and "wound" interchangeably. NO! There is no evidence on the body image for wounds as distinct from blood, despite explicit claims to the contrary. It is entirely unscientific to describe a bloodstain as a "wound", if there is no independent evidence in the body image for speared, flayed or punctured skin. Even the scourge marks are blood imprints ONLY!<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>7. Failure of STURP to provide convincing evidence for the existence of blood-derived porphyrins</b> - an essential criteria for identifying the stains as derived from blood. Atypical porphyrin spectra, coupled with claims the blood was "too red" were attributed to presence of 'extraordinary levels of bilirubin' with no hard evidence for the presence of ANY bilirubin (which is photochemically unstable and unlikely to survive for months, far less centuries). As with Rogers. the 'bilirubin trauma' hypothesis betrayed a pro-authenticity leaning, unbecoming surely of hands-on researchers willing to investigate (and exclude ) the painting hypothesis while failing to display appropriate scepticism elsewhere.<br />
<br />
"Blood-before-image' claim, based on enzymic micro-spotting test was interesting, possibly true, but questionable in the light of other data, notably the so-called half-tone effect which means that blood-coated fibres sampled with sticky-tape from' image areas' cannot be assumed to have been image-bearing fibres, as appears to have been the case. Yup, blind-spot territory ... <br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
8. Returning to the body image (it being the basis of the "enigmatic" tag):<b> there has been indecent haste to exclude contact-imprinting,</b> based on image-intensity data that assumes linen draped loosely over a body, making limited contact. We are quickly asked to consider imaging across air-gaps, of "cloth-body" distance being critical, albeit with peculiar qualfications (max distance of separation not to exceed approx 4 cm for example). That model 'begs the question' i.e. assumes the very thing that is being tested, making for a circular argument. What if the cloth had NOT been draped loosely, as in a 1st century tomb, but pressed firmly against some body features and not others, with conscious control over which parts to imprint, what not. (Consider selective application of imprinting medium also).<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>9. The assumption that image formation occurred across air gaps, with exclusion of contact imprinting as the sole mechanism, has led to those "radiation" models</b>, associated at least initially by STURP team leader John Jackson. with resort to biblical "resurrection" scenarios that permit a body and /or linen to merge in space ("collapsing cloth" theory"). That has no place in a scientific context, being impossible to put to an experimental test., being merely a highly-coloured interpretation, wishful-thinking some might think. <br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>10. X-ray or gamma-ray imaging?</b> Based on claims that the fingers are 'too boney" or teeth are imaged, with failure to consider, far less to model experimentally, contact-imaging that might well produce such effects through providing something more resistant under the linen than soft tissue.<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>11. Assumption that the TS represents a "burial shroud"</b>, when the biblical record suggests otherwise (namely that Joseph of Arimathea's's linen was intended solely for dignified TRANSPORT of a bloodied, naked or near-naked man from cross to tomb, NOT as final burial shroud.<br />
<br />
See my <a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-turin-shroud-was-not-intended-to.html">late 2014 posting from this site </a>for more details, including artistic representation, e.g:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJtfOatq_4tDat1g8CuT2nW6sm_iHAhY33TPf7QnfCsPun5F5AoAaAAmGAgWx_iHb8vuxfDLMSevhKvtavxat1x6g_CpXVyPIJdIxbSSvk4m4rBYC4NN6VwYsHnr20SQeMCnJAmdZc2nyJ/s1600/from-cross-to-tomb-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJtfOatq_4tDat1g8CuT2nW6sm_iHAhY33TPf7QnfCsPun5F5AoAaAAmGAgWx_iHb8vuxfDLMSevhKvtavxat1x6g_CpXVyPIJdIxbSSvk4m4rBYC4NN6VwYsHnr20SQeMCnJAmdZc2nyJ/s1600/from-cross-to-tomb-1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Here's Joseph of Arimathea's 'clean linen' being used as an improvised means of transport from cross to tomb, with no biblical evidence it was ever used, or intended to be used as final burial shroud. (Di Ciseri, 1883).</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
See also this<a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/a-new-take-in-pictures-on-an-old-artefact-the-not-really-a-shroud-of-turin-more-an-imaginative-14th-century-marketing-wheeze/"> posting from my specialist Shroud site </a>with more artwork showing the Shroud being deployed in 'transport mode'.<br />
<br />
<br />
Resurrection scenarios for image formation are excluded in the transport-only model if J of A's linen was replaced with 'winding strips' as suggested by the Gospel according to John. Instead, the focus should be on the possibility that the TS was an attempt to recreate what a sweat/blood imprint onto a transport shroud might look like 13 centuries later.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>12.Failure to give due consideration or even acknowledge that the TS body image may have been an attempt to simulate a sweat imprint</b>, with bloodstains alone used to implicate a particular and highly revered crucified body , i.e. that of Jesus of Nazareth, with crown of thorns (missing), lance wound, nails wounds etc. (See previous ref to blood that serves as proxy for "wounds" that are otherwise absent from body image).<br />
<br />
<i>Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<br />
<b>13. Failure to acknowledge the resources at the disposal of Geoffroi de Charny</b> (France's King John the Good's favourite, both when younger as fellow 100 Year's War combatants and later at the Royal Court ), the king having financially assisted his knight/comrade-in-arms in founding and staffing a so-called private chapel (5 -6 staff!). Those hired clerics may well have been the initiators, possibly even artisans, who originated the idea/project to recreate J of A's transport linen with a simulated sweat/blood imprint. Sindonology rarely considers the crucial and arguably historical role of G de C and his wife, later widow, despite both their individual coats-of-arms appearing on that Lirey pilgrim's souvenir badge (Cluny Museum) indicating a determined effort to attract pilgrims from far and wide ,the latter paying handsomely no doubt for the indulgences etc to be had at the oh-so-fashionable "Shroud" shrine, a rival and closer attraction than the then extant 'Veil of Veronica'.<br />
<i><br />Details to come. Watch this space.</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>14. Italy's Govt. supported ENEA research institute (team-leader Paolo Di Lazzaro):</b> uv laser modelling. No image - mere superficial coloration only. No detailed consideration of likely chromophore - merely refs to cellulose as the target, despite that carbohydrate consisting entirely of stable C- C, C-O and O-H single bonds - i.ie no C=C or other double bonds as is usually the case for molecules that are susceptible to chemical change resulting from absorption of energetic uv radiation. <br />
<br />
Sure, the coloration may be superficial, but it's wrong to assume that supernatural radiation is the only means of producing a superfical image, with laser pulses offered optimistically as a weak modern-day proxy (the nearest man-made equivalent you understand).<br />
<br />
Let's not mince our words - it was deplorable pseudoscience to make that suggestion, especially when accompanied by refs to philosophy, theology etc and being described as "scientists" in newspaper headlines when in fact the investigators were laser-technologists, said to be working after hours with their Govt-supplied hardware to promote and proselytize their preferred take on scripture. <br />
<br />
<b>Summary: </b><br />
<br />
The major failure in this list, 14 points so far? I would nominate that failure to consider the TS as a <i>sweat imprint</i>, whether as I believe simulated (14th century) or even 'authentic' of 1st century origin, there being a clear ambition to link the TS image with supernatural flash of radiation at the instant of biblical resurrection. See banner on Stephen E. Jones 'blog' (manifesto?) for the continuing attempt to make that link, based not on science but PSEUDOSCIENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
So where does one go to find the non-derailed still-on-track science, steadily chuffing along, making progress, month after month, year after year? Why, <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/">my specialist Shroud site</a> of course, started in early Spring 2012, reporting researches in real time (some 350 postings there and elsewhere to date)!<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKU3NBcM0XIvdQOyCTD2_9LJe44-UzRKG-eGI8ofUdRICgpdR6x5ZX994nr_b1_xzkc56RuSLeFOA-RXNYhsceJfVSCfdlRGci_DQMjF4qJ1hvL8Mnwn2nnHnr8-ErCCVcyN3Id4NPYGkL/s1600/TS+no+hype+site+13+oct+16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKU3NBcM0XIvdQOyCTD2_9LJe44-UzRKG-eGI8ofUdRICgpdR6x5ZX994nr_b1_xzkc56RuSLeFOA-RXNYhsceJfVSCfdlRGci_DQMjF4qJ1hvL8Mnwn2nnHnr8-ErCCVcyN3Id4NPYGkL/s320/TS+no+hype+site+13+oct+16.png" width="307" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>This investigator's specialist Shroud site (showing current posting at 13 Oct, 2016 with modelling of TS body image using 1/12 scale 'Galaxy Warrior figurines)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The cureent model (and indeed I suspect the FINAL one) is what I call the oil/flour thermal-imprinting model. See the above link for details.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I've also added a series of photographs on <a href="https://strawshredder.wordpress.com/2016/10/11/in-photos-10-simple-steps-for-reproducing-a-turin-shroud-like-image/">a recently-resurrected subsidiary Shroud site</a> showing how it's done in 10 simple steps. I used my own hand as 'subject' to show how the imprinting technique works as well if not better with human skin.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3TtZNt2BMHAuhRpIdP5P8qSFSiU70yOfWK-aBRmTugNboGTJEtqY9iG3hap00P7U46XVNkaoPr5c40Pj7gm1cq37s6VzImy_D6ftA7ySls3E_SNaL_k8XbmadGug2krcQlxNypzxKxsh/s1600/ss6+oven.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3TtZNt2BMHAuhRpIdP5P8qSFSiU70yOfWK-aBRmTugNboGTJEtqY9iG3hap00P7U46XVNkaoPr5c40Pj7gm1cq37s6VzImy_D6ftA7ySls3E_SNaL_k8XbmadGug2krcQlxNypzxKxsh/s320/ss6+oven.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Flour/oil imprints of my hand at the oven-roasting stage (approx 190-200 degrees C).</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
One can try it out in one's own home, if one has an hour or two to spare.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Postscript: New Year's Eve, 2016:</b> have put up a new posting on my main Shroud site, under the title: <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/whats-dan-porter-up-to-these-days-christmas-2016-1-year-after-finally-closing-his-shroud-of-turin-blog/">"What's Dan Porter up to these days...?"</a>. For the last year there's been a Dan-shaped hole in the Shroudie blogosphere!<br />
<br />sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-50857829081724200232016-05-23T00:09:00.004-07:002019-10-11T03:22:00.534-07:00It's time to get real about Stonehenge - Britain's premier 'SKY BURIAL' site<b><span style="color: red;">June 1 update: Yes, there's been a change of title. See end of posting for reasons.</span></b><br />
<br />
<b>Summary</b>: <i>Nobody had any doubt as to the purpose of "Seahenge" when it was exposed from the Norfolk coastline in 1998. Its instantly acquired nickname showed that its resemblance to that most iconic of stone circles on Salisbury Plain was striking, despite the absence of a "henge", i.e. encircling combination of bank/ditch. So why the coyness about the likely role of Stonehenge and all those other circles of standing stone, given the way they match to varying degrees the "Seahenge" template? So what REALLY was the purpose of those standing stones, assuming they were not mere open-display ornaments boasting a facility in arranging megaliths as if mere Lego bricks, but serving some deeply mysterious, some might say overhyped ritual and symbolism? </i><br />
<br />
<i>Come to think of it, what was the purpose, if any, of those curious and peculiarly British scars on our chalk and limestone plains and downs,the ones we call "henges", rarely if ever stopping to ask why?</i><br />
<br />
<i>There is a simple answer to both those questions, applicable not only to Seahenge and Stone enge, but to at least 8 other stone circles sites, ranging from the Orkneys to the Near East (and probably further afield). The answer is "AFS" (this retired scientist's coy but hopefully provisional abbreviation for the unmentionable e word that sometimes appears briefly in the media, occasionally in full, or more euphemistically referred to as "sky burial").</i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: red;"><b>Late insertion: </b>before reading this posting, one which makes a major claim that standing stone sites were for the most part sites for SKY BURIAL, I would advise my readers to do the following search: (circle standing stones cremated bones)</span></i><br />
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<i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnGr2rQImycag1_1L_4-JLq4Om02-SU202nneEUe7-_pcClYJn9X6yzsmA0x8IY4tF5U-n6vc81K8cu-Wqi2XptFVswB3ubVm4y_aX4zQREzW7qBuytyXc0HP46H9tvS1sjyDMzuK_LCF/s1600/googlr+search+cremated+bones+circle+stones.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnGr2rQImycag1_1L_4-JLq4Om02-SU202nneEUe7-_pcClYJn9X6yzsmA0x8IY4tF5U-n6vc81K8cu-Wqi2XptFVswB3ubVm4y_aX4zQREzW7qBuytyXc0HP46H9tvS1sjyDMzuK_LCF/s400/googlr+search+cremated+bones+circle+stones.png" width="400" /></a></i></div>
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<br />
<i><span style="color: red;">Note how, entry after entry, there's a reference to "cremated bone" at the base of one or more of the standing stones. Note how the reader - you - are left to assume that is the bone from cremated <b>whole bodies</b>. Kindly do not make that assumption. Instead, assume as I have done, that it's the bones from bodies that have first been defleshed ("excarnated") by scavenger birds (crows, gulls etc) encouraged to use those standing stones as perches. No, it's not pleasant to contemplate, but that's no excuse for totally misreading one's own nation's history, and for myopic archaeologists to bang on endlessly about "ritual landscapes", "megalithic symbolism" etc etc if, in point of fact, <b>circles of standing stones were simply excarnation sites,</b> with cremation performed as end-stage sterilization.</span></i><br />
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<b>Introduction</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The year was
1998. It was described as the most important archaeological discovery in
Britain, at least in the late 20<sup>th</sup> century, possibly longer (I say
longer). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">To those reading this who are less familiar with what was quickly dubbed
“Seahenge” I strongly recommend the BBC’s 1998 Report entitled <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/388988.stm">"Seahenge gives up its secrets"</a> . It began with this amazing image. For many, the BBC reporter and myself included, it made the purpose of Seahenge, located where it was, and when it was (2000BC) immediately obvious. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHMTWv2Xiym5Sl9i5agCOm2N2hNm3rK6W5BqXYXA_E1SS7mnnik62yiYfV08Nthml7LQXWvR1sZ7Txpa8WOU4kFFR7xlSlNN3qdSKjOVYbr-43IxNXvDiK7cLcHVX95iRJ42_lF59L0mX/s1600/bbc+1999+seahenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHMTWv2Xiym5Sl9i5agCOm2N2hNm3rK6W5BqXYXA_E1SS7mnnik62yiYfV08Nthml7LQXWvR1sZ7Txpa8WOU4kFFR7xlSlNN3qdSKjOVYbr-43IxNXvDiK7cLcHVX95iRJ42_lF59L0mX/s400/bbc+1999+seahenge.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>"Seahenge", aka Holme 1. Image from BBC report, 1999.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The BBC's own teaser of a caption?: <b>"Timber circle was gateway to
the afterlife".</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>The article starts as follows (my bolding)</b><b> </b></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">A circle of waterlogged wooden posts
found on a remote beach in Norfolk, England, is transforming our knowledge of
Bronze Age culture 4,000 years ago. </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
The 55 posts, together with the up-turned stump of an oak tree in the middle,
were first spotted on the beach at Holme, near Hunstanton, last November. They
had become exposed after the peat dune covering them was swept away by winter
storms. </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Norfolk County Council's
Archaeological Unit identified the find as a Bronze Age timber circle dating
from around 2000 BC -<b> roughly contemporary with Stonehenge.</b> Inevitably, the
circle was dubbed Seahenge. </span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
The article continues: <br />
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</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Left to rot</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It is thought timber circles were
used by prehistoric cultures to expose their dead to the elements, birds and
wild animals - a practice called excarnation. The belief was that allowing the
flesh to rot from the bones in the open air would liberate the dead person's
spirit. </span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
There you see the first and probably last use of the e word in this posting. Henceforth it will be replaced by AFS (a term I have coined, short for <b>A</b>vian <b>F</b>acilitated <b>S</b>keletonization).<br />
Why the coyness? Followers of my string of recent postings, here and my specialist Stonehenge/Silbury Hill site., will be able to recall or guess the reasons. This handy graphic, discovered a few days ago, provides a clue.<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOZCN6-GzAkfN4g41pBJSf1XT3qGOPRjp_qTREEvarn1Yx7mREuWkKPnSbSKm7gSRh3zXG1AR0JPvy5arv_e_9HX6tS0J9zoJQwmmPK4mLUlkNpfTyfcVDTp_vmMnbl4Yxto6AinerE2t/s1600/images+xxx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOZCN6-GzAkfN4g41pBJSf1XT3qGOPRjp_qTREEvarn1Yx7mREuWkKPnSbSKm7gSRh3zXG1AR0JPvy5arv_e_9HX6tS0J9zoJQwmmPK4mLUlkNpfTyfcVDTp_vmMnbl4Yxto6AinerE2t/s1600/images+xxx.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No further comment, at least not for now...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Back to the BBC and its perceptive reporting. Yes, it wastes no time in flagging up the unspeakable, in acccording greater value to sense than sensibility (apologies to Jane Austen), unlike vast tracts, some might say deserts, of the mass media. Often that handy euphemism. "sky burial" is substituted instead though maybe conjuring up ghoulish images of Zoroastrian practices centred on vultures and the deceased, which while relevant are hadly appropriate for the UK's scores of iconic sites, standing stones especially. Vultures are a rare sight in the UK. So, that BBC reporter's linkage of timber posts to AFS starting "it is thought" must refer to some very private, rarely articulated thinking, given the dearth of returns one finds from the internet. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Try
searching the latter for (timber circles and that "e" word that I call
AFS, or use that sky burial euphemism instead and see how many returns you get, dear
reader - go on, TRY!. </span></span>Maybe the BBC reporter had the good (?) fortune to meet with some archaeologists or other experts displaying a rare candour to the media re, shhh, AFS.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Already, one
could gently charge the reporter jumbling up the facts, and failing to provide a coherent chain of thought, while not disagreeing with the candidly expressed conclusion <b> </b>that “Seahenge” was a site for some kind of 'you know what'...</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Dissecting out the variables (yes, let's be scientific if possible)</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Firstly, that BBC report, admirably concise and informative on the key issue though it was, omitted to explain why a timber circle was necessary for excarnation, especially if the
centre piece (i.e. massive upturned tree stump) was simply the place for “leaving a body to rot”. Why the need for the sturdy surrounding posts, all butted up against each other, debarked on one side, not the other etc etc, if all that was needed was a temporary screen for a one-off "AFS" as the item and later reporting implied?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">There are different kinds
of excarnation, more specifically “passive excarnation” and yes, one of them
rely on the insalubrious slow rotting of bodies (though usually buried underground for a period if that is the
intention). But would the local wildlife, birds especially, ever allow that to happen in a conspicuous open-air location? Ah, but as the reporter indicated, albeit briefly, subliminally some might say, there’s another, the kind which relies on visits by ground-based scavengers and, ESPECIALLY that third one , colloquially, indeed poetically, known as “sky burial” , one in which the AFS (i.e.defleshing) is performed specifically by visiting birds, either for religious or practical
reasons or both. By<b> </b>jumbling up
those three<b> </b>into the one sentence,
the reader is left to figure out why “timber posts” are needed, if indeed they are needed at all, except maybe as a modesty screen to preserve sensibilities. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The
narrative is excarnation, but specifically by birds. But sadly, one has to say, there's clear evidence in the media of an intruding, obfuscating truth-suppressing counter-narrative. It does not challenge AFS head on, arguing there is no role for excarnation in Neolithic or Bronze Age Britain, at Seahnege or elsewhere, bar one exception spotted recently from Orkney where that bald statement appeared, but without a shred of supporting evidence in the same 118 page pdf document <a href="http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hono-research-strategy-2013-18.pdf">(the link to which may or may not work).</a> Instead, the counter-narrative ignores or banishes the e word entirely, flagging up distracting alternatives instead, creating a verbal smokescreen of waffle, redolent with references to the Neolithic mind, to symbolism, to ritual bla bla , i.e. abstract intangible concepts that are not
capable of either support or refutation, that may at first sight look and sound admirably well-informed, indeed 'scientific' after a fashion. but if the truth be told is pseudoscience (this blogger's hobby horse, indeed bugbear).</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The only tangibility is the iconic megaliths themselves, which sadly do not speak for themselves, having no inscriptions or carvings (excluding those fascinating pictograms at the <b>Gobekli Tepe</b> site in Turkey). Instead we have to rely on the current past and present archaeologists, straddling the fuzzy divide between science and the liberal arts, "interpreting" the stones for us, and for the most part, indeed almost without exception, averting their (and our) gaze from the obvious, namely that standing stones (or simpler timber posts) make excellent bird perches, and indeed will be quickly patronised by birds, whether that was the intention or not...</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxq3N79oJZMnoYMit1Tx56HUTDcPqzlOHRLgBeRqvOlGKvezS_b53COCdWWk186keqIKQsb0RK5iZB5F9x5L2M9m3A8hCBWkSIDUzGxRuJ5o4CRA5vqmu6BR1bNTPXbuxQd-Ko_sFyVs-8/s1600/0.+stonehenge_starlings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxq3N79oJZMnoYMit1Tx56HUTDcPqzlOHRLgBeRqvOlGKvezS_b53COCdWWk186keqIKQsb0RK5iZB5F9x5L2M9m3A8hCBWkSIDUzGxRuJ5o4CRA5vqmu6BR1bNTPXbuxQd-Ko_sFyVs-8/s320/0.+stonehenge_starlings.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Still more gawping tourists...</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">One has
already seen the process of de-focusing at work through the unhelpful references to two modes of
excarnation in which timber posts play no obvious role, omitting to mention
that the third – AFS– can indeed play so obvious and
important a role as to make timber posts a signature for “sky burial”. The waters
have been muddied immediately with those references to a body being left to
“rot” when that is clearly not what Seahenge is or was about.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So what is
the precise role or the timber? We are not told. There is no analysis in the
context of sky burial, which is hardly surprising given the way the focus has
been switched to other irrelevant means of passively- effected ("natural") skeletonization.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Nor are we
told why the name “Seahenge” was adopted, but are left to assume, reasonably,
that while it’s nothing to do with timber (ignoring the likelihood that
Stonehenge was “Timberhenge” to begin with, it must be to do with the
geometrical arrangement of a circle of uprights. Stonehenge is a “stone circle”
(with added horseshoes as well) so that’s presumably the common factor. It
can’t be “henge”, i.e. the combination of an outer ditch and bank, since
Seahenge has no such counterpart, so scarcely warrants being christened as
such. Already we are gasping for oxygen, in scientific terms, if you'll pardon the metaphor, as one liberty
– conceptual or semantic – is piled on top of another ,despite the Seahenge site being
recognized quite rightly as of major importance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The task
today is to dissect these various strands, put them into some kind of logically
consistent and systematic framework, one in which the role of Seahenge can be
seen more clearly, stripped of irrelevancies, and then consider the
implications for the role of its near name-sake, the more illustrious (correctly named) Stonehenge. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In fact I
shan’t stop there. I shall be consider 8 other sites, from Orkneys to the Near East, Anatolia and the Golan Heights, all of which feature “standing stones” and asking: what
can Seahenge tell us about the role of all those sites. I shan’t be giving much
away if I say straightaway that if Seahenge can be quickly identified as a site
for sky burial, specifically AFS, then there can be no logical grounds
for denying the same utilitarian role <i>to all other sites that display similar essential
characteristics</i>. But I shan’t be content with that. An attempt will be made
here to seek scientific as well as logical grounds, though that will require an
examination of the nature and BALANCE of scientific evidence, NEGATIVE as well as positive
(yes, they both have a role to play).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">First let’s
ask a simple question.Why did the BBC report appear to accept without quibble
that Seahenge was a site for reducing a body (or bodies) to a skeletal state, notionally releasing the otherwise sequestered immortal soul or spirit, despite the irrelevancies cited? What
is it about Seahenge that makes it virtually self-evident? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">First, let’s by
clear about one thing. One is lacking entirely the DIRECT evidence that connects
Seahenge with disposal of the dead – regardless of means. Why? Because there is
no body, nor bodies, nor remains thereof (bones etc) at least not in the
Seahenge discussed thus far, now called Holme 1, due to discovery of a “sister”
site nearby called Holme 2. (That, and its possible ‘burial mound’ which bizarrely looks set
to remain unexcavated for all time (!) may be discussed late in a postscript. ).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So if
there’s no human remains, not even the tiniest fragment of bone, isn’t talk of any kind of defleshing site premature?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">At first
sight, the answer to that would appear to be yes, at least to the metaphysical purist. But
science would not make the progress it has if one was over-inhibited in proposing, indeed imputing likely cause-and effect relationships, not if the alternative is a virtual ideas vacuum, bar constant reference to "ritual", "symbolism", the "Neolithic mind" etc etc. The key word is “likely”,
coupled with a never-ending quest to harden up on "likely" until it becomes “with
near certainty” - even if final mathematical-style proof is the proverbial pot at the end
of the rainbow.</span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The nitty gritty</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So let's get started by stating formally why Seahenge IS almost
certainly an excarnation site, despite the absence of a single body or remains
thereof.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Science
operates in different modes. One of them is ‘hypothesising’ or as I prefer to
say ‘model building’ which immediately flags up the need for any hypothesis to be
linked with the making of predictions, the search for and uncovering of new data, the only means by which the truth or
otherwise of the hypothesis can be judged. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Imagine one
were designing a site for AFS, one that would (a) attract birds (b) offer them
a free meal (c) provide a safe and secure perch with short two-way sorties only needed between perch and buffet table and (d) on the subject of safety, create lots of surrounding open space, preferably with a light background, such that prowling ground-based scavengers ad predators with sharp teeth or claws can be quickly
spotted, with time to raise an alarm and/or fly off to safety. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Here’s a
template that would seem to fit the bill (I confess to some working backwards
as well as forwards): </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">1. A central
flat surface (“table”) on which the food would be displayed prominently,
visible as soon after sunrise as possible if relying on birds that are less
voracious than vultures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">2. Perching
places that are a short distance, ideally equidistant, from the table to which
the birds can retreat after acquiring food in their beaks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">3. The
perching places can be isolated timber posts or stone columns, and for extra
roosting space, bridging lintels could be fitted. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">4. That
central outdoor ‘picnic area’, with its ‘Peck ‘n’ Perch facility, must not be
roofed over, i.e open to the sky, and needs some kind of ‘outer zone of
protection’. </span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">5. The
latter could take many forms. It could be marshy of boggy ground to deter
foxes, vermin etc. It could be a high encircling bank of earth or rock. It could
be a deep encircling ditch. It could be a combination of encircling bank and
ditch, i.e. a “henge”. Or it could simply be a timber palisade (stockade?)
formed from timbers that are butted up to offer no gaps for entry. Indeed, the
palisade of butted timbers could double as the perching place, provided the
posts were tall enough to make it difficult for ground-based predators to reach
the perching birds.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<strike><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Here’s a
template:</span></span></strike></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><strike><b>Diagram</b> </strike><i><strike>(to come later - simply a central table, a circle of standing timber or stone posts, and an outer circle, e.g. bank, ditch, henge etc circumscribing the 'safe' central zone)</strike>.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<i><b>(Afterthought: there are so many variants on the initial and evolving template - some 5 already without Stonehenge - that I've decided to place them in an Appendix at the end of tthis posting)</b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Ring any
bells? Yes, it’s Seahenge, provided one accepts that the original salt marsh,
some distance inland from the present (eroded) coastal location served as the
‘outer zone of protection’. Indeed that may explain its otherwise curious
location, at least if seen as a “temple”. (yes, it did not take long for that
term to creep in, providing one more example of the way the attention can be
distracted from AFS onto something that doesn’t attempt to dismiss
“sky burial” but to sanitize (?) it with conjured-up images of ceremony and ritual
which may or may not have accompanied the practical business of disposing of
the dead. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The ‘distractions’ do not end there, given the several references to
Seahenge serving as a one-off site for disposing of a particular VIP, with
suggestions that Holme 2 having the buried remains which we’ll never know is
true or not, given the baffling decision not to excavate Holme 2. That is another
instance of blunting the impact of the AFS route, pre-emptively making
it seems as if Seahenge was not set up at some considerable cost and
inconvenience for serial ‘send-offs’ of scores of the deceased, not all of them
VIPs, maybe hundreds over a period of time that can only be guessed at (unless
there are multiple remains in that Holme 2 “burial mound” that has yet to warrant what some might consider a prematurely-
applied label). </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So we have a
template, which could have been arrived at
purely by <i>ab initio </i>speculation (‘blue-sky thinking, aka scientific
hypothesising) and it matches up closely to Seahenge. So what’s the logical
next step? We’ve already said that “Seahenge” was a name coined to make a
questionable link with Stonehenge. Should it not have been the other way round?
Should no time have been wasted in seeing if Stonehenge was simply a
stone-built version of Seahenge that fitted the above template description,
differing only in the detail while serving precisely the same purpose – AFS?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In passing, here's a link to Ken West’s splendid posting on the Good Funeral Guide. There's also a thoughtful and informative pdf. Here’s a link to a
Google search in which Ken’s paper, which this blogger first chanced upon a
couple of months ago AFTER some months of suspecting Stonehenge as an
excarnation site. The papers that follow it are without exception – several -
on my own sites – either this this one, or my specialist Sussing Stonehenge etc, where I flagged up excarnation way back in 2012, and, finally comments I’ve placed on
Ancient-Origins and elsewhere, all proselytizing what I believe to be a new narrative,
arrived at independently by KenW and myself.
(Sorry to have to point this out, but it's needed to counter the suggestion made elsewhere that this blogger wittingly or even unwittingly peddles secondhand ideas. The internet does not support that contention. Links have been requested. Links have not been supplied.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In passing, there’s a crucial difference between my thinking and Ken’s. First I
see a role for the gull especially, for reasons set out in previous postings,
and second I see those high lintels as purpose-built as bird perches par
excellence. It doesn’t stop there, returning to that template above for the
“ideal” sky burial site.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Stonehenge
,as the name implies, a henge, admittedly not an unambiguously non-defensive
structure, with the bank being inside the ditch instead of outside, like at
<b>Avebury. </b>Irrespective, when first constructed as an outer-perimeter for a
putative excarnation site, it would have given a great reassurance to visiting
birds, whether gulls, crows etc, given a ground-based predator would not only
have to negotiate them both, but would have been highly visible against the
gleaming white newly-excavated chalk. <i> </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOBtDN8_NbvsqZskTbR6KgqlIstrtTHFp_i0kgeZ28on6OUoUr0bD0c5J9c89fn2qpHhtbUswq7dyXLko4x3qtUDxvq9hBMiRsXsOoQYmu02ujgErDoNeAFVloe3EmGZSpnGREuKhuyEn/s1600/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOBtDN8_NbvsqZskTbR6KgqlIstrtTHFp_i0kgeZ28on6OUoUr0bD0c5J9c89fn2qpHhtbUswq7dyXLko4x3qtUDxvq9hBMiRsXsOoQYmu02ujgErDoNeAFVloe3EmGZSpnGREuKhuyEn/s1600/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" /></a></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><i>What’s more the site would have been
illuminated immediately or shortly after sunrise in the midsummer months at
least, given the orientation, with the major entrance causeway, bridging the
ditch, facing the north-east, which is the direction from which the first rays
of dawn appear at the summer solstice. </i>Yes, there may be an explanation for the
alignment of Stonehenge with respect to sunrise (or sunset) that has nothing to
do with supposed worship of the sun, and everything to do with making an
excarnation site highly conspicuous to birdlife at the crack of dawn, or maybe
the first hour or so later, depending on the precise month of the year. See this blogger's simple model, made using white flour and a bright electric torch.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnmwHb-029gaJOYkkZ7dlmabb-ZiRbgs19KdSzmP7IB81741C38enkYSJRbotn8l6FlU5sKFOoCQ49BFItvTZBv442k_YjxQrn2U2pekLlsDCvwukCUTLqyIcj6igVM2-_hx0wpJzDJfw/s1600/DSC05852.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnmwHb-029gaJOYkkZ7dlmabb-ZiRbgs19KdSzmP7IB81741C38enkYSJRbotn8l6FlU5sKFOoCQ49BFItvTZBv442k_YjxQrn2U2pekLlsDCvwukCUTLqyIcj6igVM2-_hx0wpJzDJfw/s320/DSC05852.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So why stop
at Stonehenge? What about all the other
Neolithic and/or Bronze Age sites that have henges, ditches, banks, standing
stones, stone circles, simple timber
posts, maybe long- gone, leaving just postholes (Woodhenge etc), and maybe
linear standing alignments too (Carnac), with central tables that may or may
not still be present? What about more exotic sites, further afield, one’s in
which one can still perceive the three-part template of central table, perches
and outer zone of protection. I refer to<b> Rujm el-Hiri</b> in the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights with its concentric stone walls, now largely collapsed to loose
rubble but still recognizable as circles, and to the celebrated if somewhat
controversial <b>Gobekli Tepe</b> in S.E. Anatolia (really as old as hunter-gatherer
era 10,000BC?) with its unusual and distinctive “T-shaped” pillars (bird
perches, not for gulls and crows but much bulkier vultures?). Excarnation has
been mooted at both those sites – which I personally find highly convincing,
while recognizing that the particular means in question does not lend itself to
confirmation by means of positive evidence, but more by <i>lack of positive
evidence </i>of alternatives like burial or cremation (i.e. no grave goods, no bones).</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">But let’s
return briefly to Stonehenge where there may be POSITIVE evidence. I refer to
cremated bone. There’s a vast number of fragments (said to be 50,000 or more) that were stowed
away in just one of the ‘Aubrey holes’
after being unearthed in the 1920s, being declined by museums and ‘put
back roughly whence they came’. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8FqL383EvFp0ZpbCIoZB9kVpM3NBBxsq8bdbVI-FZts27HUU6VAqR-MTaM0jkWbEHgqrT1N-utApeknuQgSQKSd5x226EYGhM3X64OMCAUuON2pXBXRa5d_9FJGrsMM71nmlZu0sPiU6k/s1600/screengrab+of+stonehenge+bones.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8FqL383EvFp0ZpbCIoZB9kVpM3NBBxsq8bdbVI-FZts27HUU6VAqR-MTaM0jkWbEHgqrT1N-utApeknuQgSQKSd5x226EYGhM3X64OMCAUuON2pXBXRa5d_9FJGrsMM71nmlZu0sPiU6k/s320/screengrab+of+stonehenge+bones.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Crermated bones, Stonehenge. But don't assume whole body cremation</span>.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Even if only from 40-50 or so individuals (from
memory) that’s a lot of cremation at a site that does not strike one
immediately as a crematorium, and not just because of the absence of a chimney.
Why install all that stonework if it was simply a place where funeral pyres were lit?
But here’s where there’s a lacuna in the litetarure, one that for some reason
is never commented upon.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> What was being cremated? Whole bodies? Has that
proposition, or should one say, assumption ever been critically assessed? It
might not be easy to do so, but can’t be discarded for that reason. Is there
any other reason why there might have
been cremation at Stonehenge that is predicted, or predictable in principle,
from the excarnation template? Yes, it doesn’t bear with thinking about for
more than a second or two, but it seems fairly obvious that a site attendant
could not simply scoop up what was left behind by the gulls and present them as
a take-away package to the family (bearing in mind that unlike Seahenge,
disposal on an outgoing tide was not an option). <i>Cremation could have been for
end-stage clean-up of largely or semi-excarnated remains</i>. Were it possible to
demonstrate that the cremated bones at Stonehenge were from excarnated remains,
not whole bodies, one would have a smoking gun (well, a once smoking something)
that the site existed for excarnation, and that the evidence for that was not
simply from template-matching and negative evidence (no grave goods etc) but
some rare and not-to-be-lightly dismissed POSITIVE evidence.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">As indicated
earlier, this blogger has taken 10 of the most iconic Neolithic/Bronze age
sites and evaluated each according to a standard checklist, based mainly on the
template, but including a column for any unusual features, like those copious
quantities of cremated bones at Stonehenge, with a view to asking whether they
might all of them, without exception be excarnation sites. That’s acknowledging,
one hastens toad, that others have
already been fingered as such, notably Rujm el Hiri in the Golan Heights by the
largely US-based archaeologist Rami Arav.
There may be others too (reading still in progress).</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Unfortunately
the near-final table is too big for this site, except for those who can get
Blogger graphics to enlarge on their screens without too much loss of
definition.</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKpfdO3A_DVlXzfgjoyoeh4g5xCQWJi2Dt6VDyHuR3qKVsP5zgVCMGdXVYrAW-Uua4P2qEoNCM4kmysSR8O14RKF4WZ8aZXYHXdF-zgA4l1vsmRJp6iv5OubO8aMM3UfyBHLWQkcvB5RFO/s1600/final+table+for+big+posting.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKpfdO3A_DVlXzfgjoyoeh4g5xCQWJi2Dt6VDyHuR3qKVsP5zgVCMGdXVYrAW-Uua4P2qEoNCM4kmysSR8O14RKF4WZ8aZXYHXdF-zgA4l1vsmRJp6iv5OubO8aMM3UfyBHLWQkcvB5RFO/s400/final+table+for+big+posting.png" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evaluation of 10 sites as prospective sky burial locations</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I’ll post it
here first, see above (see what I mean?) if only to show that the homework has been done. Each site ends
with a light-hearted ‘Peck ‘n’ Perch’ ranking, 1 to 5 stars, for the
benefit of itinerant birdlife wishing to commune with its own pre-history. No
prizes for guessing which tops the list, the Ritz of excarnation sites, with
its unique high lintels.I may try posting it to my specialist Stonehenge site,
though it’s in disgrace for recently deleting an entire posting composed online
when I hit the Send key. (This one is being composed in Word, once bitten twice
shy). </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Finally, here’s a graphic
that summarises this retired blogging scientist’s final considered view on the
10 sites selected. </span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVTJitQd-zX5WN1jm50Cc-YFwILgi317rprR2rjmSwTQ4cmqPc7_6dQt4k5frWxp480-oT2NTbcd30YIJ7B3wF4Vj_kslmcYWpI1DsApREBtexQGMDFevq772hnwA6QGoYd8_LHyW909lN/s1600/chart++15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVTJitQd-zX5WN1jm50Cc-YFwILgi317rprR2rjmSwTQ4cmqPc7_6dQt4k5frWxp480-oT2NTbcd30YIJ7B3wF4Vj_kslmcYWpI1DsApREBtexQGMDFevq772hnwA6QGoYd8_LHyW909lN/s400/chart++15.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">(Click to enlarge</span>) 10 iconic sites, all fitting to a greater or lesser degree the expected profile of a "sky burial" site, i.e. avian-facilitated skeletonization</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Listed sites:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
1. Avebury Henge and Stone Circles, UK</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
2. King Stone, Rollright Stones, UK.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
3. Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
4. Carnac, Brittany, France.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
5. Seahenge, Holme, Norfolk, UK</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
6. Arbor Low, Derbyshire, UK</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
7. Rujm el-Hiri, Golan Heights, Israeli-occupied Syria.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
8. Ring of Brodgar, Orkney, Scotland, UK</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
9. Gobekli Tepe, SE Turkey.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
10.Woodhenge (artist's reconstruction), Wiltshire, UK</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">They were ALL without exception excarnation sites, because
SKY BURIAL in Neolithic times was considered the done thing, the decreed norm
across a broad swathe of the globe, the decent send-off that ensured
liberation of the soul from the mortal remains. There was liberation to
the sky, as indicated, and, at least for coastal sites, probably release of the
final excarnated remains to the sea as well (Ring of Brodgar, Seahenge, Carnac).
Takeaway option (by grieving relatives) or onsite-interment of cremated remains served as an alternative
end- step at inland sites. The important t<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">hing to note <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">is the<i> relative pa</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><i>ucity of human remains</i> at standing stone sites, sufficient to mark then out as "a place of the dead" or similar label, bu<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">t providing<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> litt<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">le </span>ev<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">idence of wholesale burial, and only partial interment of cremated remains (<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">suggesting widespread disposal of ashes etc into the <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">sea or nearest river, as others before me have flagged up elsewhere on many occasions). As stated earlier, <i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">al<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ways take on board </span> the <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">NEGATIVE</span> as well as positive evidence.</span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b>0<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">8:10</span></b> There<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">'s still some tidying up still to be done here, typos to be corrected, rephrasing, missing links to other sites, deci<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">sions on whether to keep this or th<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">at sentence or paragraph. But I'm in central Lo<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">n</span>don today to see UCL<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">*- affilated</span> Barney <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Harris<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">'s project at Gordon Square<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">to see</span> how many people are needed to lift a 1 tonne megalith. See previous posting with <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/attractions/take-part-in-stonehenge-experiment-how-many-people-does-it-take-to-lift-one-block-a3251801.html">link to E</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/attractions/take-part-in-stonehenge-experiment-how-many-people-does-it-take-to-lift-one-block-a3251801.html">vening Standard article </a>a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">nd my comment. Dec<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ision: since I'm setting off to the station shortly, and will be out most of the day, I'll hit the SEND b<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">utton shortly, and then check back late afternoon to see if there are any comments (unlik<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ely, but one never k<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">nows one's luck). </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">*This blogger/retired biomedial scientist has an enduri<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ng</span> soft spot for UCL, it being where he acquired his MSc degree in Biochemistry, and which he learned <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">a while ago</span> also <a href="http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/search~S16/a?Berry+C.S.">stores his PhD thesis.</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b>Appendi</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b>x</b>: <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">the evolving template for AFS - <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">British st<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">yle<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> - </span>based on local scavenger birds, gulls, crows etc - <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">not vultures.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLfZvj5Carz9_Z0CI1CZCIOy8ugmD4RT9tNMUjzqaeDZ5gGaaZqOljpxympqHPK3tehtGPXBommBq8yLg69qfdARGMoW825qbk6uICpPNpvWcksj15sghvygUZFj9vYvqrvgOXGGgz2Ap/s1600/1.+timber+circle+2+with+table.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLfZvj5Carz9_Z0CI1CZCIOy8ugmD4RT9tNMUjzqaeDZ5gGaaZqOljpxympqHPK3tehtGPXBommBq8yLg69qfdARGMoW825qbk6uICpPNpvWcksj15sghvygUZFj9vYvqrvgOXGGgz2Ap/s320/1.+timber+circle+2+with+table.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b>The heart of the AFS c<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">entre - perches conveni<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ent for a centre feeding station . But there had to <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">be some kind of protection against predato<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">rs, rival ground-based scavengers etc.</span></span></span></span></b></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span></span></span></span></b><i><br /></i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxA4UnN5CfzQPtlysGyPHhlPbaXffJr4t9Nn_5fo7Sbo247F3QICcuZRWd0vbqCfH-xxPWh3gxNxdV0rQx0bwbhqP-n75u35boxCYIL5jfRqkj3K7TdXBxJ9PH49tRSZtSpTOIyrJPzq_s/s1600/2++split+timber+copy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxA4UnN5CfzQPtlysGyPHhlPbaXffJr4t9Nn_5fo7Sbo247F3QICcuZRWd0vbqCfH-xxPWh3gxNxdV0rQx0bwbhqP-n75u35boxCYIL5jfRqkj3K7TdXBxJ9PH49tRSZtSpTOIyrJPzq_s/s320/2++split+timber+copy.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b>Here's the Seah<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">enge solution, where <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">a (no doubt) carefully chosen location a shor<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">t</span> way inland i<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">n what <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">is believed to have been a SALT MARSH originally provided the necess<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ary protection.</span></span></span></span></span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Note too that at Seahenge there were no gaps between the timber posts, except maybe at <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">an </span>entra<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">nc<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">e to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">the inner circle<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> (not shown). </span>The sizeable number of po<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">sts (some 50) were butted up<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">, a feasible option when the central area is kept relatively small.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span></span></span></span></span></b><i><br /></i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Here'<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">s the generic template, suited to all locations, inland ones <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">included</span>, one in which there's an outer "ring <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">of<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span>protection". </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The latter gives the birds a feeling of assu<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">rance they can feed safely without having nervously to be looking over their shoulde<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">rs the whole time</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b>The white toroidal <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">rin<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">g</span></span> can be a ditch, a ban<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">k, or a combination of the two, i.e. henge comprisin<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">g <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">excavated ditch and bank of sp<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">oil.</span></span></span></span></b></span></span></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The big advantage of a raised bank is that it acts as a sight-screen. Birds approaching on the wing can see the central feeding table. Ground-<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">based scavengers can't.</span> </span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b><strike>Let's stop here for now, with </strike> Here's a possible prototype for Avebury, Stonehenge, Arbor Low etc, one in which the henge serves as protection (outer<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> or inner bank), with a causewayed access, and<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">, in the case of Stoneh<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">enge that causeway facing north-east, so as to illuminate the central enclosure at or shortly after <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">sunrise</span> in the summer months.</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">We are now one step <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><i>c</i>loser to the upmarket Stoneh<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">enge design. Why? A<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">nswer<i>: </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">l</span></span>ook closely and one can see that l</span>intels have been added, making bridges between the tops of the timber posts, greatly increasing the<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> 'bird-<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">perching capacity'.</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Here's the next stage of evolution towards Stonehenge, shown schematically.</b> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<i>Away
with those timber posts, so rustic-looking, so hard to keep clean. Go
for something more permanent, namely stone. But it has to be non-porous
stone, easy to keep clean. Oh dear, the local sarsen is porous sandstone. Use <span style="color: #45818e;"><b>bluestone</b></span>
instead (igneous, non-porous dolerite etc). But that means going all
the way to west Wales, to a certain location, unless there happens to be some lying around locally. ;-) Oh well.</i></div>
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<b>Late addition: sky burial site No.11 (Leskernick, Cornwall, UK)</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Here, copied and pasted from
the (distinctly confusing user-unfriendly) <a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=7025&forum=1&start=0">Neolithic Portal site</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Leskernick
Stone Circles and Stone Row</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=RoyG">RoyG</a></span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
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</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><img alt="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/images/forum/avatar/001.gif" border="0" height="32" src="file:///C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif" width="30" /></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
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Joined: <br />
16-09-2010 <br />
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Messages: <b>113</b><br />
from Cornwall<br />
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</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><img alt="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/images/forum/subject/icon20.gif" border="0" height="19" src="file:///C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.gif" width="19" /></span><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">OFF-Line</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><img alt="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/images/forum/icons/posticon.gif" border="0" height="11" src="file:///C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image003.gif" width="14" /></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Posted 23-05-2016 at
14:48 </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Hi All, <br />
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Pleased to announce that I have gained permission for the two stone circles
and stone row at Leskernick to be excavated by members of my TimeSeekers
volunteer clearance group. <br />
We will be clearing the three sites and re-exposing all of the recumbent and
buried standing stones and those in the stone row as from early June. <br />
On completion we will carry out a Survey and submit a Field Report and
following that an application will be submitted to Schedule the entire site
including the adjacent Bronze-Age settlement on Leskernick Hill. <br />
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Regards <br />
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Roy </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Here's my instant research
(being unfamiliar with that particular site) <b></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">From a site called :<a href="http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/a2m/bronze_age/hc_settlement/leskernick/leskernick.htm"> Cornwall’s archaeological heritage!</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">( <b>my bolding) </b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“The
settlement is associated with an <b>impressive
ceremonial or ritual landscape...</b> In the open moorland to the south-east of
the settlement are <b>two stone circles</b>
with a large cairn between the two, making an approximately straight alignment;
flanking the cairn is a stone row which leads off to the east.... <b>Within
the circle but slightly off-centre lies a large whale-back stone,</b> possibly
a natural feature but more likely a standing stone that <b>has either fallen or been deliberately laid flat when the circle went
out of use</b>. The tallest stones of the circle appear to face uphill towards
the settlement which, in this direction, seems to be <b>set at a respectful distance, to better separate the secular from the
ritual space</b>. This suggests that the easterly part of the settlement at
least is either contemporary with or post-dates the stone circles. <b>In either event the ritual monuments seem
to have continued to provide an important symbolic focus.”</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Nope. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing symbolic
about the stone circle and its “slightly off-centre” large whale-back stone, or as I would say, "feeding table".Sure, it’s “impressive
ceremonial or ritual landscape” - if that’s how one wishes to describe a strictly
utilitarian ‘sky burial’ site.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Yup, it's almost certainly a SKY BURIAL site. It ticks the important boxes as regards location, design etc. IT FITS THE TEMPLATE. </span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Thanks RoyG for providing example No.11. I bet there's plenty more where it came from, being described in somewhat vacuous terms as "ritual" or "symbolic" landscape, while in reality serving a practical down-to- earth function. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">I rest my case.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Thursday May 26, 10:50</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><i>Google Search truly is the pits</i> as this screen shot from a few minutes ago demonstrates (this blogger having adopted the unique monicker<b> 'sciencebod'</b> some 7 years ago when setting up this site).</span></span><br />
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This blogger's problems with Google Search go way back - like finding his original discoveries and content only got seen (at second hand) thanks to repeated cover versions by another US-based site, renowned for its genteel pirating (and systematic blunting of anti-authenticity message)and one moreover packed with agenda-driven pro- Shroud authenticity commenters (and fund-raisers).That site is and was invariably near the top of Page 1 of returns despite having generated no original research of its own <i>and having closed down some 5 months ago, taking no further comments</i>).</div>
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<a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/">Link to Home Page</a></div>
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Yesterday , the above site was languishing on Page 8 of Google UK listings under (shroud of turin) despite my having put over 300 postings onto the web over a 4 year period, culminating in the above. See title: it provides after an intensive programme of hands-on experimentation, a simple solution to the so-called enigma of the TS image - a contact imprint that after washing survives (just!) as faint 'pseudo-photographic' negative image with 3D-enhancibilty in modern computer software Ingenious medieval forgery ? Yes. Enigmatic 2000 year old image of the founder of Christianity? No..</div>
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<i>I repeat Google. You are the pits, seen from this long-time blogger's perspective. Your entire 'business model', centred as it is almost assuredly on a post-curated algorithm, is clearly designed primarily to serve you and your e-commerce interests. You are anti- the world of ideas (well, the ones that your army of curators see as troublesome or potentially dangerous to your e-commerce interests).</i></div>
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The present posting was shown briefly on a Google search under (stonehenge), initially under "Past Hour", and then, just over an hour later, under "Past 24 hours":</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kIe74isYmHa2avm4W06_x7y9QFvAVXzVif_UjJPOZhv9sbzi80bDoBnItkOg9LkiGqtszZoBOt6vvnM3ai11iGtiBCYgrz0gTPV46HsOBC9Oq4pc97LpSeV99hgGt2Q6Jt-aeh2_4QOT/s1600/0915+new+past+24+hrs+google+up+just+over+1+hour.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kIe74isYmHa2avm4W06_x7y9QFvAVXzVif_UjJPOZhv9sbzi80bDoBnItkOg9LkiGqtszZoBOt6vvnM3ai11iGtiBCYgrz0gTPV46HsOBC9Oq4pc97LpSeV99hgGt2Q6Jt-aeh2_4QOT/s400/0915+new+past+24+hrs+google+up+just+over+1+hour.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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It then suddenly disappeared, shortly after two visits from Google HQ (Mountain Ash) with IP numbers differing only in the final digit being displayed on my sitemeter (saved!) <b><span style="color: red;">and has not reappeared.</span></b> How many folk were aware that Google's search results are clearly not based solely as we've been led to believe on an impartial, objective pre-programmed algorithm, that they are clearly being "curated" - read <b><span style="color: blue;">CENSORED</span></b> - by a human being?</div>
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Why is this posting, one of the most important I've ever produced in some 10 years of blogging, being <b><span style="color: blue;">CENSORED </span></b>for those searching simply under Stonehenge? What right has a search engine to CENSOR my postings based I believe on sound and extensive scholarship?</div>
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<b>Update May 27</b></div>
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Screen shot of comment placed on Andy Burnham's Neolithic Portal site:</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7UaQHrER2Ks4SySB9mCk-lHX_xz9Y-sz2V4cvaDlH1baKRXmMs_sbokezxjG8DM4hkblafeqZW_TNdtr3yDwttMWY-3aCEhzRvq8M02UdvGjxX0XW_qMTya11WBd6PPLqGGxjBeMCtnm/s1600/my+comment+to+Neolithic+Portal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7UaQHrER2Ks4SySB9mCk-lHX_xz9Y-sz2V4cvaDlH1baKRXmMs_sbokezxjG8DM4hkblafeqZW_TNdtr3yDwttMWY-3aCEhzRvq8M02UdvGjxX0XW_qMTya11WBd6PPLqGGxjBeMCtnm/s400/my+comment+to+Neolithic+Portal.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>lick to enlarge </b></td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=7006&forum=4&start=20">Link to comments thread: </a></div>
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Update: Saturday May 28</div>
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This comment has just appeared on Neolithic Portal. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jiAJRq9iyBgR83FYtbYPmF3-5s3ppEkw2NazGxNWFLc4b27SSFRNEvQ4Mo_Q9B30jCaki6XYRqMQaYZsfDt9CLUQqCPPxudCpT4-cHw7f_HTzCwjozvv3Rxg8akeaOdjvD9JVJgMKqBv/s1600/comment+from+energy+man.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jiAJRq9iyBgR83FYtbYPmF3-5s3ppEkw2NazGxNWFLc4b27SSFRNEvQ4Mo_Q9B30jCaki6XYRqMQaYZsfDt9CLUQqCPPxudCpT4-cHw7f_HTzCwjozvv3Rxg8akeaOdjvD9JVJgMKqBv/s400/comment+from+energy+man.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I shan't be responding to it there, and indeed will be posting no more comments to that 'trainspotters' site, one that's about as far removed from the world of ideas as is possible to imagine.</div>
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<b>Here's a detailed and considered reply:</b></div>
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1.There is no vendetta, as will be seen. There is strong
disapproval of that site and its response to a NEW theory (I repeat, NEW).</div>
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<br /></div>
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2. When I first requested exposure of my theory on Neolithic Portal, the initial response seemed promising. But I then found my prepared piece
wrongly allocated to a “Mystery” category (no, it’s anti-mystery). Worse still, much worse, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>it
was relegated <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to Thiird Division on the
page, <b><i>one that fails to flag up the arrival of new comments.</i></b> So my request for
visibility (denied to me by the commerce-obsessed Google) resulted in
near-invisibility.</div>
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3. As if that were not bad enough, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>dismissive comments appeared <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>immediately from the site owner and his team saying
I was being over- simplistic (no specific reasons given as to why) and that “it’s
all been said before” (no links given when challenged to back up that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>totally unwarranted, out-or-order assertion).</div>
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4. In fact my "sky burial" theory hasn’t been said before, except for Ken West’s
article in the Good Funeral Guide and a related pdf, both of which have been
acknowledged. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it has been said
before,<i> then it’s totally invisible to the Google search engine</i>, as anyone can
confirm for themselves by searching under (stonehenge) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>followed by (excarnation) or (sky burial).</div>
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<br /></div>
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5. It’s now 4 years since I first proposed that Neolithic
Wiltshire had been a site for excarnation, with the focus initially on
pigs, Durrington Walls and Silbury Hill, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why
suggest my views are “tongue in cheek”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
entirely original thinking on Silbury Hill appeared as a feature not so long ago
on the <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-editorials/was-neolithic-silbury-hill-designed-welcoming-home-omnivorous-upwardly-mobile-020800">Ancient-Origins site</a>, with neither editors nor commentators suggesting
my views were “tongue in cheek”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Show me
where I have given the slightest hint that I don’t wish to be taken too seriously.</div>
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6. The problem I have, with Google, and now Neolithic
Portal, is that neither seems to understand that I am deadly serious in regarding
most if not all stone circles, Avebury and Stonehenge included, as purpose-built sites for soul-liberating pre-Christian Neolithic
or Bronze Age sky burial. Yes, they remove some of the (money-spinning) mystery, but not all.</div>
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7. Google simply fails to list my postings, or even my “Sussing Stonehenge and Silbury Hill ... " <b>SITE </b>, see link below,
which appears nowhere in a Google search for either of those two locations.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7LaUZXnyYI_G8dOT8WyNkDY0H_2tsAITTO9NSmVrhjgAzVquQ6Dh5lR46aZk9Vrlkd7y6gizhkIKMd_6SVd_OTyVyvsVGhpW0oIpG0BVHbqsVO0bXqoznVdY5opHEjdGvb6IwoP-hoUhi/s1600/home+page+my+sussing+site.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7LaUZXnyYI_G8dOT8WyNkDY0H_2tsAITTO9NSmVrhjgAzVquQ6Dh5lR46aZk9Vrlkd7y6gizhkIKMd_6SVd_OTyVyvsVGhpW0oIpG0BVHbqsVO0bXqoznVdY5opHEjdGvb6IwoP-hoUhi/s400/home+page+my+sussing+site.png" width="367" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Here's the site Google doesn't want you to know about when searching under "stonehenge" OR "silbury hill"</b><br />
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/">https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/</a></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Now contrast with the no-new-ideas, have-your-credit-card ready Neolithic Portal site which appears on Page 3 of returns for Silbury Hill, and Page 8 for Stonehenge.</div>
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8. Why is Google ignoring me? Answer: because unlike
Neolithic Portal I am not plugged into its manic e-commerce network of click-and-pay.
I exist purely to disseminate new and dare one say uninhibited, non-sensibility sparing thinking re excarnation (Yes. NEW).</div>
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<br /></div>
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9. So why is Neolithic Portal so keen to marginalize me and
my NEW thinking? Answers on a postcard please,</div>
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<br /></div>
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10. If those folk at Neolithic Portal <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to
desist from sitting in judgement on those whom they haven’t met and don’t know, and
in all probability have merely skimmed one's extensive output, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in this instance over 4 years, then maybe they
wouldn’t be so ready to bandy around their dismissive putdowns, far less make the kind of character
attack that is implied by <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>casual
deployment of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>term “vendetta”. Outspoken
criticism of that site and its <i>modus operandi</i> is not, repeat NOT, a personal
vendetta. As for Google, my unflattering views are based on some 10 years of close observation as a blogger. I have nothing
personally to gain, and possibly a lot to lose, by deciding to air them at this
time, while the Google gun is still smoking. <i>(Yes, I and my sitemeter are monitoring all your visits Google. If you can’t be bothered to list my non-commercial sites in simple search returns ("Stonehenge", "Silbury Hill" etc ) and indeed continue
to blacklist them, then kindly quit snooping around).</i></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1RxvcrNkP6KwyBwOQj83LJ50EDfZcopNxAH5R2sqXjitnxU4pJ67ep3ZUnH9-ItHgOprndq3uCwlzXvpyYJYYgYcou9sYg1nOY8Nk-tMml6mPnlAnEmvlwkqo0uCk5mUC7_mNtSGa0rs9/s1600/google+ad+words+10p+per+click.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1RxvcrNkP6KwyBwOQj83LJ50EDfZcopNxAH5R2sqXjitnxU4pJ67ep3ZUnH9-ItHgOprndq3uCwlzXvpyYJYYgYcou9sYg1nOY8Nk-tMml6mPnlAnEmvlwkqo0uCk5mUC7_mNtSGa0rs9/s400/google+ad+words+10p+per+click.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Each time you click on one of those Google ads in your search returns, the placer of that ad gets charged 10p, whether you purchase or not. </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjinO8Is90q_VgnqmnTkjVa86boyMQ9w1s0UVO4KdCOMtGe-7l2Fwmgd9g_i6rsCyMwrF73TaCvOeuwxbLaN-sX5ghxuOrmakFzjYy7aMLz6z9Cb5L9Am4hbaKba6lu8JtCSpFMnqnwouy/s1600/3297069717_52f9e862fc_b+altar+stone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjinO8Is90q_VgnqmnTkjVa86boyMQ9w1s0UVO4KdCOMtGe-7l2Fwmgd9g_i6rsCyMwrF73TaCvOeuwxbLaN-sX5ghxuOrmakFzjYy7aMLz6z9Cb5L9Am4hbaKba6lu8JtCSpFMnqnwouy/s320/3297069717_52f9e862fc_b+altar+stone.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><strike>The central 'altar stone' at Stonehenge (see Comments). This blogger suspects that the longitudinal groove was made as a recess into which to place a stout pole, or even dozens of bound canes, securely tied in place by multiple windings of rope or netting. Why? As an aid to human transport - from Wales! That central yoke would then have been the basis for a larger framework that allowed scores, probably hundreds of carriers to be inserted.</strike></b><br />
<strike><br /></strike>
<b><strike>(Note too the handly notch on the right - ideal for making a non-slip attachment point for rope etc). </strike></b><br />
<b><strike><br /></strike></b>
<b><span style="color: red;">Late correction: No, wikipedia. You have got it wrong. That photo does NOT show the Altar Stone. The latter is largely below ground, with just the top surface visible (and largely obscured<strike> </strike>by two fallen trilithon stones, one of which you have shown). </span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So what does the 50 or so page English Heritage guide to Stonehenge have to say about the Altar Stone? Answer: precious little. It's not even labelled on the introductory diagram (unlike the Heel Stone, Slaughter Stone and Station Stone) nor is it so much as hinted there is a centrepiece stone, i.e. a focal point for everything else. And here, wait for it, is the text in its entirety relating to the Altar Stone:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Finally, at the closed end of the innermost horseshoe, in the shadow of the tallest trilithon and now partly buried between its fallen upright, lies a stone known as the Altar Stone. This is the largest of the non-sarsen stones, a greenish sandstone from south Wales.</i></blockquote>
Er, yes, do please continue EH... No? Is that all? Tell me EH, do you have some kind of problem with that Altar Stone? Don't tell me that you too are into the business of 'curating out'... Isn't that Altar stone where a body would have been laid out for the benefit of the waiting birds, perched safe and sound, out of harm's way, on those high lintels?<br />
<br />
<b>18:30 Saturday May 28</b><br />
<br />
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKHgIrlvgNJltyJC6Pv-Vw9ooCRgYvZkZfpUHHIW4HWgyB6KvMbExWp-Hy_4xty5Ldme0Vi830PEGrT7QPfEp4fN3rCHzjziGJesLYK0ezz_roiKP4hBmp7uutPeFsjkIqBfGVkTrvB-J/s1600/page+7+listing%252C+1830+may+28+my+big+posting.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKHgIrlvgNJltyJC6Pv-Vw9ooCRgYvZkZfpUHHIW4HWgyB6KvMbExWp-Hy_4xty5Ldme0Vi830PEGrT7QPfEp4fN3rCHzjziGJesLYK0ezz_roiKP4hBmp7uutPeFsjkIqBfGVkTrvB-J/s320/page+7+listing%252C+1830+may+28+my+big+posting.png" width="320" /></a></b></div>
<br />
<br />
Hallelujah! This posting has finally reappeared on Page 7 under a Google Curate search for (stonehenge), Past Week, having appeared briefly on Monday (Past 24hrs) and then disappearing from sight. Will it make it to the Past Month listing in two days time, or again be 'curated out'. We shall see.<br />
<br />
<b>Update: Monday May 30</b><br />
<br />
It's exactly a week since I put up this posting, and no, it did not transfer from Google's listing under Stonehenge, Past Week to Past Month. In fact, it appeared only briefly under Past Week before disappearing completely off Google's radar screen. I would recommend a visit to Wikipedia's page on "Search Engines" to see what it says about the various filters and bubbles that are now an intrinsic part of Google Curate. But if you're not on Google, you might as well not exist, to quote the old internet saw.<br />
<br />
So where does this blogger go from here? There's no point putting up new postings, with new data that may or may not support the BIg Idea (yes. let's not hide lights under bushels - the notion that standing stones, especially in circles, implies Neolithic Brit-style 'sky burial' has to be regarded as a Big Game-Changing Idea). What the tourists will think is anyone's guess!<br />
<br />
But if I keep adding material here, this posting becomes too long and intimidating to a new visitor scrolling down. So what's the solution? Watch this space. <i>(Back to now cleaning the patio stones. Forget about proprietary algicides, by the way - they are a waste of time and money. Get yourself some thick bleach, paint it on, cover with a polythene sheet and leave for three or more hours. When you return you will have pristine-looking slabs without a trace of sooty black discoloration to be seen!).</i><br />
<br />
<b>Foretaste of my new strategy</b>: goto t<a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/might-the-standing-stones-of-stonehenge-and-avebury-have-been-purpose-built-for-sky-burial-providing-a-secure-perch-for-crows-or-maybe-seagulls-to-roost-or-nest/">his posting on my specialist Stonehenge/Silbury Hill site.</a> Scroll down to the end. Note the added "Archive". I will be discussing the first three pix, added just a short while ago, from a splendid paper by Jenny Cataroche and Rebecca Gowland, purchased online this morning I might add, describing their findings re cremated bone at a Guernsey site.<br />
<br />
<b>Update: Tuesday, May 31 2016</b><br />
<br />
Yup, can't believe my good fortune in discovering this gold mine of a paper:<br />
<br />
"Flesh, fire and funerary remains from the Neolithic site of La Varde, Guernsey:Investigations past and present" authored by the two researchers named above.<br />
<br />
It's one a several papers in a volume edited by Prof.Tim Thompson of Teesside University, Middlesborough, entitled: "The Archaeology of Cremation, Burned Human Remains in Funerary Studies. (Certain pages are available for free on Google Books).<br />
<br />
Why am I so elated? Because those two ladies set out evidence from museum specimens of bones from the impressive Passage Tomb at La Varde, adjacent to a golf course, that they were (a) cremated bone and, guess what, DE-FLESHED by some means (unspecified) prior to cremation.<br />
<br />
Quote from their paper (my underlining): <br />
<br />
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<i>"Very few of the burnt bones/fragments were oxidized to white
and none showed evidence of the shrinkage, deformation or curved U-shaped
fissuring that typically signal the high intensity burning of fleshed bodies
(refs). Detectable fractures were in all cases linear, and transverse
splintering was noted in several of the larger fragments (ref to Fig). <u>These
are features typically seen in cases where ‘dry’ bones have been burnt
subsequent to the total, or near-total, decomposition of the soft tissues</u>
(refs).Rather than indicating standard cremation <u>this evidence argues in favour
of one or more burning events, in which the bones of deceased individuals were
burnt post mortem and once decomposition was at a very advanced stage</u>".</i></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
On reading the paper, I made two predictions, first that there would be a stone circle near that tomb (there being no mention of that in the paper) and second, there might be pitting or pock marks on those bones suggestive of having been picked at pre-cremation by scavenger birds.<br />
<br />
What do I find? There is indeed a small stone circle just 30 feet from the tomb, which even gets <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/guernsey/content/articles/2004/07/08/la_varde_dolmen_feature.shtml">a passing mention in a BBC feature on the site.</a><br />
<br />
Second, there is indeed pitting on a photograph of a bone in the Cataroche/Gowland paper. It's labelled "Archive 3" on my other site (see link above). OK, that pitting could be the result of something other than the beaks of birds, but that's not the key issue right now. In applying the scientific method, one's hypotheses should be accompanied by predictions. I've made two that are both borne out. The problem would have been if either had not been confirmed, NOT that there might be alternative explanations...<br />
<br />
I look forward to hearing the views of the three aforementioned 'cremation' experts before adding more to this already overlong posting. I'm attaching just enough to give a flavour of what is turning out to be one of the most exciting research projects that I have ever tackled. Yes, with stone circles as sites for sky burial one is (amazingly) stumbling upon virgin territory where academic research is concerned. How different that is (and refreshing) from this blogger's 4 year sojourn in Turin Shroud research where, from the word go, one found oneself up against determined opposition,<a href="https://shroudstory.com/2012/02/10/the-image-on-the-shroud-of-turin-is-not-a-scorch/"> intent on silencing one from the outset. </a>. <i>(Don't expect to find me on an entry level Google search under "shroud of turin", but add extra terms like "white flour" or "oven-roasted" or "wet linen" and my final imprinting flour-assisted scorch model then appears as if by magic. Four years work, hundreds, yes HUNDREDS of postings, but I'm still below Google's radar on a simple (shoud of turin) search. There be something rotten in the state of <strike>Denmark </strike>California, but as to how and why - well, there are some tentative conclusions emerging from my ongoing research, ones that reveal some interesting inconsistencies when I compare Google <strike>Curate</strike> Search with another search engine whose selling point is that it does NOT <strike>tamper with </strike>curate or otherwise 'filter' the results to meet perceived interests.).</i><br />
<br />
Here's the latest pile of steaming manure from Google:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivrgBXGuSCq-VvfG_QSoJm88TmtckVFlBs15RN7yrrUywy3HnPq2kDuwZlg45rigQTSdXG0Zc53tEvTz9EHqE7Dcltys8fMhI9XfZ_x4BfC9KyC39y8SMVeHK45LTi0CZZ4CkorrkSpJAk/s1600/google+ignores+my+key+words+to+display+a+repeated+ad.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivrgBXGuSCq-VvfG_QSoJm88TmtckVFlBs15RN7yrrUywy3HnPq2kDuwZlg45rigQTSdXG0Zc53tEvTz9EHqE7Dcltys8fMhI9XfZ_x4BfC9KyC39y8SMVeHK45LTi0CZZ4CkorrkSpJAk/s400/google+ignores+my+key+words+to+display+a+repeated+ad.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Observe the terms I entered into the search box, highlighted in yellow: (stonehenge debitage flint sharpening) .</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Now notice the first three returns, all of which have scored out my first two search terms, a crass and shameless ruse for substituting modern day commercial products for a historical enquiry.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This is just laughable. Google is supposed to be a search engine, the premier search engine on the entire planet. Yet here it is, thowing one's search terms back in one's face, inserting covert e-commerce.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<u><b>Update, June 1, 2016</b></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I've decided to change the title of this posting. It was originally:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h4 class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b>"It's time to get real about Stonehenge and other stone circles - based on their affinity with the 'Seahenge' template"</b></h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Yup, too long, and arguably too nerdish, but it was chosen to let folk in gently to the 'excarnation' role of Stonehenge, on the assumption that the posting would be visible in Google Search under STONEHENGE (pure and simple). But given it's now abundantly clear that my posting has been <b><i>de-listed</i> </b>by Google Curate, with little doubt in this blogger's mind as to the reasons why, then there's no need any longer to pussyfoot around.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The new title, as of today, is simply:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red;"><b>It's time to get real about Stonehenge - Britain's premier 'SKY BURIAL' site</b></span></h3>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<b>Quote from Godfather 4:</b></div>
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<i></i></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b>"Que? My predecessors' way of doing things is over, it's
finished. Even they know that. I mean, in five years the Google Family is
going to be completely illegitimate. Distrust me. That's all I can tell you about my
business..."</b></i></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<b>Update: October 7, 2016</b><br />
<br />
There's an <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/no-stone-left-unturned-but-calanais-still-keeps-its-secrets-78ffmtb08">article in today's Times (paywall!) about the standing stones of Calanais </a>(Isle of Lewis, Hebrides, Scotland) to which I've just posted the following comment (it remains to be seen how long it takes to clear the Times's irksome insistence on premoderation):<br />
<br />
<b>Colin Berry 25 minutes ago</b><br />
pending<br />
<br />
There's a simple straightforward explanation for Calanais, Stonehenge, 'Seahenge' and all those other Neolithic standing stones or timbers, and it's now't to do with those 'ritual landscapes' so beloved of the grant-hungry archaeological establishment forever spinning their waffly fantasies.<br />
<br />
<br />
They were quite simply sites for naturalistic disposal of the dead via 'sky burial', aka excarnation via scavenger birdlife, or as I prefer to call it, AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization). The stone or timber pillars or poles served as perches where the birds (probably adaptable gulls for the most part) could feel safe and secure from ground-based predators. AFS was often followed by cremation of the partially excarnated bones (why else would the buried bones at Stonehenge and elsewhere be CREMATED bone?).<br />
<br />
http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.co.uk/<br />
<br />
(See most recent postings).<br />
<br />
See also <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/the-turin-shroud-surely-the-most-cunning-dastardly-con-trick-in-history-14th-century-france/">the latest posting on this investigator's other major interest, namely the Shroud of Turin</a>, with the now highly-developed flour/oil imprinting model, first discovered some 2 years ago.<br />
<br />
<b>And here's a more recent one, posted April 7, 2017, <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/sturp-space-age-technology-unleashing-religious-propaganda/">with a somewhat cheeky title:</a></b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrchc1iAtSPwKznceLe1UkUI_qhd_5H2kpDXkbML6Pyo7FApQUP5lJbTlVg1FUoVaIOGOfwKn2Jh3dWg-qXIfEV5FWDGeAFTeHMgKNK5XKj6HiXqzA6-AhnJQ0WzyzdfRaG6rZ0Dr_FRch/s1600/april+7+posting+main+shroud+site.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrchc1iAtSPwKznceLe1UkUI_qhd_5H2kpDXkbML6Pyo7FApQUP5lJbTlVg1FUoVaIOGOfwKn2Jh3dWg-qXIfEV5FWDGeAFTeHMgKNK5XKj6HiXqzA6-AhnJQ0WzyzdfRaG6rZ0Dr_FRch/s320/april+7+posting+main+shroud+site.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
"STURP: Space-age Technology Unleashing Religious Propaganda"<br />
<br /></div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Update: Thur Feb 8, 2018</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Back to those stone circles, Stonehenge etc:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Have just this minute added this comment in reply to Neil Wiseman on Tim Daw’s sarson.org site.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2018/02/larkhill-causewayed-enclosure-posthole.html#comment-form" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.sarsen.org/2018/02/larkhill-causewayed-enclosure-posthole.html#comment-form</a></div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
It’s a summary of my belief that Stonehenge represents the technological pinnacle of Neolithic’s Britain’s pragmatic adoption of avian facilitated skeletonization (aka excarnation, aka “sky burial”) as a preliminary to final bone cremation. (NB: bone, as distinct from whole body cremation!)</div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
1. <b>Causewayed enclosure</b>- multifunctional, being demarcation of homestead territory, with funeral facility at one end, pushed to one side, probably screened, maybe whole body cremation with or without prior excarnation via different methods one can only guess at.<br />
2. <b>Henges</b> – first step towards specialized avian facilitated skeletonization, just one means of arm’s length excarnation, with ‘artificial white cliffs’ designed to attract voracious gulls from afar; north-east opening ensures the interior is brighty illuminated at or shortly after sunrise. Central ‘altar’. (Forget those summer and winter solstices, good idea initially but all-too-typical unscientific failure to follow through with critical corroborative evidence, science merging imperceptibly into pseudoscience – then hand-me-down dogma).<br />
3. Arguably henge-like circles of stone in the Golan Heights (<b>Rujm-el-Hiri, “Stonehenge of the Levant” </b>) also suggested to play an excarnation role.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rujm_el-Hiri" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rujm_el-Hiri</a></div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
4. <b>The Seahenge model,</b> isolated coastal salt marsh, serial use over years or decades – too meticulously-built and isolated to be regarded as a one-off funeral of a celebrity figure (Sorry Tim). Inverted tree stump arguably much too large and unwieldy for a single offering.<br />
5. Addition of <b>multiple timber posts</b> to henges, sometimes circles but not always (so one should not rush into alignment with sun and solstices, or moon either). Regard the posts as perches for gulls and/or other voracious avian species, albeit a less than efficient scavenger than the continental vulture..<br />
6. Addition of structures like that close to Durrington Walls (“Countess Farm”/<b>”mortuary house”/ “house of dead”</b>) – multiple posts within screened dwelling – arguably no roof – again a site for specialized AFS (excarnation arguably too non-specific a term given the different agents – microorganisms, birds, rodents, foxes, wolves and other land-based carnivores, man-made flints and knives ).</div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2750005/The-hidden-empire-Stonehenge-Radar-scanners-17-sites-near-ancient-stones.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2750005/The-hidden-empire-Stonehenge-Radar-scanners-17-sites-near-ancient-stones.html</a><br />
7. Replacement of timber posts at Stonehenge initially with modest-size <b>bluestone pillars</b>, later the <b>taller sarsens</b>, <b>circles of standing stones</b> at other sites – from Avebury as far north as the Orkneys. Were they too for sophisticated, some might say precocious/anachronistic astronomical purposes? Evidence?<br />
8. Perch-like stone structures at the ancient Turkish site (<b>Gobekli Tepe</b>, S.E. Anatolia) with <b>engravings that include vultures</b>.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/editorials/vulture-stone-gobekli-tepe-world-s-first-pictogram-004348" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.ancient-origins.net/editorials/vulture-stone-gobekli-tepe-world-s-first-pictogram-004348</a></div>
<div style="background: rgb(242, 247, 252); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
9. <b>Silbury Hill</b> – manual pre-excarnation (heart only?) and interment under individual mini-sarsen markers.<br />
10. Durrington <b>winter feasting on young (8 month old pigs)</b>. Pre-excarnation (i.e. unfussy animal omnivore mediated )?<br />
11. <b>Burials of cremated bones</b> (not whole bodies) at Guernsey site, with nearby stone-circle.<br />
12. Out-of-area <b>coastal lichens</b> still resident of Stonehenge stones. Evidence for coastal cliff-edge gulls having migrated inland, probably tracking up the (Hampshire) Avon river.<br />
13. <b>Stonehenge’s transoms (i.e. cross-pieces, aka lintels)</b> the technological peak of Neolithic avian-assisted excarnation (aka pre-cremation skeletonization) – provided ideal bird perches, offering security, space etc.<br />
14. No astronomical engravings on Stonehenge stones, as might be expected (or demanded as corroborating evidence in support of what is otherwise a poorly defended hypothesis). But there are representations of <b>metal-cast daggers and axeheads</b> (presumably Bronze Age) suggestive of some kind of attack on flesh (pre- or postmortem?).<br />
15. Possibility that Stonehenge was <b>periodically chalked and re-chalked</b> to make and keep it a gleaming white landscape feature, which together with henge bank and walls increased its gull-attracting properties.</div>
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Update: Feb 13 2018</b><br />
<br />
Here are two snapshots I took May 2012 at Stonehenge. (They are needed to accompany my compromise proposal for screening the site from the A303 (most direct route from London to Devon and Cornwall) which I'll flag up first to <a href="http://www.sarsen.org/2018/02/a303-tunnel-waste-plans.html">Timothy Daw's sarsen.org site</a>).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhofI3gn1Q897PAg2cHrdlvs0hiZTCiWhfSlBWLLWt9xi00xNCB7Ups_6M9QD32pPC3NHVbtBivHZ0Z5CsszE4Dw_U3UFJEPOIT0J76M3G6_V3TqUH3oo2-pqO7uWfPrSrizy7cMXXxs4FG/s1600/DSC03357.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhofI3gn1Q897PAg2cHrdlvs0hiZTCiWhfSlBWLLWt9xi00xNCB7Ups_6M9QD32pPC3NHVbtBivHZ0Z5CsszE4Dw_U3UFJEPOIT0J76M3G6_V3TqUH3oo2-pqO7uWfPrSrizy7cMXXxs4FG/s320/DSC03357.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traffic coming down the slope towards Stonehenge from London direction</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAP4sItb3BsZcX_BoARP63zehu4caey9OMRb6wVC2qXycQhrv4Z20TziRpLDwIhM8dnWIp1TgndcHXiUGCEsp5GL39NsoIM5xb9bgP2rN99LjVoKhevUCXKlmLMl2wiuV8vxmP1sJVJrE/s1600/DSC03366.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAP4sItb3BsZcX_BoARP63zehu4caey9OMRb6wVC2qXycQhrv4Z20TziRpLDwIhM8dnWIp1TgndcHXiUGCEsp5GL39NsoIM5xb9bgP2rN99LjVoKhevUCXKlmLMl2wiuV8vxmP1sJVJrE/s320/DSC03366.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See how close the A303 road is to the Stonehenge site. (Is it any wonder that drivers slow down and gawp, creating tailbacks?)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">Addendum: March 16, 2018</strong><br />
<strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;"><br /></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;"> I've decided to add this latest image of mine as an update to ALL my Stonehenge postings (some 24 in all, here and on my specialist Stonehenge site). Why not – since it’s my considered answer to the ‘mystery’ of the monument’s peculiar architecture, the conclusion to some 6 years of deliberation?</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" />
<img src="https://sussingstonehenge.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/galleryswstonehenge11-yellow-only-for-trilith-yelloe-and-partial-pink-with-gull.jpg?w=640" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(227, 228, 228); color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px;" /><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">I say Stonehenge was designed as a </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">giant bird perch</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">, a ceremonial monument dedicated to ‘sky burial’, i.e. soul release from mortal remains to the heavens via AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization, considered the height of fashion (and practicality) in Neolithic-era 2500BC! The stripped remains were then cremated, so an apt description of Stonehenge might, as previously suggested, be PRE-CREMATORIUM.</span><br />
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The sills of the inner 5 trilithons have been colour-coded yellow, while pink has been used to partially colour-code the outer stone circle (believed to have once been continuous as shown in this artist's impression from an English Heritage site). In addition to the colour-coding, I've also added a token gull (sorry it's upside down!).<br />
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<i> </i>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-17092916819421736412016-05-17T06:51:00.000-07:002018-03-17T00:08:34.503-07:00Shhhh. Stonehenge was simply a megalithic BIRD PERCH for SKY BURIAL of the dead.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b>Summary</b>: This blogger’s hunch, indeed, growing conviction that
Stonehenge, Avebury and other Neolithic sites were purpose-built for what is euphemistically called "sky burial" of the dead (er, by scavenger birds) has been met with a wall of silence
(or nearly so).
<br />
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Is it because of the manner in which the case has been
presented – as a protracted series of multiple bite-size instalments over many postings, starting 4
years ago?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has one painted oneself into
a corner, through deploying a superfluity of words spread over too long a time?</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi602Uc5xw8MdFHKZolUJndMFyeb5VsF6fH30gtnCmRUGsRT8X-sdLPDbPGNOSsxj9r2c091EpRa4o7OOHdOpDbhkC9e5wRZAvn3tVfEAbAYnAtx6TU7x0Rj3WZ1kmKkJQvweiUEzld2uLY/s1600/Painted-into-a-Corner+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi602Uc5xw8MdFHKZolUJndMFyeb5VsF6fH30gtnCmRUGsRT8X-sdLPDbPGNOSsxj9r2c091EpRa4o7OOHdOpDbhkC9e5wRZAvn3tVfEAbAYnAtx6TU7x0Rj3WZ1kmKkJQvweiUEzld2uLY/s400/Painted-into-a-Corner+6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>My own speech bubble reads: "Standing stones were bird perches - for 'sky burial' of the dead."</b></td></tr>
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<br /></div>
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Or is the answer much simpler:<b> is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“sky burial” simply a taboo concept</b>,
especially when referred to by its more scientific or explicit synonyms –
<b>excarnation</b>, <b>defleshing</b>, or as I prefer to call it, <b>AFS (avian-facilitated
skeletonization</b>) ? And not just in the popular press, but the internet
(blogosphere, wiki, Google and other search engines) too, and even by
academia,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>present day archaeologists
especially, at least in their press reports? </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP1fpNwDf3wRTHJ4pOQZU4KIaKkkKkhd4BDbPknBZMtstA0pPGyu5lPmTKotHossBFShm7LBMJC9jje4UCxVXma8K6WhMW5AxAtQJaE3IRdIjpRlUSFDF_tsM_6JMx5eWXBo5ckg70B9aI/s1600/Painted-into-a-Corner++erased+then+repainted+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP1fpNwDf3wRTHJ4pOQZU4KIaKkkKkhd4BDbPknBZMtstA0pPGyu5lPmTKotHossBFShm7LBMJC9jje4UCxVXma8K6WhMW5AxAtQJaE3IRdIjpRlUSFDF_tsM_6JMx5eWXBo5ckg70B9aI/s400/Painted-into-a-Corner++erased+then+repainted+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Nope, Maybe it was not I who did the painting into the corner. Sky burial is strictly taboo, at least in the UK... </b></td></tr>
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<b>(One, who shall not be named,
recently began a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>108 page pdf by
explicitly ruling out "excarnation" at a well-known stone circle then failing to
make any further reference to it). The exact words were:"... the practice of excarnation is no longer a tenable
interpretation" .</b></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>But what AFS, aka sky burial, is the explanation for ALL standing stones circles and avenues in Britain and further afield (e.g. <a href="http://www.ancient.eu/Carnac/">Carnac</a>
in Brittany, those <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3313626/Prehistoric-Stonehenge-monument-Golan-Heights-fuels-mystery.html">concentric stone circles in the Golan Heights*</a>, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1157784/Do-mysterious-stones-mark-site-Garden-Eden.html">T-shaped "pillars" or as I would say "free-standing posts" (ideal bird perches) in SE Turkey</a> etc etc?). </div>
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Ought the idea not be at least flagged up and addressed
fairly and squarely, instead of being consigned to occasional asides and
footnotes, as if something unspeakable that warrants scarcely a mention?</div>
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" notable for a mention of the taboo term in the headline, but trumpeted as <b><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3313626/Prehistoric-Stonehenge-monument-Golan-Heights-fuels-mystery.html">"gruesome sky burial". </a></b></div>
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<b>Background:</b></div>
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1. Some 4 years ago, taking a break from a new but strenuous
project involving the <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/">enigmatic' Turin Shroud,</a> this blogger’s interest returned to an
older longer-standing interest – the unsolved mysteries of <a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/">Stonehenge, SilburyHill and Neolithic sites in general.</a></div>
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Without going into detail, there was a sudden falling of
scales from eyes. “Sky burial” and possibly other more “barbaric” means of
disposing of the dead were practised in Neolithic Britain, probably well into
the Bronze Age. What’s more, the relics of those practices adorn (or in some
cases litter) the countryside to this day, in the form of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stonehenge, Avebury <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and scores of smaller other circles of
standing stones. Yet one would not know that from reading the tourist
literature, media reports or even press releases from our leading
archaeologists. While all make reference to standing stones as sites for what
loosely is described as “burial” of “cremation” (being vague, often
infuriatingly so, as to what<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>precisely,
was being buried or cremated<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">It i</span>s
exceedingly rare to see an mention of “sky burial” or the more explicit terms
, i.e. “excarnation”, far less “defleshing”. With scarcely a single exception, the ‘mysterious’ stone circles, enclosed within equally "mysterious" “henges” ie. a combination of ditch and bank, either with the ditch on
the inside (a genuine henge) or on the outside (a faux henge, as per Stonehenge),
appear with no explanation whatsover except to
say that the real henge configuration cannot play a defensive role. Yet I am the one repeatedly challengef to prove my case! <b><i>(Reminder: science is not algebra or geometry - a proposition is falsified, not proved). </i></b></div>
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But what if the standing stones were the signature of
routine resort to that practice, namely that they served as perches for
scavenging birds? </div>
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There, I’ve said it, and if I’m not mistaken I’m the first to
have said it, here and on my specialist Neolithic blogsite. And the
response?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Largely zilch. It’s been
presented formally on ancient-origins and Neolithic portal websites, attracting
little more than yawns or minor quibbles (“<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“) from other commentators (A-O's editors being a notable exception – a constant
source of encouragement! Thanks to Liz especially!). It’s been transmitted to leading lights in
archaeology, usually eliciting no more than<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a “hmmm, interesting”, but no considered response. It’s been flagged up
to contacts in the media, again, usually no response. I even contacted a news agency, which
while not giving me an immediate brush off has stalled, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>asking for evidence to back my case, to which
my reply has been <i>“First, join up the dots, as I have, then look at received
wisdom on standing stones, seen as little more than “ritualistic” decoration of
the countryside, or at most a symbolic tribute to the dead, with few if any tangible
human remains, bar some “cremated bones”</i>. Why not ask, nay demand, that the
purveyors of received wisdom, peppering their prose with “ritualistic” provide
evidence for that view, some might say cop-out, and, more importantly, provide grounds for excluding a utilitarian
role for standing stones,<i> especially as ‘outdoor furniture’ designed
specifically to appeal to scavenging birds?</i></div>
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Wiki? Don’t ask. I’ve had previously run-ins with wiki
“editors” over their insistence that claims have to be backed by published,
peer review work, while merrily flagging up current affairs topics that appear
in the popular press, relaying whatever ideas and assumptions accompany those
articles, often from journalists etc with no special knowledge or even interest.
Submit one’s own edit?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Talk about
entering a lion’s den... That’s even assuming one is willing to announce
oneself with the required<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>~~~~ ( “4
tildes”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sorry, wiki, but you really
need to work on de-nerdifying your site if you wish to attract more input from
newcomers. Or is that the idea of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
~~~~<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(to repel them, to keep the editing
a secret garden)?</div>
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As for search<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>engines, hoping they might help publicize one’s conclusions, at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>least to those who key in “Stonehenge”
without or without “new theory” etc, words fail me. One is far more likely to
be given links to hotels within a 20 mile radius, or be regaled with news of the forced relocation <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of a polystyrene foam version in the US. </div>
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The suspicion is now hardening that there’s a deliberate
attempt generally to suppress the “sky burial” angle, or as I would say,
original insight, by media, academia, tourist boards, search engines, historical
websites, private individuals. <b>It’s considered taboo.</b> Enter (stonehenge sky
burial ) into your search engine and look at the returns – probably me and <a href="http://www.goodfuneralguide.co.uk/2014/02/stonehenge-sky-burial/">one other – the erudite and articulate KenWest MBE</a>, (whom I’ve previously acknowledged as a rare kindred spirit, eeeven if we<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we do not concur on all the details, notably
my view that the seagull <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- or as Ken
prefers to call it, simply “gull” - is the most likely facilitator in our breezy corner
of Europe<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with its maritime climate in which
vultures are rare sightings).</div>
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SO what does one do? Where do we go from here? Has the
blogosphere failed? Or is it my approach that is wrong?</div>
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Yes, it’s probably the latter. Why? Because I use the
internet as a worksheet, a progress report, while working towards a solution in
small incremental steps. Some say I leave my readers exhausted – or maybe just
plain bored. Yes, I probably do if the truth be told. It took 4 years of
research and over 300 postings to arrive at my white flour model of the Turin
Shroud. Glazed eyes across cyberspace?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yup, probably. But what if it’s THE solution,
the hard -won truth? <b>What if “sky burial”, aka excarnation aka defleshing, or,
as I now prefer to call it, AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization),
correction, semi-skeletonization, followed by end-stage fuel-efficient cremation, is basically what Stonehnge etc WERE FOR?</b>
What if that was considered the only realistic, reliable, year-round option in
Neolithic times, one that could confidently allow for release of an otherwise
bodily-entrapped soul?</div>
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First response, understandable, is to declare AFS to be a
barbaric, and thus no part of our history, least of all heritage, correction, visible monumental heritage. Tut, tut. How can tourist <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>honeypots like
Stonehenge continue to be promoted as lucrative operations on the back of mystery, precocious construction expertise etc
if all along they were simply to expedite a "barbaric practice?</div>
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Maybe we need to re-evaluate and then, dare one make so bold, to <b>RE-EDUCATE. </b></div>
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The first step is to turn things on their head , to start
with the proposition that AFS was standard practice - not just in Central Asia,
the Middle East, continental Europe but Britain too, the principle being the
same while precise technologies differed, and then ask ourselves, is it really
barbaric? </div>
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Is it the means of converting a body to a skeleton the problem ? Or
is the thought that someone<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- even a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>member of a ‘closed order’ of funeral specialists
- is seeing it happen at close quarters. Would our views on cremation be
different if contemporary crematorium personnel had to monitor it visually,e,g via a heat-refractory quartz glass i<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>window? </div>
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What about organ transplant surgery, especially from the dead to the living?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That too might seem barbaric at first sight
were it to be witnessed at first hand by someone with no forewarning as to what was about to happen. Does it
become any more or any less barbaric once the purpose is explained, once the
motives are seen to be beyond reproach, a trade-off between aesthetics and
utility, ie. life-saving medical/surgical intervention?</div>
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I shall now do profiles in future postings on a number of Neolithic site sin Britain and further afield, focusing to start with on those that have attracted the most media
attention, with much touting and repetition of the word “mystery”, “ritual”
etc,. I shall be looking in detail at the likely link in each instance with AFS,
correction, <b>AFSS/cremation.</b></div>
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Reminder: that's <b>avian-facilitated semi-skeletonization, followed by end-stage cremation. </b></div>
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Will there be
details I’ve overlooked, ones that are damning to the theory on the table
(<i>nope, I refuse to deploy <b>hypothesis</b>, given it’s the only substantive proposal
thus far with an inherent practicality and logic, lacking only in aesthetic
appeal and thus shunned by fainter hearts – or lack of intestinal fortitude)</i>?
If so, rely on this blogger to flag them up. Indeed I shall regard “negative
evidence” as gold dust, that being the <i>sine qua non </i>of the scientific method –
falsifying , or attempting genuinely to do so,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>one’s own or others’ models of reality, whether called hypotheses or
theories. </div>
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That's not to overlook the more positive approach, indeed obligation, which is t<i>o
show one’s model has predictive utility. </i>Granted, that’s more by way a counsel of
perfection where archaeology is concerned, where there’s been 4,500 years or
more for evidence to be erased from the record by natural processes, whether by
human agency or the common earthworm.</div>
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Here’s a
prediction: suppose one were to model the cremation of whole body versus
semi-skeletonized remains using Neolithic era technology (open wood fire).
Suppose one finds differences in the appearance of the end result, e.g. the
ratio of carbonized organic matter to mineral (calcium phosphate etc).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>I predict that the cremated remains at Stonhenge
etc will match <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>more closely those of the
largely excarnated remains. They will be more completely mineralised, with less
carbonized material, the carbon having had more exposure to higher temperatures
and having burned off.</i></div>
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Sites will be
examined in this carefully-chosen order. The last, an afterthought, has I freely admit has been chosen to
build a case that points to evolution and progressive refinement of the “sky
burial” mode of corpse disposal (and perceived soul release), using timber posts, not stone.But then the standing stones at Stonehenge were preceded chronologically by timber posts in a variety of locations and arrangements (hardly "architectural", hardly "ritualistic". </div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHgSxeGn3cL6F9ed60wvMDPTxu3gHUKIEjhOjPSdnRlizLbxzcVV9BzkGUA2aGmNmbfaMzud-SuoagA2XYAA56gorsPMEjsT6-TzFsPux4Z5A9Jyt0Z_UGXVK40JjNog-e39IvxYUIDrha/s1600/europe-map-blank+labelled+A+to+G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHgSxeGn3cL6F9ed60wvMDPTxu3gHUKIEjhOjPSdnRlizLbxzcVV9BzkGUA2aGmNmbfaMzud-SuoagA2XYAA56gorsPMEjsT6-TzFsPux4Z5A9Jyt0Z_UGXVK40JjNog-e39IvxYUIDrha/s400/europe-map-blank+labelled+A+to+G.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Sites with standing stones for special attention as purpose-built for taboo "sky burial" with notional bird perches in all instances.</b></td></tr>
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<b>A. Gobekli Tepe, Turkey</b></div>
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<b>B. Golan Heights (Israeli-occupied Syria).</b></div>
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<b>C. Carnac, Brittany</b></div>
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<b>D. Ring of Brodgar, Orkney</b></div>
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<b>E. Arbor Low, Derbyshire,UK</b></div>
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<b>F. Avebury, Wiltshire, UK</b></div>
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<b>G. Stonehenge, Wiltshire,UK</b></div>
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<b>X. Not shown on map, surely the 'clincher': Seahenge, Norfolk, UK </b>(perfectly-preserved timber posts,in place of standing stones)</div>
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The first
and last, will appear here in a day or two on this posting, the others over the next few weeksas new postings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></div>
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<b>Update: Thursday May 19th</b><br />
<br />
<br />
I just tried to post the following as the primer comment to my own site (with an apologetic note re the remalfunctioning new widget -affecting other bloggers' sites too I see), only to be told on hitting Send that I had exceeeded a 4,096 character limit! Why was that not flagged up at the start?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Here it is again, unedited, here in the main posting, despite being over-long already:</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I shall prime my own Commnents (and attempt to kick-start that imported "Latest Comments" widget back into action) by restating the gist of the current posting, in particualr the disappointing response thus far to my ideas re the 'universality' of sky burial in the Neolithic era. I shan't pull my punches:<br />
<br />
No instant putdowns from any of the following to my proposal that Stonehenge and Avebury were excarnation sites (and Silbury Hill too, as an adjunct for ritual interment of the heart and/or other soft, non-bony tissue).<br />
<br />
<b>Repeat: </b><br />
<br />
<b>Ancient-Origins</b>. No putdowns.<br />
<b>Neolithic Portal</b>. No putdowns, though some minor flak and quibbles.<br />
(Stonehenge and Ice Age - scarcely consulted, accepting its interests are peripheral to the <i>purpose</i> of Stonehenge)<br />
<br />
<b> Leading archaeology academics:</b> ProfD, ProfG, ProfL, ProfP, (by email with summary and/or links to my postings). No putdowns. One expression of interest only.<br />
<br />
No interest (indeed, no acknowledgement) from<b> 2 major media outlets,</b> both of whom invite suggestions online for “new stories”). Procrastination and stone-walling from 1 especially proactive story-seeking <b>news agency </b>over lack of “evidence”. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“What evidence do you have of your theory? It's not to say that I don't believe it could be true, but for the national papers to be able to write about it, there has to be some official backing/evidence etc.”</i></blockquote>
Reply: what is “official backing and evidence”. Since when has the world of ideas required that final seal of approval before being allowed to engage with the public domain, and who precisely has the final say?<br />
<br />
Are we saying there’s no place for the amateur, gifted or otherwise? What about retired science professionals, not just with an extensive bibliography of their own peer-reviewed work, but years and years of unpaid hours spent refereeing the papers that others submit to peer-review? Are they deemed to be amateurs as well? Is this how our liberal arts-dominated media treats the scientific community – with ill-concealed indifference bordering on contempt, failing to comprehend the constant exercise by science and other professionals of patient enquiry, self-restraint and indeed occasional self-censorship?<br />
<br />
Yet the media routinely give archaeology academics, operating at the interface of the liberal arts and science, free rein to articulate airy-fairy ideas that are invariably site-specific, based on fragmentary evidence, with no wider applicability. Contrast that with my unifying idea, dare one say paradigm, that the diverse architecture at numerous different sites from Seahenge in Norfolk through Avebury and Stonehenge to sites as far away as the Orkneys, Brittany, Turkey and the Golan Heights was designed specifically, i.e. <b>purpose-built </b> for excarnation, specifically to attract and retain scavenging birds, that preliminary excarnation was the accepted norm over much of the Neoithic/Bronze Age world. But that simplifying overview now needs I am told to win “official” backing or evidence, whatever that is. Yeah, right... Is there a form that one can fill out and send to a particular address? Central or East London postcode? Group Think House?<br />
<br />
<b>Google</b> quickly filters out i.e. censors my postings from main category non-narrowed down search – most recently within 30 mins of its crawler/algorithm allowing this latest one to be listed under search term (Stonehenge) Past Hour only, (then failing to appear under Past 24hrs, Past Week etc. That’s despite my postings being the only new thinking to appear on the web that day, that week, etc etc. That kind of negates the whole point of publishing a blog to the internet, as my sitemeter demonstrates all too clearly.<br />
<br />
<b>Wiki:</b> I gave up on wiki a long time ago. It has pretensions to being a free encyclopaedia of strictly peer-reviewed knowledge, while freely under its Byzantine “Talk” and “Edit” acting as judge and jury over embryonic new thinking that has not yet reached the stage of formalised investigation and peer review. (In any case, the detailed findings of most peer-reviewed publications exist behind a pay wall, with, one suspects, most of the cited papers being unread, merely flagged-up, leaving the internet the vital default medium for getting new ideas into the public domain, but which wiki then attempts, Google-like, to filter and block.)<br />
<br />
<b>Generalization:</b> where the internet is concerned, all new ideas that don’t come out of California are deemed potentially dangerous ideas, to be suppressed until such a time as they are deemed to be safe for public consumption, read smug, self-satisfied, globally- outreaching corporatist profit-repatriating e-commerce.<br />
<br />
As the nameless wit once observed: "All generalizations are dangerous (including this one)."<br />
<br />
<b>12:35: First, here's some light relief. </b>This item has just appeared in the London Evening Standard (free newspaper, help yourself at tube stations!):<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3WTGf1BWgNMGkbfWgGPbOiV41HIhdfT8NiB-9zP6l-4TH7-YCHxBSIogVooZNnDWTURzpksaFQEXB9HoUuhYNFxMFMNVX6VVt3pqflV-cyigLWANw8bkdYl3ZCjoOiMpTadn7zyjLCtzI/s1600/standard+article+lifting+1+tonne+block.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3WTGf1BWgNMGkbfWgGPbOiV41HIhdfT8NiB-9zP6l-4TH7-YCHxBSIogVooZNnDWTURzpksaFQEXB9HoUuhYNFxMFMNVX6VVt3pqflV-cyigLWANw8bkdYl3ZCjoOiMpTadn7zyjLCtzI/s400/standard+article+lifting+1+tonne+block.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>London Evening Standard, May 19, 2016</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/attractions/take-part-in-stonehenge-experiment-how-many-people-does-it-take-to-lift-one-block-a3251801.html">Link to article:</a><br />
<br />
This blogger managed to get in with the first comment!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0qmi_n0qGS-8VRV-x8hpDEf8nD1oMfcgR19pvfIdjn9PO_aqjswIjmEaoDimryEsJHKG_6_ux5DFYP6eJVp1chr8EbNDR9NS-x1GpSCcS6JdBBF_eZqtaFYWtdymogHW9TyC2_8qnxAt/s1600/my+comment+final+Evening+Standard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0qmi_n0qGS-8VRV-x8hpDEf8nD1oMfcgR19pvfIdjn9PO_aqjswIjmEaoDimryEsJHKG_6_ux5DFYP6eJVp1chr8EbNDR9NS-x1GpSCcS6JdBBF_eZqtaFYWtdymogHW9TyC2_8qnxAt/s400/my+comment+final+Evening+Standard.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Have discovered I missed two responses to my Big Idea re Stonehenge etc on the Neolithic Portal site (having failed to spot the somewhat inconspicuous tab at bottom that showed the comments ran over onto a second page). I'll copy my hastily-penned holding response to my own Comments thread here, by way of 'maintaining the archive'. Again, it's uncomplimentary to Google Search (creepy controlling Californians).<br />
<br />
<b>Update Friday 20 May late afternoon</b><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
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Have just had a very useful and friendly exchange of emails with UCL's PhD student, Barney Harris, organizer of next week's lifting project in Gordon Square, London. He has given permission for me to reproduce it here.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<![endif]--><b> Subject: Gordon Square project</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>Hello Barney</b><br />
<br />
So how did things go yesterday? Successful or not?<br />
<br />
Did you see my comment (only 1 so far) on the Evening Standard?<br />
<br />
(Link to Standard)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
So what do you reckon on the feasibility of enclosing the monolith first in
netting, then attaching multiple handholds of different lengths? Might that not
be a space-efficient means of mustering 40 (or more) lifter/transporters
per tonne of stone?<br />
<br />
Kind regards<br />
<br />
<b>Colin Berry</b><br />
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reply:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Hi Colin,</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The experiment is this coming Monday. I think there'll be
some more reporting on it so keep your eyes peeled to hear how it went.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I did see you comment - interesting - and yes, nothing
to prevent this technique being used for small loads in Neolithic Britain. In
fact, a similar approach has been used in recent times to lift and shift large
stones in Mexico (see image).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>(B/W image from <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mexico, 1955 shows use of long timber poles, bridging
many shoulders <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(some two dozen men at
least) lined up both sides of a 1.5 tonne block, the latter slung in some kind
of netting it would appear, being used to support and transport it.)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This image is from the paper listed below. If you're
interested you should take a read of it - still very relevant many years on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Heizer, R.F. 1966. Ancient Heavy Transport, Methods and
Achievements <i>Science</i> 153. New Series: 821–30.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sadly what's lacking is not the devising of new ways to move
and lift stones but archaeological evidence that confirms one method over
another.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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All the best, </div>
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</div>
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<b>Thanks Barney</b><br />
<br />
Apols for not reading the Standard article more closely. I may look by on
Gordon Square on Monday, camera at the ready.<br />
<br />
Yup, I should have guessed that the netting idea had been deployed
previously. I have to say it sounds more like appropriate Neolithic technology
than some of the other ideas one encounters (ballbearings in grooves etc).
Thanks for the handy link. <br />
<br />
Is it OK if I copy your reply to my blogsite, and maybe to Brian John's as well
(I tipped him off yesterday re your project, and said I'd emailed, so it would
be nice to be able to say you'd responded)?<br />
<br />
<br />
I'd have thought the chances of finding archaeological evidence to support one
or other mode of transport of bluestone from Wales, or sarsens from closer to
hand, were pretty remote. But I personally am warming to low tech human
lift-and-carry transport of igneous rock from Wales, having a rationale for
that particular rock in the context of my excarnation scenario (igneous rock
easier to keep clean) so like the idea of selectivity (choosing the nearest
igneous rock, even if west Wales, not counting glitzy Dartmoor granite -
not to everyone's taste). Brian J's glacial transport ideas appealed initially,
but I'm seeing too many flaws, like why isn't Salisbury Plain littered with a
much greater diversity of Welsh stone....?<br />
<br />
Kind regards<br />
<br />
<b>Colin</b></div>
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<br />
<br />
<b>Here's a graphic</b> that neatly sums up the response thus far to my new tell-it-the-way-it-is "model", the one in which AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization) plays a key unifying role across any number of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0dFvJRPmkX09n2hmd2keNulLSayrbCv1MGX9q6BoeBd3GznJePRLffgENF0xMt4fTgEP72g3TKcTcaEjXM5RjenNWGFs8m2-bc72woQaLEoGCIpME8i1NKZzp4GfTP89MPY1hIGskzsN/s1600/images+xxx+adj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0dFvJRPmkX09n2hmd2keNulLSayrbCv1MGX9q6BoeBd3GznJePRLffgENF0xMt4fTgEP72g3TKcTcaEjXM5RjenNWGFs8m2-bc72woQaLEoGCIpME8i1NKZzp4GfTP89MPY1hIGskzsN/s400/images+xxx+adj.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>See no excarnation, hear no excarnation, speak no excarnation...</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Progress report: Sat May 21</b><br />
<br />
Am going great guns with the Big One, scheduled for this coming Monday. It will propose a unifying narrative for 10 different iconic Neolithic/Bronze age sites, <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOBnNffIHh-4AQl_bYo8BTaXLlxJIP_bO5S9XyCviEScOCiBVdOESABh7pNWqnDXDO7N3xZQeJMzL8a1yCo0g5Rl7gkEdO-Ns-tbcbEyXSzyGupHXjqwExRI3x-pXWJXsIF6ZqzTOz24i/s1600/chart++16.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOBnNffIHh-4AQl_bYo8BTaXLlxJIP_bO5S9XyCviEScOCiBVdOESABh7pNWqnDXDO7N3xZQeJMzL8a1yCo0g5Rl7gkEdO-Ns-tbcbEyXSzyGupHXjqwExRI3x-pXWJXsIF6ZqzTOz24i/s200/chart++16.png" width="200" /></a></div>
namely that they were all designed and equipped for AFS ("sky burial"), with end-stage cremation a likely postscript, at least for inland sites. Yup, a graphic (left) has been prepared, which will needless to say appear full size on the next posting. I shall send one final round robin to the dozen or so folk on my contact list, alerting them to my Go For Broke thesis, one that's been 4 years in the making.<br />
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<strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">Addendum: March 16, 2018</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;"><br /></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;"> I've decided to add this latest image of mine as an update to ALL my Stonehenge postings (some 24 in all, here and on my specialist Stonehenge site). Why not – since it’s my considered answer to the ‘mystery’ of the monument’s peculiar architecture, the conclusion to some 6 years of deliberation?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><img src="https://sussingstonehenge.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/galleryswstonehenge11-yellow-only-for-trilith-yelloe-and-partial-pink-with-gull.jpg?w=640" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(227, 228, 228); color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">I say Stonehenge was designed as a </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">giant bird perch</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">, a ceremonial monument dedicated to ‘sky burial’, i.e. soul release from mortal remains to the heavens via AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization, considered the height of fashion (and practicality) in Neolithic-era 2500BC! The stripped remains were then cremated, so an apt description of Stonehenge might, as previously suggested, be PRE-CREMATORIUM.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
The sills of the inner 5 trilithons have been colour-coded yellow, while pink has been used to partially colour-code the outer stone circle (believed to have once been continuous as shown in this artist's impression from an English Heritage site). In addition to the colour-coding, I've also added a token gull (sorry it's upside down!).</div>
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sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-38811924946810065222016-05-13T02:56:00.000-07:002018-03-17T00:11:40.848-07:00Was the Mark 1 Stonehenge, initially Chalkhenge, ingeniously designed to attract hungry crows and gulls at the crack of dawn? Why? Pre-crematorium?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b>Summary</b></div>
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Forget all the tosh about Stonehenge being a temple. Long
before there were any stones, there was a laboriously excavated chalk circle,
comprising a ditch and adjacent heap of spoil, i.e. raised bank, the two being
collectively termed a “henge”.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kMeD2qw0ZosM-p3iF_VjfbXwYjDOyvm76vayOvVszg8XipOsX0el0ovJ2BkCQl9K5XLIPB_erNxkD6nt-OiQS_azwNMt9YNyuds8Mqn_i3l33O2Qh15vYzU9f6TFSM-J2JS1sOqqeuuN/s1600/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kMeD2qw0ZosM-p3iF_VjfbXwYjDOyvm76vayOvVszg8XipOsX0el0ovJ2BkCQl9K5XLIPB_erNxkD6nt-OiQS_azwNMt9YNyuds8Mqn_i3l33O2Qh15vYzU9f6TFSM-J2JS1sOqqeuuN/s1600/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Here's an artist's impression of the simple henge at Avebury, Wiltshire, comprising the ditch/bank excavation of chalk subsoil (left) preceding the installation of standing stones (right).</b> See this blogger's modelling of the crucial SHADOW-CREATING EFFECT OF THE BANK at dawn especially (below).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAvKc1lHcj4S3vcIWHLuZE8b2gh0fakvIWs4tKRCquVIuwW7ICfGNiz3l75JxNmsLJsWupckYhCPwCeNbdA1eYoBqaPWM-2JRhDyuqJWktcVJ5ftLq0JapFZTIotxQ3ElcDlznhQo8eoP3/s1600/DSC05852.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAvKc1lHcj4S3vcIWHLuZE8b2gh0fakvIWs4tKRCquVIuwW7ICfGNiz3l75JxNmsLJsWupckYhCPwCeNbdA1eYoBqaPWM-2JRhDyuqJWktcVJ5ftLq0JapFZTIotxQ3ElcDlznhQo8eoP3/s320/DSC05852.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Preview: modelling 'Chalkhenge' and its shadow-creating potential with low-angle dawn sunlight coming in from the right. (The pink disc is just 2mm thick!). </b>See below for more details of this simple experiment.</td></tr>
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Henges must have had a purpose, even if archaeology
seems largely uninterested in why there were - and still are - so many henges
dotted across Britain. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixAcM1vp7zVmCf6WWYjmJyw5nZwVGSzksYS74gVfWp5C4Lyzd1xzBjZ1SAOfsdceNEk9EC5TghChdG2eBEefv8-UkjO3hx3BrOV53iyy1W4LK4h-HTno_EfTmiob97SAj5r8vpkoRRdTb4/s1600/bbc+july+99+seahenge.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixAcM1vp7zVmCf6WWYjmJyw5nZwVGSzksYS74gVfWp5C4Lyzd1xzBjZ1SAOfsdceNEk9EC5TghChdG2eBEefv8-UkjO3hx3BrOV53iyy1W4LK4h-HTno_EfTmiob97SAj5r8vpkoRRdTb4/s320/bbc+july+99+seahenge.png" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>BBC feature from 1999 on Seahenge</b> (despite there having been no henge, merely a timber circle and that central inverted tree trunk -almost certainly an AFS site.). </td></tr>
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In fact, archaeology even seems uninterested in the
timber poles that appeared<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>within the chalk
circle at Stonhenge BEFORE any standing stones, despite<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/388988.stm"> timber poles atSeahenge (still surviving to this day)</a> having a fairly obvious purpose alluded
to briefly in the 1999 BBC report. (Shhh. Don’t mention the E word, or animals
that have wings – and sharp beaks).</div>
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This blog post tells you what archaeology is not terribly
keen for you to know about the proto-Stonehenge, indeed the Non-Stone-henge, the
simpler Chalkhenge, preferring to hurry you along to the megaliths, with a
narrative in which the word “temple”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is
invoked, even pre-cathedral, with much about pre-Druids, early pagan ritual etc
etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This blog post is about the initial
role of Chalkhenge, the same as that inferred for numerous other sites with a
few human bones, sometimes “cremated bones” as at Stonehenge. But it was almost
certainly not the energy-wasteful whole-body cremation requiring a huge pyre of bone-dry
timber (tarpaulins being unavailable). It was end-stage cremation of the
deceased following what might be termed “avian-facilitated skeletonization”
(AFS). Yes, we’re talking about “sky burial”, or, as archaeology generally refers
to briefly in passing (if at all) as excarnation, or defleshing. Chalkhenge
(proto-Stonehenge) was cleverly designed to attract the right kind of scavenging
birds, one that could<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>quickly reduce a
body to a near-skeletonized state, one that could then be quickly and efficiently
end-cremated to noffensive minerals (cremated bone being little more than
calcium phosphate, the stuff that gardeners use as fertilizer).</div>
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Here’s a brief account of an experiment I have just done,
this very morning, to model Chalkhenge using white flour. ( I am developing a
soft spot for flour, it having provided <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/">a solution to the Turin Shroud,</a> starting about a
year ago).</div>
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Here's an artist's impression of "Chalkhenge" which I've photographed from the English Heritage guide to Stonehenge (Page 33, "The First Stonehenge").</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLMZhHPWFtx-gcgHOvrwOHXoUB8c4AlGe2oU71bKL7aP43iq6dKMJgHt1cRDXwLAcr9Y7_0oWSgny0K76sY0WO8KVxUAfx6-EpohMafGyBmpt7kffFZAlqPbtUPiTFYdWEbguKIHmagbI/s1600/DSC05837.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLMZhHPWFtx-gcgHOvrwOHXoUB8c4AlGe2oU71bKL7aP43iq6dKMJgHt1cRDXwLAcr9Y7_0oWSgny0K76sY0WO8KVxUAfx6-EpohMafGyBmpt7kffFZAlqPbtUPiTFYdWEbguKIHmagbI/s320/DSC05837.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The bright spot is the refected camera flash, but is fortuitously at the major entrance, the one that faces north-east. It's from that direction (north-east) ones sees the sunrise at the summer solstice. (Thanks to Judith Dobie?)</b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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Here's the same image swung round to orient the entrance "north-east", with the ground-skimming incoming first light of day from the horizon shown by the yellow arrow. See the publisher's guide to compass directions (lower right, yellow rectange). The yellow is my addition.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEaW4OxYmoC7h4RCi0oS7CxIrtIjCNmWxncIQOzP3-kkz3heCcSCcS5ZMe0wDilMxkms0b9nb3HBEj2nQH2Y7xnYIT6W5WwrK2tlUjHNlRrLFATL3dVPatr-h_iBAUPiKgADcK1Ne5PUtJ/s1600/DSC05838+3%252C48%252C93+entrance+at+NE+yellow+arrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEaW4OxYmoC7h4RCi0oS7CxIrtIjCNmWxncIQOzP3-kkz3heCcSCcS5ZMe0wDilMxkms0b9nb3HBEj2nQH2Y7xnYIT6W5WwrK2tlUjHNlRrLFATL3dVPatr-h_iBAUPiKgADcK1Ne5PUtJ/s320/DSC05838+3%252C48%252C93+entrance+at+NE+yellow+arrow.jpg" width="191" /></a></div>
<br />
It's the image directly above that I set out to model, using a torch to simulate the rising sun.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCCSX4Dbr-E30PkHs4AvoJ43S01YS8vNJuxDHbFcT-uxFXVbf9eXRG6KkohhC_E53frnBp_cc2Hbac3Pv-rjU1GVI82c6pg-xAOvJWiYfAU41RXz0B288EnlC5jIUKXj2b0U6gZ8aU7hRb/s1600/DSC05822.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCCSX4Dbr-E30PkHs4AvoJ43S01YS8vNJuxDHbFcT-uxFXVbf9eXRG6KkohhC_E53frnBp_cc2Hbac3Pv-rjU1GVI82c6pg-xAOvJWiYfAU41RXz0B288EnlC5jIUKXj2b0U6gZ8aU7hRb/s320/DSC05822.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Place inverted saucepan on board. Sprinkle flour around the circumference. Remove saucepan. </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTwmPc0_jqsKcEBI1JnNOA8zWa8rQEWdj7tSjFVt_kNzW0WJj_57xtA3lnsi2vi8owb98bc4z1FXzSOwSXyy1NtXIdrBEUF6bQUr8Z_twzyQA8Rcku2FC2UGGmP8QGeuftRpLReGlWOdid/s1600/DSC05833.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTwmPc0_jqsKcEBI1JnNOA8zWa8rQEWdj7tSjFVt_kNzW0WJj_57xtA3lnsi2vi8owb98bc4z1FXzSOwSXyy1NtXIdrBEUF6bQUr8Z_twzyQA8Rcku2FC2UGGmP8QGeuftRpLReGlWOdid/s320/DSC05833.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angle the torch to represent the instant of sunrise (the summer solstice providing the ideal geometry). Note how the henge bank creates a zone of shadow that better demarcates the illuminated zone within the circle</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0utTiMYnuzzKAEqPEdah5_5tQK9I_tOIJb_rEdNHvKzzZ_vKZXRmhHK2BeQLiA_f8c1y_jlr4liM-cTmWebldRBjPXFnktM9utGA3clNufuO77_9fZI7NCR_BkL9Jh9RaG9ZovS_1tWSg/s1600/DSC05833+-14%252C29%252C81.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0utTiMYnuzzKAEqPEdah5_5tQK9I_tOIJb_rEdNHvKzzZ_vKZXRmhHK2BeQLiA_f8c1y_jlr4liM-cTmWebldRBjPXFnktM9utGA3clNufuO77_9fZI7NCR_BkL9Jh9RaG9ZovS_1tWSg/s400/DSC05833+-14%252C29%252C81.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Here's a close-up of the above, with a little photoenhancement. </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
One need hardly say that anything placed in the central zone would be highly conspicuous, not
viewed from ground level outside the henge, but from above, e.g. by a
hungry bird!<br />
<br />
And what might that something be? Do I need to spell it out? Yes, the body of a newly-deceased individual, intended for "pre-cremation". Attract the scavenger birds at the crack of dawn, so as to make maximum use of daylight (assuming that birds are probably not nocturnal feeders for fear of ground-based predators).<br />
<br />
In the model thus far, there is nowhere for the birds to roost or feed on stripped flesh except on the crest of the henge. The next step in the evolution of Stonehenge was the installation of timber posts (see the EH guide for the complex multi-stage history of timber insertion which may or may not have involved the ring of so-called Aubrey holes close to the bank).<br />
<br />
I'll stop here for now. Google will probably ignore this posting, the way it has my earlier ones, preferring to grow Google Search as a glorified trade directory, dedicated to the promotion of e-commerce and Google's bottom line.<br />
<br />
Regard this posting then as mainly archival (initial instalment). What you see so far is the nucleus. Immediate afterthoughts will be added under Comments, if only to prime the latter and encourage readers to place their own comment here rather than elsewhere.<br />
<br />
I may return in a few days to add substantial new content here. but won't do that right now, knowing or at least suspecting it will scare off the finnicky search engine crawlers that prefer to have everything set in concrete from the word go on the assumption we're all peddling a commercial product and need to present a polished <i>fait accompli</i> at first attempt.<br />
<br />
Sorry, I'm a retired scientist. I don't do <i>the fait accompli</i>. Everything is a work in progress. It's the nature of research - venturing into uncharted territory. What a shame, nay scandal, that Google and the other search engines fail to make allowance for that fact, treating us all as if scam artists, despite track records going back for hundreds of postings over a decade or longer (longer in my case). Why is so much of the internet in the hands of a certain brand of creepy, controlling Californian?<br />
<br />
Nope. This blogger is a humble seeker after truth, and if the truth be told, neither Stonehenge, nor a myriad of other henges were intended as "temples" or "pre-cathedrals" as so many in 'mainstream' archaeology would have us believe (or worse still assume). Stonehenge was certainly designed as a pre-something in my humble opinion - ingeniously so if my model above is correct. as I believe it to be.<b> The proto-Stonehenge was designed as a pre-crematorium</b>, letting wildlife on the wing do most of the defleshing of the dead, saving crematiion as the final clean-up stage. Relatives could then be presented with a compact package of clean hygienic remains either to inter on site if permitted to do so (there being no shortage of cremated bones at Stonehenge) or to take away for storage and veneration elsewhere, confident in their assumption that AFS had freed the spirit from the corpse. It's not so very different from modern-day cremation when one thinks about it, except for the way no one dwells on the details of what happens inside the gas-fired incinerator whereas "excarnation" , on the rare occasions it reaches the MSM, still attracts adjectives like "grisly", "gruesome", "bizarre" etc, That's despite the likelihood of the sharp end of the procedure having been overseen by a specialist cadre of hardened professionals , protected from public gaze by the henge banks at least, and later by a forest of timber posts, and later still, those final standing stones...,<br />
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<strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">Addendum: March 16, 2018</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;"><br /></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;"> I've decided to add this latest image of mine as an update to ALL my Stonehenge postings (some 24 in all, here and on my specialist Stonehenge site). Why not – since it’s my considered answer to the ‘mystery’ of the monument’s peculiar architecture, the conclusion to some 6 years of deliberation?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><img src="https://sussingstonehenge.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/galleryswstonehenge11-yellow-only-for-trilith-yelloe-and-partial-pink-with-gull.jpg?w=640" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(227, 228, 228); color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">I say Stonehenge was designed as a </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">giant bird perch</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;">, a ceremonial monument dedicated to ‘sky burial’, i.e. soul release from mortal remains to the heavens via AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization, considered the height of fashion (and practicality) in Neolithic-era 2500BC! The stripped remains were then cremated, so an apt description of Stonehenge might, as previously suggested, be PRE-CREMATORIUM.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.17px;" /><br />
The sills of the inner 5 trilithons have been colour-coded yellow, while pink has been used to partially colour-code the outer stone circle (believed to have once been continuous as shown in this artist's impression from an English Heritage site). In addition to the colour-coding, I've also added a token gull (sorry it's upside down!).</div>
sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-26811003623180046032016-05-07T07:43:00.000-07:002016-05-08T09:28:33.792-07:00Thanks Energyman: the lintels of Stonehenge would indeed have protected sky burial birds from ground-based predators.Latest comment on the<a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=7006&forum=4&start=0"> Megalithic Portal site</a> re this blogger's theory for Stonehenge etc:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheavjycDoY7cjhwSZ4JwWrilaM__vT7JqmymRt02owSgA_9C_Die-M_d7ywqO_CGSI3lBLyoV0PLfJvTeEHZdlXephvWmEdJqWw2ptOgI5UT6fb6KO9KDnUwbJJvFh20yvfUXjxl-fAsYa/s1600/energyman.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheavjycDoY7cjhwSZ4JwWrilaM__vT7JqmymRt02owSgA_9C_Die-M_d7ywqO_CGSI3lBLyoV0PLfJvTeEHZdlXephvWmEdJqWw2ptOgI5UT6fb6KO9KDnUwbJJvFh20yvfUXjxl-fAsYa/s400/energyman.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Energyman: "Well yes, and if you take it a step further, the horizontal lintels of Stonehenge would offer a superb 'sky burial' platform away from ground feeders". My reply: hearty approval...</b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Next posting?</b> Seahenge - surely <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/388988.stm">the clincher where Stonehenge is concerned</a>. They probably used the same avian species too - the seagull - for the purposes of AFS.<br />
<br />
There will also be a flyer for my hunch that a certain Neolithic site in S.E.Turkey, reckoned to go back to 9000BC or earlier (!) and described as the "first temple" was in fact a site for AFS. That would explain all the T-shaped pillars (bird perches!!!) the carvings of assorted predatory and scavenger wildlife, vultures included.<br />
<br />
Here's <a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/comments.php?op=showreply&tid=57720&sid=14968&pid=55269&thold=#57720">my comment placed this morning on the Megalithic Portal site:</a><br />
<br />
<b>Re: Signs of world’s first pictograph found in Göbeklitepe</b> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Score: 1)<br />by ColinBerry on Sunday, 08 May 2016<br />(<a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=ColinBerry">User Info</a> | <a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/replypmsg.php?send=1&uname=ColinBerry">Send a Message</a>) </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Yes, it's an excarnation site. That was my first thought when seeing
the layout with those "T-shaped pillars" read bird perches and
concentric dry stone walls, reminiscent of that site in the Golan
Heights investigated by Rami Arav. I can't for the life of me
understand why it's being described as "the first temple" when there are
vultures in the ornamental artwork!<br />
<br />
Was Seahenge a temple?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/388988.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/388988.stm</a><br />
<br />
What that article omits to mention is that the gull probably served as a
substitute on the Bronze Age Norfolk coast for the vulture, equally
effective for AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization), my prefered term
for excarnation, provided one could attract a sufficient horde of
frenzy-feeders (thus the multitude of timber posts to serve as perches).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The site in question "</span><b>Göbeklitepe" </b>bears a name that translates as "potbelly hill"!<b></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Finally, there's a third site that is interesting this blogger right now, one that is causing some out-of-the-box thinking. It's the Ring of Brodgar and the nearby Ness of Brodgar with the stone walls. A commentator on the Megalithic Portal site had cited the Ring of Brodgar as evidence that Neolithic man could hew his way through solid rock with nothing except antler picks! (He omitted to mention that mauls - rounded stones- were used at least for shaping rock, like those monoliths at Stonehenge). Well, I have an entirely different explanation for how and why that ditch in the "solid sandstone" was created, and it did not involve cutting through solid rock. I can also account for why there's no accompanying bank of excavated "rubble", there being rubble and rubble. Not all rubbles were born equal! I may do a separate posting in the next week or two, setting out these totally new ideas (or so it would seem from googling) and ask Prof.Jane Downes and her colleagues at the Orkney Archaeology Institute to take a look and give a frank opinion. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.</b><br />
<br />
<b>New update: </b>Comment addressed to <b>energyman</b> on the <b>Megalithic Portal </b>thread:<br />
<br />
<b><b><a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=ColinBerry">ColinBerry</a></b><br /><br />
<img src="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/images/forum/avatar/0003_stonehenge2.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Joined: <br />03-05-2016 </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span>
<span style="color: red;"><b></b></span><br /><img src="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/images/forum/icons/posticon.gif" /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Posted 08-05-2016 at 17:08 </span></b><br />
<hr />
<b>
</b><i>See my current posting, energyman, with thanks, nay relief, that there
are kindred spirits out there. willing as I am to 'go the extra mile',
sorry kilometre, albeit at the risk of occasionally going in the wrong
direction (nothing ventured, nothing gained).
<br />
<br /> (Link to this posting)</i><br />
<i><br />There's also a partial response there (OK, a tease) to Runemage re the <b>Ring of Brodgar.
</b><br />
<br />Nope, the ditch was not cut through "solid" rock. It was created by
forceful delamination of stratified sandstone, deploying a patient,
resourceful if somewhat slow combination of Mother Nature, read frost
action, and gentle leverage. The compact uplifted small slabs then
found a use nearby (thus no bank of rubble!).
<br />
<br />You read it here first! More later. </i>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-46502496503143682022016-05-04T08:58:00.000-07:002018-01-28T04:54:45.323-08:00The true purpose of Stonehenge was avian-facilitated skeletonization, aka "sky burial" (which we don't hear from either English Heritage or the UK’s squeamish media). <br />
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Stonehenge, Avebury Henge and their stone circles, indeed henges and standing stones generally, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were ALL places designed to attract and retain
scavenger birds – the kind that could efficiently <b>skeletonize*</b> the newly dead.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpa3MhuI8L4CEuS19Z8XV1NaEPHii5eXK_r3KbBVUZdE7_HapYcOsfp62szz81Ll-7hIk9Vagqf8XVFA1ZeD_5_qVr-hWkRyPMPTlKgEsAxcLO8xkbf0xLk5PJuwAzonPeu9vNN1pKrNbM/s1600/0.+stonehenge_starlings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpa3MhuI8L4CEuS19Z8XV1NaEPHii5eXK_r3KbBVUZdE7_HapYcOsfp62szz81Ll-7hIk9Vagqf8XVFA1ZeD_5_qVr-hWkRyPMPTlKgEsAxcLO8xkbf0xLk5PJuwAzonPeu9vNN1pKrNbM/s320/0.+stonehenge_starlings.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Stonehenge and visitors</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The following landscape and monumental features can ALL be seen to have served a common utilitarian purpose unrelated to religious ritual, pagan worship etc – providing the scavenger birds (crows, gulls etc) an elevated place on which they could perch and feed, ensuring they felt secure, safe from predators:<br />
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1. Raised banks
of the initial henges</div>
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2. The standing stones (<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>which many consider were preceded by makeshift timber circles)</div>
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3. The crosspieces of dolmens</div>
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4. The lintel crosspieces of the massive Stonehenge trilithons.</div>
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Yes, put baldly, they all functioned, initially at any rate, as <b>bird perches</b> (single standing stones) or<b> bird tables</b> (trilithons with cross-piece lintels).The dead were probably laid out on the ground in the central area, probably screened-off (see below) for <b>skeletonization</b>. Alignment of stones with summer and winter solstices? Some think with good cause it was just an accident of geomorphology (more later). </div>
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<i>*I prefer the
word “skeletonize” to “excarnate”, and especially to “deflesh”. It focuses on
the desired outcome, as distinct from the means by which it was achieved. “Skeletonization”
will hopefully give the role attributed here to Stonehenge etc. a better reception in
the media than the one seen thus far, with bandying around of unhelpful adjectives
like “grisly”, “gruesome”, “bizarre” etc. </i></div>
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Skeletonization
via scavenger birds was simply the Neolithic equivalent of present day
cremation. One does not dwell on the details as to how burial or cremation converts
flesh and bone to bone only, so why do it for <b>avian-facilitated skeletonization</b> in the low-tech Neolithic era 4,500 years ago when there were no metal tools for digging graves, or lopping branches off trees for firewood?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOm2QIP5fX3OkUlRd7aKxr0hqh94fppYPv4mp3-voWxayTEUyA0atKSumx8r635VSVuybqlXNKgipSu6PIPW0LE8d4nrzd-aoQHO-nhtlA6dDBcPQseBrrJ932mT8W66IPyMf0WEf3m9I9/s1600/8.+real+human+skeletons.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOm2QIP5fX3OkUlRd7aKxr0hqh94fppYPv4mp3-voWxayTEUyA0atKSumx8r635VSVuybqlXNKgipSu6PIPW0LE8d4nrzd-aoQHO-nhtlA6dDBcPQseBrrJ932mT8W66IPyMf0WEf3m9I9/s320/8.+real+human+skeletons.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Skeletonizing of the dead continues to this day, for a variety of legitimate purposes - scientific, educational, forensic etc etc, as the cropped image from<a href="http://www.skullsunlimited.com/ruc1/5/real-human-skulls-and-skeletons.htm"> the above commercial site shows</a>.</b></td></tr>
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Is it because
it’s imagined <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(mistakenly) that “sky burial”
(avian-assisted skeletonization) exposes the dead to public view for the duration of excarnation? Why suppose
that, given that Stonehenge and Avebury were both enclosed in (interrupted) circular chalk
banks, surviving to this day, laboriously excavated from the adjacent ditch,<i> the
henge serving to screen off the central working-area of the site to all but
specialist operatives (“mortuary attendants”)? </i></div>
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This will do for starters. At leisure, starting tomorrow (May 4) I shall be adding illustrations showing the supposed developmental stages of Stonehenge which strongly support its role in the first instance as a 'centre for skeletonization' of the newly-deceased. Many will be taken from the splendid site whose Home Page you see immediately below:</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1NxpcjdyXJZvHyNVhdo5jFlFJ2T3GL75TIpTQ2wruPKUCZKMXoaJ79QE6KcUt3c4nSJ48VJsqPSZl-KvBRhORxnASB5SVRV6krxcYapgQVR7wqMw4XZBCApZmU3rMjRa_be1Bh3hpn63/s1600/7.+chris+collyer+site+stonehenge.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1NxpcjdyXJZvHyNVhdo5jFlFJ2T3GL75TIpTQ2wruPKUCZKMXoaJ79QE6KcUt3c4nSJ48VJsqPSZl-KvBRhORxnASB5SVRV6krxcYapgQVR7wqMw4XZBCApZmU3rMjRa_be1Bh3hpn63/s320/7.+chris+collyer+site+stonehenge.png" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Chris Collyer's <a href="http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/stonehenge.htm">splendid site.</a></b></td></tr>
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<b>Second instalment Thur May 5:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivPQKy_XeC2bIIZ4hMgRowTNn6WoJXE3PZDROird0elSMCdof_59Fb5A2qmbgAcqvOnlIe6vQrhxooez0aDefEivAp-4tXW9v8GVBMNeE__4WMVTeu8B9ffTtnhWjAIjnTcXFMDzEUFkuT/s1600/henges+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivPQKy_XeC2bIIZ4hMgRowTNn6WoJXE3PZDROird0elSMCdof_59Fb5A2qmbgAcqvOnlIe6vQrhxooez0aDefEivAp-4tXW9v8GVBMNeE__4WMVTeu8B9ffTtnhWjAIjnTcXFMDzEUFkuT/s400/henges+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Apols for the fuzzy captions. The graphic on the left is an artist's impression of the forerunner of a standing circle (Avebury in this instance) namely the <b>henge</b>, i.e. a <b>ditch and bank</b> of excavated chalk. Purpose? We're not told, but it can hardly be defensive when the bank is on the outside, not inside. The schematic on the right is a bird's eye view of the corresponding henge installed 25 miles to the south on Salisbury Plain, the one we call "Stonehenge" oddly enough, where in this instance the major bank is inside the ditch. Aubrey pits aka holes? They will be addressed shortly. First let's take a look at a site in the Golan Heights that gives a clue as to the REAL purpose of the Neolithic henge, regardless of relative placement of ditch and bank. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaGtuDqF9zhvQiLAy2NmzshEXCm5BgsixYf8Eihrcv5Tx2jDYKXU4wvoTImFb8yhcKwv47FB6WrxO579jkaLP06Y6ejj5McQ-5xjYFzSbpHs3pTyU6ULue3EplrpTxSGlg33HtDEerRpPS/s320/gilgalrefaim1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Rujm el-Hiri in the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights.</b></td></tr>
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Not for nothing has what you see above been called the <b>"Stonehenge of the Levant"</b> (see wiki entry) albeit with less-well established aligment with the solstices, that it was a place of worship, a burial place for the dead, surrounded by hundreds of dolmens (a mirror of Stonehenge's round barrows?) etc etc. Sound familiar: no end of speculation, but all somewhat vague and half-hearted, with little or nothing by way of sustained argument. </div>
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It's the concrete views of US-based archaeologist <b> Dr.Rami Arav,</b> a kindred spirit, expressed in <b>Popular Archaeology</b> back in 2011 that are one's that need to be flagged up (my bolding):</div>
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<i>In an article published in the November/December, 2011 issue of <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><a href="http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/">Biblical Archaeology Review</a></b></span>,
Dr. Rami Arav, long-time co-director of the Bethsaida excavations
northeast of the coast of the Sea of Galilee and Professor of Religion
and Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, has proposed that
the site was built for both funerary purposes and as a means for
<b>"excarnation"</b>, the removal of flesh from the bones of the deceased for
placement in ossuaries, or bone boxes, by the ancient Chalcolithic
inhabitants of the area. He begins his argument with a description of
these small clay ossuaries discovered in the hundreds at various
archaeological sites dated to Chalcolithic times. Unlike the mortuary
practices of the Jews in the Jerusalem area during the First Century B.C
and First Century A.D., when the deceased were allowed to decay away to
their bones for a year in rock-carved cavities in burial caves before
deposition of the disarticulated bones into ossuaries, there is no
evidence indicating how the earlier Chalcolithic peoples of the Rujm
el-Hiri area reduced the bodies of the deceased to bones for placement
in their ossuaries. He suggests, based on the anthropological record of
excarnation or<b> "sky burial" practices</b> of various cultures and
civilizations, as well as his interpretation of archaeological finds at
various sites, that the flesh of the bodies of their deceased were
permitted to be consumed by birds of prey, specifically vultures, which
can divest a body of its flesh within hours. He points, for example, to
the ancient Zoroastrian<a href="http://wikimapia.org/659034/Tower-of-Silence-The-Dokhma"> </a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><a href="http://wikimapia.org/659034/Tower-of-Silence-The-Dokhma">dokhmas</a></b></span>,
or "towers of silence", whereby vultures would eat away the flesh from
the bones of the dead placed on raised platforms, at least partly as a
means of protecting the soil environment from pollution by decaying
bodies. <b>He suggests that the concentric walls of Rujm el-Hiri, which
were built at progressively lower heights toward the central tumulus,
allowed for vultures to easily view the laid-out bodies from their
perches atop the walls.</b> After the vultures did their work, the bones
could then be freed of their flesh and disarticulated and placed in
ossuaries, many of which were designed like houses or miniature
granaries or silos.</i> </div>
</blockquote>
Note the close correspondence between a circle of heaped stones in the above photo, and the heaped-up chalk of the typical henge in Wiltshire. Were that the only correspondence, the case for both having a role in 'skeletonizing' of the dead would be weak. But EACH site offers supportive evidence for such a role that few if any have attempted to account for in those other narratives to do with pagan rituals, worship, cults of the dead etc etc. Arav has pointed out that the heights of the 5 concentric stone circles decreases towards the centre, ensuring that perched vultures are always assured of an unobstructed line of sight. Well spotted, Dr.Arav. So what can Stonehenge offer that can match that kind of persuasive albeit circumstantial evidence?</div>
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Well, there's the placement of the bank <strike>inside</strike> <i>outside</i> the ditch at Avebury, allowing proximity and clear view (but only if permitted by site guardians to first surmount the slope!) . But there's only the one henge, not a concentric series. However, there's something at Avebury (and Stonehenge) that the Golan site did not offer, which is an <b>alternative choice of perch locations,</b> superior ones to the crests of chalk banks one might feel, namely <b>timber posts</b>, later to be followed by <b>standing stones</b>, for which no coherent explanation has been offered other than (yawn...) "ritual".</div>
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<br />
Ah yes - <b>timber posts. </b>They get a tentative mention early on (and at plenty of other sites close to Stonehenge, the appropriately named Woodhenge especially, about which more later). Here's another artist's impression from the Chris Collyer site:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLCSe0_BjaUa94Sr4k7B_d27AlJ7lv1IYqYfamX-4CItU78gE8cFghqNT7I81T4htj2jMy-QodC8pM6ycioEv2iS4cnV07Hdlvd9uRgyJIaega0KAyOe5UZ65EGJqRd62Sosux9doOc1gE/s1600/4.+stonehengephase1timber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLCSe0_BjaUa94Sr4k7B_d27AlJ7lv1IYqYfamX-4CItU78gE8cFghqNT7I81T4htj2jMy-QodC8pM6ycioEv2iS4cnV07Hdlvd9uRgyJIaega0KAyOe5UZ65EGJqRd62Sosux9doOc1gE/s1600/4.+stonehengephase1timber.jpg" /></a></div>
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Yes., it's strongly suspected that the so-called Aubrey Holes (or pits) named after their 17th century discoverer first had timber posts at the start of their chequered history, as shown above. Now why put in timber posts? They are hardly architectural features, comparable to the bluestones that followed.</div>
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Thinks, what possible purpose might timber posts have served? Might Mother Nature provide a clue, one that exists to this day?</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdMtUn8LwoSKzLaU2iWi2l0U7Vhwhq0cUW9PFHRJ_-LvoB8wSeykxS_FgQ-VlZSS9NFyPvvWVBg9VfxhMaJpTSV8droSdQHioBp70SDBHuLuliHwhg9q6x2muMTNAcMuN_ZmI_9t5Ye98/s1600/1.+11850378_100445873645753_308043320_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdMtUn8LwoSKzLaU2iWi2l0U7Vhwhq0cUW9PFHRJ_-LvoB8wSeykxS_FgQ-VlZSS9NFyPvvWVBg9VfxhMaJpTSV8droSdQHioBp70SDBHuLuliHwhg9q6x2muMTNAcMuN_ZmI_9t5Ye98/s1600/1.+11850378_100445873645753_308043320_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Standing room only (or perching as the locals would say)</b></td></tr>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b> Third instalment: Friday May 6</b><br />
<br />
Today's task will not be easy. I will attempt to summarize what English Heritage refers to as Stonehenge's "timber phase" in its tourist guide.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>From "Stonehenge", page 34 (English Heritage). </b>Please ignore my earlier colour-coded highlighting - for personal convenience,</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Why not easy? Because on close reading one finds there were at least 3 different timber phases and/or timber locations, each with its own particular complexity and uncertainty.<br />
<br />
But let's waste no time in making a serious criticism of English Heritage: despite describing Stonehenge from Page 1 as "Britain's greatest temple", nowhere, I repeat NOWHERE, does it attempt to explain why the standing stones were preceded by timber, and/or why timber was considered appropriate for something that was a "temple" as distinct from serving some more mundane role that was then continued in more durable form with stone instead of timber. I say EH is attempting to impose a cramping narrative, which it has no business doing. It's role is stewardship (which most visitors consider leaves much to be desired) NOT the proselytizing of a vague, unsubstantiated airy-fairy narrative that attempts to impose or prempt alternative interpretations.<br />
<br />
But Stonehenge is surely a place for pre-Christian worship of the sun, given the alignment of the the standing stone circles, the Avenue etc? It's surely a "temple", an unquestionable given?<br />
<br />
Nope: Read what the fleeting reference in the EH tourist guide (page 33) has to say (my bolding):<br />
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<i>"Recent excavations have provided the first clues as to why
Stonehenge is located where it is. The Avenue may originally have been marked
by parallel <b>natural gullies created at the end of the last Ice Age, which were
visible in the landscape and coincidentally aligned on the winter and summer
solstices.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also the possibility
that the Heel Stone is a rare local sarsen, discovered very close to where it
now stands. A combination of these <b>two striking natural phenomena</b> may well have
provided the impetus for the work that followed."</i></div>
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<br />
<br />
<b>Apols for not getting back today</b> to complete the 'timber phase'. Apart from being out visiting old friends with a rural location, a crop of comments has appeared on the Megalithic Portal site addressed to this blogger's theory re Stonehenge, which I'm now inclined to refer to as AFS (Avian-Facilitated Skeletonization). See the site for<a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=7006&forum=4&start=0"> comments/criticisms and my response.</a><br />
<br />
Yes, AFS (Avian-Facilitated Skeletonization) - the key to understanding the existence and purpose of Stonehenge and similar sites (Avebury, Woodhenge and possibly much further afield). Consider it a more scientific version of "sky burial", again without specifying the precise agent that converts a body into a skeleton.<br />
<br />
But if someone has a funeral urn in their modern-day home for preserving the cremated mineral remains of a loved-one, do we immediately round on them for perpetuating an ancient barbaric practice, laced with those terms so beloved of our media like "gruesome", "grisly", "bizarre" etc, with references to "defleshing of the dead"? No. We don't. So shame on our rush-to-judgement media for their attempts to besmirch a Stonehenge-era funeral practice that was closely related to modern day cremation, albeit using unsophisticated <b>bio</b>technology in place of modern high-temperature technology. Indeed, I suspect they probably deployed cremation as an end-stage, ie. incinerating the incompletely-isolated skeleton as a final clean-up rather than entire body, it being far more economical and less polluting. <br />
<br />
Who said some methods of disposing of the dead were easier and more aesthetically pleasing than others? No one that I recall. There are no easy options, and the options in 2500BC were more restricted than they are today.<br />
<br />
You just can't get the journalists these days....<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Saturday May 7</b><br />
<br />
Change of mind. this posting is long enough as it is, and in any case I've had my time cut out responding to the <a href="http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=7006&forum=4&start=0">10 or so comments thus far on the Megalithic Portal site.</a><br />
<br />
The priority right now is not delving into the complexities of Stonehenge's timber precursors, which attract no interest or speculation whatsoever from mainstream archaeology. It's getting across the basic message arrived at thus far, spelled out on the Megalithic Portal site, namely that what took place at Stonehenge, Avebury and other associations of outer henge with inner standing stones was essentially<b> AFS (avian-facilitated skeletonization, aka sky burial) probably in most instances with a final cleaning up via TFS (thermally-facilitated skeletonization, aka end-stage cremation of bone, largely depleted of soft tissue).</b><br />
<br />
I shall also be setting out formally the reasons why the new hypothesis/theory fills in numerous gaps in our understanding of the various Neolithic sites. <i>(That's historic, not internet sites).</i> Everything as they say now falls into place (at least for this jaded science bod, long accustomed to being wrong-footed and fed fake narratives - ones that are more by way of lazy or wishful thinking than serious analysis based upon hard evidence).</div>
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<![endif]-->sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-70102932732301392882016-04-30T13:19:00.002-07:002016-10-23T03:11:48.888-07:00How Britain came to possess Stonehenge, Avebury stone circle, Silbury Hill etc - in just 350 words.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, here in just 10 main points, 350 words (max) is my new theory for how and why
Britain came to acquire <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>Stonehenge</b>,
<b>Avebury, Silbury Hill</b>, i.e. a wealth of <b>Neolithic-era henges, standing stone circles
</b>etc.</div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPFfNMP8Ke4szY65PIKwm9mgO4yIpev_H9eJbT-wgDWZtMP5704C0gZNZvIcLV-eK_MUx5KSw62giDEQ_bSIpu4G3MmY12PRy-eJ7-uehKjIwnWhxZDrA2YA5AgbTFyTwe4GTVvmRj9wg/s1600/banner%252C+sussing+out+stonehenge+and+silbury+hill+blog+site.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPFfNMP8Ke4szY65PIKwm9mgO4yIpev_H9eJbT-wgDWZtMP5704C0gZNZvIcLV-eK_MUx5KSw62giDEQ_bSIpu4G3MmY12PRy-eJ7-uehKjIwnWhxZDrA2YA5AgbTFyTwe4GTVvmRj9wg/s320/banner%252C+sussing+out+stonehenge+and+silbury+hill+blog+site.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/">Specialist site</a> for one of this science blogger's longer-term research interests. See also <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/">Shroud of Turin</a>.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: red;"><b>Main points:</b></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><b>1. </b></span>In the Neolithic pre-copper, pre-Bronze age era, approx. 4,500 years ago or more, there
were <b>no metal tools to dig graves </b>for the dead – only antler picks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><b>2.</b></span> There were <b>no metal tools to cut down trees</b> to supply
timber for cremation on funeral pyres - only flints.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><b>3.</b></span> Consequently, defleshing of the dead was standard
practice, aka <b>‘excarnation’.</b> It was seen as releasing the imprisoned-soul, leaving
relatively clean bones for storage and veneration.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLr9vEEKfGsEqYZF6U56AEHb7sBUiEK-pxA3x1luCKKhY_3K6N92Z4khn2GRviHKUGzEFZrGEE-o27rsXYHp110KQlsepI6GlwtOI4PYeP-k3B6BawNeIQFVZxsus_Sykzz_hG5x2aD_2/s1600/3675+chalk+and+pointing+finger_0.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLr9vEEKfGsEqYZF6U56AEHb7sBUiEK-pxA3x1luCKKhY_3K6N92Z4khn2GRviHKUGzEFZrGEE-o27rsXYHp110KQlsepI6GlwtOI4PYeP-k3B6BawNeIQFVZxsus_Sykzz_hG5x2aD_2/s200/3675+chalk+and+pointing+finger_0.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">(</span>Update: Friday May 6</span>: </span></b><span style="color: black;">see my latest posting with its proposal that the term "excarnation" be replaced on internet forums<span style="color: red;"> <span style="color: black;">and media outlets generally</span> </span>with<a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.fr/2016/05/the-true-purpose-of-stonehenge-was.html"> "skeletonization".)</a></span></i><b><br /></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>4</b></span>. The preferred means of excarnation was <b>"sky burial"</b> –
exposing the bodies to <b>scavenger birds.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><b>5,</b></span> Britain has few if any vultures. A substitute had to be
attracted. It was probably the “seagull”, better described simply as <b>the gull</b>, with
a <b>voracious appetite</b> and propensity to forage and indeed nest and reproduce <b>far
inland. </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBguMv9qqAlX6ir9UJHn5x_8wkA-3nnB5h2zDxkJpp1Pf0sY7Ov5RhLZF6bB_kYASAJLwLykvoClZ0JUjPExvxMlYzYdwzwJRPO7p7JmJVCMZWEzp1xtObOMrHaVNh7v8uesNC43wc9Mgd/s1600/vulture+v+seagull+cross+and+tick.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBguMv9qqAlX6ir9UJHn5x_8wkA-3nnB5h2zDxkJpp1Pf0sY7Ov5RhLZF6bB_kYASAJLwLykvoClZ0JUjPExvxMlYzYdwzwJRPO7p7JmJVCMZWEzp1xtObOMrHaVNh7v8uesNC43wc9Mgd/s320/vulture+v+seagull+cross+and+tick.png" width="320" /></a></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b>6</b></span>. A way had to be found for attracting gulls to an
excarnation site, and encouraging them to take up residence.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFYOQmZRqfdNEq_FwErszEDRAqZr1W1BRjXTpqTcguVcHXme6fGytPiIOE7CVhaHfKttNNJfFK1WvbI28zKIXFT-1kMt-wEmYCLSRuUOYcrGbE_p5g6jswjFrJTfnRPnLc3ofYVQy4AqS-/s1600/seagulls+at+dump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFYOQmZRqfdNEq_FwErszEDRAqZr1W1BRjXTpqTcguVcHXme6fGytPiIOE7CVhaHfKttNNJfFK1WvbI28zKIXFT-1kMt-wEmYCLSRuUOYcrGbE_p5g6jswjFrJTfnRPnLc3ofYVQy4AqS-/s320/seagulls+at+dump.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Gulls are not fussy eaters (seen here at rubbish dump)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b>7.</b></span> The first sites were <b>man-made scars in chalk uplands</b>, either
linear of circular, made by digging out the chalk and heaping it up at the edge
of the ditch. Seagulls were attracted to the <b>artificial <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“white cliffs”, visible from afar.</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHwyXEkOs5HluIQWvkitAABMFuukmns7cSkOlCFn6j6bycNvn-HJy5fiOVgDc14nqwX1Fn0QD5Olmt7ymwRuy-Bwu_ZWiHDllfLxT9FDc_yc2_tLDvk_ryg4OXqr8ib8ZWFRLyjc6j8uVm/s1600/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHwyXEkOs5HluIQWvkitAABMFuukmns7cSkOlCFn6j6bycNvn-HJy5fiOVgDc14nqwX1Fn0QD5Olmt7ymwRuy-Bwu_ZWiHDllfLxT9FDc_yc2_tLDvk_ryg4OXqr8ib8ZWFRLyjc6j8uVm/s320/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>A man-made henge (artist's impression). Gulls would feel at home, perched on that "cliff top". The standing stones were a later <i>de luxe</i> feature.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b>8</b></span>. The tops of the “cliffs” provide <b>perches for the gulls</b>
with some early warning of the approach of predators (foxes etc).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those “man-made” cliffs are what today we
call <b>“henges”</b> etc (<b>“cursus”</b> too).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><b>9.</b></span> The next step was for the guardians of excarnation sites
to install <b>tall timber posts</b>, moving the perches closer to the centre of the
henge or cursus, closer to the laid-out offerings.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><b>10</b></span>. The final step was to replace the timber posts with
<b>standing stones</b>, durable bird perches, no more, no less.</div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: magenta;"><b>The rest is detail, like:</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: magenta;"><b> (a)</b></span> adding <b>lintel cross-pieces</b> onto Stonehenge to
extend the perching area, like:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>(b)</b></span> <i>initially </i>preferring <b>igneous Welsh bluestone</b>
over local sarsen sandstone (easier to keep clean), like:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: magenta;"><b>(c)</b></span> building <b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>barrows to house excarnated bones</b>, with or
without a <b>final ‘cleansing’ cremation,</b> like:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: magenta;"><b> (d)</b></span> building <b>Silbury Hill</b> in small
instalments, maybe as a repository for a token soft-tissue interment (probably
the heart?).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
See previous postings on this and my <a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/">“Sussing Stonehenge site</a> (see home page banner above) for how these ideas evolved organically via small incremental steps.
Sadly, from a time-and-motion study perspective, they did not arrive in a sudden flash of inspiration.<br />
<br />
<b>Update: Tue May 3</b> <br />
<br />
Have just placed this comment on the splendid Ancient-Origins site, regarding its recent coverage of the 'mysterious' Korean dolmens. (How silly of me to have overlooked dolmens thus far, given they can be seen as key intermediaries between single standing stones and Stonehenge's lintelled trilithons - think transition from bird perch to bird table!):<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first">
<span class="views-field views-field-title"> <b class="views-label views-label-title">Reply to: </b> <span class="field-content"><a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/looking-origins-mysterious-dolmens-korea-005808">Looking for the Origins of the Mysterious Dolmens of Korea</a></span> </span>
<span class="views-field views-field-timestamp"> <span class="field-content"><i class="placeholder">1 hour 24 min</i> ago</span> </span>
<div class="views-field views-field-name">
<b class="views-label views-label-name">Comment Author: </b> <span class="field-content"><a class="username" href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/users/colin-berry" title="View user profile.">Colin Berry</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-replyto-comment">
<span class="field-content"><a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/comment/reply/5808/19042">reply to comment</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-subject">
<span class="field-content"><a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/comment/19042#comment-19042">Rosetta Stone of stone circles?</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-comment">
<div class="field-content">
Oops.
This handy feature on Korean dolmens seems to have led to what
optimistically might be called the Rosetta Stone of stone circles!<br />
Simply googling (dolmen sky burial) led to a 2011 article in Popular
Archaeology detailing the work of Dr.Rami Arav on a series of concentric
circles assembled from loose basalt stones in the Golan Heights with a
single dolmen at the centre.<br />
<a href="http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2011/article/solving-the-mystery-of-a-megalithic-monument-in-the-land-of-giants">http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2011/article/solving-the-mystery-of-a-megalithic-monument-in-the-land-of-giants</a><br />
Spot the parallels with the henges of England with excavated ditches
supplying chalk banks on which birds can perch. Spot the links between
standing stones bridged by cross piece lintels (dolmens or geometrically
equivalent but megalithic Stonehenge trilithons) making a bigger and
better perch for birds (“bird table” in effect). Then compare what Arav
has to say regarding excarnation (via sky burial”) and what I have said
in my most recent posting:<br />
<a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.fr/2016/04/how-britain-came-to-possess-stonehenge.html">http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.fr/2016/04/how-britain-came-to-possess-stonehenge.html</a><br />
Yup, I think it’s no exaggeration to state that Arav’s stone circles
with central dolmen are the Rosetta Stone which point to excarnation
being international common practice in the pre-Bronze Age – from
England, to the Middle East to Korea!<br />
Excuse me while I pick up all the scales that have recently fallen
from an ageing pair of eyes! When’s English Heritage going to stop
introducing Stonehenge in its tourist guide as a “temple”, channelling
thought and speculation into scientifically-unproductive channels?
Always look first for a utilitarian role first where Neolithic
re-arranging of heavy stone is concerned – especially when megalithic...</div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
Have just discovered that the Golan stone circles/dolmen were the subject of a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3313626/Prehistoric-Stonehenge-monument-Golan-Heights-fuels-mystery.html">Mail feature </a>just 6 months ago.<br />
<br />
One of the 10 comments to date accuses the writer of "gruesome, baseless speculation" presumably a reference to the brief (very brief!) mention of sky burial.<br />
One suspects there's a lot more of that kind of sentiment out there. It's understandable I guess, but is a sad reflection all the same on the lack of scientific objectivity that exists out there...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-25388380017734835742016-04-27T12:03:00.000-07:002016-04-29T12:12:59.323-07:00 Might Stonehenge have been designed as an easily-spottable feeding station for high-flying seagulls – as perhaps was the nearby “Cursus”? Birds find the crosspiece lintels of Stonehenge an attractive place to perch.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-M5NZwOVaA6lgr5mVfgDIveCUxN7NqH7UfJhH866p8FIuwyakgULB-awSpsdo0oiBixlg8VSr3LFHa65hF0SNy9WUuApx0fbRm_Nx0FTtpuYVidVHJnF3yG_UjpfTjYYN6ZuznLhRd8D/s1600/birds+stonehenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-M5NZwOVaA6lgr5mVfgDIveCUxN7NqH7UfJhH866p8FIuwyakgULB-awSpsdo0oiBixlg8VSr3LFHa65hF0SNy9WUuApx0fbRm_Nx0FTtpuYVidVHJnF3yG_UjpfTjYYN6ZuznLhRd8D/s1600/birds+stonehenge.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
It's this blogger's contention that the predilection of birds generally to congregate in large numbers on those lintels was no accident. I maintain that was precisely the intention of its builders some 4,500 years ago (with maybe earlier prototypes with timber posts instead of standing stones). But it probably wasn't starlings or pigeons that were welcome, but more aggressively voracious species (seagulls especially), driving off unwanted competition.<br />
<br />
That's because Stonehenge was not built solely as a monument, a self-indulgent folly to dominate the chalk uplands of Wiltshire. It had an important and necessary role to play in Neolithic society in disposal of the dead, at a time when burial was not an easy option (chalk subsoil, no metal picks or spades) and cremation was arguably considered hugely wasteful of scarce timber. More on those details later,<br />
<br />
But the idea for Stonehenge in all its glory did not come clean out of the blue. There had been a nearby prototype that I suspect was also attracting birds from afar, despite having no standing stones, merely an elevated bank of chalk, looping back on itself, next to a shallow ditch from which the chalk had been excavated.<br />
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Here's one of those (I suspect) magnificent Judith Dobie reconstructions, discovered from searching internet image files, where one picture is worth a thousand words.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZEn3b551suT29-zCnaTHCJlBViCIfCr0LB0kh_d8U8w0ZHupqb864O7MPfx9lFXAIHvJbjKzpi2jFcccTvhLMrwW-i-APSDvW7-azDtmi7UTRv9-3CXBWmXaRnswh_OPz6_B4iUTnsHhJ/s1600/1.+48697+stonehenge+cursus+with+yellow+circle+round+birds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZEn3b551suT29-zCnaTHCJlBViCIfCr0LB0kh_d8U8w0ZHupqb864O7MPfx9lFXAIHvJbjKzpi2jFcccTvhLMrwW-i-APSDvW7-azDtmi7UTRv9-3CXBWmXaRnswh_OPz6_B4iUTnsHhJ/s400/1.+48697+stonehenge+cursus+with+yellow+circle+round+birds.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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That's the nearby site, just half a mile to the north. It's called the Stonehenge Cursus.(Let's skip for now the reasons why it acquired that Latin name - which was ill-chosen as it happens).<br />
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I've been a bit naughty, and ringed the birds in yellow, they playing such a key role in this narrative, one that has been steadily evolving in ever-greater detail but hopefully SIMPLICITY in the past dozen or so postings, starting 2012.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYaABiwa2-tIL78DL2XAGhq8mYwpgZ2J-3mJOw9nEThOXvNUzmUjwDPxu7PccIdFees90r0g2hTgKf48rh9qRP8sA4loT5naDRbUciXGXdATiJR46VK934ZJnQMqE9Tm4IVD0QGCU0_n2l/s1600/2.+labelled+cursus+and+stonehenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYaABiwa2-tIL78DL2XAGhq8mYwpgZ2J-3mJOw9nEThOXvNUzmUjwDPxu7PccIdFees90r0g2hTgKf48rh9qRP8sA4loT5naDRbUciXGXdATiJR46VK934ZJnQMqE9Tm4IVD0QGCU0_n2l/s320/2.+labelled+cursus+and+stonehenge.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
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The downward pointing red arrow shows the location and size of the Cursus. It's the faint wand-shaped dotted line, running approx west to east. The lower arrow points up to the blue-hatched area which is Stonehenge. The only reason for showing this is to get across the important point that they are next-door neighbours, something visitors to Stonehenge might not appreciate. Why not?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dI5KNwSlEy3Vp9iuez00MwCUORfYSP0hiShtsAd-rj3hUcbcr7J3s9v06eVH5JUGkwDv1Xd4T4pXZ29M6VFG2wrhshZ3agpY_Z4MgvfAKHnRbyOAY6RnzSigci5egyAQIxSxrI_zBbSU/s1600/3.cursus+with+and+without+added+white+line.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dI5KNwSlEy3Vp9iuez00MwCUORfYSP0hiShtsAd-rj3hUcbcr7J3s9v06eVH5JUGkwDv1Xd4T4pXZ29M6VFG2wrhshZ3agpY_Z4MgvfAKHnRbyOAY6RnzSigci5egyAQIxSxrI_zBbSU/s400/3.cursus+with+and+without+added+white+line.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Well, here's an aerial view of the Cursus, and one has to look hard to distinguish it from the surrounding farmland. The picture on the right shows its approximate extent. It's long - longer than it may seem in the photo, i.e. 1.7 miles. It would take most folk at least a half hour to walk from one end to the other at a brisk pace,<br />
<br />
Why would anyone choose to create such a peculiar feature in the countryside, requiring the shifting of great amounts of chalk, with nothing but antler picks (see the previous artwork)?<br />
<br />
By all means consult wiki, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursus">the generic entry "Cursus" especially</a> (some 50 or more of which are known!) but I'm not wasting time, reviewing what I consider to be largely empty speculation, with no attempt to muster secondary supporting evidence.The question as to the real purpose of that gigantic Cursus is one that is wide open to all-comers, so I shall now proceed to make my pitch. It's a natural organic development of the preceding model that has taken in Silbury Hill as well as Stonehenge, the reasons for including Welsh-origin bluestones and much else besides.<br />
<br />
It's to do with attracting birds, especially meat-eating scavenging birds. Probably the first that come to mind where both modern and Neolithic southern England are concerned would be rooks, crows, ravens etc, But I'm becoming steadily more enamoured of the idea that the favoured species may have been the gull, aka seagull (whether sea-based or inland), given its voracious appetite and unfussy diet preferences. Let's suppose that 4,500 years ago, inland gulls were a bit of a rarity, that they only penetrated inland if there was a reasonable prospect of finding plenty to eat. How far would they need to come?<br />
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The closest sea is Southampton Water (along which this blogger and wife sailed In the stately and majestic passenger liner "France" in 1972 on our return from 2 years in the States). That's the green line on the map, a distance of approx 30 miles or so as the crow (or seagull) flies.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIlDA_mItj0xbGY2PFcaSnW6GJqZSFcQQ0TcuY0BRDe6uXa6WC1r48E4jPGl2sAjtUjEwgoGHiwRafGyfWtQL0v9_J8YChzK3r3G-9eKBaiDolAmkjanteqGdp-Q7Vd3nIRe-WXiu4D1I/s1600/4.cursus+to+southampton+water+red+v+black+routes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIlDA_mItj0xbGY2PFcaSnW6GJqZSFcQQ0TcuY0BRDe6uXa6WC1r48E4jPGl2sAjtUjEwgoGHiwRafGyfWtQL0v9_J8YChzK3r3G-9eKBaiDolAmkjanteqGdp-Q7Vd3nIRe-WXiu4D1I/s400/4.cursus+to+southampton+water+red+v+black+routes.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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They might also come from the Bristol Channel (red line) but that flight is somewhat longer than the southerly approach. The latter is "easier" to navigate from the air too, being wild-life friendly waterways (Rivers Test, Dun, Hampshire Avon etc ) most of the way and going to within a mile or two of Stonehenge and the Cursus.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5sfElOf4ouwvygGlG3RUNmk4Nkzm4Bdn0TK6VO8lFiO8BeyNgldoxY6E6MyGRqupYmYKIND74hoefwCZGRv-kcKjtaDMZV6rK4JH_Yp4eH2SjbqSPLDiaF2S_sTLm4Z6xvNCh-VIYOrRY/s1600/5.+google+earth+stonehenge%252C+cursus%252C+woodhenge+and+durrington+walls.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5sfElOf4ouwvygGlG3RUNmk4Nkzm4Bdn0TK6VO8lFiO8BeyNgldoxY6E6MyGRqupYmYKIND74hoefwCZGRv-kcKjtaDMZV6rK4JH_Yp4eH2SjbqSPLDiaF2S_sTLm4Z6xvNCh-VIYOrRY/s400/5.+google+earth+stonehenge%252C+cursus%252C+woodhenge+and+durrington+walls.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Now here's a Google satellite map of Stonehenge (red marker) and the Cursus, just visible to the north like a very narrow race track. Our first 'tourist' seagull would see nothing to catch its eye.<br />
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But now consider how it might look (in plan view for starters) after excavating a ditch in the chalk and piling up the chalk one the outer sides to make a bank.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEn_smYjDLHKgLCSPV1kVl_6bozkCPOSKl9cJnptiQr1caGxiEIIwPS0wdHt3k1Uk6RrMZ-DO3IHv_JAuHxpyosr7mtcR_m4CsdSlUowJYzXX2JgismdKaX1NgTR6IcfEdOxrh3kUOVyQA/s1600/6.+google%252C+cursus+bolder+white+border+3+sides.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEn_smYjDLHKgLCSPV1kVl_6bozkCPOSKl9cJnptiQr1caGxiEIIwPS0wdHt3k1Uk6RrMZ-DO3IHv_JAuHxpyosr7mtcR_m4CsdSlUowJYzXX2JgismdKaX1NgTR6IcfEdOxrh3kUOVyQA/s400/6.+google%252C+cursus+bolder+white+border+3+sides.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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That's highly conspicuous as shown in plan view, if not quite what our peripatetic gull would see, exploring the upper reaches of the Avon in search of food, due to the foreshortening effect. However, at some point on its journey it would see a highly conspicuous twin track scar across the distant line of the Wessex Downs against the sky, probably from afar (5 miles? 10miles?) Double white lines stand out well from their surroundings, especially when arrow-straight and pure white.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRtLhZ-6LWl72LPA8mnML9qrJBnJJe9RaKVGlCCJ7jsvrvIdx9QdmduEPzigz-i06P5JHlRZsNDBVdgj_dtDVd4ddSdvQCZP7jpPgvaeN-z0YfNKXgViAcgbBicBPqKQhQBmoCuB4nVY56/s1600/7.+3d+oblique+image+j.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRtLhZ-6LWl72LPA8mnML9qrJBnJJe9RaKVGlCCJ7jsvrvIdx9QdmduEPzigz-i06P5JHlRZsNDBVdgj_dtDVd4ddSdvQCZP7jpPgvaeN-z0YfNKXgViAcgbBicBPqKQhQBmoCuB4nVY56/s400/7.+3d+oblique+image+j.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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I've used some 3D-rendering software(Image J) to get an oblique "birds-eye-view of the Cursus, Ignore the exaggerated 3D!<br />
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The proposition here is that the Cursus was deliberately designed to attract attention from on high (either from the heavens, the destination of souls destined for "sky burial", or more mundanely, passing birds, gulls especially. Yes, we are talking here about "excarnation" aka defleshing, which gets scarcely a mention on mass-media reporting of Neolithic sites, though the Birmingam/Vienna "Secret Landscape " magnetometer-scanning project briefly alluded to in connection with the so-called"House of the Dead" on the edge of the Woodhenge site. (See posting immediately preceding this one, in which I dispute its identification as a house, while concurring - enthusiastically!- with the archaeologists that it was indeed an excarnation site, albeit open air - no roof- designed to attract scavenging birds).<br />
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The major search engine has suddenly ceased listing my current blog postings, for reasons that can be deduced from reading the previous posting. For that reason, I shan't delay in posting this one, incomplete though it is. A blog is after all a "web log", a diary, a 'work in progess'. If that's just one of the reasons why the search engine downgrades it, giving precedence to slick material posted for commercial gain - or preliminary angling/softening up of an e-commerce sales prospect - then it's time to stop relying on the search engine as a channel of communication, and rely more on direct contact. I shall flag up this new posting on a round-robin email, with just a handful of key recipients for starters.<br />
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So what will come next? Answer: lichens. The lichens on Stonehenge might, just might, help to support a role for seabirds, gulls especially, as agents of inland excarnation. Each individual item of evidence may be negligible in itself, but becomes noteworthy if slotting into a coherent narrative, as I believe excarnation has become - essentially a common denominator- with explanations for Silbury Hill, Welsh igneous bluestones etc (see previous postings on this and <a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/">my specialist Neolithic site)</a>,<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Apols. My newly installed widget for "Latest Comments" has failed. Shame. Can't understand why Google (who own Blogger) don't provide it as standard, thus requiring one to seek third-party assistance .I guess Google is too busy turning its search engine into a glorified trade directory, to say nothing of gathering personal data on us all, to be bothered with such things.</span><br />
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<br />
<br />
<b> Late addition: those lichens (as promised).</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydkwyRpPdXNT3Jn54-DJLjKZRciE2TmaOiWE7sbIEkDo3-H6fHcu3Ar48aWQdobL65OBuPsnLnBcvURj4Gzqq9F24g81JhKRnrwJDjXEs7SK8TB4iWyporCcmpVSXw7CLiUnz8amHyD2N/s1600/Sarsen_stone_B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydkwyRpPdXNT3Jn54-DJLjKZRciE2TmaOiWE7sbIEkDo3-H6fHcu3Ar48aWQdobL65OBuPsnLnBcvURj4Gzqq9F24g81JhKRnrwJDjXEs7SK8TB4iWyporCcmpVSXw7CLiUnz8amHyD2N/s320/Sarsen_stone_B.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption later</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<br />
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Time now to introduce some curious details re the liches at
Stonehenge. I quote from the tourist guide to English Heritage:</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<b>“ A lichen survey at Stonehenge in
2003 found that there were 77 different species growing on the stones, several
of which are nationally rare or scarce. Although it is hard to date lichens ,
as new growth is constantly replacing old, it will have taken hundreds of
years for this range of species to become established on the stones. The lichen
types at Stonehenge are broadly similar to those at the nearby stone circle at
Avebury, but with some interesting exceptions.</b></div>
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<b><i> Buellia saxorum</i>, a type of lichen
that specializes in colonizing sarsen stones and which is widespread at Avebury, is totally absent from Stonehenge for no apparent reason. Equally
surprising, many of the lichen species found at Stonehenge usually grow only on
exposed coastlines. It is possible that the prevailing winds at Stonehenge,
blowing in from the Atlantic, may have encouraged those species to grow, but
again, specialists have not been able to find a convincing explanation, so not
all the mysteries of Stonehenge are archaeological.”</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Yes, English Heritage, the prevailing wind explanation might explain Stonehenge’s curiously salt-tolerant lichens, but if that’s the case, why are they not present at Avebury, a mere 25 miles or so north as the crow (or seagull) flies? <br />
<br />
Might it be that the two sites attracted (or were designed to attract) different types of bird visitor, and that one brought more salt with it than the other. Like gulls, those highly adaptable gulls that seem so adept at comining or switching between different lifestyles, depending on where the food supplies are most abundant at any particular time.</div>
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<br /></blockquote>
<br />
<b>Now there's something exceptional about gulls and some other species:</b><br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
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Briefly, gulls are able to drink
salt as well as fresh water. Reason: they have special salt-excreting glands
above the eyes. They excrete the excess salt from those glands which runs down
to beak in liquid drops or trickles, which they then shake off. <i>(See images below, added as an afterthought).</i><br />
<br />
So, the seagulls brought seaside lichen on their bodies, deposited some on the stones. those lichens were not only salt-tolerant, but accustomed to salt, indeed thrived on ot, and regular visits by gulls, whether "seagulls" or inland dwellers kep that particular type of lcihen alive. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So the working hypothesis is that
Stonehenge, seeded so to speak with salt-tolerant lichens and regular supples of salt, continued to attract sea birds from some 30
miles away, as did its nearby predecessor, the Cursus. After a while, some may have made the excarnations sites of Wiltshire their regular home.<br />
<br />
Maybe the Cursus and the subsequent Stonehenge were each in their separate ways designed to attract gulls. Why might that be?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Gulls are not only, highly adaptable, but voracious
feeders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone seeing them congregating
at they used to at landfill sites prior to domestic recycling bins would be aware of that. They are also opportunist predatory
carnivores, attacking live animals like pigeons, even surfacing whales we are
told. Might Neolithic man have found a use for this proclivity on the part of
gulls, and less aggressive, less voracious species prepared to join in, like crows, ravens, rooks etc. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Answer, yes, in helping to solve the
problem of how to dispose of the dead when living on chalk upland with thin
soils overlying chalk.</div>
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<br />
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<br />
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Burial was difficult with nothing but
deer antlers to break up the chalk.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cremation (of entire body) requires great amounts of dry timber, supplies of which were limited.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why not let nature help? Enter <b>sky
burial</b>, the reliance on scavenging birds to excarnate, i.e. deflesh a body. It may
take days or even weeks, but the end result can be cremated with far
less timber to produce a small take-away package, and the bereaved relatives can console
themselves with the thought that while they have<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a memento of the physical person, the soul, initially
captive within the mortal frame, has been released to the skies, and indeed
heavens.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here’s the hypothesis is a semi-complete form:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Early Neolithic man, maybe his predecessors too, acquired
the art, or should that be science, of sky burial. It<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>required exposing the
dead to the elements initially, but that was an uncertain process. Gradually
the knack was acquired to attract scavenger birds in sizeable numbers that could effect a reasonably efficient
job of defleshing. But attracting birds, and encouraging them to hang around,
awaiting the next meal, and the next, was not something that could be left to chance, not whennewly-deceased are
arriving daily.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Cursus solution: one can see the birds, gulls
especially, wheeling in the sky to the south, the direction of the sea. Create a
prominent straight line gouge, correction, double gouge in the gleaming white chalk roughly east-west
across the Downs. Lay the bodies out between the two easily-spotted horizontal tracks.
One might even strip away the turf between the two tracks so as to lay the corpses on bare chalk
where they are better seen. To begin with, feathered visitors have to be content with perching on the tops of the surrounding chalk bank, but that was in time seen as
something that needed improving upon. To make a permanent or semi-permanent home at an excarnation site ,bird<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">s </span>probably preferred something higher where they had a better view and
were less at risk from ground-predators like wolves, foxes etc. Those arrow
heads in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursus">wiki entry for Cursus btw</a> may well have belonged to a Neolithic marksman on “fox patrol” or similar, protecting
the birds from predators, or indeed the corpses from non-bird scavengers that
might be tempted to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>steal from the site,
compromising the principle of SKY burial. Forget archery contests. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The chalk strip with its banks and ditches was Phase 1. The next
logical development was to provide better bird perches. Enter the period of (a)
timber poles and (b) standing stones, all designed to attract and retain a ‘working
population’ of excarnating birds, content to stay put, uninclined to return to
their native habitat while there was guaranteed food available on a 24/7 basis.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In short, a narrow chalk ridge oval<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> with heaped up sides</span> was the forerunner of timber and stone
circles. The guests were made to feel welcome at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>both, but felt more comfortable and secure at
the latter, especially as it resembled their natural environment of a rocky shoreline
with lots of elevated but flat surfaces for perching. Excarnation Citadel
reached its highest point of development at Stonehenge with those trilithons
and their massive lintels, starting from humble beginnings less than a mile or so
away.<br />
<br />
Just spotted:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIp6o2AKgtZMnp_1gFhRfHSR8jPsCOBpOgTZNxzM_t85kFqnBX7_x6YWfcWDgAyxArQJSGGukiMduPdb7Hb1ABZCJMbac0MCR7H8iXSaSMPVP0s_pCOXlwZ9wsPr2GRc29iCRY-NS2o3vk/s1600/killer+seagulls+media+frenzy+guardian.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIp6o2AKgtZMnp_1gFhRfHSR8jPsCOBpOgTZNxzM_t85kFqnBX7_x6YWfcWDgAyxArQJSGGukiMduPdb7Hb1ABZCJMbac0MCR7H8iXSaSMPVP0s_pCOXlwZ9wsPr2GRc29iCRY-NS2o3vk/s400/killer+seagulls+media+frenzy+guardian.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption later</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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Link to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/23/killer-seagulls-top-the-pecking-order-for-a-media-frenzy">Guardian story</a> re aggressive seagulls attacking and injuring people<br />
<br />
<b>More afterthoughts April 28 </b>(this being a webLOG, I'm allowed to have afterthoughts).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJmD-GwMfV7sLjxGXoTqw48KMV-GI1MUvYSllm95-I_BiIqs_2L85_28boGaDWRgwVqbxC3dVZzeHHjiKMaX1S0Q1C2hgYRi54ZP0i1pMN43MCvpp8TCQVL1MvzPm9FSltMNjJShPAHfF/s1600/seagull+salt+excretion+via+glands+and+beak.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="88" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJmD-GwMfV7sLjxGXoTqw48KMV-GI1MUvYSllm95-I_BiIqs_2L85_28boGaDWRgwVqbxC3dVZzeHHjiKMaX1S0Q1C2hgYRi54ZP0i1pMN43MCvpp8TCQVL1MvzPm9FSltMNjJShPAHfF/s320/seagull+salt+excretion+via+glands+and+beak.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Yup, this is how a gull gets rid of surplus salt if/when it's been imbibing seawater. The salt from those special glands in the head enters special ducts and finally drips off the end of its beak onto the nearest surface - like a Stonehenge standing stone. Result: a localized hotspot of lichen that one would not expect to find 30 miles inland, but on coastal rocks that are exposed to sea spray.<br />
<br />
<b>From the Guardian, 14 May 2003 (my bolding):</b><br />
<br />
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
"<b>Scientists are puzzling over a fine crop of lichens,
normally found only at the seaside, flourishing in the middle of Salisbury
Plain on the ancient stones of Stonehenge. </b></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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There has been excited speculation that their discovery
could establish the much debated origins of the stones: the oldest lichens, in
the Antarctic, are believed to be up to 10,000 years old, so it is at least
theoretically possible that lichens could have survived since the stone circle
was built 4,500 years ago. But they suspect a more prosaic explanation. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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"There was some speculation about the stones once being
washed in salt water, but these lichens have been found inland before,<b> on
church towers on the Isle of Wight and other high places inland,</b> and my feeling
that the explanation is that there is just enough salt in the wind at Stonehenge <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/stonehenge"></a> to sustain
them," Peter James, internationally recognised as an expert on lichens,
said yesterday.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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"Basically they're as tough as old boots, they can
survive in the most extraordinary conditions." </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The work will not damage the stones, and none of them will
be moved. Most of the survey is through a minutely detailed examination, using
magnifying glasses, of the rock surface, and tiny samples are being removed
with scalpels. Mr James, who is a retired deputy keeper at the Natural History
Museum, surveyed the Stonehenge lichens in the 1970s and 1990s. This week he
has returned as a member of an expert team which is mounting the most
comprehensive survey of the stones to date. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The team has already discovered seven nationally rare, and
two very rare species: its list of species is 79 and rising as the examination
continues. </div>
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Mr James said all the species he had previously noted were
still flourishing, but the team was adding many more."</div>
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<br /></div>
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---------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Appendices</b><br />
<br />
Appendix 1 (verbatim) from 'The Modern Antiquarian'<br />
<br />
<br />
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</span><br />
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</span><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td valign="top"><span class="miniSiteThumb"><a href="http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/53409/images/stonehenge_cursus.html" title="Image © Copyright Richard Hayward"><img src="http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/img_small/53409.jpg" height="75" width="75" /></a></span>
</td><td><h1 class="siteTitle">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">
</span><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/460/stonehenge_cursus.html">The Stonehenge Cursus</a></span></h1>
<h2 class="siteTitleType" style="text-align: center;">
Cursus</h2>
<div class="viewAll">
<ul>
<li class="content"><a href="http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/460/stonehenge_cursus.html">View all content for The Stonehenge Cursus</a> (55 posts)</li>
</ul>
</div>
</td>
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</td>
<td class="siteTitleRHS"></td>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
From <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=3719">The University of Manchester</a>:</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>'Cursus' is older than Stonehenge</b><br />
<br />
Archeologists have come a step closer to solving the 285-year-old riddle
of an ancient monument thought to be a precursor to Stonehenge.<br />
<br />
A team led by University of Manchester archaeologist Professor Julian
Thomas has dated the Greater Stonehenge Cursus at about 3,500 years BC -
500 years older than the circle itself.<br />
<br />
They were able to pinpoint its age after discovering an antler pick used
to dig the Cursus – the most significant find since it was discovered
in 1723 by antiquarian William Stukeley.<br />
<br />
When the pick was carbon dated the results pointed to an age which was
much older than previously thought - between 3600 and 3300 BC – and has
caused a sensation among archeologists.<br />
<br />
The dig took place last summer in a collaborative project run by five
British universities and funded by the Arts and Histories Research
Council and the National Geographic Society.<br />
<br />
Professor Thomas said: "The Stonehenge Cursus is a 100 metre wide mile
long area which runs about 500 metres north of Stonehenge.<br />
<br />
<b>"We don't know what it was used for – but we do know it encloses a pathway which has been made inaccessible.<br />
<br />
"And that suggests it was either a sanctified area or for some reason was cursed."</b><br />
<br />
Professor Thomas believes that the Cursus was part of complex of monuments, within which Stonehenge was later constructed.<br />
<br />
Other elements include the 'Lesser Stonehenge Cursus' and a series of long barrows - all built within a mile of Henge.<br />
<br />
He added: "Our colleagues led by a team from Sheffield University have
also dated some of the cremated human remains from Stonehenge itself.<br />
<br />
"That's caused another sensational discovery and proves that burial
cremation had been taking place at Stonehenge as early as 2900 BC – soon
after the monument was first built.<br />
<b><br />
"But what is still so intriguing about the Cursus is that it's about 500
years older than Henge – that strongly suggests there was a link and
was very possibly a precursor.</b><br />
<br />
"We hope more discoveries lie in store when we work on the Eastern end of the Cursus this summer.<br />
<br />
"It will be a big step forward in our understanding of this enigmatic monument."
</blockquote>
<br />
<b>The above piece from the Modern Antiquarian was posted by 'baza', 12th June 2008</b>. Note the suggestion that the Cursus could have been a "precursor" for Stonehenge. Snap.<br />
<br />
Further reading: from <a href="http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/analysis-of-63-ancient-human-remains-rewrites-the-story-of-stonehenge">Prof. Mike Parker-Pearson.</a><br />
Key quotes to follow later (tomorrow):<br />
<br />
<b>Thursday April 28: here as promised: </b><br />
<br />
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Five key quotations from the above document (my bolding):</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The results of his latest
investigation(2013) reveal that:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
1. The
first stones at Stonehenge were put up 500 years earlier than previously
thought at around 3000 BC. <b>The monument we see today was not the original
Stonehenge.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
2.<b> </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There were two Stonehenges.</span> The
original Stonehenge was a large circular structure built 500 years before the
Stonehenge we know today (the original was built 5000 years ago; the Stonehenge
we now know was built 4500 years ago).<i> (ed. this would be a reference to the area of Stonhenge circumscribed by the Aubrey postholes, not to the Cursus)</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
3.
The research team believes that the first Stonehenge
was originally a graveyard for a community of elite families, whose remains
were brought to Stonehenge and buried over a period of 200 years. <b>The remains
of many of the cremated bodies were originally marked by the bluestones of
Stonehenge, meaning that the monument began its life as a huge graveyard.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
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4. Stonehenge,
the most important monument in Britain, attracted and unified people from all
over the country soon after the emergence of the first true pan-British
culture, in Parker Pearson’s view.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
5. What
we haven’t known until now, is why Stonehenge was built in the middle of
Salisbury Plain. Professor Parker Pearson believes that the site was chosen
because of a pair of naturally-occurring parallel ridges in the landscape – the
result of Ice Age meltwater - which<b> coincidentally</b> <b>point directly at the
Mid-Winter Sunset in one direction and the Mid-Summer sunrise in the other. </b>To
our ancestors, this must have seemed an uncanny and auspicious sign – and we
now know that they chose to build their cemetery at the end of them.<br />
<br />
<b>Appendix 2</b>: have just come upon this artist's reconstruction - posted to the <a href="http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/460/stonehenge_cursus.html">Modern Antiquarian website </a>- of the Stonehenge Cursus produced for the National Trust. It appears to be someone's photograph from an outdoor display board, probably at the site carpark itself, which I've cropped and brightened up:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQBnJxmMrLqxfc6RemMuAx0-4SAFyrL6Ah8Kpm-kyVIv8HfUjt5441xEwk0CwD1VPF9pe2Sx8qa32FMeY7SuIzTx-KftmpVU6fX3U8f54DhW5oVxJLsPkMV9y7hu4bsI-gGTVRK6kzUap/s1600/artistic+reconstruction+from+modern+antiquarian+stonehenge+cursus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQBnJxmMrLqxfc6RemMuAx0-4SAFyrL6Ah8Kpm-kyVIv8HfUjt5441xEwk0CwD1VPF9pe2Sx8qa32FMeY7SuIzTx-KftmpVU6fX3U8f54DhW5oVxJLsPkMV9y7hu4bsI-gGTVRK6kzUap/s400/artistic+reconstruction+from+modern+antiquarian+stonehenge+cursus.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Hmmm. No lack of imagination there. Shame though about the absence of birdlife... ;-)<br />
<br />
<b>Appendix 4: April 29 2016</b><br />
So far we've been dealing with a fairly linear scar in the Wiltshire chalk that renders the Cursus visible from afar, at least from the perspective of a bird on the wing, coming up from the south. How would that principle apply if that same bird were to continue flying north for some 25 or so miles, approaching the Avebury stone circle (the largest in Europe)?<br />
<br />
<b>Reminder</b>: the Avebury circle of standing stones is enclosed within a henge, i.e. a ditch with the excavated soil having been used to make a bank on the outside. See this handy artist's impression:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsko8hcjztVpoa-ABub_kvELAUeqgZT7zpowqpg50G9nRL98AV4Nl749sDVOl9mFjLeEmaTHoFgb4CnqBr-Xi1flln007UleXR0072YFCRuTZExD0OnD_LEh-jyLvbKV0DohGK26nbMY8J/s1600/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsko8hcjztVpoa-ABub_kvELAUeqgZT7zpowqpg50G9nRL98AV4Nl749sDVOl9mFjLeEmaTHoFgb4CnqBr-Xi1flln007UleXR0072YFCRuTZExD0OnD_LEh-jyLvbKV0DohGK26nbMY8J/s1600/Avebury-artist-impression-150x150.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption later</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<i>Note that the configuration is the opposite from that expected if the henge had been constructed as a defensive structure,</i> which to impede intruders would have been ditch first, then bank! ( I have the incomparable |Ken West to thank for that observation, to say nothing of his point that "henges", i.e. contiguous bank and ditch, were a uniquely British "invention"). <br />
<br />
Now let's see how that would look from a bird's eye view, using a combination of Google Earth in its 3D oblique angle view and MS Paint to create an impression of newly excavated gleaming white chalk:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja-KfJWX_Al0IQK0hQAf34-SG1t5JmshRTLH8q3g3UHX0a05hxIAWWubIoPHvh7rU2Vl6omfwM8thd2whTD_YIJVk6M15Y1Gu2HsfrmYayq5UcxouAF4gbnhTfZxYJPLHGIloHHJHFoAqA/s1600/final+oblique+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja-KfJWX_Al0IQK0hQAf34-SG1t5JmshRTLH8q3g3UHX0a05hxIAWWubIoPHvh7rU2Vl6omfwM8thd2whTD_YIJVk6M15Y1Gu2HsfrmYayq5UcxouAF4gbnhTfZxYJPLHGIloHHJHFoAqA/s400/final+oblique+2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption later.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
(Yup, if you look hard enough, there's even a hint of the four causeways, breaking up what would otherwise be a continuous circle).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Answer: <i>highly conspicuous, even against surrounding modern scenery </i>with roads, ploughed fields and settlements.That's Silbury Hill by the way, sitting down at the base of a gentle fold in the Downs, also with some exposed chalk around its periphery.<br />
<br />
Note the way the far side of the Avebury henge would probably look slightly wider than the near side, on account of seeing both bank sloping wall and wall of the chalk cut- edge beneath. The asymmetry serves to give some unusual perspective, given one might have expected the nearside to have looked the bolder of the two if judging purely from a distance perspective.<br />
<br />
<i><b>I say that henge was constructed deliberately with the intention of attracting birds to the standing stones.</b></i><br />
<br />
But not just any old foraging bird. Oh no. A particular species of bird, arguably the closest we have to the vulture. A bird that is at home on the chalky white cliffs of the south-eastern coast of England, one that can be lured 30 miles inland by a glimpse on the horizon of some token man-made cliffs, fashioned from excavated white Wessex Downland chalk.<br />
----------------------------------------<br />
<br />
<b>Appendix 3:</b><br />
<br />
I shall be rounding of this posting later in the day with some quotes from what I consider the most seminal paper of them all, Ken West's in the Good Funeral Guide. entitled: <a href="http://www.goodfuneralguide.co.uk/2014/02/stonehenge-sky-burial/">Stonehenge: Sky Burial. </a><br />
<br />
It's one I'd had a subliminal glimpse of some weeks ago while researching a different site (Silbury) with no interred bones, cremated or otherwise (shhh. don't mention internal organs) and had made a mental note - re-read in detail ASAP. But I then went and mislaid the link, spending literally weeks searching for it, but could only find Ken's sky burial pdf, almost as good but with crucially less detail on key points. Anyway, it finally turned up again yesterday in a Google search under (stonehenge, sky burial) and is just as good, better even, than I had recalled.<br />
<br />
Quotes to follow.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-53021088749853965582016-04-25T03:07:00.000-07:002016-05-03T23:29:03.549-07:00Stonehenge can be thought of as a Flintstone-era funeral parlour. Its sales pitch was soul-releasing sky burial AND, by way of bonus, a compact take-away package of cremated bones.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Yes, Stonehenge had a VIP tourist not so long ago who unlike us plebs was allowed to go inside the stone circle with those amazing lintels, raised up some 4,500 years ago with nothing but primitive technology.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRYMOHrLqpa8VZ_qRyCDkDLeSB1jMGhhnA-yoINXTUa4kW3vRLDd3OcCq6ULPReTy2XteO7MTtKtVJdXJkmiqMv4vjou7HbbJl3ZnUnn6ZZjE1W31lEO9i53uLPoWHa9tWiG2UrAPvRfc/s1600/excarnation+elephant.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRYMOHrLqpa8VZ_qRyCDkDLeSB1jMGhhnA-yoINXTUa4kW3vRLDd3OcCq6ULPReTy2XteO7MTtKtVJdXJkmiqMv4vjou7HbbJl3ZnUnn6ZZjE1W31lEO9i53uLPoWHa9tWiG2UrAPvRfc/s400/excarnation+elephant.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">Look to your left, Mr. President! </span> </b>Maybe your people didn't tell you about the "elephant in the room". (Or hovering just out of sight in the background, thanks to an unholy alliance between academia and manipulated mass media).</td></tr>
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It was widely reported, needless to say by the media, for which sad to say this blogger has less and less time. Why? Because apart from a near total absence of critical faculties, publishing anything dished out by news agencies and even our esteemed publicity-seeking, fund-seeking academia, <i>the mass media are anti-blog</i>, and have been for many a long year, having quickly perceived the blogging community as a threat to their own desire to maintaining a monopoly not just on the reporting of current affairs,<i> but interpretation too</i>. Did you know that inside every MSM journalist, there's a highly erudite sage fighting to get out, permitting no competition whatsoever from the Great Unwashed of the blogosphere?</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arguably Google is anti-blog too, judging <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>by the second-class treatment accorded to our postings, at least by Google (like striking out one’s main search terms (Appendix 1), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">or </span>heading lists of returns with eBay and Amazon
ads that are no longer even labelled as ads etc (Appendix 2).</div>
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So there’s no attempt today to mimic a so-called 'factual, authoritative' media
science report, despite this blogger being a retired professional scientist. This
is essentially an ideas-fest.<br />
<br />
See also his <a href="http://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/">specialist Stonehenge/Silbury Hill site</a><br />
<br />
Nor will there be any attempt to make this
posting Google (or other search-engine)- friendly. Where new uninhibited thinking
is concerned, or in my case, not-so-new thinking (Appendix 3) search engines have
degenerated year-on-year into a sick parody of the original, with wikipedia and
its ideas-censoring thought-police not far behind (Appendix 4 in
preparation) </div>
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This posting will attempt to tell it the way it is about
Stonehenge and other ‘iconic’ sites scattered around the Wiltshire Neolithic
theme park. There will be no sentimentality, no obfuscation, no attempt to
engage in airy-fairy mystification – as archaeologists routinely do, seizing on
some tiny artefact, building up an entire Universe, then wasting no time in
rushing to the media with their “breakthroughs in our understanding”, their “profound
new insights” bla bla.</div>
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To show my contempt for this endless media circus of
obfuscation and/or lazy (or grant-provider-friendly) glossing-over and misinterpretation,
I shall<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>post this intro right now,
despite this posting lacking any real content thus far. That will come as a drip-feed in the next few hours, maybe
the next few days, and will be totally uncompromising in spelling out a clear
message that the public does not, and probably never will get from that unholy fudge
between academia and the compliant mass media. Basically it will flag up what this
blogger considers (after some 4 years of research and reflection) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to have been the REAL purpose of Stonehenge
and nearby sites. Nope. I don’t intend to stage-manage, or keep folk in suspense.
So what briefly was its real purpose? </div>
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Stonehenge was the endstage development of what had been
evolving by way of timber post circles initially, followed by stone circles
over centuries, probably millennia, culminating in Stonehenge and its gobsmackingly ambitious OTT (literally) lintels, a stupendous feat
of engineering if ever there was, given the limited technology available. But let's not mince our words: it was NOT designed as a landscape folly: it had a strictly utilitarian purpose, functioning as a durable, all season <b>two stage cadaver-processing
plant. </b></div>
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<b>Stage 1:</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>speeded-up release
of the Neolithic soul, as then perceived, from its confining prison of mortal flesh via <b>“sky burial” </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>i.e<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>defleshing
of the bones (by scavenger birds) followed by:</div>
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<b>Stage 2 </b>: <b>cremation of the semi-cleaned bones</b>, providing
grieving relatives with a compact keep-sake, either for taking home, or, if
more important, for internment in one of those many round or long barrows that punctuate the open Wiltshire plains and chalk uplands, still visible to this day, still with their stored bones, sometimes cremated, sometimes not.</div>
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Think of Stonehenge as a dual purpose site:<b> bird sanctuary</b> (the
more voracious species of scavenger birds that is – rooks, crows, ravens, maybe
those versatile, adaptable gulls too) AND late-stage <b>crematorium </b>(excarnated bones only, NOT entire body).</div>
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<i>(Aside: I'm in discussion right now with the erudite <a href="http://www.naturalburialcreator.co.uk/">Ken West MBE </a>about the pros and cons of different scavenger birds as likely (or unlikely) agents of excarnation, my having discovered his brilliant and inspirational think-pieces, e.g<a href="http://www.goodfuneralguide.co.uk/2014/02/stonehenge-sky-burial/">."Stonehenge and Sky Burial" </a>through googling (about which more later, probably a new posting).</i> </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, the target
skeleton and bones did finally come clean. Pity that academia and the media
refuse to do so where Stonehenge is concerned. I repeat: Stonehenge and its
precursors were almost certainly conceived as bird sanctuaries serving as
skeleton/bone-recovery plants. The technical term for it, rarely appearing in
the media, and even quite difficult to track down via internet searching is
that unmentionable E word. It’s EXC _______<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>N, which becomes EXCISION read marginalization/sidelining/<i>de facto</i> censorship <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>in media reports. </div>
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Yes, as indicated earlier, there’s an elephant in
the room, correction, giant Neolithic outdoor funereal parlour, where reporting of latest research findings from our Neolithic sites is concerned, and its name begins
with that letter E. </div>
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See my (obviously home-made) irreverent ‘photoshopping’ of the Obama
visit to Stonehenge.</div>
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Here's another in the same vein, a foretaste of still more to come, this posting as indicated being a work in progress.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYdpprOMlFLOjAr1nwwUTOcVk813vzaz6Cd5FOUF1ybVUA__QeTpKLHeNTnQC48aB1wk9-K3w6cHiD8SZEGNl_q8gzq0JYWUmzHU2PAsqjh_wBdNX_rShC8UMz3wip1oHNSjsIdP87TiK/s1600/final+pres.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYdpprOMlFLOjAr1nwwUTOcVk813vzaz6Cd5FOUF1ybVUA__QeTpKLHeNTnQC48aB1wk9-K3w6cHiD8SZEGNl_q8gzq0JYWUmzHU2PAsqjh_wBdNX_rShC8UMz3wip1oHNSjsIdP87TiK/s400/final+pres.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">I say again, Mr. President. Look to your left! </span>The agents of that poetically-named SKY BURIAL, Mother nature's agent of so-called hands-off
"passive excarnation", still frequent the site to this day. But don't
expect academia or the timid unquestioning "science reporters" in the mass media to
so much as hint at the real reasons for Stonehenge's existence.
Reputations are at stake (to say nothing of future research funding?)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Yup, more to come. Much more, a series of snippets selected from the recent newspapers and internet sites, at best, factoids not facts, more often than not, though if the truth be told, better described as downright 'fictionoids', like those carved <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2045052/Two-duck-figurines-Mesolithic-flint-tools-Stonehenge-site-Open-University-team.html">"duck figurines"</a> unearthed just two miles from Stonehenge, or that similarly <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2750005/The-hidden-empire-Stonehenge-Radar-scanners-17-sites-near-ancient-stones.html"> nearby "House of the Dead" (</a>allowing in some but not all Press releases a fleeting reference to the E word, it having reassuringly "preceded" Stonehenge, length of time unspecified) but which was probably not a house at all, but a screened proto-Stonehenge, i.e. roofless bird sanctuary without the bolt-on, afterthlought bone-crematorium. ;-)</div>
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Yes, we''ll be back with those two for starters. Watch this space (if you dare!).</div>
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<b>Apols btw for typos.</b> Tracking them down takes time and effort, and I'd rather publish (and possibly be damned) and leave the correcting them for now.<br />
<br />
<b>New addition: Monday, 16:45</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjCWTnwGIG92pOflc6AEJ62DCtU-Xhfat8Cxke-Ae5KDyTkdUClj-hwLe9PeKYZOCsnAAdjzZpJvO_1BBPZRFJ7w-syhTLPJjtff2nIJQKrYAVMJWnS8Hds7Td0NLW3V12BJM07oqUFxu/s1600/ducks+story.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjCWTnwGIG92pOflc6AEJ62DCtU-Xhfat8Cxke-Ae5KDyTkdUClj-hwLe9PeKYZOCsnAAdjzZpJvO_1BBPZRFJ7w-syhTLPJjtff2nIJQKrYAVMJWnS8Hds7Td0NLW3V12BJM07oqUFxu/s400/ducks+story.png" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>From the Mail, October 2011. Do they look like ducks to you? Nope, didn't think so...</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Those "duck figurines":</b><br />
<br />
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The research was done by The Open University. It would appear
that the description “ducks” was provided from that source. The Mail has not
questioned that description, nor any of the other media outlets I’ve read so
far. Yet the reaction on blog sites has been immediate and rightly sarcastic
which mirrors my own. Why describe them as “ducks”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One website immediately entered (birds) after
“ducks” and rightly so.(ref to follow).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does it matter? Yes. Anything that shares a headline with “Stonehenge”
and is a new type of artefact is important. The Mail is vague about precisely
how far from Stonehenge, saying “near”. How near?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had to browse a number of sites to find where precisely. It’s
at <a href="http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/vespasians-camp-cradle-of-stonehenge.htm">“Vespasian’s Camp”</a> just 1 mile east of Stonehenge with we’re told the bed of a spring. One’s left to assume that’s the original source of “water” into which the carved figurines were said to have been tossed
as an 'offering' . (Evidence?). Vespasian’s camp, btw, is fancifully named after a Roman commander, later emperor, which is a totally misleading name for the
location, it being an Iron Age promontory 9soory to be so vague - am still researching the precise nature of this landscape feature). Again, one has to do one’s own rooting
around.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Have discovered for googling that Ice-Age/bluestone specialist Brian John’s site
did <a href="http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/stonehenge-menagerie.html">a posting on the birds, back in 2011</a>, attracting some 74 comments in
all (!) I’ve now read them all, some (not all) being quite thought-provoking. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m willing to bet that not a single “science
reporter” has done so, and there’s no response either from academe, certainly no one
from the Open University.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This blogger’s views on those “birds”? No, they don’t look
in the least bit like “ducks” and I consider it extraordinary that the Open
University chose that description, not merely because it sentimentalizes
prehistory ("oh look, little ducks, how cute!")<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>but more seriously because it pre-empts serious debate as to what birds represented
and, more importantly, for what purpose – artistic, religious or even
utilitarian.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, utilitarian. Here’s where one has to get speculative.
Both look ‘bottom-heavy’ as if designed to be that way. Why? The low centre of
gravity means that if knocked and tilted,say by a real bird taking a closer look and inquisitive peck, they would probably tend to return to
the vertical. <b>Might they then have been designed as decoys,</b> intended to attract
other birds who mistake them from afar as their real cousins, or even come in
to sate their curiosity?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Had these “decoys” been found closer to Stonehenge I would
have suggested they were indeed decoys designed to attract birds, scavenging
ones especially, to the site, given its identification as an excarnation
site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being two miles away does not of
course invalidate that conjecture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But keeping an open mind, and framing a possible hypothesis,
means that future archaeologists should now be on the lookout for more of these
figurines ESPECIALLY at any site with present or previous standing stones or
timber posts, i.e. o<span style="font-size: small;">nes with this blogger’s putative “bird perches”, maybe
decoy-baited as an avian attention-grabber.</span><br />
<br />
New addition: Tuesday April 26<br />
<br />
<b>The so-called "House of the Dead ". </b>(But where's the evidence it was a house, or even had a roof?)<br />
<br />
We now shift to the Woodhenge site, or rather to some private land just 450m SW of it.<br />
<br />
Don't expect to see a house. In fact don't expect to see anything. Here's a description (my highlighting) provided by the <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1009130">Historic England site:</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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</xml><![endif]--><b>The (long barrow) monument includes a levelled long barrow aligned north east-south west located some 450m WSW of Woodhenge on Countess Farm and situated on a west facing slope. <span style="color: red;">The barrow is now difficult to identify on the ground.</span> However, the ditches which flank the mound of the long barrow on its western and eastern sides, from which material was quarried during its construction, survive as buried features and are visible as parchmarks.</b></blockquote>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1fKAStmKJq6A4djHBCbNY1EP0oNARca1a0T8ClmEFvoPAhRKkhvkihwviXzH2pe62-vomkMD1TvDniWTieJ4OWqHSEzHJIUi5BFVCA04dfDh3cSI9pRCIySNHGpwHzfN84Kbz1MTH3uiv/s1600/or+map+of+location+of+chalk+long+barrow+v+google+earth.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1fKAStmKJq6A4djHBCbNY1EP0oNARca1a0T8ClmEFvoPAhRKkhvkihwviXzH2pe62-vomkMD1TvDniWTieJ4OWqHSEzHJIUi5BFVCA04dfDh3cSI9pRCIySNHGpwHzfN84Kbz1MTH3uiv/s400/or+map+of+location+of+chalk+long+barrow+v+google+earth.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The red patch is the location of the long barrow on an OS map, with Woodhenge just visible as a collection of dots top right. The aerial view beneath is the satellite photo from Google Earth.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Now be prepared for a surprise, dear reader, since this unpromising-looking site was the subject of a blaze of publicity in 2014, after the magnetometer survey carried out by a joint team from Birmingham and Vienna, under the project name "Hidden Landscapes".<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's a composite of the graphics that were carried in national newspapers, BBC documentaries ec.<br />
<br />
<br />
What you see what some reports describe as a reconstruction of a 'mortuary house' aka "House of the Dead".<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9O9jHvhbg0LmemnmSE9kzQEQaez7epIzgLxJZuMA1WhzJtM8CAYuHCXRInKdfV_3Pd0uPb1nODcp0Bfj2uKqAxR90ltFo9G_VhXvt30w9qfE5MosIjhQ9lIhzziMA9ryPnwm2VYR1Ofl7/s1600/3+views+mortuary+house.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9O9jHvhbg0LmemnmSE9kzQEQaez7epIzgLxJZuMA1WhzJtM8CAYuHCXRInKdfV_3Pd0uPb1nODcp0Bfj2uKqAxR90ltFo9G_VhXvt30w9qfE5MosIjhQ9lIhzziMA9ryPnwm2VYR1Ofl7/s320/3+views+mortuary+house.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Reconstruction from location of post holes: the 'House of the Dead' 450m SW of Woodhenge.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The first thing to note is the odd way this "house" tapers on its long axis. It's described as "trapezoid" in shape, with only two sides, or rather ends, parallel to each other. Isn't that somewhat odd for a house? Yes, but we're assured that such structures have been described by archaeologists on the Continent, so that's all right then. But why would anyone want or need to have a tapering house?<br />
<br />
What I haven't said so far is that the evidence for this house with its ridge roof rests on finding postholes. It's not entirely clear how much surviving timber was left - possibly enough for radiocarbon dating. But it's the number and position of those post holes that concern us now. They are shown we're told in the diagram, top left. From that the full above ground structure is 'visualized' (top right).<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span>
<br />
So what's the evidence for that roof then?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Lets's take a closer look at the 'footprint' of those postholes.<br />
The first thing to notice is that the conspicuous solid white circles are NOT the footprint. They are the position of IMAGINED tops of timber supports. Leaving aside the question as to how their heights could be known, given that most if not all the timber had rotted away, it's important to realize that the pattern one sees, which at first sight might just possibly be suited to supporting a roof, looks entirely different if one descends from each solid white circle to the BASE of the supports.<br />
Here's a close-up to which I've added yellow arrows.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr0s4CjwWqNtF1I5WviKIvk5kA4iA1W2CyZWrHQDGaCuG-6TJdmtBWDel3q1qRICZfwhDnmeHlf20d3urbnMM6Ulp6L1Rqyv4Hi_wWU2EraQw3EztQhved4JO30pfFMnMCkhw_RALiPOG9/s1600/flipped+excarnation+house+plan+mail+1+with+yellow+arrows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr0s4CjwWqNtF1I5WviKIvk5kA4iA1W2CyZWrHQDGaCuG-6TJdmtBWDel3q1qRICZfwhDnmeHlf20d3urbnMM6Ulp6L1Rqyv4Hi_wWU2EraQw3EztQhved4JO30pfFMnMCkhw_RALiPOG9/s400/flipped+excarnation+house+plan+mail+1+with+yellow+arrows.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Two of the supposedly taller "roof supports". Roof supports? Really?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<br />
In fact those taller post indicated, shown with their 3D rendering, are NOT in the right position to support the highest part of a ridge roof. They are NOT in the midline, but tucked up against the side of the structure, as can be seen by tracing back to the bases.<br />
<br />
In fact, when one looks ate the number and distribution of the post HOLES one sees that they are :<br />
<br />
1. In the wrong places to support the roof<br />
<br />
2. In the wrong places for the inside of what is claimed to be a "house". Who would want or expect to navigate a forest of support poles when stepping inside a house, regardless of the function of that so-called house?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">So, take away w<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">hat would appear to be an entirely imaginary roof, and what is one left with? Not a house, that much is certain. One is left with <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">a sturdy stockade of butted up posts inside of which is that <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">scattered array of posts <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">with <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">no obvious function, and still an impedi<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ment to anyone inside.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">But the<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">re's a clue, and it involves that E word, which to their credit the archaeologists have deployed, despite being less than 2 miles for Stoneh<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">e<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">nge where any mention of the E word is strictly taboo, or so it would seem, surveying the media and internet sites. Yes, it's E for excarnation, and here's a quote showing the site was not just <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">viewed as a <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">"mortuary house", which <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">I </span>consider a hastily-chosen and misleading misnomer:</span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Here's the account from the Guardian, one of just many <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">i could have chosen, with a quote from the Viennese <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">co-director:</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">One of the most striking monuments to emerge from the survey was a 33
metre-long burial mound containing a massive wooden building whose
timber foundations – and a giant upright blocking its entrance – were
spotted in the soil. Predating Stonehenge, <span style="color: red;">the building is thought to
have been a house of the dead where bizarre burial rituals were played
out. "The rituals included exposure of the dead bodies, and defleshing
on a large forecourt,"</span> said Wolfgang Neuber, at the <a class="u-underline" data-component="in-body-link" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://archpro.lbg.ac.at/" title="">Ludwig Boltzmann Institute</a>. The house was later covered in chalk and finally became a curious white landmark."</span></span></span></blockquote>
<br />
I say, steady on old chap. This is England. You can't just go slipping that E word into the conversation, not when talking to meeja. You have to obfuscate, to say nothing of consulting with your Birmingham opposite number on the delicate matter of 'grantsmanship'. Now it would be entirely different were you to be hosting an obscure blog, like this one. Then you can say pretty well what you want, provided you stay clear of libel actions.<br />
<br />
So, to the 64000 question: what was the purpose of that one-time open-air stockade, then ignominously covered over with a chalk and soil capping to become just another of those barrows that punctuate the plaisn and downs of Wiltshire, and even later to be ploughed level with the surrounding fields it would seem?<br />
<br />
Answer: I say the site was a timber prototype for Stonehenge, that it was designed as a bird sanctuary, offering a sizeable number of tallish bird perches, maybe a couple of metres high, on which flesh-scavenging species (crows, ravens, gulls etc) could rest and intermittently feed on the corpses of the newly dead. <br />
<br />
<br />
Why tapered ("trapezoid"). There may be a mundane explanation: the constructors may have realized they had insufficient timber to make it a perfect rectangle, so decided to economise by tapering the long sides to make the far end smaller than its opposite number. I'd want to taper too, while waiting for metal axes and saws to be invented...<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> </span></span>
</span></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
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<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>Appendices:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. </div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDsV77yfhxgE-kuHGESJZKDE1TbJvXb6eSUZtmiaXhGrp1Hirwd63cHsAhdwkSjBLfGKxL_yBjz1meKEQXelLK5SyT1ZOV5c-GESKAocThIu2-4JiF1XoYq7tm3_mTym4xdGuyZzdom4_/s1600/Appendix+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDsV77yfhxgE-kuHGESJZKDE1TbJvXb6eSUZtmiaXhGrp1Hirwd63cHsAhdwkSjBLfGKxL_yBjz1meKEQXelLK5SyT1ZOV5c-GESKAocThIu2-4JiF1XoYq7tm3_mTym4xdGuyZzdom4_/s400/Appendix+1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>My first search term ("stonehenge") has been crassly scored out from all the returns shown, allowing entries of an IRRELEVANT commercial nature, though NOT flagged up as ads. Google is now in free fall re its original mission statement.</b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
2. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeT_Dfj9T-u-L5MkbYeRYSVAhXURrkFTbIT6SIPFmRdQuCwd8Kha1UzObZmo47KNZNU1Z6jkvzMDT1M3yy87BQ6dDaT2g61kcKr_ueJID46xPDB6s3QVM8iRUKq7GBKxA0MAx-iBm0jq2n/s1600/Appendix+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeT_Dfj9T-u-L5MkbYeRYSVAhXURrkFTbIT6SIPFmRdQuCwd8Kha1UzObZmo47KNZNU1Z6jkvzMDT1M3yy87BQ6dDaT2g61kcKr_ueJID46xPDB6s3QVM8iRUKq7GBKxA0MAx-iBm0jq2n/s400/Appendix+2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Again, the first search term has been deleted, and the first 3 returns are blatantly commercial. One of my postings finally gets a look-in, thanks to the coupling of stonehenge with a new descriptor (mine) i.e. bird perch. This blogger's posting would not appear under a simple "stonehenge" search were it not for added descriptors. Google would much prefer to select and clutter up its pages with wacky click-bait ephemera whose prime purpose is clearly to drive e-commerce, it's real raison d'etre (forget the whiter-than-white guff).</b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Further appendices in preparation.sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-57825585242058668832016-04-18T10:48:00.001-07:002016-04-18T13:53:38.116-07:00Why the need for all those Neolithic standing stones at Stonehenge and Avebury? Why were igneous bluestones required from the distant Welsh mountains?Here's a little experiment I did earlier today with some spotted dolerite, one of the distinctive stone monoliths from which Stonehenge was constructed some 4,500 years ago on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.<br />
<br />
I'd have preferred to have done it with a chunk of the as-is material, not from Stonehenge obviously but from the outcrop of rock in the Preseli mountains of west Wales from which it has recently been confirmed as coming from originally (we can leave the question of how for another day).<br />
<br />
Regrettably, all I had to hand was a polished specimen of spotted dolerite, purchased at the tourist gift shop at Stonehenge. Never mind. one has to start somewhere.<br />
<br />
What I wanted to do was test its resistance to penetration by water, i.e. porosity, for reasons I'll explain in a minute or two.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ihMy9SSJUvo3C7RLbqCK9UNJOEsA_nGA-nHe58xllUikYXhHvIUagYPVNTn2nB1vUNhcst4Q7FIUq8Vk0y1ic1cWEhw2KjfkjV0HktpHmpPE8x_7ntPXo0YayrQ5Ep6Z1WW9OtMK7SsP/s1600/DSC05315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ihMy9SSJUvo3C7RLbqCK9UNJOEsA_nGA-nHe58xllUikYXhHvIUagYPVNTn2nB1vUNhcst4Q7FIUq8Vk0y1ic1cWEhw2KjfkjV0HktpHmpPE8x_7ntPXo0YayrQ5Ep6Z1WW9OtMK7SsP/s320/DSC05315.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fig. 1: That's the specimen next to my watch, before adding anything. That's a metal ring, top left, for attaching to a chain, in case you were wondering.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimsinH_pvhKVjbN4bzdI1hkL_S8GT1EZcT9AdmahloVNOl0ar6hdgUZmFZNTQ90fn2P4cd1O5Qs8EGbgqAiU_FazJ9OUsZKJ6kPZ96ZilUecgSghHfeDBjj6qyNdg8LcPopuKJRwiZQ9i2/s1600/DSC05321.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimsinH_pvhKVjbN4bzdI1hkL_S8GT1EZcT9AdmahloVNOl0ar6hdgUZmFZNTQ90fn2P4cd1O5Qs8EGbgqAiU_FazJ9OUsZKJ6kPZ96ZilUecgSghHfeDBjj6qyNdg8LcPopuKJRwiZQ9i2/s320/DSC05321.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fig. 2: Here I'm adding a few drops of water from a plastic pipette to form a puddle on the surface</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNkFXOTfr7VPrBjAgasl8v19CX_oLsWWFDbrSstDkxXEvJby-EzOk52ZWHjHNxZLsqn7sM4BLJ_9KSnDVvfisS3bjgpcKMPZKFW4s6wctg6PqIahlatglxVw4bmTiNjDafi7z8kPHmHiI/s1600/DSC05327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNkFXOTfr7VPrBjAgasl8v19CX_oLsWWFDbrSstDkxXEvJby-EzOk52ZWHjHNxZLsqn7sM4BLJ_9KSnDVvfisS3bjgpcKMPZKFW4s6wctg6PqIahlatglxVw4bmTiNjDafi7z8kPHmHiI/s320/DSC05327.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fig. 3: Here's a close-up view, showing how the water puddles on the surface, which straightaway looks as if it's non-porous, non-absorbent. </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4m5B8b59hqrffzPymcxuy9eUYzJwKkabGe7HkGuGU9cgw2BmamJOqttY0iEF4hvN-25iftrEOMIcONrDuS590ki9uctA189kZphgrhlTTqla2Vrw581uUQXFQi5toj7k94vAsFzfckpb/s1600/DSC05348+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4m5B8b59hqrffzPymcxuy9eUYzJwKkabGe7HkGuGU9cgw2BmamJOqttY0iEF4hvN-25iftrEOMIcONrDuS590ki9uctA189kZphgrhlTTqla2Vrw581uUQXFQi5toj7k94vAsFzfckpb/s320/DSC05348+%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fig.4: Here we are again, just over 30 minutes later. The puddle is still there. the water has not soaked into the rock.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So what's the relevance of this to Stonehenge one may ask?<br />
<br />
When or if you visit Stonehenge, you could be forgiven for thinking that the standing stones are all made of the same kind of rock. One might even get that impression from looking at photographs from the internet:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkD1UQzau7P6OYFIzC2JQDbi53s5yc_xUkRmP2SPJ_QXhooZaaWkNdPsMfXtB1wYiFy87xMagDFhwvW_C0VSIvb2EdG7dmmrSMa-6UHfv2J6mRST3RpfmLjxt8k0O-I0UlqbtKkOJTdXD1/s1600/stonehenge-bluestones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkD1UQzau7P6OYFIzC2JQDbi53s5yc_xUkRmP2SPJ_QXhooZaaWkNdPsMfXtB1wYiFy87xMagDFhwvW_C0VSIvb2EdG7dmmrSMa-6UHfv2J6mRST3RpfmLjxt8k0O-I0UlqbtKkOJTdXD1/s320/stonehenge-bluestones.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fig 5: At first glance the standing stones of Stonehenge may all look much the same, differing only in size. In fact the tall ones are local sedimentary sandstone ("sarsens") , while the dwarf ones to the right ar igneous Welsh-derived bluestone.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In fact there are two main types in the above photograph. The taller ones are the local so-called sarsens, which are made of a particular kind of sedimentary rock (sandstone) which has been subject to further chemical action by acidic water to make "silicified sandstone". But they are still classified as a "sedimentary rock". But note the smaller stones.They are made of the same stuff as my gift shop "bluestone" which could be spotted dolerite or something else (rhyolite) but there's an important difference between the small and large ones. The small ones are igneous/metamorphic rock that was originally from the Preseli mountains or maybe other locations far away in west Wales. Ignoring how the stones got to the Salisbury Plain, why was that igneous rock used for the smaller standing stones, which some believe to have been the first ones to be erected on site?<br />
<br />
<br />
No one knows for sure, nor does this blogger. But I'm not persuaded by the argument that our Neolithic ancestors regarded spotted dolerite etc as having "curative properties". Why not? Because apart from being entirely conjectural and not amenable to testing, it skips the question as to why one would go the trouble of setting up these standing stones in the first place. One thing's for certain. "Bluestone", despite its name, is not noticeably<br />
more attractive than sarsen sandstone, at least in its natural unpolished state. But it's water-repellent. Might that be part of the answer, for reasons we'll see in a minute?<br />
<br />
So what made this blogger decide to do the simple test with water?<br />
<br />
Answer: it was prompted by what he read as regards the local sarsen stone and its response to water. Here's what William Stukely said, writing a few hundred years ago when attempts had been made to build homes from broken-up sarsen stones.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>From wiki:</b></div>
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stukeley" title="William Stukeley">William Stukeley</a>
(1687-1765) wrote that sarsen is <b><i>"always moist and dewy in winter which proves damp
and unwholesome, and rots the furniture".</i></b> In the case of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury" title="Avebury">Avebury</a>, the investors who backed a scheme to recycle the stone were bankrupted when the houses they built proved to be unsaleable...<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
Perhaps not surprisingly, sarsen stones, being a sedimentary rock formed by compression and cementation between solid particles, has a <i>porous open structure</i> that allows damp and water to penetrate.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately,I have not been able as yet to do the control experiment with sarsen sandstone, for direct confirmation that it is porous, taking up water, in contrast to the bluestone which is non-porous. But their different origins as sedimentary versus igneous rock make that difference highly predictable. An igneous rock, formed with slow solifidification of molten magma beneath the blanketing Earth's crust, with no rapid outgassing of volcanic gases, would be expected to have a non-porous water- impermeable structure, and would thus be water-repellent, as seen above.<br />
<br />
Relevance to Stonehenge? No obvious relevance if starting from scratch. But this blogger had a prior model in needing of testing, and the test with the bluestone and water confirmed a prediction. What then was the model?<br />
<br />
Answer: it was flagged up earlier today in comments posted to two other internet sites. I'll simply paste them here for starters, in the belief they are self-explanatory, and maybe return later to see if there are any details that need further explanation.<br />
<br />
First, my comment on the ancient-origins site:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd">
<span class="views-field views-field-title"> <b class="views-label views-label-title">Reply to: </b> <span class="field-content"><a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/monumental-and-mysterious-silbury-hill-005729">The Monumental and Mysterious Silbury Hill</a></span> </span>
<span class="views-field views-field-timestamp"> <span class="field-content"><i class="placeholder">5 hours 25 min</i> ago</span> </span>
<div class="views-field views-field-name">
<b class="views-label views-label-name">Comment Author: </b> <span class="field-content"><a class="username" href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/users/colin-berry" title="View user profile.">Colin Berry</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-replyto-comment">
<span class="field-content"><a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/comment/reply/5729/18675">reply to comment</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-subject">
<span class="field-content"><a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/comment/18675#comment-18675">Standing stones simply bird perches?</a></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-comment">
<div class="field-content">
I
put up a post yesterday on my own Neolithic site, recently re-activated
after a longish break, hardening up on a theory some 4 years in the
making, one that offers an explanation for the close proximity of
Avebury, Silbury Hill and the Long Barrow at West Kennet.<br />
<a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/might-the-standing-stones-of-stonehenge-and-avebury-have-been-purpose-built-for-sky-burial-providing-a-secure-perch-for-crows-or-maybe-seagulls-to-roost-or-nest/">https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/might-the-standing-st...</a><br />
Very briefly, it’s as follows. The reason for creating standing
stones, e.g. like those at Avebury, was to provide places on which
scavenging birds (crows, ravens, seagulls) could perch between meals.
The meals were the recently dead, laid out for excarnation (aka
defleshing aka ‘sky burial’). Silbury was the home of a ‘token gesture’
interment, probably the heart only – harvested before excarnation,
probably intended to assist release of the soul from mortal remains. The
excarnated bones were then taken home by the relatives, or for more
important folk, deposited in the nearby Long Barrow.<br />
I’m working on a similar narrative for Stonehenge/Durrington Walls
and hundreds of barrows with the cross-piece lintels arriving finally as
a superior bird perch. I think I can explain the initial preference for
the Welsh bluestones over local sarsen sandstone, prior to lintels,
apart from them being smaller. Clue: they’re easier to keep clean,
igneous rock being more liquid-repellent than sedimentary sandstone...
(go figure).<br />
Yes, it can make somewhat grisly reading, but the alternative options
were difficult too (thin soil on chalk bedrock making grave-digging
difficult, especially with pre-Bronze age antler picks, and shortage of
firewood for cremation via funeral pyres).</div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
Second: my comment on<a href="http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/why-would-anybody-be-stupid-enough-to.html"> Brian John's Stonehenge/ Ice Age site:</a><br />
<br />
<dl id="comments-block"><dd><br /></dd>
<dt id="c1663666706383599946"><div class="profile-image-container">
<span dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" class="profile" height="32" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkoGSxxYZrbS6AR4ZWFTuKhy0XzlyzQUY8BgaYSx04sooak2v0Asz-uSn9DHHHyC-_9KgBYrz2pPIDXop-fjvPUddLBJ_qaVh9bqpvJy7jokE06zKTSKq1xnZpXsyewQNQ3fg7NtXldAo/s32/*" title="sciencebod" width="32" /></a></span></div>
<img alt="Blogger" class="comment-icon blogger-comment" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" />
<span dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332" rel="nofollow">sciencebod</a></span> said...</dt>
<dd>Whether quarried, or simply picked up and carried away, whether
by ice or by the unmentionable, there's another possibility re the use
of that igneous, non-sedimentary rock. I've just flagged it up on the
ancient-origins site.<br />
<br />
http://www.ancient-origins.net/comment/18675#comment-18675<br />
<br />
A
full posting will follow in a day or two. Suffice it to say I reckon
there's a simple rationale for all those standing stones, without or
without lintels.<br />
<br />
They served simply as perches for scavenger
birds (crows, ravens, seagulls). What were they scavenging, within a
Neolithic funereal context (excarnation, sky burial). Go figure.<br />
<br />
The ideal material for a bird perch is one that is easily cleaned (non-porous rock...).<br />
<br />
Colin Berry<br />
<div class="comment-timestamp">
18 April 2016 at 13:27</div>
<div class="comment-timestamp">
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<br /></div>
<div class="comment-timestamp">
Yes. I consider that the standing stones of Stonehenge, Avebury, maybe further afield (Carnac,Brittany etc) were intended be perches for scavenger birds, the latter required and indeed encouraged to visit in flocks for the purpose of passive excarnation (de-fleshing, aka sky burial) of the newly dead. Welsh bluestone was valued more highly than sarsen stone when the standing stones were the height of a man or less, ie. the tops clearly visible, since being non-porous it was easier to periodically rinse-off with water as and when they started to look unsightly (food remnants, fouling etc) as inevitably they would. </div>
<span class="item-control"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=1228690739485734684&postID=1663666706383599946" style="border: none;" title="Delete Comment"><img alt="Delete" class="icon_delete" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" style="border: none;" /></a></span></dd></dl>
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<br />
<br />sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-58520075740411291392016-04-09T15:38:00.002-07:002016-04-12T05:44:59.570-07:00Neolithic Silbury Hill: communal earthworm-implanted compost heap for freeing trapped souls from mortal remains?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsqa75I1nz8tpiPCuY7erwux3gqdrZrFBqN8jL2VoTL0xUkjU8FEbrvBxYjF4i6VRyIbyYrSihn6t2XEkUtWrGnKyZM63j2u3ft-WAuToQC4jY79otq1trLA4FgeGOZoVJ2BlvUTAZ_ui/s1600/Ancient-Origins+Silbury+Hill+earthworm+theory+thur+7+april+2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsqa75I1nz8tpiPCuY7erwux3gqdrZrFBqN8jL2VoTL0xUkjU8FEbrvBxYjF4i6VRyIbyYrSihn6t2XEkUtWrGnKyZM63j2u3ft-WAuToQC4jY79otq1trLA4FgeGOZoVJ2BlvUTAZ_ui/s400/Ancient-Origins+Silbury+Hill+earthworm+theory+thur+7+april+2016.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen grab of <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-editorials/was-neolithic-silbury-hill-designed-welcoming-home-omnivorous-upwardly-mobile-020800">this blogger's article on the Ancient-Origins website</a>, published April 7, 2016</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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</xml><![endif]-->Title:<b> Was Neolithic Silbury Hill Designed as a Welcoming Home for Omnivorous, Upwardly-Mobile Earthworms?</b></div>
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Google has been quick to pick up my solution to the Silbury enigma: here's what one currently sees when entering (silbury hill) into the search engine.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTgtJchHoj6h1xUVk_suvsw-pP0HmbS92mUB1sgwq8EoMSQ6tbuBIuLqcewXWYJbZPupJtR_SXcdejWYxYc1LK2Woj6spTrWmOuAzVOtLC613FIU7qveTcIPfvgqbM0ud9TbWgHQnaq0g/s1600/google+in+the+news+silbury+hill.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTgtJchHoj6h1xUVk_suvsw-pP0HmbS92mUB1sgwq8EoMSQ6tbuBIuLqcewXWYJbZPupJtR_SXcdejWYxYc1LK2Woj6spTrWmOuAzVOtLC613FIU7qveTcIPfvgqbM0ud9TbWgHQnaq0g/s400/google+in+the+news+silbury+hill.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
More will follow here in a few days time, after I've had an opportiunity to deal with any comments that may appear on the ancient-origins site (though none as yet!).<br />
<br />
<b>The basic idea:</b> <i>Silbury Hill was designed as a community necropolis with multiple interments of one or more vital organs of the recently deceased (heart especially), together with soil from the deceased's locality, with intentional inclusion of EARTHWORMS. Composting action served to biodegrade the soft tissue, freeing the soul from mortal remains. Discussion of the fate of the skeleton, disposed of elsewhere, i.e. not within the hill, will be deferred for now.</i><br />
<br />
Here again is a <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-editorials/was-neolithic-silbury-hill-designed-welcoming-home-omnivorous-upwardly-mobile-020800">link to the article:</a><br />
<br />
<b> Here's the URL in full:</b><br />
<br />
http://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-editorials/was-neolithic-silbury-hill-designed-welcoming-home-omnivorous-upwardly-mobile-020800<br />
<br />
<b>Today's task (Sunday 10 April) </b>will be to update my Silbury Hill/Stonehenge site that blossomed briefly in the spring of 2012 - yes 4 years ago no less! It was a brief diversion from this blogger's long-running interest/research programme to do with the Turin Shroud.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5Rmlv1_WyPTs4K1fzI-_97Pl1d3YpgyjRp6Lah3oYbJBcxreccVrBEhSCMdSJVrFjQmf3zPPxwC_u0T2gr9ytX5V4SMSGBR88uqcE6f61E1Yfd_qGkJv1X0El8xip2r-HfaYBKJmAnUM/s1600/home+page+shroudofturinwithoutallthehype+10+april+2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5Rmlv1_WyPTs4K1fzI-_97Pl1d3YpgyjRp6Lah3oYbJBcxreccVrBEhSCMdSJVrFjQmf3zPPxwC_u0T2gr9ytX5V4SMSGBR88uqcE6f61E1Yfd_qGkJv1X0El8xip2r-HfaYBKJmAnUM/s320/home+page+shroudofturinwithoutallthehype+10+april+2016.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Home page: this blogger's specialist Shroud of Turin site, 10th April 2016, with its posting summarising the proposed "flour-imprinting" model.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
(Yes, <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/">I think I know how it was done</a> by one very determined, very focused medieval entrepreneur).<br />
<br />
Here's how the <a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/">Home page of that Silbury site</a> of mine looks right now, showing the last of 4 postings on 8th April 2012:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXtqB3ynJ31yEwDoz8nAs3LzhDn33JOfXCKCPxLTRnpdi5FPq1pjRXvN1u_M1wGk03Ir4R-NwWfoc6KDZboHuu57alPkkKplsY1pW3tB5yU1_s6QQdv7lw4Wadkhb8xrGYdiqwX1CLihk/s1600/sussing+site+last+post+8+june+2012.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXtqB3ynJ31yEwDoz8nAs3LzhDn33JOfXCKCPxLTRnpdi5FPq1pjRXvN1u_M1wGk03Ir4R-NwWfoc6KDZboHuu57alPkkKplsY1pW3tB5yU1_s6QQdv7lw4Wadkhb8xrGYdiqwX1CLihk/s400/sussing+site+last+post+8+june+2012.png" width="391" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Shortly to be reactivated - this blogger's long-neglected specialist Neolithic Wiltshire site </b>(Stonehenge AND Silbury Hill).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b>New topics to be addressed over there?</b> We, there will be some ideas/explanation for the mysterious sarsen stones (portable variety) that stud the interior of Silbury Hill, which have been likened to "raisins in a cake", not ignoring the presence of animal bones (ox ribs) next to one such stone. Yes, their presence, and orientation (concave side down) fits beautifully with my theory that Silbury Hill evolved incrementally as a communal necropolis for interring human remains! The site will also be the logical place to recount details of my recent visit with wife to Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow and Avebury stone circle, but also Silbury Hill's smaller little-known sister a few miles east in the grounds of Marlborough College.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYkyEYDBxJf-TxFMtP5M9bpLAEphNSi0elF7ms5l4qS2igY_S-K4tiNxai33YwCnDlfydd4SyNlSCs6RVw9eiCxt9IUwOLbvfXyQiHJb_Jb6kANlcgSzs1k4_c7qEd5t7Q84JFehamekT/s1600/DSC04902.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYkyEYDBxJf-TxFMtP5M9bpLAEphNSi0elF7ms5l4qS2igY_S-K4tiNxai33YwCnDlfydd4SyNlSCs6RVw9eiCxt9IUwOLbvfXyQiHJb_Jb6kANlcgSzs1k4_c7qEd5t7Q84JFehamekT/s320/DSC04902.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Marlborough Mound (this blogger's own photograph taken 22nd March 2016)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
(Fortunately my wife and I arrived at the gate out of term time, and were allowed in where I was able to take pictures, and have since learned that Dr.Jim Leary of the University of Reading's Archaeology Dept., co-author with David Field of the excellent book on Silbury Hill, did some recent test borings into the so-called Marlborough Mound, confirming it be of Neolithic-era origin, not just a country squire's self-indulgent garden feature as some had imagined).<br />
<br />
<b>Late addition </b>(April 12, 2016): see the latest posting on my re-activated Silbury/Stonehenge site, the first since 2012, but still "preaching the same message" re the utilitarian role that the proto-Silbury Hill appears to have played on the chalk uplands of Neolithic Wiltshire.:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/genesis-of-a-new-theory-for-neolithic-silbury-hill-a-gradual-merging-of-multiple-soul-releasing-compost-heaps/">Link: </a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Here's a follow-up to the above posting, </b>on the same site, posted earlier today (April 12): it addresses the question of why Silbury Hill is studded with rounded sarsen stones (local silicified sandstone), scores of them, "like raisins in a cake" to quote the words of the distinguished archaeologist Richard Atkinson who oversaw the 1968 "dig", if tunnelling can be so described.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sussingstonehenge.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/new-silbury-soul-release-model-can-explain-the-rounded-sarsen-stones-implanted-concave-side-down-into-sides-of-the-growing-neolithic-mound/">Link: </a><br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-14186360875829306692016-04-03T10:13:00.003-07:002016-04-07T13:14:43.082-07:00Is officially-approved smokeless “house coal” stinking out our neighbourhoods – despite its “low sulphur” designation?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKYU0GpUDPA4Fn9IQuX_DDO9AE3Xo577d5sEpWME2VadoKbMoVj9iG3AzE1b_XjKMBW0JWa46SMVxojb-4ZWBVOBN_j7maS6rL8FxYIUvIoM2-uBJYrfkZBaXwnEk-uHDkxWzDQ0Rhcu8/s1600/2.+i-402-7da-9-1+coal+does+not+always+burn+cleanly%252C+even+when+well+supplied+with+air.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKYU0GpUDPA4Fn9IQuX_DDO9AE3Xo577d5sEpWME2VadoKbMoVj9iG3AzE1b_XjKMBW0JWa46SMVxojb-4ZWBVOBN_j7maS6rL8FxYIUvIoM2-uBJYrfkZBaXwnEk-uHDkxWzDQ0Rhcu8/s320/2.+i-402-7da-9-1+coal+does+not+always+burn+cleanly%252C+even+when+well+supplied+with+air.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fig.1: Burning coal can produce flame, smoke AND smelly sulphurous fumes -
even when well-supplied with oxygen. It's the result of DESTRUCTIVE
DISTILLATION of coal aka pyrolysis, in addition to simpler chemical
combustion. Expect volatile sulphur compounds that are smellier than
sulphur dioxide (SO2) e.g. CS2, COS, H2S etc.</b></td></tr>
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I shall keep this posting brief, it merely flagging up this
blogger’s latest research project, with much reading and research still to be
done.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The title is prompted by the experience in recent years of
walking into town – a distance of a mile or so – and being hit once in a while at one or even two places by <i>an
overpowering stench of coal smoke,</i> not just any old coal smoke, but<i> sulphurous
smoke, smelling of bad eggs or worse.</i></div>
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How can that be, one may ask? Even if one does not live in a
town with the strictest restrictions on what kind of solid fuel can be burned –
in a boiler or open fire – there are still regulations on what can and cannot
be burned. Typically they are that the coal has to be:(a) smokeless and (b) low
sulphur –<a href="https://www.gov.uk/get-fuel-authorised-for-sale-or-import"> max.2% of dry weight. </a></div>
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Here’s where it gets interesting – or should that be ominous?
On every occasion I’ve walked into a sulphurous fug, I’ve looked around
carefully at all the chimney pots, and never seen a trace of smoke!</div>
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<br /></div>
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How can that be? Has the fug come in from somewhere distant,
and then suddenly dropped to ground<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>level?
Unlikely, because already I’m finding certain locations tend to have the fug,
not others, suggesting the source of pollution is local, despite the absence of
visible smoke.</div>
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That leaves us with another disturbing possibility, namely
that coal is being marketed as smokeless, as indeed it may be, and meeting the
regulations on maximum sulphur content, but is putting smelly, noxious sulphur
compounds out into the atmosphere that are invisible. How likely is that? If
likely, is it a result of simplistic chemical thinking that assumes that
because a particular coal is smokeless and has low sulphur content, it cannot
be a pollution hazard in the sense that it its combustion products are odourless
or largely so?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s look closely at what is meant, or rather assumed by “combustion”,
because what happens in the real world may be a far cry from what happens in a
chemistry laboratory under ideal conditions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, when one looks at official documents on coal for
domestic use, one sees time and again the assumption that the sulphur in coal
ends up in the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide, SO2. In other words the sulphur
has become highly oxidized through reaction with oxygen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>[S] </b>in coal + <b>O2</b> (from air)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>SO2</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sulphur dioxide, especially from coal-fired power stations, one may recall is the gas held responsible
for acid rain and acidification of distant lakes (dissolving in water to form sulphurous acid, and later oxidizing
to the much stronger sulphuric acid). Sulphur dioxide gas also irritates the
airways, causes asthma attacks, and was a major contributor to the 4000 or so premature deaths
in the 50s from the killer smogs due to domestic and other<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>coal fires. It was that experience that led
to the Clean Air Acts, the most recent in 1993, specifiying the maximum sulphur
content of coal and other domestic solid fuels derived therefrom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OK, so there’s always going to be some <b>SO2</b> when one burns a “house
coal” right, and one has to live with that. End of story as regards sulphur?
No, far from it, and anyone who says otherwise is either chemically naive or if
not is failing to tell the whole story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact of the matter is that when one sets light to coal,
say with kindling, one does not get immediate combustion with complete
oxidation (C to CO2, <b>S to SO2</b>). That may be true for the surface layers, where
there is plenty of oxygen and a flame (from wood) to ensure that gases oxidize
completely. But there’s another chemical process that goes on called <b>PYROLYSIS</b>,
aka <b>destructive distillation</b> ( a more descriptive term).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When coal and other organic materials (paper, wood etc) are
heated, the first thing to happen is that the complex molecules (cellulose, lignin) break down into fragments that are liquid or gaseous. That’s the process
called “<b>pyrolysis</b>” – splitting into smaller more volatile fragments.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here’s where it gets interesting. If there’s a naked flame
and oxygen, then those pyrolysis gases ignite, and one gets a bigger and better
flame. The fire takes hold as we say; the kindling does its job of setting the
coal alight (or rather, not the solid coal initially, but the pyrolysis gases).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what if those pyrolysis fumes manage to evade the flame
and/or cool before they have had been able to mix with air and oxygen? What
then? What happens to them? Answer: they go up the chimney, and out into the
neighbourhood, and no, the sulphur will not be in the form of SO2, with its hopefully
limited odour and toxicity.<i> It goes out in the form of pyrolysis products of
the sulphur in the coal</i>, the presence and nature of which is rarely if ever acknowledged
in the official literature. Indeed, one has to search the chemical literature
on coal combustion, complete versus incomplete and especially “destructive
distillation” to find out what they are. It would be no exaggeration to say one
hits a brick wall, and starts to wonder why.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fortunately there’s a near obsolete literature to which one
can turn to get some clues. It’s to do with the manufacture of “town gas” aka
coal gas that occurred prior to the introduction of North Sea natural gas in
the 60s onwards. One is referring to gas works chemistry (and oh boy, were gas
works smelly places, as the writer can personally attest).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5pKfaQ0Bqfoe-_5DLZ1qzmHSSS7lIQVK3govHVODnUWO6ABPh_ukAGeov5kqtRl2IrP2hOG_bdFSJzAjyg_Wcur4YWTn29Z4aVc6J2sf13vC0ylfdInohvIJ_DVX2vCpgnMINqtSjD8P5/s1600/3.+gas+works.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5pKfaQ0Bqfoe-_5DLZ1qzmHSSS7lIQVK3govHVODnUWO6ABPh_ukAGeov5kqtRl2IrP2hOG_bdFSJzAjyg_Wcur4YWTn29Z4aVc6J2sf13vC0ylfdInohvIJ_DVX2vCpgnMINqtSjD8P5/s400/3.+gas+works.png" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Fig. 2 and acknowledgements: </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b> </b><b>
</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<h3>
Making gas from coal (by pyrolysis, aka destructive
distillation)</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.nationalgasmuseum.org.uk/making-gas-from-coal/">http://www.nationalgasmuseum.org.uk/making-gas-from-coal/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Graphic
and caption from the National Gas Museum Site.<b> This is a description of
destructive distillation of coal, aka pyrolysis, NOT combustion.</b> Note
the need for a purifier to remove the volatile sulphur compounds from
the gas stream before the latter could be piped to people's homes. IMPORTANT:
we are not talking about sulphur dioxide, SO2, but MUCH SMELLIER SULPHUR
COMPOUNDS (see earlier).<i> That distinction between destructive distillation - which can take place in the absence or presence of air - and combustion, complete or otherwise, is crucial if one is to understand how the"cleanest" of coals can pollute if still containing sulphur<b> </b>and <b>burned under non-ideal conditions.</b></i><b><br /></b></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In gas works, the coal was not “burned”. It was placed in
retorts, open at one end only, and heated where it underwent pyrolysis, i.e.
destructive distillation. The impure coal gas was mainly hydrogen and methane,
but had smelly<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sulphur compounds too.
But here's the difference with the domestic coal fire, lacking oxygen. The coal
gas was cleaned up to remove the sulphur impurities. It was called flue gas
desulphurisation and used “scrubbers” that contained alkali (slaked lime etc) to take out the sulphur compounds. Domestic fireplaces do not have
scrubbers needless to say. Expect chimney smoke from coal fires to contain sulphur compounds that are NOT entirely sulphur dioxide as seems to be the assumption in the UK's Clean Air legislation and regulation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Expect to see an appendix at the end for more detailed chemical information in a day or two for some
of the objectionable sulphur compounds. For now, let’s list the main culprits,
which were likely to be one or more of the following in varying proportions: hydrogen
sulphide (H2S), carbon disulphide (CS2) and carbonyl sulphide (COS). The hydrogen sulphide could be a primary product, but is also formed as a secondary product when carbonyl sulphide reacts with water in moist air (of which there's no shortage in the UK) to form H2S and CO2.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what’s all this to do with the “clean green” house coal
that folks are having delivered to their homes, often brought thousands of
miles (naming no countries of origin!) on account of its impeccable credentials
(easy to light, burns with bright flame, burns longer and hotter, low ash, and
yes, the all-important tags: smokeless and low sulphur).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Answer: not a definitive one, at least not yet, more a suspicion,
a hunch, that there’s been a terrible oversight on the part of the regulatory
authorities: they have assumed that the low sulphur of these super-smokeless fuels
goes up the chimney and into the neighbourhood as sulphur dioxide.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But does it, especially when the solid fuel is burning under
less than ideal conditions, and indeed is not burning in the true sense, but
undergoing pyrolysis/destructive distillation?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Might it be possible that a coal that is smokeless and
possessing other desirable characteristics in the grate does NOT combust to
SO2. Might it be predisposed to become less oxidized sulphur compounds like the
ones listed – H2S, CS2, COS etc?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Have these much-touted super-smokeless fuels ever been tested
to see what happens to their intrinsic sulphur when ‘burned’ under real-life
conditions? Have their emissions from chimneys ever been monitored and analysed
for SO2 and OTHER SULPHUR COMPOUNDS?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do we need to worry about them? Yes. H2S, despite being
easily dismissed as a “bad egg smell” is in fact highly toxic. Weight for
weight it’s said to be more toxic than hydrogen cyanide. Carbon disulphide? So
far I’ve not been able to find much except that it can (details to follow). Carbonyl sulphide
– again , hard to track down detailed information, but such as exists is not reassuring
– it produces ‘neurological damage’. What, one might ask: like Parkinson’s disease, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alzheimers and other dementia conditions of
that nature?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No, I don’t wish to appear alarmist, but neither should one
be complacent when dealing with a class of compounds that are notorious for their
toxicity at low levels (reminder: mustard gas of WW1 was an easily-vaporisible sulphur
compound <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- C<sub>4</sub>H<sub>8</sub>Cl<sub>2</sub>S,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bis(2-chloroethyl) sulphide).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what are the next steps, being a responsible citizen, or
so I like to think?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>First</b>, one needs to build up a stock of anecdotal evidence
that certain 'hotspots' in this blogger's home neighbourhood are regularly afflicted with the
particular ‘sulphurous stink’ as distinct from that of ordinary coal smoke. By "ordinary" I mean
the kind one encountered in one’s childhood with the sharp but not disgusting SO2 smell, NOT the
gaswork's "rotten egg" type.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Secondly</b>, the jackpot,
attempt to spot smoke from a particular chimney, even if the merest wisp, that
would identify the property as burning particular varieties of house coal. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Thirdly</b>:
inform the local authority, urge them to pay a call and see whether (as I
suspect) the coal being burned IS approved for use. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Fourthly</b>: press for proper and
thorough analytical tests be run on the combustion/pyrolysis characteristics of
allegedly ‘clean’ solid fuels marketed as approved house coal to check them out for possible release of noxious
sulphur compounds under realistic conditions – NOT <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">just </span>those that are designed to ensure complete
combustion under ideal laboratory conditions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I shall of course be sending my local Council a link to this
posting. What would be nice would be for the Council to become proactive in
checking out the hypothesis presented here. I shall also send a link to my
contact at a national newspaper, one whom I recently assisted with a different
chemically-related issue.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Chemical appendix (more to follow):</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUBDnxvkTQcseBicU4sx3kStYAiRF9hAryjp5o086Nx9c5NBZjioCpl2TG0bmaLwubW4ofx6gP3axgURAxzBRwXc2cAiM7WB9CMCmDqcF_3asOVmR7e4fhBqYUnv6_JIUl6Gu3jdhkdqw/s1600/5.+preciado+main+process+reactions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUBDnxvkTQcseBicU4sx3kStYAiRF9hAryjp5o086Nx9c5NBZjioCpl2TG0bmaLwubW4ofx6gP3axgURAxzBRwXc2cAiM7WB9CMCmDqcF_3asOVmR7e4fhBqYUnv6_JIUl6Gu3jdhkdqw/s400/5.+preciado+main+process+reactions.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The red box contains some chemical reactions that can take place in a bed of hot coal to produce (a) sulphur dioxide (b) hydrogen sulphide (c) carbon disulphide and (d) carbonyl sulphide. Irrelevant reactions to the present discussion scored out.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These data were taken from the following recent and splendidly detailed paper:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDVikPR6FqlGITmlMwdy-dfHF0b-YQjnT58u1EoVFSIsbRguT1SF41hdmFxgvnzYuvxuEp90LZ-iytYPsALS83uBdbw74mp5tGykk7SyPAlcIFTPa-RFMhoINh6-1eeh3CTNTxF4N9Gld9/s1600/4.+Preciado+paper.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDVikPR6FqlGITmlMwdy-dfHF0b-YQjnT58u1EoVFSIsbRguT1SF41hdmFxgvnzYuvxuEp90LZ-iytYPsALS83uBdbw74mp5tGykk7SyPAlcIFTPa-RFMhoINh6-1eeh3CTNTxF4N9Gld9/s320/4.+Preciado+paper.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>2012 Paper by J. Preciado <i>et al.</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Also from this blogger:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>1. A solution to the enigmatic Turin Shroud?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
See most recent posting on specialist Turin Shroud site:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/modelling-the-shroud-of-turin-with-white-flour-olive-oil-and-a-real-face-in-pictures/">https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/modelling-the-shroud-of-turin-with-white-flour-olive-oil-and-a-real-face-in-pictures/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>2. A solution to the enigmatic Silbury Hill?</b> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
See preview in
comments under this posting on the ancient-origins site:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/not-great-place-pass-night-haunted-mounds-prehistoric-times-004878?nopaging=1">http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/not-great-place-pass-night-haunted-mounds-prehistoric-times-004878?nopaging=1</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b> SUMMARY OF POSTING</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what’s the nub of the hypothesis? How is it different
from what has appeared before, and is it grounded in authentic, dare one say
authoritative chemistry?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. “Smokeless” coals have an internal structure that allows
the coal to be heated without releasing “puffs” of microparticulate carbon,
read soot or smoke.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. But that predilection to ‘hang onto’ carbon makes the
sulphur of the coal behave differently on heating. In ordinary smoke-releasing coal,
the sulphur is liberated in a form that is easily oxidized to sulphur dioxide.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. In smokeless coal, the sulphur is NOT easily liberated in
a form that oxidizes to sulphur dioxide. Maybe it is retained, in a manner
similar to the carbon, and NOT released in puffs that are easily oxidized to
SO2.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. Instead of being easily released and oxidized to SO2, it
is retained, at least for a bit longer, and instead of being oxidized to SO2,
it participates in entirely different chemical reactions that convert it to
other smellier sulphur compounds, notably carbon disulphide, carbonyl sulphide,
hydrogen sulphide etc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other words, the properties of being “smokeless” and “releasing
sulphur as SO2” are not mutually exclusive, as seems to be assumed by the regulatory
authorities. One cannot go selecting coals for their tendency to burn without
smoking, while assuming that the sulphur burns off normally and conventionally to SO2 as if an entirely
independent process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not sufficient
to select for smokeless property and (merely) low sulphur content. The fate of
that sulphur in the domestic fireplace should have been investigated
experimentally.<i> It was wrong to assume that the sulphur in a smokeless fuel
burns off as sulphur dioxide</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alternative chemical pathways, not requiring oxygen, could
predominate in smokeless fuels, giving rise to volatile sulphur end-products
that go up the chimney and may well proceed to stink out the immediate neighbourhood far
more than would be the case if SO2 had been the main endproduct.</div>
sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-74737307378789386982015-08-30T11:34:00.000-07:002015-12-09T01:47:04.984-08:00Is a high energy laser beam really needed to model the Turin Shroud? Maybe those Italians should have tried pizza ingredients first, and a hot oven...<b> Update: December 9, 2015</b>: see the <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/shroud-of-turin-performance-characteristics-of-a-simple-uv-lamp-chosen-to-check-out-claims-that-are-dismissive-of-thermal-imprinting-mechanisms-part-1-of-3/">latest posting on my specialist Shroud:</a><br />
<br />
It's the first of a trio of papers addressing the fluorescence issue (allegedly ruling out any "scorch" mechanism for the Shroud body image).<br />
<br />
<b>Start of original posting (also with link to the same site):</b><br />
<br />
Here's an image placed on my <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/might-flour-power-have-been-used-create-the-enigmatic-shroud-of-turin-body-image-a-retired-fmbra-flour-scientist-says/">specialist Shroud of Turin ( TS) site</a> just an hour ago. It's a distillation of some 40 months and more of virtually non-stop effort since Dec 2011 to 'model' the 'enigmatic' TS body image.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZY046_nqCGqc26itLVu8F1yyHPe4ErwL_M-KNUu9JC5lJjn-Ug0XZncr1YFnxdFJomu1t7QzqbUfMZQ72_8yBSBDt5ebXHecSPEBdKdXVpF8xXcerkNXfoQ_IZOJXsxU5JF26bGDNSlG/s1600/sbod+21+final+banner+blank+940x+198+fitted+to+WP+template+-+Copy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZY046_nqCGqc26itLVu8F1yyHPe4ErwL_M-KNUu9JC5lJjn-Ug0XZncr1YFnxdFJomu1t7QzqbUfMZQ72_8yBSBDt5ebXHecSPEBdKdXVpF8xXcerkNXfoQ_IZOJXsxU5JF26bGDNSlG/s400/sbod+21+final+banner+blank+940x+198+fitted+to+WP+template+-+Copy.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
It would have been nice to use a real human subject instead of the plastic toy The technique lends itself to scaling up, and leaves the volunteer (?) unharmed, except for a coating of vegetable oil and plain white flour (most of that being imprinted onto linen, leaving less to be showered off).<br />
<br />
Alas. I do not have a 4m x 1m length of linen, and even if I did, one suspects the sourpuss contingent of sindonology would waste no time in telling me it had to be herringbone weave, centuries or millennia old, traditionally-bleached, lacking modern-day optical brighteners etc etc etc <i>ad infinitum</i>, <i>ad nauseam</i>. Nope. This science bod is content to model the TS characteristics, showing that no fancy gee whizz 20th/21st century technology is needed, certainly not pulses of intense uv rays from excimer lasers or neutrons from rock-crushing tectonic activity etc.(the sort of things that could theoretically have affected a particular linen shrouds in a 1st century rock tomb we are solemnly assured). <br />
<br />
Let's stick with the small scale model, and show how, step-by-step, the above image was created that, from where I'm standing, ticks an ever-growing number of boxes that says: YES - it is looking increasingly like a valid model, despite it using homely medieval technology that today's blog-readers can confirm for themselves in less than an hour in their own homes if so inclined. It requires nothing more than: (a) linen (I get mine from the clothes rack in charity shops, ladies' white summer trousers especially) (b) plain white flour (c) vegetable oil (d) a hot oven (e) a bar of soap. Yes - indcredibly, insultingly some might say, that's my DIY list for what's needed.<br />
<br />
The rest of this posting will be in two instalments: first, the procedure for obtaining the above result, namely a faint, fuzzy, negative TS-like image and then, later, possibly tomorrow, the evidence from studies reported already on my other site that the image you see above meets many , possibly most, of the criteria of the TS image at both macroscopic and microscopic level.<br />
<br />
Here are the pictures first:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Km7tjAZ_6Prke9cYwqeKVc-5RKgOLV-zzWxD_83u_dwnAY-0PuTb4NIsXmAwHhCjt_-Y6fKparftVMPsCOzJcF_zIQWrT6P9NGyKJvQgjc6vc_v6BINAiiM4ct9z860H4l5f5FsPwPqI/s1600/sbod+1+DSC09000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Km7tjAZ_6Prke9cYwqeKVc-5RKgOLV-zzWxD_83u_dwnAY-0PuTb4NIsXmAwHhCjt_-Y6fKparftVMPsCOzJcF_zIQWrT6P9NGyKJvQgjc6vc_v6BINAiiM4ct9z860H4l5f5FsPwPqI/s320/sbod+1+DSC09000.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Which to use as "subject" for contact imprinting with vegetable oil and white flour? The plastic toy or the brass crucifix? </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Which template to use?<br />
<br />
No contest: the first, since it allows one to model the head-to-head
frontal/dorsal configuration of the Shroud (the one that screams CONTACT
IMPRINT, but don't tell Charles Freeman). The outstretched crucifixion
mode of the crucifix prevents getting a head-to-head configuration. Use
of plastic also conveys the fact that it's the imprint that will be
heated, not the subject.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbVTVUcBF7WASEgC1hV6pu7glHZRYZw6rCpbXAah1tPuJ0mFga_FryX0s7T7uKxmbNzE166ErPQUu8Hd_9OKgiT_5gI70f0A4wTrREou5REqyQLPypzHnhPqRnGR-FV1iPE43Y3QangYb/s1600/sbod+2+DSC09008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbVTVUcBF7WASEgC1hV6pu7glHZRYZw6rCpbXAah1tPuJ0mFga_FryX0s7T7uKxmbNzE166ErPQUu8Hd_9OKgiT_5gI70f0A4wTrREou5REqyQLPypzHnhPqRnGR-FV1iPE43Y3QangYb/s320/sbod+2+DSC09008.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The "subject" has been smeared with oil. Flour is then scattered across the surface (gravity alone, no brushing etc) and the surplus gently tapped off. </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The
oil ensures that there will be adhering flour on the entire surface. The oil also assists image formation in the oven, as reported earlier on
my other site.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIPlW_bGqMD8_e0TjJDjrz5ejS7vcx7AdEVsrJqKm3ZPzDpvK-N-3ViLSb-7JVEHf4BrWWBYD7S70EXxMpNSLvXoiNgl_WiBxMVrTk10y46aB1NJT9OLHyn_sGU7_cgH4oaq9VGjaruz3X/s1600/sbod+3+DSC09066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIPlW_bGqMD8_e0TjJDjrz5ejS7vcx7AdEVsrJqKm3ZPzDpvK-N-3ViLSb-7JVEHf4BrWWBYD7S70EXxMpNSLvXoiNgl_WiBxMVrTk10y46aB1NJT9OLHyn_sGU7_cgH4oaq9VGjaruz3X/s320/sbod+3+DSC09066.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Both sides of the "subject" have been oiled and dusted, but NOT the top of the head. The subject has been laid onto pre-soaked i.e. WET linen.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
..<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfxCEmCiPRXgPJfBUzJj4NVhKYwR0SEexymLl-yOlqRbUl0Yx9IcFmlRo9G6jwNXJumwKC385Mp5SKPR4NTo8qVtOvwqqYSbfx4c7y5XNUXPdNF3N_hZAovGUCu2jLjMiN5k5K-75KKWGD/s1600/sbod+4+DSC09011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfxCEmCiPRXgPJfBUzJj4NVhKYwR0SEexymLl-yOlqRbUl0Yx9IcFmlRo9G6jwNXJumwKC385Mp5SKPR4NTo8qVtOvwqqYSbfx4c7y5XNUXPdNF3N_hZAovGUCu2jLjMiN5k5K-75KKWGD/s320/sbod+4+DSC09011.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Oops. I forgot to mention that oil/flour was wiped off the top of the head before imprinting. That is MOST IMPORTANT if one's to model the TS. It ensures the correct GAP between the two heads. </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZendTtZw_A39utDTewBXnRDm4Rf2ok6_-7s3eT6HA5Mr0nyn7Nkj0I1a9Ir31t2eb1Jzyrx1bhBgPlP9oXd3oPL7_8GFuraFvt7T5Pf6moRG7tN-VzGMTW90AahMU_czQLAZJjqucyPNR/s1600/sbod+6+DSC09070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZendTtZw_A39utDTewBXnRDm4Rf2ok6_-7s3eT6HA5Mr0nyn7Nkj0I1a9Ir31t2eb1Jzyrx1bhBgPlP9oXd3oPL7_8GFuraFvt7T5Pf6moRG7tN-VzGMTW90AahMU_czQLAZJjqucyPNR/s320/sbod+6+DSC09070.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The subject has been pressed down into the linen (with a soft underlay). The surplus of linen has then been turned back over the head and draped carefully over the frontal/ventral side.The wet linen is then patted gently down with one's hands.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Note how well the linen moulds to the contours, despite the small scale of the subject.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBw0KsbUMKLFdSsRrkfAVn2iXNtVXxbh1-5MkPVzJNen8zOrHSfVNu02DxZ-Jto0Eg2tlhZOFcY74RKBIY4FEDWg1fSEdYgf-4oWt1xhTjRRDsjUIqQO4BOkYydK71RleYjPw4zkO-R33-/s1600/sbod+7+DSC09077.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBw0KsbUMKLFdSsRrkfAVn2iXNtVXxbh1-5MkPVzJNen8zOrHSfVNu02DxZ-Jto0Eg2tlhZOFcY74RKBIY4FEDWg1fSEdYgf-4oWt1xhTjRRDsjUIqQO4BOkYydK71RleYjPw4zkO-R33-/s320/sbod+7+DSC09077.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The linen has then been peeled back with the near-invisible flour/oil imprint on the left hand side</b>. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Note how most of the flour has transferred to the linen, it only remaining at the lowest inaccessible parts of the subject.<br />
<br />
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIYhPoph_MjZArYw_2OY1tmhzNzSkrjPz-ZVtiI71SuRj47kL5Qval3tOEQbupXfAzgtL02qg1gr2OLvahtXbrm9SBfTYmp4G9NX1v2Pp_VZ6iZmyx-YoCe89BnbS_vxwuKon2FajNqiM/s1600/sbod+8+DSC09091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIYhPoph_MjZArYw_2OY1tmhzNzSkrjPz-ZVtiI71SuRj47kL5Qval3tOEQbupXfAzgtL02qg1gr2OLvahtXbrm9SBfTYmp4G9NX1v2Pp_VZ6iZmyx-YoCe89BnbS_vxwuKon2FajNqiM/s320/sbod+8+DSC09091.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The subject has been carefully lifted off the linen, and the double imprint immediately transferred to a clean baking tray in a pre-heated fan oven (max temperature setting, approx 200 degrees C, air only, not glowing elements).</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here it is after 5 minutes or so. Already the double imprint can be seen appearing as protein in the flour reacts with reducing sugars (Maillard browning reaction). However, it's not that 'obvious' product of oven-heating that is of prime importance. It's what's UNDERNEATH - possibly, indeed probably <i>inside</i> the linen fibres, rather than on top. (It's taken a lot of experimentation, microscopy etc to arrive at that tentative proposition, for which proof is still needed).<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4rxRE895sY7eJChOQz6J_G5NZGXzSVV08aD24Q-u_JgzqLqvClYzdUD8x1k0Ih45qXDOTVwfRi5mxvpz7E0T0xFU9T9TkOJMMkpViyXucX5QMQle8NcaPXVUOQ6s38zCOEp8DM5H8sjST/s1600/sbod+9+DSC09098.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4rxRE895sY7eJChOQz6J_G5NZGXzSVV08aD24Q-u_JgzqLqvClYzdUD8x1k0Ih45qXDOTVwfRi5mxvpz7E0T0xFU9T9TkOJMMkpViyXucX5QMQle8NcaPXVUOQ6s38zCOEp8DM5H8sjST/s320/sbod+9+DSC09098.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">H<b>ere's a fairly faint image that is probably best stopped at this stage, prior to final image-attenuation by washing to get a very faint TS-like image.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I decided to keep it in the oven a while longer, needing a bolder final image as banner on the other site.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DKHMm7VNqR8CY8K2Mfte1k78iCL-ZaxQUrbq-z-9YkKvXVXepMcBc6n0XxBzjSbRj4ZZyhS388iERQ4OtyzJA-Db2RzwoqdPzoenY0mdZhgWLECbk1sUtPDnOfK7Yp6UVm9hyjKzcwGL/s1600/sbod+10+DSC09104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DKHMm7VNqR8CY8K2Mfte1k78iCL-ZaxQUrbq-z-9YkKvXVXepMcBc6n0XxBzjSbRj4ZZyhS388iERQ4OtyzJA-Db2RzwoqdPzoenY0mdZhgWLECbk1sUtPDnOfK7Yp6UVm9hyjKzcwGL/s320/sbod+10+DSC09104.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Appearance after another 5 minutes in the hot oven</b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Note the discoloration of the linen now appearing, especially at the margins where the linen is not supported by the heat-conducting metal tray, but apart from that the linen stands up remarkably well to oven-heating.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_iUy3tD-z2lUf5d6mqhCKRy08U-tJpi02NEkIT79BUE8c07_4_NSlutI45Z_iSs7HQ2oVjX2KrUSp42ptSWYTKHDIvukjU4iBlrpxFkNHoiO9SJik15PohweB3i_3KqKqWpxMQLvxsCD/s1600/sbod+11+DSC09109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_iUy3tD-z2lUf5d6mqhCKRy08U-tJpi02NEkIT79BUE8c07_4_NSlutI45Z_iSs7HQ2oVjX2KrUSp42ptSWYTKHDIvukjU4iBlrpxFkNHoiO9SJik15PohweB3i_3KqKqWpxMQLvxsCD/s320/sbod+11+DSC09109.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The same experiment was used to create an image on cotton (right) as well as linen.</b> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Cotton imprints look different at the microscopic level, and may play a
crucial control role in elucidating the highly subtle nature of the
post-washed image on linen (about which more later).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIC_cwcInc2DX12jp_j-3jeJAHfqwLP6yuabKJ3B5rj5Y-ha2R16JK6t6LLvTCu8Rm461_soNppb3f6xovPhhpZW1qv7dzxFiXoqn4qCd1DkW0OqgqDa00Y4ADFJ-BEqW_4bQeOmwnBCU/s1600/sbod++20+DSC09129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIC_cwcInc2DX12jp_j-3jeJAHfqwLP6yuabKJ3B5rj5Y-ha2R16JK6t6LLvTCu8Rm461_soNppb3f6xovPhhpZW1qv7dzxFiXoqn4qCd1DkW0OqgqDa00Y4ADFJ-BEqW_4bQeOmwnBCU/s320/sbod++20+DSC09129.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Original 'subject' shown slightly out-of-register with its dorsal imprint (left). The image on the right is the vitally important and arguably more relevant image (frontal) that survives vigorous washing wiith soap and water.</b> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That final attenuated image on the right referred to earlier is the one I consider to
be the REAL model for the Turin Shroud, not the first-formed Maillard
image which is a surface encrustation. Oil plays no obvious part in Maillard reactions, but oil, whether the small amount in white flour (approx 1.5% by weight) or supplementary oil as here, speeding up image formation, may play a vital role in modelling the TS image, maybe in conjunction with coloration of the outer layer (S1) of the secondary cell wall. The S1 layer has mysterious lignification.Might S1 lignin and/or oil be the key to understanding the subtlety of the TS image?<br />
<br />
That concludes the methodology. The next instalment will look at (a) macroscopic and (b) microscopic properties of the model image made by oil/flour imprinting, relative to the reported characteristics of the TS.<br />
<br />
Watch this space<br />
<br />
3D properties? Do the faint and fuzzy imprints you see above respond to 3D rendering in software programs like ImageJ? is that too much to hope, given typicaly awestruck observations such as this one from the shroudstory site:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9P7opwGtT2gELkZVPsOAmxUBmMPdEUPg0AA_YIBBpAZKHnWAKrEAWeqXNKj2KFPL9AKLEsBD8peCds7Er9P5HLDJaSluxzg9YZ5KgAQVfFGq8z4XkOxw5lsc_xmVtdlVw30wZCZ0otQ-F/s1600/dan+porter+margin+comment+re+profoundly+mysterious+yellow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9P7opwGtT2gELkZVPsOAmxUBmMPdEUPg0AA_YIBBpAZKHnWAKrEAWeqXNKj2KFPL9AKLEsBD8peCds7Er9P5HLDJaSluxzg9YZ5KgAQVfFGq8z4XkOxw5lsc_xmVtdlVw30wZCZ0otQ-F/s320/dan+porter+margin+comment+re+profoundly+mysterious+yellow.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Fact: there is nothing in the least bit "profoundly mysterious" about the 3D properties of the Shroud image, especially if it's a contact imprint. This investigator has shown over and over again in the course of 3 years of entering a large variety of images into Image J that the 3D response of the TS, far from being 'profounsly mysterious' is in fact entirely predictable. What would be unusual would be for it NOT to respond to 3D rendering, given the way the software operates. Here's an image that hopefully illustrates my point:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYWY6gSi81CcDrbbcD3nVXTzFJKdNHTU8jye4Lymb9cW_lhzg4L5NCtZln9D59IyrNkthS4-SrlgcRJpSYwIl7rp3NTqMpfwZaquJu0dFIqQy4pFkBOIIFfDVAqQX7CUVfnofN2sxVkD77/s1600/final+3d+spiderman+v+shroud.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYWY6gSi81CcDrbbcD3nVXTzFJKdNHTU8jye4Lymb9cW_lhzg4L5NCtZln9D59IyrNkthS4-SrlgcRJpSYwIl7rp3NTqMpfwZaquJu0dFIqQy4pFkBOIIFfDVAqQX7CUVfnofN2sxVkD77/s400/final+3d+spiderman+v+shroud.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3D-rendered image of plastic toy(left) verus Shroud Scope image of TS (right). Note the embedded 2D reference (concentric circles with stepped intensity gradient) and the DEFAULT non-zero setting of z scale elevation setting (0.1)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yes. One can enter 2D diagrams with no 3D history, like those concentric circles above, and they show a comparable 3D response (top left) to that of the model image OR the TS. Why is that? Look at the z scale next to the red arrow. It is on its default MINIMUM setting of 0.1. The software sets that non-zero default setting, meaning that ANY image one enters that has any kind of intensity gradient, simple stepped ones included, produce a 3D response.The latter is entirely artefactual unless one has evidence to the contrary. This investigator knows of no evidence to suggest that the so-called "3D properties" of the TS image are any different from those of contact imprints generally.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Late insertion: </b>I'm saying <i>there is no 3D mystique until proven otherwise.</i> Right on cue we<b> </b><a href="http://shroudstory.com/2015/08/31/colin-berrys-and-my-3d-plotting-problems/">hear the rejoinder</a>: "There is 3D mystique until YOU prove otherwise", adding technical details like RGB balance that were addressed previously in discussion with "OK" in Poland,.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Nope. i'm not buying into that pro-authencity attempt to shift the burden of proof. I repeat: <i>there is NO 3D mystique until proven otherwise</i>. The so-called "unique 3D encoding" of the TS image is pure agenda-driven moonshine. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>See also this<a href="http://shroudstory.com/2015/08/31/colin-berrys-and-my-3d-plotting-problems/#comment-209362"> later comment from the inestimable Hugh Farey,</a> with new 3D rendered images of this blogger's hand both in original colour AND grayscale. Both show 3D enhancement (needless to say). Thank you Hugh.</b> </span><br />
<br />
<b>Update: 31 Aug 2015.</b> Several references have been made to my specialist Shtoud of Turin site (or as I prefer to call it, "Shroud" of Turin, there being no biblical grounds for thinking that the "fine linen" Joseph of Arimathea brought to the cross to receive the ravaged body of Jesus was ever used, or intended to be used, as final burial shroud).<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiUMVBNSCad-aVGrXkANx0SOoe-uB3byFh_sS9tmy6VYXu1xF8Wk3PqLcX9Fj9oMX0bsoqramRbGr98tjgPeAR84hCnxRu25yw_nBprMs56I-QfNjgg7pIEUwBQ6-JKOidsSlv3jlZTkFY/s1600/my+wordpress+site.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiUMVBNSCad-aVGrXkANx0SOoe-uB3byFh_sS9tmy6VYXu1xF8Wk3PqLcX9Fj9oMX0bsoqramRbGr98tjgPeAR84hCnxRu25yw_nBprMs56I-QfNjgg7pIEUwBQ6-JKOidsSlv3jlZTkFY/s400/my+wordpress+site.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Home Page, my specialist Shroud site, currently 216 postings since early 2012.</b></td></tr>
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<br />
The site's homepage (above) was given a facelift yesterday to assert this blogger's growing conviction that the TS body image is a medieval flour/oil imprint that was taken from a real human subject that had then been roasted and subsequently attenuated by one or more laundering stages.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 31 Aug</b>: this comment appeared from Thibault Heimburger MD yesterday:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jPRZIr4UZvS2QOxuS4Zg6RsArWyVs2QjRKUi4l0zC8qp9tCK5J5LInLe1d6QoYqykUu926e79Zca3eNbQvXHrNyVtoWHQdNsbHUBg4GtdX1fb2hBT-6OWXa7ysGrRBaiZ76MyDmFUbxU/s1600/TH+on+shroudstory+30+aug.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="88" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jPRZIr4UZvS2QOxuS4Zg6RsArWyVs2QjRKUi4l0zC8qp9tCK5J5LInLe1d6QoYqykUu926e79Zca3eNbQvXHrNyVtoWHQdNsbHUBg4GtdX1fb2hBT-6OWXa7ysGrRBaiZ76MyDmFUbxU/s640/TH+on+shroudstory+30+aug.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
He asks what is currently my best model? Isn't that obvious TH - you having visited this site yesterday (sitemeter ;-)?<br />
<br />
Your question can be answered in a few words, all being tried-and-tested methodology. Smear vegetable oil over the back of your hand evenly with a swab, removing the excess oil. Then sprinkle with plain white flour using a teaspoon or similar. When there are no bare patches, shake off the surplus of flour, leaving just a light oil-bound dusting of flour. Place your hand flat on a surface, then drape over a sheet of linen that has been pre-soaked in water for a few minutes and wrung out. Use your free hand to press the linen down onto your coated hand, maintaining a vertical action with no attempt to mould around the sides or between the fingers. Then peel back the linen, place imprint-side up on a clean metal baking tray, and place in a pre-heated fan oven at maxmium temperature. Check carefully at 2 minute intervals. After 5 -10 mins or so the imprints should be golden-brown, with little effect on the colour of strength of the rest of the linen.<br />
<br />
Then soak the linen in warm water, soap thoroughly, then, taking a firm grip on image regions between two-closely-spaced hands and using a vigorous to-and-fro action use the flexing and friction to detach the surface encrustation. Think of it as forcible multi-U turn corrugation. When the images are finally faint and homogenous, rinse with fresh water and leave to dry. You now have your final look-alike TS image. Check it out, as I have,
under the microscope, and you should see the image being primarily but
not exclusively on the crown threads, as well as half-tone effect and
discontinuities. Do you know of a modelled image that has a closer match
with the TS? Did you agree with ENEA's Paolo Di Lazzaro when in an <a href="http://You now have your final look-alike TS image. Check it out, as I have, under the microscope, and you should see the image being primarily but not exclsuively on the crown threads, as well as half-tone effect and discontinuities. Do you know of a modelled image that has a closer match with the TS? Did you agree with ENEA's Paolo Di Lazzaro when in an email interview with the Telegraph's Tom Chivers in December 2011 he wrote">email interview with the Telegraph's Tom Chivers in December 2011</a> he
wrote<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
: " The more one studies the Shroud from a scientific perspective, the
clearer it becomes that this image could not have been made by a forger,
either medieval or modern. This allows to come back to the “question of
questions”: how was the body image on the Shroud made?"</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
I didn't (agree). In fact i disagreed violently, and still do. In fact it was that quotation, and the suggestion that his laser results should be the cue to consider 'philosophical and theological' implications that prompted this retired science bod to roll up his sleeves and get researching. In fact a synopsis of my first prediction, confirmed by experiment <a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/turin-shroud-could-it-have-been.html">('thermo-stencilling")</a> was reported to the comments of that same Chivers blog posting under my then DT pseudonym 'newsjunkie'.The purpose of that posting was not to give support to his or any other radiation model, when the TS image is so obviously one made by contact: it was a gentle reminder to Di Lazzaro and his photochemically-illiterate ENEA chums that if one's going to invoke radiation, one's first task is to identify the radiation-absorbing chromophore, and not just assume as they did that it had to be "cellulose". First Law of Photochemistry: for light of any wavelength (visible, uv etc) to produce a chemical reaction, the radiation has first to be absorbed. Repeat: identify the light-absorbing chromophore as a first step. The wavelength of the radiation found most effective often helps narrow the options. Uv radiation is far more likely to be absorbed by molecules with C=C double bonds (lignin?) than by carbohydrates that are made entirely of single bonds, as<a href="http://shroudstory.com/2012/11/02/an-image-formed-by-the-yellowing-of-lignon/"> you yourself acknowledged in 2012 (see comments). </a><br />
<br />
New addition: a brief aside on microscope features of the roasted/soap-washed flour imprints.<br />
<br />
I could have posted archive pictures, obtained in the last week or two, showing the appearance of the images under the microscope, with positive identification of the hallmark features of (a) half tone effect and (b) discontinuities in the linen samples.<br />
Some of those pictures attracted comments that this retired biochemist did not know how to use the focus control of the microscope. One was from Paolo Di Lazzaro, holder of a scientific (technological?) doctorate, who addressed his comments to "Mr.Berry" an appellation which Dan Porter thoughtfully chose to include in a title. Those who know me well would I'm sure agree that I make only occasional references to my formal qualifications and research credentials, but I know of no worse insult in academe than for one PhD to address another as "Mr", and for that to be broadcast around the internet. But then I cannot say as I'm surprised that Paolo Di Lazzaro would stoop so low, given the <a href="http://shroudstory.com/2012/02/21/colin-berrys-idea-is-untenable-and-heat-cannot-produce-a-superficial-coloration/">insufferably arrogant posting he did on this blogger's initial scorch hypothesis</a>, posturing as though he were the very first person to have tested it experimentally (sample size of 1) with a free lecture on physical chemistry (most of it second rate) thrown in for good measure.<br />
<br />
I shall no longer be displaying photomicrographs, since what I see, carefully focusing in and out with a microscope having poor depth of field cannot be easily captured in a single image that tends invariably to look "blurred".<br />
<br />
I have examined the latest linen imprints, and they too show the subtlety of the image fibres, being difficult to spot, despite the "brown" patch one sees with the naked eye, but where visible, with difficulty, one can see a half-tone effect and discontinuities. The internet will have to be content with that, I'm afraid. If <i>bona fide</i> photochemically and/or thermochemically -literate researchers wish to examine my samples under their microscopes, i am contactable at sciencebod01@aol.com. Agenda-driven Paolo Di Lazzaro and his photochemically-illiterate ENEA team members need not apply. I leave them to make their own flour imprints, using the instructions given above to TH.<br />
<br />
<b>Update: 20:40 Monday 31 Aug</b><br />
<br />
Have just spotted this comment from Thibault Heimburger on the shroudstory site:<br />
<br />
http://shroudstory.com/2015/08/31/colin-berrys-and-my-3d-plotting-problems/#comments<br />
<br />
<div class="date">
August 31, 2015 at 2:34 pm </div>
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<i></i><br />
<div id="commentbody-209379">
<i>
</i><i>THIS IS MY ANSWER TO COLIN I WISHED TO PUBLISH ON HIS SITE FOLLOWING HIS ANSWER TO MY QUESTION ABOVE.</i>
<i><a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/is-high-energy-laser-beam-really-needed.html" rel="nofollow">http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/is-high-energy-laser-beam-really-needed.html</a><br />
(Update 31 August)</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>Sorry Colin, but I am unable to post this comment on your site, </i><br />
<i>
</i><i>“Thanks Colin,</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>I’ll try it but probably without oil.<br />
I do not understand why oil is needed in order to give the best shroud-like image.<br />
In other words, what is not good enough with the dry-flour/wet linen model ?</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>You might be right or not.<br />
At the end I will show my results, including microscopy.<br />
And also after ageing the samples (why did not you try artificial ageing ?)</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>I need some weeks for this work.</i><br />
<i>You wrote: “Do you know of a modelled image that has a closer match with the TS?”<br />
At first glance, no.</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>“Isn’t that obvious TH – you having visited this site yesterday (sitemeter ;-)?”<br />
True.</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>Do you spy on me ? No problem ;-)</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>Thibault.</i><br />
<br />
The oil was a hunch initially, a way of explaining the half tone effect and discontinuities. So in the best scientific tradition (I hope this doesn't sound too pompous) I made a prediction, namely that if imprinting was done with extra oil, over and above the 1.5% by weight in flour, there would be a better imprint.<br />
<br />
Well, there was certainly a much faster development of the colour in the oven, which was good enough for me. Admittedly, that in itself might not be sufficient grounds to incorporate oil into the methodology. But there were perceived practical advantages too - flour would stick better to skin that had first been smeared with oil, and maybe give a more even coating. So oil first before flour is now part of my standard routine.<br />
<br />
Oh, and there's a third reason for using oil. It fits with the idea that the TS was fabricated to represent/simulate a sweat imprint, so a substitute for skin oils would possibly have been part of the modelling in a medieval recipe, the latter in turn a modelling of the biblical account re J of A's linen being used for deposition and transport of a sweat and blood-covered body. Note that Sam Pellicori experimented with "perspiration, OIL and lemon juice".<br />
<br />
That's three reasons then for using oil, somewhat messy though it may be.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Late late addition (1st September 2015) :</b> there's a fourth reason for using oil. Earlier, on my other site, I had said that the microscopic appearance was different using cotton, lacking halftone effect and discontinuities. But the cotton in the present plastic toy imprinting looked very similar to the linen under the microscope, Initially i thought I would have to retract what I had said about the cotton 'anomaly' (maybe due to lack of lignin etc). But that earlier experiment was without added oil. Maybe oil supplementaion has an equalizing effect on linen and cotton that overides structural and/or chemical differences between the two fibre .<i> I am now taking a break from experimentation AND internet discussion for a while - weeks rather than days - to return to some semblance of normality</i>. When I return I shall be taking a closer look at the microscopy, maybe investing in a microscope with a better depth of field (while still having the USB "eye piece" sender for laptop viewing and screen-grabbing). But there will be no more sharing my photomicrographs on the internet. I learned my lesson the hard way - there are folk out there seeking to undermine one's scientific credentials, and I'm not falling for that a second time. I may decide to adopt the same policy as regards ImageJ renderings, not being able to rely on Hugh Farey as a permanent guardian angel.Thanks once again Hugh for showing that attempts to dismiss my de-mythologizing of 3D properties based on non-standardized RGB balance is a complete red herring (or alternatively mutant green or blue or grayscale herrring) it making scarcely any difference when one has the rest of the settings optimized, notably default z value, minimal smoothing, optimized lighting etc).</span><br />
<br />
Ageing? Would that be exposure to the atmosphere at ambient temperature instead of oven roasting? How long did you have in mind? Weeks? Months? Years? I've already had my 3 score years and 10. Each extra month and year is a bonus .In any case I'm not trying to reproduce the TS in every detail, merely show how the 'enigmatic' image MIGHT have been the end result of a sequence of homely operations. Cooking, baking, roasting etc can involve some very subtle and complex chemistry. The internal structure of linen may also be a lot more complex than generally supposed, especially in the light of the Day et paper of 2005, reporting S1 ligninfication.<br />
<br />
Spying? Not really. Given that my postings are almost instantly re-published on shroudstory, with folk content to make their views/misgivings/disgust/outrage/total apoplexy clear there, not here, the sitemeter is my only way of knowing that the site is getting visitors. It reveals approximate geographical location only, in your case "Ile de France, Paris" so there's no pressing need for you to instal extra intruder alarms in your house or surgery just yet.<br />
<br />
No need to acknowledge. You might have to wait a while for a response if you do.<br />
<br />
<b>Postscript: 16th September 2015, 17:00 hours:</b><br />
<br />
Here's a clip I've just uploaded to YouTube (1 min.15 secs) showing how blue-black -ink penetrates and migrates <strike>along the cores of linen fibres </strike> (see correction below). The ink is a crude model for how my thermally-induced flour/oil model results in the subtle yellow-brown coloration of the interior of linen fibres:<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7APq01_H-tE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7APq01_H-tE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7APq01_H-tE<br />
<br />
Enjoy.<br />
<br />
<b>Correction: added 17 September, 10:00:</b><br />
<br />
Have just attached this to the Comments on the YouTube clip:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="comment-header">
<a class="user-name g-hovercard" data-ytid="109117573651524262844" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk5GE0yFdQAUMY6pWGHtX6A" target="_blank">Colin Berry</a>
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The initial title was "Dynamic penetration of ink into core of linen fibres etc etc". That was based on the thread-like advance of the ink that one sees in the video clip AND the appearance of dark cut-ends to the individual fibres. But a follow-up experiment shows that initial interpretation to have been over-hasty and almost certainly in error. Why? Because it was not possible to see dye-advance when the thread was unspun to create a larger spacing between fibres. In other words, the capillary action is due to the narrow channels existing between the 5-7 sided polyhedral fibres, not to the channel(s) within the core of the fibres. Oh well, we live and we learn...</div>
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sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-19580726534622839392015-07-14T23:45:00.000-07:002019-06-14T05:30:57.588-07:00The Turin so-called Shroud: stunningly successful realization of a 14th century thought experiment?<br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJcZ9m8kDbpRB7Yfv84FasMAx5JR8Z59b3h12ytBdtc4rAcxUDPnwpEyaBoPSqWgF2JkWjMmafVdSPFEJUz27GwLkay7gg4uYG9_Ck9BfqS8TgmtMN8ErGgquMXAixceIVomOwjAB-70r/s1600/from-cross-to-tomb-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJcZ9m8kDbpRB7Yfv84FasMAx5JR8Z59b3h12ytBdtc4rAcxUDPnwpEyaBoPSqWgF2JkWjMmafVdSPFEJUz27GwLkay7gg4uYG9_Ck9BfqS8TgmtMN8ErGgquMXAixceIVomOwjAB-70r/s400/from-cross-to-tomb-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Joseph of Arimathea's linen being used in 'stretcher mode' (NOT as a burial shroud). Might this kind of artistic
imagery, fully in keeping with the biblical account, have been the
inspiration for a 14th century THOUGHT EXPERIMENT, one that resulted in
what today we call the Turin Shroud, erroneously so if taken to mean
burial shroud, when in fact one's only entitled to call it a DOUBLY-IMPRINTED BODY ENVELOPE?
Did the thought experiment assume or envisage imprinting as having
occurred <i>en route</i> from cross to rock tomb, NOT after the start of burial
ritiuals with ointments, spices, winding strips etc and probable REPLACEMENT of Joseph of Arimathea's linen with that of Nicodemus's bandage-like winding strips?</b></td></tr>
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(<a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/a-new-take-in-pictures-on-an-old-artefact-the-not-really-a-shroud-of-turin-more-an-imaginative-14th-century-marketing-wheeze/">See my other site</a> for more on the above painting and others of a similar genre that can be googled in image files as "deposition jesus from the cross", hoping the lower case does not give offence)<br />
<br />
The further crystallization of ideas re the Turin so-called Shroud begain with this comment which I placed on a <a href="http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20150711/NEWS/150719966/1005/LIVING">recent article</a> by Kevin Kilbane in Indiana's Fort-Wayne-based News-Sentinel: the article was ostensibly about Barrie M.Schwortz, documenting photographer for the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP).<br />
<br />
<div class="author">
<b>ColinSB</b><span class="removal"></span></div>
<div class="timestamp">
July 11 2015 5:02 am</div>
<div class="timestamp">
</div>
<i>It's refreshing to see
one of STURP's old hands, so to speak, still expressing a degree of
caution re the authenticity of the Shroud. Yes, there is still much to
be learned. STURP barely scratched the surface as to what the image is
(sticky tape samples being the less damaging alternative to 'scratching'
the surface!) as distinct from telling us what is not (definitely NOT a
painting, despite attempts by some, notably historian Charles Freeman,
to resurrect that notion with arguments that simply fail to address or
do justice to decades of scientific investigation).<br /><br />However, this
Shroud researcher (3.5 years of testing different models) must take
issue with a term employed here and pretty well every where else in the
media, namely the description of the linen as a BURIAL shroud. I invite
writer Kevin Kilbane and readers to go back to the Gospels and read what
is said about Joseph of Arimathea and his arrival at the CROSS, not
tomb, with fine linen. There is no indication that the linen was
intended for use as a burial shroud (Nicodemus providing the
wherewithal). It was merely for discreet and dignified transport from
cross to nearby tomb. Once that is appreciated, then it greatly reduces
the number of models that need to be tested, especially those that see
the Shroud as having captured by some mysterious 'photographic' process
the instant of Resurrection. Instead, one can view the image as a
contact imprint, left in blood and PERSPIRATION. One then asks whether
the Shroud bears a 2000 year old contact imprint, the body image being
highly aged yellowed sweat, or a medieval attempt to reproduce what a
then 1300 year old sweat imprint (plus blood) might have looked like.<br /><br />My
own preference is for the second of those. The current preferred model
is one where a human volunteer is 'painted' from head to toe in a paste
of flour and water and then overlaid with linen, gently pressed around
contours, to leave a contact imprint. The imprint is then developed
chemically, maybe with nitric acid to turn the imprint from white to
yellow, or even by simple pressing with a hot iron! <br /><br />Being an imprint explains the negative image, and even those 'mysterious' 3D properties revealed by modern computer software.</i><br />
<br />
That was followed by this afterthought. Late edit: now<span style="color: red;"> highlighted in red</span>, since it's suddenly disappeared from the Sentinel site (over-zealous moderation in response to outside pressure?)<br />
<br />
<div class="comment">
<div class="comment-inner">
<div class="author">
<b>ColinSB </b><br />
<b> </b>July 12 2015 9:21 am</div>
<div class="timestamp">
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<span style="color: red;"><i>Oh, and one has to challenge the bit that reads: "...the cloth, which holds the faint image of a man who has been crucified." (my italics).<br /><br />In
point of fact, the "faint image" is simply that of an adult male,
recumbent in his birthday suit. The sepia-coloured body image itself
shows no evidence at all as to manner of death, even assumimg he was
dead. The evidence for crucifixion, indeed of scourging, rests entirely
on those bloodstains. Take away the bloodstains and it's, as I say,
simply an otherwise unmarked male exhibiting extreme wardrobe
malfunction.<br /><br />Does it matter? Probably not if one tends towards
believing the Shroud is authentic. But it does matter if one tends
contrariwise towards the view that the Shroud is a product of medieval
creativity and inventiveness. Why? Because it's a lot easier to
fabricate, dare one say fake, a seemingly genuine Shroud if one can
imprint the base image first off an unblemished body, and then - and
only then - add bloodstains in all the correct biblical locations to
suggest scourging and crucifixion. That's especially true in the
proposed flour paste/hot iron model where one makes the flour imprint
first from a healthy live undamaged volunteer, then adds imprinted blood
(scourge marks) or trickles of blood (from otherwise invisible sites of
blood hemorrhage - crown of thorns, nail and lance wounds etc). Sorry
to be so pedantic - but the details matter hugely where that iconic -
but maybe too-good-to-be-true body/blood image - is concerned.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><b>Late addition: 16:15 </b> the missing comments have now reappeared! I'll keep this red for a day or two, until absolutely sure that the comments are permanent. </i></span></div>
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<br />
That article and comments thread was then <a href="http://shroudstory.com/2015/07/12/barrie-schwortz-colin-berry-and-some-good-reporting-in-fort-wayne/">picked up by Dan Porter's shroudstory.com</a>.<br />
<br />
In the course of responding to it and comments there, I suddenly realized that the description of the linen in its glass case in Turin as a "shroud", especially as a "burial shroud" was not only an unwarranted assumption, at odds with the biblical account if one assumes (reasonably) that the linen in question is the actual fabric provided by Joseph of Arimathea (or more likely a 14th century proxy thereof, consistent with the radiocarbon dating), but was responsible for much unwarranted speculation re the mechanism by which the blood and body images were acquired.<br />
All the while, the cogs were turning in this blogger's mind
as to what to call the Turin so-called Shroud if it wasn't a burial
shroud, but the fabric as it might have looked if taken from the body on
arrival at the tomb (to be replaced by Nicodemus's bandage-like winding
strips, spices etc) and then "aged" naturally for 13 centuries or so.Thirteen
centuries, note, not 20, since what one is doing is a thought
experiment that started in a 14th century head: how might Joseph of
Arimathea's linen have looked in 1350 if starting with then MODERN 14th
century linen, and imprinting the body of a recently-crucified man in
blood and sweat BEFORE it and its enveloping linen reached the tomb? Here's the comment with the first shot at new nomenclature right at the end (bolded hre, not the original comment)<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Let’s avoid a lot of futile talking at cross purposes. I maintain that the Shroud is the realization of a thought experiment, carried out in the 14th century, freely admitting that requires mhaving to make some qualifying assumptions. That leaves you or anyone else free to question those qualifying assumptions if wishing to undermine and/or demolish my case. What you cannot do is come back with pro-authenticity thinking that makes its own qualifying assumptions and imagine they have any relevance to my medieval thought experiment scenario, with incomplete knowledge of actual historical events, and based instead on an imaginative reconstruction of those events, accurate or otherwise (probably the latter).<br /><br />But there’s a further sting in the tail, as I have flagged up on the News Sentinel artticle. The description of the Shroud as a “burial” cloth goes beyond the biblical record. It is based on making a number of qualifying assumptions, all presupposing authenticity, and then uses that label “burial cloth” essentially to promote authenticity via the back door, so to speak. That back door is then left open so as to admit further fanciful speculation, requiring still more qualifying assumptions e.g. thatthat the superficial body image could only have been formed by miraculous flash of radiation at the instant of resurrection (overlooking to mention that the image thickness corresponds roughly with that of the primary cell wall of the flax bast fibre).<br /><br />The desription of the TS as a “burial shroud” is an egregious example of “begging the question”. There is no greater academic sin one can commit, short of downright fraud, than to create and promote lines of argument that “beg the question”, ones that carelessly or shamelessly create a closed loop between preconceptions and conclusions.<br /><br />I can see why sindonologists want the TS to be seen as a burial shroud, and do NOT want it to be seen as having any transport role from cross to tomb – that creating all kinds of problems re stereo-register or lack thereof between blood and body image. But I’m not buying into any of that. Solid scholarship never begs the question, and scrupulously avoids terminology that eseentially begs the question. There are no legitimate grounds – scientific, historical or biblical – for describing the TS as a “burial” shroud. In fact it’s best not described as a shroud at all. It’s the <b>Lirey/Turin body-imprinted envelope.</b></i><b></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Yup. The
first thought was to call it the Lirey/Turin body-imprinted envelope
(which wins no prizes for impact, far less for tripping easily off the
tongue).<br />
<br />
<br />
That comment became "promoted" as <a href="http://shroudstory.com/2015/07/13/beg-your-pardon-comment-promoted/">a new posting on Porter's site</a> (in reality demoted if one reads his tetchy response).<br />
<br />
However, the splendid David Goulet (whose book I've always been meaning to read if I can lay my hands on it) put up this appreciative comment on Porter's site a few hours ago:<br />
<i><br />Colin isn’t saying the Shroud was the actual transport linen, he’s saying a medieval audience may have been convinced it was a transport linen. The medieval audience wouldn’t have known the Jewish burial customs. There is medieval art that shows a linen being used when Jesus is taken from the cross. <br /><br />If the Shroud is authentic it is not likely a transport linen but a burial linen given the image characteristics. But Colin’s theory is premised on a medieval forgery. <br /><br /> </i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
In the course of responding to it, I was able to fine-tune slightly this blogger's preferred description for the TS as a "doubly-imprinted body envelope", which is DIBE when abbreviated as an acronym, just about tolerable I guess.<br />
<br />
Here's the comment in question:<br />
<br />
<div id="commentbody-205749">
<i>Thanks again David. Spot on as ever, which is impressive, given
you are correcting the record on views that are not necessarily your own
(though i suspect you are one of the few here to see some merit in
them). Yes, this blogger sees the<b> doubly-imprinted body envelope </b>(what
some choose to call the ‘shroud’ ;-) as having started in someone’s
head as a thought experiment, one that was finally realized in an
artisan’s workshop. <b>(See a recent posting on this site as to <a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/a-new-and-simple-thermal-imprinting_20.html">how the body image could have been realized in practice</a>)</b>.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<i> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilDhj5MGzJuDctBckqrg7UnUFtt3J_3k9PEPrk9fbQVwX68b_zpMZrKo7GaDuLmhaLIAWJBQmLjvavkK4vcjz6OmYQOeAeeSRdfkrRNdc2Mpsx5wQrDPYJ6vzJok9y-DojRW5B2G6XGG9/s1600/DSC06886%252Bas%252Bis%252Bfor%252Bblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilDhj5MGzJuDctBckqrg7UnUFtt3J_3k9PEPrk9fbQVwX68b_zpMZrKo7GaDuLmhaLIAWJBQmLjvavkK4vcjz6OmYQOeAeeSRdfkrRNdc2Mpsx5wQrDPYJ6vzJok9y-DojRW5B2G6XGG9/s1600/DSC06886%252Bas%252Bis%252Bfor%252Bblog.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Wife-assisted imaging of my crossed hands using simple flour paste/hot iron technology available in the 14th century, seen here prior to 650 years of ageing (the latter being needed for that authentic softer-focus, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't Turin "Shroud" look).</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</i><br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> As you and I say, the recreated scenario did not
have to pass the test of 21st century biblical scholarship. It had only
to seem credible to 14th century pilgrims who were drawn to a must-see
relic that claimed to be a bigger-and-better version of the Veil of
Veronica, both having natural or semi-supernatural images captured as a
result of brief contact between body and linen, the Veil’s en route to
the cross, the ‘recently discovered’ rival en route from cross to tomb
in J of A’s linen used in up-and-over mode, possibly but not necessarily
as a makeshift stretcher.</i><br />
<i>
</i><i>That book of yours, David, re your childhood experiences in a family
home that also served also as your father’s undertakers’ business: is it
still available? I’d love to read it. You’re someone who clearly shares
my love of words.</i><br />
<br />
Those who frequent this investigative site know that each posting generally begins as a work-in-progress, this one being no exception. I'll stop here for now and hit the Publish button, but will probably be tacking some more on the end in a day or two. Expect to see an image from the Hungarian Pray codex (illustrated manuscript, dubiously invoked in support of Shroud 'authenticity' )showing both Joseph of Arimathea's linen and Nicodemus's winding strips in the same picture).<br />
<br />
<b>Update:</b> Wed 08:16 London time:<br />
<br />
Lo and behold, here it is.<br />
<br />
<i> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimaqVHYfReDLOPpQDa-wFlLrNODYtNqxgQarcitqOi6ghFkt-OQNKaBiVVZnDGe6negXSDawsctCqd07oPF79t_yiukKPLlNCg3WbGg-POY_fUGOnGFGiEKEzIMLmx05WwxslHRjxJGf82/s1600/pray3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimaqVHYfReDLOPpQDa-wFlLrNODYtNqxgQarcitqOi6ghFkt-OQNKaBiVVZnDGe6negXSDawsctCqd07oPF79t_yiukKPLlNCg3WbGg-POY_fUGOnGFGiEKEzIMLmx05WwxslHRjxJGf82/s400/pray3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>Pray Codex</b>: </i><span style="color: red;"><b>JA</b></span>:<i> Joseph of Arimathea's linen , as per Matthew, Mark and Luke, used to transport body from cross to rock tomb, with no suggestion in the biblical account that is was ever used or intended to be used as final burial shroud and </i><b><span style="color: blue;">N</span>: </b><i>Nicodemus's linen as winding strips for ritual burial according to Jewish custom, as described in book of John.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Further update:</b><i> 08:41</i><br />
<br />
<i>This, from Charles Freeman, not this blogger's favourite historian (of the book-writing, not ivory-tower variety), on Dan Porter's site. He begins by quoting my words:</i><br />
<br />
<i><br /> "Thanks again David. Spot on as ever, which is impressive, given you are correcting the record on views that are not necessarily your own (though i suspect you are one of the few here to see some merit in them). Yes, this blogger sees the doubly-imprinted body envelope (what some choose to call the ‘shroud’ […]"</i>‘ <i>It had only to seem credible to 14th century pilgrims who were drawn to a must-see relic that claimed to be a bigger-and-better version of the Veil of Veronica’.</i><br />
<br />
The Veil was an impression of the face of Christ when still alive. It was the top papal relic, the subject of enormous crowds when exhibited in St.Peter’s in 1350.<br />
<br />
So how do you go bigger and better than that ? Clearly it was a PA disaster if only because no one at the time saw any resemblance to the image of a living Christ (cf. Image of Edessa), and the double image of a dead Christ.<br />
<br />
The choice of venue was also a serious mistake- far too out of the way for a serious relic cult. Compare the Shroud of Cadouin which was on a major pilgrim route so you could hardly miss it!<br />
<br />
It was also extremely easy to get it suppressed in c.1355. Altogether an enormous flop.<i> </i><br />
<i>__________________________________________________</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>My response? It can wait. I'm interested in seeing that of others first.</i><br />
<br />
<i> </i><br />
<b>
</b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4jikvVebRSkttm1LF_LAalnyeSQbOY7nQNFNbZQ3NTaxamRqV28hLH4HuzuFSIeVMarWinzUInJSvE2O7Ct-NUnbIqdqbCO8tYEgBN-hP82CBlAB3uhE_byYHpKAsrDaKup9QblS7HEsg/s1600/notre+dame.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4jikvVebRSkttm1LF_LAalnyeSQbOY7nQNFNbZQ3NTaxamRqV28hLH4HuzuFSIeVMarWinzUInJSvE2O7Ct-NUnbIqdqbCO8tYEgBN-hP82CBlAB3uhE_byYHpKAsrDaKup9QblS7HEsg/s400/notre+dame.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notre Dame Cathedral Paris, built 1163-1345. That's just the inside. One wonders how the unsophisticated medieval mind as portrayed by Charles Freeman, so easily confused we're told between one image and another, pre- verus post-mortem, could have been capable of producing this<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<i><b>Update (10:10)</b>:here's the first response to Freeman on Porter's site from "Thomas"</i><br />
<i><br />"Well Lirey isn’t THAT far from Paris…and who knows, there could have been a certain ‘mystique’ in venturing into the wilderness to see a relic…I know I for one like exploring off beaten tracks.<br /> Also to what extent did Paris temporarily depopulate in the wake of the Black Death??"</i><br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Update: 10:25</b> Briefly considered re-naming the Turin Shroud in a way that provides greater descriptive detail, i.e. as Doubly imprinted, attenuated, tone-reversed image, body envelope.<br />
<br />
Then realised ;-) that some unkind soul would make a new acronym!<br />
<br />
<b>Update, 12:00:</b> It didn't take long to find a history educator being<a href="https://teacherintherye.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/the-problem-with-empathy/"> highly circumspect about attempts to over-empathize with folk who lived in earlier societies</a> entirely different from one's own (what I pejoratively call archaeo-psychology). Here's just one (my bolding)<br />
<br />
"Bruce A. VanSledright (2001) locates historical empathy within the same
critical tradition as Lévesque – Ashby and Lee (1987) reading Shemilt;
Shemilt reading Collingwood – but is <b>more pessimistic than him or his
intellectual forbears about the possibility of empathising with those in
the past.</b> For VanSledright, <b>the highest of Ashby and Lee’s five levels
of historical empathy is virtually unattainable</b>, and none of Shemilt’s
fantasy archetypes are achievable, let alone desirable. The reason is an
inescapable presentism: <b>we simply “have no place to stand outside our
present bearings from which we could make sense of the past”</b> (p. 58).
VanSledright is serious enough to trace this assertion to its logical
conclusion – <b>the impossibility of historical empathy.</b>"<br />
<br />
Yes, best to stick to the facts, and not airily assume one knows better than non-historian layfolk as to what folk in the Middle Ages were really thinking. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Update: 13:15</b> this has just appeared from "Dcn Andy".<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>"Perhaps they weren’t ignorant idiots back then. That in no way means they completely understood everything. Architectural marvels in no way correlates to medical scientific understanding as we have it today.</i>"<br />
<br />
<br />
The only kind of empathy one needs where then Turin DIBE is concerned is in asking what would be the first impression made on the viewer, seeing it with his or her own eyes, or hearing it decribed by someone else. Which features would make the greatest impacted. Let's imagine it's hanging verticsally, and one approaches from a distance. Here's my suggested list of key features:<br />
<br />
1. It's a double-image of a naked man. The images are life-size. Why would they be life-size if it's just a painting? Maybe it's not a painting.<br />
<br />
2. It's the same man, front and back,with a small separation at the head. He has a beard, moustache and longish hair.<br />
<br />
3. The image is a fairly uniform yellow-brown, further evidence it's not an ordinary painting.<br />
<br />
4. There's what look like bloodstains - a big one in the side and lots of others that are those expected from scourging and CRUCIFIXION. Ah ha.<br />
<br />
5.The image is on linen, with an expensive-looking herringbone weave. Ah ha. The double image is because it was used "up-and-over" around the head, which suggests that the images are some kind of imprint left only by those parts of the body that made direct contact with linen.<br />
<br />
6. There is indeed something odd about the image. It has gaps here and there between raised parts of the body. No, it's not a painting. It's definitely an imprint.<br />
<br />
7. It's as I thought. It's Jesus, the crucified Jesus. The big patch of blood is from the lance wound., ev So it's not the living Jesus. It is Jesus after he was taken down from the cross.<br />
en though one cannot see the wound itself (why not?)<br />
<br />
8. It must be the image left by Jesus on Joseph of Armiathea's linen. Some of the image is blood, but there's that faint body image as well. Why?<br />
<br />
9 .It must be a sweat imprint. It must be the same kind of imprinting process that resulted in the Veil of Veronica when cloth made contactt with just the face of Jesus. But that too was covered in sweat and blood, given he had a crown of thorns and was carrying a heavy cross.<br />
<br />
10. It's a post-mortem imprint of Jesus, unlike the Veil of Veronica which was while he was still alive.<br />
<br />
11.There is no loin cloth or crown of thorns. That's probably because they were removed before Jesus was placed in the linen.<br />
<br />
12. Amazing. I could be looking at a whole body version of the Veil of Veronica, also imprinted in sweat and blood, but one of Jesus in death, after crucifixion, instead of life, when, according to legend, he stopped next to Veronica on his way to the cross a day or two earlier.<br />
<br />
13. This image is not legend. This image fits the biblical account of Joseph of Arimathea being allowed to remove the body from the cross, from which he placed it into fine, clean linen. <br />
<br />
14. It may be his burial shroud. or there again, it may not, depending on whetherJesus was washed to remove blood.<br />
<br />
15. There are no signs of myrhh, aloes, spices, ointments etc. So it may well be Jesus's imprint on Joseph's linen before being transferred to different linen clothes, supplied by Nicodemus.<br />
<br />
16. Are the eyes open or closed? it's hard to tell, but then this is an imprint, not a painting. The eyes sit at the bottom of hollows, so eyes (or eye lids) would not imprint well, if at all.<br />
<br />
17.While there's no crown of thorns, there's plenty of blood stains on the hair and forehead that are where thorns would have pierced the skin to cause heavy bleeding. It's not just any crucified man. It's the crucified jesus.<br />
<br />
18. Those scourge marks, the lance wound, a nail wound in the palm (or could that be wrist?) also make it a dead cert that it's Jesus.<br />
<br />
19. This not an idealized,prettified image, such as an artist might paint. This is terribly, terribly realistic looking, what with the blood, the nudity, the scourge marks. This isn't a painting. It's the imprint left by the real crucified Jesus BEFORE he rose from the dead.<br />
<br />
20. There are no wounds as such in the body image - only bloodstains to indicate the sites of wounds. Why is that?It's becasue the body image is a sweat imprint. Where there's a wound, there's blood but no sweat (or the sweat is masked). That explains the absence of wounds in the body image. It's impossible for the wound itself to be imaged on account of its blood.<br />
<br />
<br />
Now let's try to reconstruct the thought processes of the entrepreneurial and opportunist mind that conceived the Turin DIBE (reminder: Doubly Imprinted Body Envelope). The starting point will be the fabled Veil of Veronica.<br />
<br />
Here are those "thoughts":<br />
<br />
1. The legendary <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Veil_of_Veronica">Veil of Veronica</a> attracts thousands and thousands of pilgrims each year. It is the Church's most highly venerated icon. Where the Church goes, the Veronica accompanies it. <br />
<br />
2. But the Veronica has no biblical authority whatsover. There is nothing in the Gospels about a woman wiping the brow of Jesus, bearing his cross on the way to Calvary, far less leaving his likeness on that cloth.<br />
<br />
3. Why not create a new "relic" by supposing there had been another opportunity for Jesus to leave his image on cloth? Give the populace the thing it craves for- an image, preferably bigger and better, showing what Jesus really looked like.<br />
<br />
4. There is an occasion when Jesus made contact with fabric other than his own clothes. In fact there are two, albeit post mortem. The first involves the linen with which Joseph of Arimathea received the body of Jesus from the cross. The second is the linen used by Nicodemus and Joseph at the nearby rock tomb to prepare the body for burial, described in the book of John as winding strips, used to incorporate sweet smelling myrrh, aloes etc etc.<br />
Yes. more to come shortly.<br />
<br />
5. Which of those two offers the better opportunity for displaying a captured image? No contest. It has to be Joseph's linen, which was clearly a single large sheet, not a long bandage-like strip for "winding".<br />
<br />
6. How might an image of Jesus be captured onto linen, especially if the mechanism were the same or simialr to that which pilgrims take for granted where the Veronica is concerned? Answer: there's a brief contact between skin and linen. There's a faint imprint, in sweat, or blood, or both. Time does the rest to make that image darken and become more recognizable as that of Jesus. Being Jesus, part man, part God, one can invoke the supernatural if necessary if challenged by sceptics claiming the image is "too good to be true".<br />
<br />
7.So one finds a way of imprinting the image of a man onto linen, such that it's instantly recognizable as the image that the crucified Jesus might have left on Jospeh of Arimathea's linen. How does one ensure that it's not dismissed as the image of just anyone who had died and had been wrapped in cloth, even if they too had suffered death by crucifixion?<br />
<br />
8. There is a way of signalling instantly to the viewer that a long sheet, representing J of A's linen, was used to receive a DEAD body. That is to show two images, head to head, one of the front of the body, one of the rear, with NONE OF THE SIDES (unlike a painting). In other words, the linen was used in up-and-over mode around the head so as to envelop the entire body. Some confusion with a simple bag-like burial shroud is inevitable,i.e. of the non-winding kind, but that is not without its advantages, even if at odds with the biblical account in the book of John. All that matters is that the image is immediately recognized as that of the crucified Christ.<br />
<br />
9. What if one encounters scepticism that an image of Jesus on Joseph's linen would be single - the rear side only if a body was laid on the sheet? No problem. As above, one says the linen was used in up-and-over mode so as to conceal the entire body from view. The linen would probably be strong enough to allow that up-and-over configuration to be used as a makeshift stretcher, with someone at the front, someone at the back, and maybe at the sides too.<br />
<br />
10. Make sure the soles of the feet are well imaged on the dorsal side, but, in contrast, the tops of the feet are poorly imaged on the frontal side. That helps make the case (if challenged) that the image is not on just any sheet of linen, but on Joseph of Arimathea's linen used in makeshift stretcher mode.<br />
<br />
11. To make it clear that those two images are not painted onto the linen by an artist, but are IMPRINTS left on the linen by the highest relief of the body only, they must be created by actual imprinting from a real adult male, naked, smeared or covered with agents that simulate bodily sweat and blood.<br />
<br />
12. The double body image must be subtle, not too intense, as to look like paint or dye, not too faint as to be too indistinct. It has to look like ancient degraded yellowed sweat.<br />
<br />
13.The blood is even more problematical. It needs to be red enough to be seen immediately as "blood", but not too red, given that blood goes brown with age. <br />
<br />
14.Careful thought needs to be given to the order in which blood (or blood substitute) and "sweat" (or sweat substitute) are applied, either to the individual acting as template, or the imprint on linen. Much depends on the method used to produce the sweat imprint - a simple one step dye-imprinting OR a two stage process in which the body is first imprinted, and the colour then enhanced, e.g. with heat, chemicals or both. The method chosen for the latter must be one that does not destroy the blood imprint, or cause it to flake off.<br />
<br />
15. How might whole body, double-imprinting be done in practice? Leaving aside for a moment the crucial choice of imprinting medium, one might do it as follows.<br />
Instruct the subject to lie on a floor face down. Brush one's imprinting medium thinly over the entire dorsal surface (NOT encroaching on the sides) Then add blood in all the biblically correct places. Then drape the lower half of the linen over the body, and pat the linen gently downwards onto the highest relief. Then peel the linen away from the subject. One has one's dorsal imprint, with blood UNDER the body imprint.<br />
<br />
16. Then get the subject to lie on his back, with hands crossed over groin, and do the same for the frontal side, coating with imprinting medium, adding blood, draping over the linen, being careful to get the position correct re long axis and head-to-head distance, followed by peeling off as before. One now has one's complete primary blood/body double imprint. It can, if necessary, then be further "developed" at leisure to obtain a more prominent Stage 2 body image, hopefully without too much change to the blood (though a little darkening would not matter, and indeed might add realism).<br />
<br />
17. Imprinting medium? Yellow paint? No, it looks like paint. Yellow dye? No, it will quickly soak through the pores of the linen, making a mess on the opposite side. One does not want that. Why not go for something that is finely particulate, that disperses well in water to make a thin paste, that leaves its solid on the side where placed when the water is removed by 'blotting paper' action? It doesn't have to be yellow or brown. It could be white, provided one has a means of making it turn yellow AFTER imprinting. Better still, find a white powder whose dispersion in water has adhesive properties, such that the linen sticks to the skin and body relief immediately when one is pressed against the other. Why not try .... white flour? Now we're motoring. Correction, cantering.<br />
<br />
18. Thinks. How might one get a flour imprint on linen to go yellow or brown, without affecting the linen (though a little darkening, as with that blood earlier, might not be a bad thing if it gave new linen an aged appearance)? Heat maybe, like putting in an oven and watching closely, removing when one has the desired result? Or simply pressing the imprinted areas with a hot iron? Or maybe adding a chemical that makes flour turn yellow? An acid maybe, or an alkali? Nitric acid? Limewater?<br />
More to follow.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Update: 16 July</b><br />
<br />
This posting is already too long of course, if seen as merely that - a blog posting. But it's not, of course. As I've said before, it's a old-fashioned millennial type blog, that term being a contraction of 'weblog'. In other words it is a diary, a running account, the only difference being that new additions are going onto the end, not the top (I tried the latter 'reverse chronology' model but it created too many problems re archiving).<br />
<br />
I was briefly minded today to create a new posting, addressing some of the criticism voiced on that other site. The latter hoovers up all the new 'Shroud' content often within minutes of its appearance in the blogosphere, whose followers rarely bother to check with the originating site (as judged by my sitemeter) and who use that other site to post comments of variable qualit, never on the source site. They then presumably consider that the end of the matter, having expressed their invariably partisan views.<br />
<br />
The question then is: do I need to spend time here (or there) responding to what really is bad netiquette in so many different ways? Reminder: we are not discussing any old Shroud issues. We are discussing new content - mine for example - that has required some thought and in many instances originality, that has also required a decision to 'publish and be damned'.<br />
<br />
If there were a simple solution to this problem, dare one say abuse of internet, with a particular site effectively acting as black hole for new content, everything going in, nothing coming back out, then I would surely have discovered it by now. However, that will not stop me experimenting with new approaches, ones that show I'm watching what happens on that other site, am occasionally willing to respond, but not in the way that those folk over there would necessarily approve of.<br />
<br />
Let's return to one of those comments, cut-and-pasted earlier, the one from Charles Freeman in response to my link between the 'Shroud' and the earlier Veil of Veronica. The only part I consider worth addressing is highlightied in red. <br />
<br />
<i>The Veil was an impression of the face of Christ when still alive. It
was the top papal relic, the subject of enormous crowds when exhibited
in St.Peter’s in 1350.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>So how do you go bigger and
better than that ? Clearly it was a PA disaster if only because <span style="color: red;">no one
at the time saw any resemblance to the image of a living Christ (cf.
Image of Edessa), and the double image of a dead Christ.</span></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The
choice of venue was also a serious mistake- far too out of the way for a
serious relic cult. Compare the Shroud of Cadouin which was on a major
pilgrim route so you could hardly miss it!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>It was also extremely easy to get it suppressed in c.1355. Altogether an enormous flop.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
This blogger has written numerous postings on the link that WAS made right from the very first appearance of the 'Shroud' in the written historical record, starting in Lirey in approx 1355. They began with a close scrutiny of the Lirey Pilgrim badge, the latter receiving but a fleeting mention in Freeman's 'History Today' article, merely to acknowledge that the Man on the Shroud was entirely naked. But it was the discovery of the Machy mould for a second Lirey badge, assisted by Ian Wilson's invaluable research on its new and distinctive features, totally overlooked or ignored by Freeman, that finally led to this blogger abandoning his original 'scorch hypothesis' for an altogether different one that viewed the 'Shroud' as an attempt to simulate a SWEAT IMPRINT. Not for nothing did I call that a pardigm shift, knowing it would provoke derision, but I stand by that term. The sweat imprint hypothesis is and was a PARADIGM SHIFT. I do not intend to repeat my reasoning here. If folk like Charles Freeman cannot be bothered to read my postings, then so be it. But when they make assertions that show they have not bothered to acquaint themselves with an opponent's thinking, then I shall simply remind them where those thoughts can be found, and refuse to engage with them until they learn what I consider to be standard academic courtesy (which may or may not be on the radar screen of those who write books and magazine articles instead of academic papers or mere blog postings).<br />
<br />
Here are screen shots of two consecutive postings in which, at the instant of paradigm shift, this blogger DID make that all important link between the 'Shroud' and the Veronica, asserting that the first known owners of the Lirey Shroud WERE ALSO KEEN TO MAKE THAT SAME ALL-IMPORTANT LINK, at least on the Mark?2 version of the Lirey Pilgrim's badge, arguably as a CRUCIAL AND DEFINING MARKETING PLOY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4OiHOiIWeyXjc_AoQ46QBoQSM0aCIFS3_7gWJQxRX4ZL8_-9DDXaXpssKscMVD207ArqZ41TLk3Vyiz8bSFvYmlrZduLQ8eQ6b_ohvQdk2g9R_LCzjyBD5WAeohw5kc8ou25Tph4ssoa/s1600/visuo-semantic+feb+14+2014.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4OiHOiIWeyXjc_AoQ46QBoQSM0aCIFS3_7gWJQxRX4ZL8_-9DDXaXpssKscMVD207ArqZ41TLk3Vyiz8bSFvYmlrZduLQ8eQ6b_ohvQdk2g9R_LCzjyBD5WAeohw5kc8ou25Tph4ssoa/s400/visuo-semantic+feb+14+2014.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>From my specialist 'Shroud' site, Feb 15, 2014</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</i><br />
followed by:<i><br /></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupNju9b5Lzyi099q_nC06rxWteRJFDTP7DWGksJA02Cpa_PzUsT-BbkkanFNjE7yX3WJRe2pEZt_Z5GmDsijuGssZrYrBec5IY3es2Iqztq9vtKnLL4JatgC1SkmXZm_QAaEiqnKXkYWU/s1600/piggy+backed+feb+17+2014.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupNju9b5Lzyi099q_nC06rxWteRJFDTP7DWGksJA02Cpa_PzUsT-BbkkanFNjE7yX3WJRe2pEZt_Z5GmDsijuGssZrYrBec5IY3es2Iqztq9vtKnLL4JatgC1SkmXZm_QAaEiqnKXkYWU/s320/piggy+backed+feb+17+2014.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the same specialist 'Shroud' site, two days later, Feb 17, 2014.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That's really all I have to say to Charles Freeman, except for this: some of us have spent the best part of 3-4 years, attempting to fit together the pieces of the 'Shroud' jigsaw puzzle - scientific, historical and biblical, to form a coherent and credible whole. Charles Freeman appears not to understand that there is a jigsaw puzzle, or if he does, has contemptuously kicked it aside in his oh-so-condescending magazine piece that tells the world it was 'just another painting' , which conveniently for him has somehow managed to lose ALL chemical traces of its pigment leaving us scientists dottily obsessed and spellbound by a mere 'shadow image' (undefined<i> e</i>xcept, that is, for its curious and unique set of properties - negative but non-photographic image, 3D properties, ultra-superficial, easily detachable, half-tone character, diimide-bleachable, etc etc)<i>. </i>Taking a celebrated line from "1066 And All That" I personally would rather be seen as "Right but Repulsive" than "Wrong but Romantic".<br />
<br />
Update: I do not understand why Daniel Porter allows troll "anoxie" to use his site for her constant stream of ridicule and spite.<br />
<br />
Here's what she posted yesterday, showing her now highly practiced modus opernadi of weaponising one's own words:<br />
<br />
<div id="commentbody-205850">
<i>"AONU, you should know Colin is never wrong, usually he vanishes and comes back with a “paradigm shift”. </i><br />
<br />
<i>
</i><i>Next time he’ll explain you why the shroud was not the actual transport linen according to his latest comments on his blog."</i></div>
<br />
One hardly need say that science is not politics. Ideas are not political manifestos that have to be adhered to come hell or high water. Science works by proposing ideas, then testing them. If they fail the test then the idea is modified or abandoned. There is no shame in a scientist using the tried-and-test scientific model. Troll anoxie, who claims to be a chemist, should know that. But who is troll anoxie, hiding behind that pseudonym, leaving us ignorant of her claim to be a working scientist? I see little evidence of an enquiring mind. Publications? Or is she merely following a superior's instructions?<br />
<br />
As for the toxic comment re Joseph of Arimathea's linen, I have made it clear that I see its role in the mind of a medieval forger as allowing a discreet and dignified transport of body from cross to tomb. That is apparent from the three synoptic gospels: the linen was produced at the cross, not the tomb. Whether it was used as a makeshift stretcher, as suggested in so much medieval art, is of secondary concern. The key thing is that it was seen in a 'thought experiment' as a opportunity to envelop an unwashed body taken down from a cross. Why should I retreat from any of those suggestions that are an attempt to read the mind of a forger seeking a pretext from scripture to create a rival to the Veil of Veronica? <br />
<br />
Yes, I abandoned the scorch hypothesis and proposed instead that the 'Shroud' body image was a simulated sweat imprint. I was so determined that folk should sit up and take notice that I called it a 'paradigm shift' That was the one and only occasion I used that expression. yet here we have troll anoxie suggesting I bandy it around, or that I am constantly changing my mind. I am not: ideas evolve certainly, but as I say, there has been only the one major switch from one model to another - scorch to sweat. Everything else has been about the details: paradoxically, the latter is by degrees becoming a scorch hypothesis too, albeit by proposed thermal or thermochemical effects on a flour-based imprint as distinct from linen fibres per se. As i say, ideas evolve in the light of new data: it's insulting to see it portrayed as a flighty changing of one's mind, and a demeaning of the scientific method.<br />
<br />
Why should one have to waste time fending off what in reality are character attacks that masquerade as something else. Dan Porter should do the decent thing and eject troll anoxie from his site. One shouldn't have to ask. Site owners who rely on others to supply their content should not allow those others be made targets for people with 'issues' that have nothing to do with the advance of knowledge, whether in correct directions or otherwise. I repeat, Dan Porter. Kindly eject troll anoxie from your site.<br />
<br />
Update: reminder re the Lirey Pilgrim badge (Cluny Museum):<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OiuNUfKR9oNWhWqaZ8Z7_wMrR9ivLOkKgCgmOG7I5i2_twK1KqRYg3YO2oDP-StYE-KHFYw_4LthkUdGZ4KAzPkY0M2h7ygGSPHGqR1xFU2fKL9EkXX4GaePVKbJTImGLnsLd6AhiqGU/s1600/lirey-badge-cropped-ventral-255x448.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OiuNUfKR9oNWhWqaZ8Z7_wMrR9ivLOkKgCgmOG7I5i2_twK1KqRYg3YO2oDP-StYE-KHFYw_4LthkUdGZ4KAzPkY0M2h7ygGSPHGqR1xFU2fKL9EkXX4GaePVKbJTImGLnsLd6AhiqGU/s320/lirey-badge-cropped-ventral-255x448.png" width="182" /></a></div>
<br />
The man on the herringbone weave linen is bas relief, note (frontal side only shown here, but dorsal side is bas relief too needless to say).Think of the fiddly meticulous work that required on the part of the mould maker. His material was a softer variety of stone, assuming it was the same as the Machy mould for Lirey badge Mk2. He had to gouge out that stone and then buff the cavities and hollows to get smooth contours. Why would he go to all that trouble if the man on the 'Shroud' was just a 2D painting? Answer:because the message he needed to get across was that one should regard the image on the 'Shroud' as an IMPRINT from a real 3D man, not a mere sketch of painting, and that man was Jesus. If the image was just a painting he could simply have scored an outline on the stone.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OiuNUfKR9oNWhWqaZ8Z7_wMrR9ivLOkKgCgmOG7I5i2_twK1KqRYg3YO2oDP-StYE-KHFYw_4LthkUdGZ4KAzPkY0M2h7ygGSPHGqR1xFU2fKL9EkXX4GaePVKbJTImGLnsLd6AhiqGU/s1600/lirey-badge-cropped-ventral-255x448.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Update: Friday 17 July, 2015:</b><br />
<br />
See the <a href="https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/heres-an-updated-version-of-my-iconoplastic-modelling-of-that-turin-so-called-shroud-probably-a-misnomer/">new posting on my specialist "Shroud" site</a>, posted this morning;.<br />
<br />
<br />
https://shroudofturinwithoutallthehype.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/heres-an-updated-version-of-my-iconoplastic-modelling-of-that-turin-so-called-shroud-probably-a-misnomer/<br />
<br />
<b>Update: Friday 14 June, 2019 (yes, 2019, almost 4 years later!):</b><br />
<br />
Here's a lightly-edited copy of a comment I posted yesterday to David Rolfe, Editor of the BSTS Newsletter:<br />
<br />
Title: <b>Which came first: the Lirey Pilgrims' Badge or the Machy Mould version?</b><br />
<br />
Have just been re-reading Ian Wilson's splendid article from 6 years ago (having deliberated myself for some 6 years on which came first - see title).<br />
<br />
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/n78part7.pdf<br />
<br />
See also Dan Porter's report on that important posting:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://shroudstory.com/2014/02/04/the-two-lirey-badges-unmistakable-differences/">https://shroudstory.com/2014/02/04/the-two-lirey-badges-unmistakable-differences/</a><br />
<br />
Am now convinced, through joining up numerous dots, that the Machy Mould version came first, that it was displayed - whether in public or elsewhere - while Geoffroi de Charny was still alive, and that the more polished version (Lirey Badge, Cluny Paris Museum) came later. What's more, I consider that it was the first of those that received enthusiastic approval from the local Bishop at Troyes, and the latter that shortly after, re-designed by de Charny's widow - Jeanne de Vergy - following her husband's death at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 - sent him into orbit.<br />
<br />
Why? I'll explain if anyone's interested. Suffice it to say that it hinges on two entirely different perceived roles for the body image on separate linens that we and our forefathers - going back 6 centuries - see on the Turin Linen:<br />
<br />
1. A medieval reconstruction of the kind of faint, fuzzy negative age-yellowed image that might (theoretically/ideally) have been left on Joseph of Arimathea's linen, en route from cross to tomb, imprinted in body fluids - sweat and blood. In short - a whole body version of the (extra-biblical) face-only Veil of Veronica. <i>(Earlier Machy mould)</i><br />
<br />
2. A subsequent more problematical authentic 1st century image, one that might, with a stretch of the imagination, and little else besides, have been left on a final and formal burial shroud, totally separate from the preceding transport phase from cross to tomb. <i>(Later Cluny Museum Lirey Pilgrim's medallion)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I'd say more, but ... (final sentence withheld!)<br />
<br />sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-18616370096488385862015-07-02T07:09:00.000-07:002015-07-12T01:14:50.328-07:00Message to wikipedia: do stop taking yourself so seriously. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw-jO-OsMzXHRBNhraNlhBlqCXi4aZSbEPbb2uDwvk3KYyrfhuTnoPFPOamuz7c8NrrwwDh32EghiuEmibRE57MgAmTyhg7eu_YAW1NoA7zCpzGYrNaFXV6TPHMt73-diBwlRdrBaLgwyw/s1600/nurse+ratched.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw-jO-OsMzXHRBNhraNlhBlqCXi4aZSbEPbb2uDwvk3KYyrfhuTnoPFPOamuz7c8NrrwwDh32EghiuEmibRE57MgAmTyhg7eu_YAW1NoA7zCpzGYrNaFXV6TPHMt73-diBwlRdrBaLgwyw/s200/nurse+ratched.jpg" width="190" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Wikipedia - that creeping control freak of the informationsphere, now attempting to throttle unfolding news stories, like the Taiwan water park disaster</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
This posting is prompted by this new wiki page. It relates to that dreadful mishap in the Taiwan water park, involving the coloured powder that caught fire.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfQyfh9rfpTd9wawTWd-tA-QyVVh7FW4SSoWr5Yt8PInMMwU8Z0RUjCpqLwJvsjXAvCdUjzMx85RpJF_BQXodChl322bBO95_H0mU8qPeIPxry3HAw2Rhxt72mBNYmRYehyphenhyphenHMPnBasttm/s1600/wiki+formosa+sic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfQyfh9rfpTd9wawTWd-tA-QyVVh7FW4SSoWr5Yt8PInMMwU8Z0RUjCpqLwJvsjXAvCdUjzMx85RpJF_BQXodChl322bBO95_H0mU8qPeIPxry3HAw2Rhxt72mBNYmRYehyphenhyphenHMPnBasttm/s400/wiki+formosa+sic.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Odd title: it refers to the Taiwan Water Park fireball tragedy (June 2015). But it's wikipedia's over-strict editing policies that are mainly in the frame.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
First things first. Let's overlook the fact that no one has called Taiwan "Formosa" for decades. But that description you see above ("Formosa Fun Park") may be the one that the local owners have coined, maybe with a hint of nostalgia, so we'll say no more on that score.<br />
<br />
Next: what you see above is NOT the main entry, which I linked to in the preceding post. It's what one sees when one hits the Talk tab. Why did I hit it? Because I wanted to <a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.fr/2015/06/what-really-caused-taiwan-water-park.html">flag up my suspicion</a> that it may not have been the potentially flammable/explosive nature of the starch-based powder per se, at least in the first instance, but the means used to propel it into the crowd, which I correctly reckoned to have used gas. (Current reports are now confirming that a gas was indeed used in the stage effects equipment, although described improbably as CO2). But look at the injunction circled in red, top left. It reads "This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject". Why not? Are we supposed to believe everything we (and the article's author) read in the initial newspaper reports? What if one suspects it's wrong, or merely incomplete? How else is one supposed to question the veracity of the 'authoritative' wiki article, except by going to the Talk (or Edit) facility.<br />
<br />
But it gets worse - much worse. Look at the second red circle, inside of which on reads "No original research". Yup, I kid thee not:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7dUwrEIkTRlQFH6xhfPcYn9p2kVoAFdanCBdokxQ33RNkquh1onB4JAG1hyphenhyphenafX-VyQouaU84D8o5YqSe3G7Gi7ggEG66g-5Q_j7sENF_t2hplOxghju4MDPR4UgIuAyPmU0kErIOGOhb1/s1600/wiki+no+original+reseacrh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7dUwrEIkTRlQFH6xhfPcYn9p2kVoAFdanCBdokxQ33RNkquh1onB4JAG1hyphenhyphenafX-VyQouaU84D8o5YqSe3G7Gi7ggEG66g-5Q_j7sENF_t2hplOxghju4MDPR4UgIuAyPmU0kErIOGOhb1/s400/wiki+no+original+reseacrh.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>And you thought a wiki entry was state-of-the-art?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Meaning?<br />
<br />
Having had <a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.fr/2014/11/time-to-tell-wiki-about-my-latest-idea.html">a brush with wiki editors not so long ago on a different matter</a> (the Turin Shroud) I know only too well what's being said there - that wikipedia is for dissemination of ideas that have previously been published via authoritative information outlets (often taken to mean peer-reviewed publications, even if that's not always the case). But how can there be authoritative information on so recent a tragedy? There can't.What's more, the preliminary information being published via wiki may confer a spurious degree of accuracy and reliability - all the more reason for needing a channel of communication by which obvious errors can be corrected (obviously) but additionally new interpretations can be flagged up. How can one do that when something seemingly as informal as a "Talk" facility is closed off to those of us who wish to "discuss" the topic?<br />
<br />
I say wikipedia has got it wrong - seriously wrong. Leaving aside the hopelessly Byzantine complexity of the site generally, doing its utmost to shut out newcomers from the editing/upgrading process with dense impenetrable jargon, it makes a fundamental error. It imagines itself to be a finished product 'in the making' so to speak, one that with a few more tweaks here and there is an internet equivalent of a traditional encyclopaedia. Nonsense. Why do folk make a beeline for wikipedia? Merely because its free? I doubt it. Most folk go to wiki for an initial taster of an unfamiliar topic, not because it's the last word on the subject, but simply the first or maybe second word - preliminary, provisional, one that can serve as a basis for further research, maybe one's own. They like its provisonal feel. As such, "original research" (or OR to give it the wiki abbreviation, as if somehow unfit for spelling in full) is not a dirty word. The process of validating new knowledge is not one that is achieved in a single step, certainly not peer-review (more a means of filtering off shoddy data and conclusions than guaranteeing top quality). <br />
<br />
Wikipedia needs to get down off its pedestal, and start opening itself up to newcomers and outsiders via the Talk and Edit functions, removing the 'barbed wire' with which it presently surrounds itself. Wikipedia needs to see itself for what it is - or should be - a uniquely internet-based and thus interactive source of information on topics where opinion is never allowed to gel into unquestionable dogma or shielded from criticism by the walls of an impenetrable fortress. Wikipedia should be edgy - not stodgy.<br />
<br />
<b>Update: Friday 3rd July</b><br />
<br />
Posted to the Telegraph in response to:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQhC4M1Ju3eJsOEVtPhTDJTAZKIXCzfu6YIEXn3BkG5vE47-u0Mmg2n4axuGb-uw-jo1XA8dHrfXPdNOYIiPEpqDrCaBQhg4pC2CwfvpkOuaYqd9aaTCuwgW-aj0uLtvTJPEYzFFqyAya/s1600/big+rip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQhC4M1Ju3eJsOEVtPhTDJTAZKIXCzfu6YIEXn3BkG5vE47-u0Mmg2n4axuGb-uw-jo1XA8dHrfXPdNOYIiPEpqDrCaBQhg4pC2CwfvpkOuaYqd9aaTCuwgW-aj0uLtvTJPEYzFFqyAya/s320/big+rip.jpg" width="301" /></a></div>
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<br />
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11715091/Big-Rip-will-end-the-universe-scientists-claim.html"><b>Big Rip will end the Universe, scientists claim</b></a><br />
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<i><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: red;">(Sorry about the crazy gaps/white space that now appear at intervals. They come with cut-and-paste from news sites etc. They keep returning, even after editing in html (Yes. I delete long strings of line break commands that are respnsible for the gaps, only for those same breaks to be reinserted later by some mysterious default system that frankly should not be operating - this being MY site goddamit).)</span></i><br />
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<span class="post-byline">
<span class="author publisher-anchor-color"><a data-action="profile" data-role="username" data-username="IfIMayMakeSoBold" href="https://disqus.com/by/IfIMayMakeSoBold/">ColinB</a></span>
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<span class="bullet time-ago-bullet">•</span>
<a class="time-ago" data-role="relative-time" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11715091/Big-Rip-will-end-the-universe-scientists-claim.html#comment-2114048274" title="Friday, July 3, 2015 7:43 AM">a few seconds ago</a></span></header><header><span class="post-meta">
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<div class="post-message " data-role="message" dir="auto">
It's going to be tough on chemistry teachers during the initial phase
of atom expansion, as shells of negative valence electrons become
further and further away from the positive nucleus. Electropositive
elements, like the alkali metals, will find it easier to shed their
outer valence electrons, so lithium will start to behave like sodium,
sodium like potassium etc. Conversely, electronegative elements like the
halogens will find it harder to attract electrons, so super-reactive
fluorine will start to behave like tamer chlorine, etc. It's going to be
tough on exam boards, having to keep changing the answers while the
questions stay the same, but they can maybe get advice from economics
teachers on how to cope. Alternatively, chemistry labs could be
relocated to the fringes of black holes, where gravitational forces
compress atoms back to their proper 21st century size, restoring
standard textbook behaviour, for a few aeons at any rate..</div>
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followed by a light-hearted response to this oh-so-predictable comment:<br />
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<span class="author publisher-anchor-color"><a data-action="profile" data-role="username" data-username="scaryteacher" href="https://disqus.com/by/scaryteacher/">scaryteacher</a></span>
<a class="parent-link" data-role="parent-link" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11715091/Big-Rip-will-end-the-universe-scientists-claim.html#comment-2114059580"> Soarcerer</a>
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<span class="bullet time-ago-bullet">•</span>
<a class="time-ago" data-role="relative-time" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11715091/Big-Rip-will-end-the-universe-scientists-claim.html#comment-2114064536" title="Friday, July 3, 2015 8:00 AM">an hour ago</a></span></header><header><span class="post-meta">
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Lots of those who support AGW tell me that when I query why they
believe we should all go green; that's after they've called me a denier
of course.<
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<span class="author publisher-anchor-color"><a data-action="profile" data-role="username" data-username="IfIMayMakeSoBold" href="https://disqus.com/by/IfIMayMakeSoBold/">ColinB</a></span>
<a class="parent-link" data-role="parent-link" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11715091/Big-Rip-will-end-the-universe-scientists-claim.html#comment-2114064536"> scaryteacher</a>
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<span class="bullet time-ago-bullet">•</span>
<a class="time-ago" data-role="relative-time" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11715091/Big-Rip-will-end-the-universe-scientists-claim.html#comment-2114097496" title="Friday, July 3, 2015 8:44 AM">12 minutes ago</a></span></header><header><span class="post-meta">
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There'll be less and less to worry about re AGW. The planet and
everything else will be cooling with expansion of the universe needless
to say. But micro-expansion of space and CO2 molecules will help divert
attention. The carbon-oxygen bonds will weaken so that present infrared
absorption shifts to longer wavelengths. There will then be government
decrees on maximum listening to radio or watching TV or use of mobile
phones (back-radiation causing our microwave ovens to overcook). Water
molecules will be easier to split by photolysis, so green plants will
have a field day, photosynthesizing like crazy, gobbling up the last of
the CO2. There will then have to be brainstorming on what to poke down
dormant volcanoes to make them erupt and replenish CO2 (some still
being needed for fire extinguishers and keeping a head on keg beer).
That's supposing anyone will be able to cut their way through the jungle
and other biomass to reach base camp.</div>
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<b>Update: Friday 3 July, 11:00</b><br />
<br />
These two comments have appeared under a posting entitled <a href="http://shroudstory.com/2015/07/02/is-colin-berry-onto-something/">"Is Colin Berry Onto Something?"</a> (laced with the site-owners customary admonition re my manner of dealing with pseudo-scientific claptrap and those who have indulged in it, eminent Shroud so-called investigators included, whether living or dead, STURP or non-STURP).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqMZbj25sh2AuWsJ5ssEGU-8IlNDtTrwbT1tIM8_R9RspchX0D7LTHqC31JYbzlFkCWOY3syVeAwfki_nhzQZ8QE3Ns1NVAgO-wii24d11l1Rwv2m9iXvVIB1hKRll6YL1l445ZMbceUT/s1600/scorch+comments+3+july+shroudstory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqMZbj25sh2AuWsJ5ssEGU-8IlNDtTrwbT1tIM8_R9RspchX0D7LTHqC31JYbzlFkCWOY3syVeAwfki_nhzQZ8QE3Ns1NVAgO-wii24d11l1Rwv2m9iXvVIB1hKRll6YL1l445ZMbceUT/s400/scorch+comments+3+july+shroudstory.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm not sure whether the latest model can be described as a "scorch" hypothesis or not. I guess it's a scorch if one used a hot iron to bring up the colour in that flour imprint. But there are other ways of doing that which don't require heat, e.g. nitric acid, or which use a combination of heat and chemistry (hot limewater). It's probably better to avoid the term "scorch" for the new model anyway, since the aim is to selectively colour the flour imprint, leaving the linen unaffected (at least outside the imprint area - though what happens under the imprint at the flour/linen interface is anyone's guess).<br />
<br />
I call it the Blue Peter model, since it's one that can be done at home quite safely by a 10 year old, assuming they can be trusted not to spill flour paste on the carpet, and to exercise care with using a very hot electric iron (max setting). It's that simple, and for that reason is hardly likely to be suitable for the peer-reviewed scientific literature. It was conceived in real-time on the internet, and thus it will probably remains so, unless or until somebody in the MSM considers it has some mileage.<br />
<br />
Thanks btw to the mysterious "reader" in Palo Alto who considers my model to be getting less attention than it deserves (my thoughts too, but then I would say that, wouldn't I?). There's a simple explanation, reader of Palo Alto, already alluded to. My model is TOO simple. It insults the collective intelligence and mindset of mainstream Shroudology!<br />
<br />
Which brings me back to wikipedia and its vexatious straitjacket policies re editing and updating of existing articles. There are such things as overarching ideas, ones that need no report to a peer-reviewed journal. The world has a right to be informed of new ideas, even if the supporting data have yet to be garnered. Wikipedia is in fact suppressing ideas.Wikipedia has set its face against the world of ideas.<br />
<br />
Update (13:30) reminder for anyone new to the site who hasn't the faintest clue what I'm talking about (above) re the Turin Shroud. It's to do with how the image (faint body image that is, not blood) was made, and why. Let's start with why. The 'scorch hypothesis' attracted initially because it accounted for the tan colour, the STURP belief that it was chemically-altered linen fibres with no known additives, the negative image, the 3D-properties even, assuming a hot metal statue or bas relief had been used to imprint a scorch image. But why - why a scorch? There was a rationale, albeit a long shot, based on the claim that the first known owner of the Shroud, one Geoffroi de Charny, had an uncle with an almost identical name, Geoffroi de Charney, who along with Jacques de Molay was one of several Knights Templar burned (or rather slow-roasted) at the stake in Paris in 1314. Maybe the 'scorched-on' image was an artistic attempt to depict the cruel, sadistic manner of those Templar executions. It was even possible to find clues on the Lirey Pilgrim's badge to death by roasting rather than crucifixion (assuming one was looking for them, needless to say ;-)<br />
<br />
All that changed when we learned of the discovery of a mould for a second Lirey badge with an inset face, clearly of Jesus, above the word SUAIRE (face cloth), suggesting that the Shroud image too was an imprint, and one moreover in sweat (and blood) that matched the then celebrated Veil of Veronica. <br />
So there was now an entirely new rationale for the Shroud image that needed to be considered, namely that it was fabricated to represent a SWEAT (and blood) imprint. How might that have been achieved, using medieval technology?<br />
<br />
Abandon the scorch hypothesis, especially as it needs hot metal. Develop a new model, one that created an imprint from a real person that can be claimed to have been formed from sweat - 1300 years earlier - such that it would be yellowed with age, but still faint.<br />
<br />
The obvious option is to find a faint yellow dye, to imprint with that dye in one go. But that would look like a crude imprint. People would see that for what it was immediately. A dye would not have been well-received by the 20th/21st century scientific eye either - tending to soak through the weave to give a prominent reverse-side image too (which the Shroud lacks). STURP found no evidence for dyes, pigments etc.<br />
<br />
However, there is a more nuanced alternative to a one-step dye procedure if one adheres to the logic of (a) initial imprinting with sweat and (b) subsequent yellowing with age.<br />
<br />
One selects a pale-coloured substitute (proxy?) for sweat which one paints evenly all over one's real-life human subject. One then imprints onto linen. One releases one's subject to go and get showered. One lets that imprint dry, and then, at leisure, one does something that selectively colours up the imprint to make it a yellow or yellow/brown colour, WITHOUT significantly altering the colour of the non-imprinted areas of the linen.<br />
<br />
Back in April I tried a number of different proxies for sweat - egg white, milk, starch etc etc, but there was one that was found serendipitously to be superior to the others by virtue of its adhesive properties. allowing linen to stick to human skin, conforming to fine details of relief, like bunched fingers etc. It was ordinary plain white flour, stirred with cold water to make a thin paste. It dried reasonably quickly to leave an almost invisible imprint, while the subject could easily wash off the non-toxic flour.<br />
<br />
All that remained was to find a means of making that flour imprint turn from off-white to yellow (or yellow-brown). Nitric acid was tested, first as vapour, then solution. Both worked well. Then limewater was tested briefly, and seemed to work satisfactorily if hot. Then simple pressing with a very hot iron was tried, and that worked too.<br />
<br />
Thus we have a simple two-stage imprinting process that works with a real person - 'paint' from head to toe with flour paste, imprint onto linen, then develop chemically to convert one or more flour components using either chemical OR thermal treatments, OR a combination of both.<br />
<br />
In fact, things didn't happen as described above, i.e. as a short simple logical pathway. I wish they had. The pathway went round the houses. Here briefly is how we got from A to B via Z, Y,X, W etc.<br />
<br />
Joe Accetta published a paper for his St.Louis (2014) presentation, proposing that the TS image had been obtained by woodblock printing using the kind of oak gall or iron/oak gall inks that were available in the 14th century. Whilst I was a little sceptical on account of the risk, indeed likelihood, of reverse-side coloration, he had suggested that gum arabic had been used to increase ink viscosity. There was a mention too of the additional possibility of a mordanting action which assists with attachment of dye to fibre. I had been wondering if sulphuric acid might play a role in image formation , given a hint in the 1981 STURP summary and in the work of Luigi Garlaschelli, quoting Joe Nickell also. Hugh Farey too had mentioned acids at one point. But what was the source of acid? Might it have been there without folk knowing it? Possibly so, if alum had been used as mordant, because it hydrolyses to form sulphuric acid. So I set up experiments using tannins from pomegranate rind as dyes with added alum mordants, but saw no obvious acid etching of the linen. That was followed by tests with sulphuric acid alone at a range of high concentrations. But there was only faint coloration of linen, even at the highest concentration tested.<br />
<br />
That was the cue to try another strong mineral acid , namely HNO3 (nitric acid). That produced a much better discoloration of linen. But why? By what chemical mechanism? Oxidation of carbohydrates was the obvious one, but there was another to consider, namely nitration of proteins via the so-called xanthoproteic reaction. If there was enough surface protein in linen to account for the discoloration by nitration alone, then what would be the effect of supplementing the intrinsic proteins of flax fibres in linen with more from outside? What protein sources could be used to coat the linen? Milk? Egg white? Gelatin? White flour paste? It was then a small step to adopt a different approach. Instead of coating all the linen, why not use the protein and/or carbohydrate source as imprinting medium, and then use nitric acid to develop the colour. That way, one gets a yellow image against a much paler linen background, even if the latter is slightly altered by the chemical developer. As I say, a somewhat roundabout route.<br />
<br />
Why bother with the chemical reasoning? Why not simply try this or that recipe, working one's way systematically across the likely medieval pantry shelf? Answer: fine if one gets lucky quickly. But supposing one does not? Chances are one would lose interest quickly and abandon the project. The advantage of the systematic chemical approach is that it usually throws up something interesting along the way to keep one interested. One is far more likely to stick at it when following a methodical scientific pathway than if simply taking shots in the dark.<br />
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<b><br /></b>
<b>Update: Friday, June 3</b><br />
<br />
Have just googled (taiwan water park fireball).<br />
Page 1 of returns :<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSGD-Z1sJX3uHIs7YAnpXaLE5Qo9G81mcbCbn0M_nBsgWRJpOtHLUvk0_K-mV3dh_HbyPHQkE3DKGkkDmknLlAp6ED621jwfcrd9U6LuZz9WPykz9P6_cK3kP8FPr2uSanDnIjHzBPZMy/s1600/google+taiwan+water+park+fireball.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSGD-Z1sJX3uHIs7YAnpXaLE5Qo9G81mcbCbn0M_nBsgWRJpOtHLUvk0_K-mV3dh_HbyPHQkE3DKGkkDmknLlAp6ED621jwfcrd9U6LuZz9WPykz9P6_cK3kP8FPr2uSanDnIjHzBPZMy/s400/google+taiwan+water+park+fireball.jpg" width="337" /></a></div>
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The wiki article - the one I'm not allowed to discuss, even under the Talk Tab - is near the top of the returns. My blog posting, suggesting that a flammable gas (butane?) had been used to propel the powder into the crowd is directly underneath. (See inside my yellow box). How crazy is that - I'm not allowed to flag up the flammable gas idea on the wiki page, despite there being a sizeable number of visits to my posting? What do I have to do? Get it published in Nature? Get it published in a tabloid newspaper? Write a pdf for academia.edu that looks for all the world like a peer-reviewed paper, but has probably had token scrutiny only?<br />
<b>Update Saturday</b><br />
<br />
Imagine for a moment that I had accompanied my 'Blue Peter' (paste, press 'n' iron) model of the Shroud with this photograph:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKeX3xGwf4kAtQdO95jdAU8baP0mEi_-0-Xf-kOQx_np3v38LQMd65gkfjvGYGRcmJW7sKuTDCo62X-o9hGK4vezZ5pbuamDdWilDvdkAneDsxw8LTFB1W7sYf59Zi6xuBnC1hgajtcxqi/s1600/Di+lazzaro+and+Louis+F+photograph+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKeX3xGwf4kAtQdO95jdAU8baP0mEi_-0-Xf-kOQx_np3v38LQMd65gkfjvGYGRcmJW7sKuTDCo62X-o9hGK4vezZ5pbuamDdWilDvdkAneDsxw8LTFB1W7sYf59Zi6xuBnC1hgajtcxqi/s400/Di+lazzaro+and+Louis+F+photograph+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Imagine I had said that what you see above is the gold standard that all other models have to aim at.<br />
<br />
What, you may ask? That discoloration on a piece of linen? Where's the image? Where's the negative tone reversal? Where's the 3D properties?<br />
<br />
Where indeed? Yet in a galaxy far, far away, one called Shroudology, that photograph was presented just yesterday as the model that I and others have to aim for. It was produced by blitzing linen with a laser beam radiating in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. Lasers are man-made, needless to say. There are no grounds for thinking that the laser effect exists anywhere else in the Universe. Even if it did, what we see (or rather faintly discern) in the photograph is not an image, any more than a patch of sunburned or suntanned skin is an "image". As such it is totally irrelevant in any discussion on modelling the Shroud IMAGE. What we see is in fact an egregious example of what I stated earlier to be my chief bugbear as a retired researcher browsing the newspapers and internet - PSEUDO-SCIENCE! What we see above is a misapplication of technology, one that still postures in the MSM as cutting edge science. Shame on Italy's ENEA for allowing this intelligence-insulting nonsense to continue under its banner and patronage.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Update Sunday</b><br />
<br />
I tried using the "Talk" tab on that wiki coverage of the Taiwan fireball. Here's a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Formosa_Fun_Coast_explosion">link</a>.<br />
<br />
Immediately I was given all the folderol about "No Original Research" (unless previously published elsewhere, and no, my blog site does not count as an authoritative source). So newspaper reporting IS regarded as an authoritative source, and treated as such, until an investigator has taken the trouble to write a formal paper and get it published somewhere that wiki regards as 'authoritative'.<br />
<br />
If that is wiki's position, my message is simple. Butt out of current affairs, wiki. You are doing a HUGE disservice to the internet and wider society, posturing as the fount of all reliable knowledge when, as often as not, you are accepting uncritically what happens to be in yesterday's or last week's newspaper, and allowing it to go unquestioned. <br />
<br />
<br />
I personally will cease using wikipedia from now on. I've seen enough. I wish to have nothing more to do with that snobbish, pompous, narcissistic, pseudo-professional operation<br />
<br />
<b>Further reading</b>: here's<a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/050232_gay_pride_Taiwan_burned_alive.html"> a rather curious report</a>, not because the event may have been Gay Pride-sponsored (with attempts in the Taiwanese media to suppress that suggestion) but on account of the new chemistry being proposed. It was rainbow-coloured glitter we are told, based on metallic coatings and powders like magnesium, with no mention of the starch powder reporting. That seems highly improbable to me. I have personally ignited suspensions of a metal powder (aluminium) in air. One gets a sudden intense white flash, not the sustained orange/red conflagration one sees in the video clips.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow I will respond to the latest putdown from a nameless wikipedia editor. For now, I am keeping to my new resolution of ignoring wikipedia entries when doing research. A few minutes ago I needed to look up the history of Kenyan independence in relation to the Mau Mau uprising. It was for a comment I have just posted to Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph re the hounding and asset-stripping of BP in the US courts, aided in part by anti-British rhetoric that has come from that country's Head of State (see below). I ignored the wiki entry at the top of the list, and went for something else instead, and how refreshing that was indeed.<br />
<br />
My comment: <br />
<h2 class="discussion-title" dir="auto">
<a class="link-gray-darker truncate" data-link-name="title" data-link-out="http://disq.us/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffinance%2F11718210%2FObamas-vote-seeking-has-half-destroyed-BP.html&key=sdGtokt0ApSvNyT0fOKmGg" data-role="thread-link" data-thread-id="3904570231" data-truncate-lines="3" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11718210/Obamas-vote-seeking-has-half-destroyed-BP.html" style="float: none; position: static;">
Obama’s vote-seeking has half destroyed BP
</a>
</h2>
<a class="avatar" data-link-name="user_avatar" href="https://disqus.com/by/IfIMayMakeSoBold/">
<img alt="ColinB" src="https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/users/16062/4259/avatar92.jpg?1436129084" />
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</header><header class="comment-header"><a class="name" data-link-name="user_name" href="https://disqus.com/by/IfIMayMakeSoBold/">ColinB</a>
<a class="link-gray time" data-link-name="timestamp" data-thread-id="3904570231" href="https://disqus.com/home/discussion/telegraphuk/obamarsquos_vote_seeking_has_half_destroyed_bp/#comment-2118337971">
31 minutes ago </a></header><header class="comment-header">
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I suppose it's just possible that a Conservative PM has all of a
sudden become lazy and complacent about reaffirming our commitment to
NATO (minimum 2% GDP for Defence). I suppose it's just possible that a
Conservative PM should unwisely seem to make light of a crude and
ungraceful threat made by the incumbent US President just a week or two
ago to downgrade the UK's status in NATO, stating that he'll have to
wait till the Autumn Defence Review to see if the 2% is maintained or
not.<br />
Or maybe there are things we don't know, like this UK PM
being fed up to the back teeth with the incumbent US President, one who
imagines that GDP grows on trees, that he and his country's piranha
legal system can use an industrial mishap to bleed one of our major
companies white.<br />
Whatsoever ye sow, so shall ye reap, Mr.Obama.
You trashed what little remained of the special relationship with what
JW here politely refers to as your populism, your grubbing for votes in
the darkest corners of the American psyche.The latter with its limited
grasp of history still likes to pigeon-hole Britain as an
ex-colonialist oppressor, despite the example set by Australia, Canada,
India and dare one say Kenya too, the latter after a nasty and some
might say needless armed terrorist uprising about which you and your
forebears know plenty, one that almost certainly <i>delayed</i> independence.<br />
Methinks
Mr.Cameron is deliberately keeping you waiting for the 'right answer'
re our defence budget, Mr.Obama, and rightly so. You are indeed
'anti-British', and you are cynically using your country's merciless
legal system out of vindictive spite.<br />
You are not a statesman,
Mr.Obama. You are a temporary obstacle to achieving a proper response by
the liberal West to current security threats. The sooner your term of
office expires, the greater and more audible will be the collective sigh
of relief this side of the Atlantic (and possibly your side too, at
least in the more enlightened sections of your long-suffering country's
electorate).<br />
<br />
<b>Update Monday July 7th</b><br />
<br />
Note the new picture at the top of this posting, added just a few minutes ago. Naturally I did a little checking of facts to remind myself that I was not being too harsh on Nurse Ratched from "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", and by implication (or insinuation) wikipedia either. This time I purposely declined the wiki fix that seems to head 99% of my Google searches, and looked further down the list. Oh boy. What a liberating and refreshing experience. To think that all these years I have gradually allowed myself to become enslaved to that bunch of faceless control freaks who give their services to wikipedia for free, we are told (WHY???????). Now I know how they operate, with their simplistic mission statements, their attempts to demean those who have spotted flaws in their carefully scripted responses, my contempt for these people grows by the day, nay the hour. How dare they attempt to take ownership of an unfolding news story, one in which scarcely any hard facts are in the public domain. Left to wiki, those facts could remain buried forever, given its stifling of attempts to question and analyse what really happened.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 6 July 15:30</b><br />
<br />
Here's the magisterial putdown I received yesterday from the faceless wiki editor. Note the robotic and dismissive deployment of one of its no-no categories ("Fringe Theories").<br />
<br />
<dl><dd><i>Please read the core Wikipedia policies linked above. I'm not going
to debate them with you, as they are not negotiable. The four tildes
(~~~~) are responsible for the signature and timestamp that appeared
after your first post above. Please always sign your comments on Talk
pages. <span style="font-family: Gill Sans MT, Arial, Helvetica; font-weight: 140;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:General_Ization" title="User:General Ization"><span style="color: #006633;">General Ization</span></a></span> <sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:General_Ization" title="User talk:General Ization"><span style="color: #000666;">Talk</span></a></sup> 19:11, 5 July 2015 (UTC)</i></dd><dd><i>Also, please see <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FRINGE" title="Wikipedia:FRINGE">Fringe theories</a>
which I, having taken the time to read your blog entry (the one about
the explosion, not the one about Wikipedia), believe certainly applies
in this case. <span style="font-family: Gill Sans MT, Arial, Helvetica; font-weight: 140;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:General_Ization" title="User:General Ization"><span style="color: #006633;">General Ization</span></a></span> <sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:General_Ization" title="User talk:General Ization"><span style="color: #000666;">Talk</span></a></sup> 19:15, 5 July 2015 (UTC)</i></dd><dd></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"> Here was my exasperated reply, penned just a few minutes ago (exasperated because this is about a current affairs topic, not an overview of the Big Bang or Evolution theory):</dd><dd style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"><i>So, wikipedia is prepared to take the first reports of a current
affairs topic, obtained from news agencies, official spokesmen etc, and
use those to compose the wiki entry. Anyone who attempts to challenge the
official record, those 'first impressions', barely a day or two old, is
told they are proposing "fringe theories" no matter who they are, no
matter their track record for getting to the truth via systematic lines
of questioning. This is quite frankly appalling. Wikipedia has no right
to preempt discussion and comment on current affairs, essentially
crystallizing the first reports as if certain truth.</i><br />
<i>You have made an enemy wikipedia. I intend to expose your shoddy
methods, your contempt for scholarship, or even plain detective work by
those of us with enquiring or critical minds.</i><br />
<i>I have compared you on my latest blog posting with Nurse Ratched from "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest".</i><br />
<i>Colin Berry</i><br />
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/89.227.105.117" title="Special:Contributions/89.227.105.117">89.227.105.117</a> (<a class="new" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:89.227.105.117&action=edit&redlink=1" title="User talk:89.227.105.117 (page does not exist)">talk</a>) 13:12, 6 July 2015 (UTC)</i><br />
<i>Or, given the verbose and convoluted barbed wire with which your
surround and protect yourself, I'll repeat that again in the reverse
order, with the four tildes first and my name second. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/89.227.105.117" title="Special:Contributions/89.227.105.117">89.227.105.117</a> (<a class="new" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:89.227.105.117&action=edit&redlink=1" title="User talk:89.227.105.117 (page does not exist)">talk</a>) 13:12, 6 July 2015 (UTC)</i><br />
<i>Colin Berry</i><br />
<br />
Update: Tuesday 7 July<br />
<br />
Have just come across this through googling for updates on the Taiwan disaster:<br />
<br />
<i></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>https://cfensi.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/jj-lin-writes-song-i-pray-for-you-for-water-park-explosion-victims/</i></div>
<i>
</i>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<i>
</i><i><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Quote: </b>Last weekend at a water park in Taiwan,
a mysterious substance caused a massive fireball to ignite and consume the
stage, resulting in the death of one person and the injuries of 500. While many
celebrities took to Weibo to send their messages of hope, JJ teamed up with
Taiwanese singer and guitarist Wing to compose a beautiful three minute ballad
called ‘I Pray For You’ to give encouragement and strength to those affected in
the explosion</div>
</i></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"></dd><dd style="text-align: left;">At last - someone out there who still has an open and enquiring mind, one that recognizes that the fireball did not match the description of a dust 'explosion'. As such there can be no justification whatsoever for wikipedia or anyone else to go attaching that label pending the findings of an official enquiry.<i> </i></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"></dd><dd style="text-align: left;">Does wikiepdia not realize the inconsistency and self-contradiction of its 'No Discuss/No Research policy? How does it think the first reports originated? Do journalists not do some quick research where breaking news stories are concerned. Most do, so what they write is "research" (of variable quality) which wikipedia writers use to create a new article. So they have used "research" but from what generally is a journalist with a deadline to meet, and unlikely therefore to be "authoritative". What does wiki do? It goes and puts those first impressions onto the internet, blocking any attempt to question or correct the record, except to their own inner circle of faceless editors, operating behind their pseudonyms, erecting ludicrously complex and arcane barriers to anyone who wished to intrude on their magic circle.</dd><dd style="text-align: left;"></dd><dd style="text-align: left;">Here's an item that appeared on the BBC, one where a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18833763">small sample of wiki's people's army of unpaid editors were interviewed</a>. Sure, they seem a pleasant enough bunch of people. </dd><dd style="text-align: left;"> </dd><dd style="text-align: left;">But, the big but. What credentials or qualifications do each of those nine self-selected interviewees bring to the job? Why do they do what they do, without any visibility or financial reward? Would it be uncharitable to suggest that the thing that unites them would be a feeling of <i>total anonymity </i>were it not for the wiki editing. </dd><dd style="text-align: left;"></dd><dd style="text-align: left;">Here's my advice to each of them: chose a specialist topic you're REALLY interested in and start a blog.</dd><dd style="text-align: left;"><br /></dd><dd style="text-align: left;">One has to hand it to Jimmy Wales. He has this vast workforce that doesn't cost him a single penny (which doesn't prevent him producing the begging bowl at regular intervals). Discipline? Easy: simply issue an edict saying there's to be no intrusion of new ideas, merely selection and filtering of what's already in the public domain, and <i>no entering into discussion even under the Talk or Edit tabs.</i><br />
<br />
Methinks there's something rotten in the estate of Wales.<i> It strikes me as being too regimented and robotic, turning its voluntary helpers into apparatchiks. It's frankly weird, dare one say a little dehumanising. I guess it's an occupational hazard of compiling an encyclopaedia with no upper page limit or number of volumes. It's become a human treadmill, one that recruits real people and proceeds to turn them into near-invisible mice, notable mainly for nocturnal activity and sharp incisors.</i><br />
<br />
<br /></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"><br /></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"><br /></dd><dd style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></dd></dl>
</div>
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sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111782305190930044.post-62629228482304421752015-06-28T21:34:00.002-07:002016-04-26T05:43:51.915-07:00What really caused the Taiwan water park fireball horror? Liquified butane propellant?Here's what I added as the opinionated equivalent of a news flash, tacked onto the tail end of the previous posting (unashamed marketing of my absurdly simple, some might say simplistic, white flour/hot iron model for the 'enigmatic' image on that Turin Shroud).<br />
<br />
Yes, we know that airborne powders can produce fireballs and/or explosions. As a student (1963) I used to work a night shift during the summer vacation at Quaker Oats (puffed wheat gunner!). I'm pretty sure I saw a brief powder fireball one night on a deserted upper floor with storage bins, though I told no one, for fear I'd be laughed at.<br />
<br />
But something has to disperse the dust first. What dispersed that coloured powder in the Taipei water park? ? Was it a propellant, as in aerosol spray cans? Might it have been liquified butane gas (boiling point -1 degrees C)?<br />
<br />
Here's what I wrote yesterday. So far, there's no reason to change a single word, while we await the outcome of the official investigation.<br />
<br />
From yesterday:<br />
<br />
<b>Update: Sunday 28 June 11:20 French time </b>(unrelated to Shroud)<br />
<br />
So what caused the<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33302902"> terrible fireball at the Taiwan water park gathering</a>, leaving hundreds with serious burns?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk5MjyWGFDOlbgCVrCDYkL3piAgV6tY7cJhT0zzKYFTQmUa92q4qrRxkx7wi4yuTx4VtN8I0klLaEKmh0vI73h7w32OrcNXGgqrfuB-1R00BDyuAspptjceixyOg5OrjaE7cK1dYd1Bu24/s1600/_83903939_b43fd33e-b983-484a-990e-175b240df1db.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk5MjyWGFDOlbgCVrCDYkL3piAgV6tY7cJhT0zzKYFTQmUa92q4qrRxkx7wi4yuTx4VtN8I0klLaEKmh0vI73h7w32OrcNXGgqrfuB-1R00BDyuAspptjceixyOg5OrjaE7cK1dYd1Bu24/s320/_83903939_b43fd33e-b983-484a-990e-175b240df1db.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
So far we've been told next to nothing about the chemistry, except that a "coloured powder ignited".<br />
<br />
If
one looks at the video clip that accompanies the BBC report (see link)
one sees a cloud of white vapour coming from the stage immediately
before the conflagration. At a normal gig that would be the fog produced
when dry ice (solid CO2) is dropped into water.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWlLUIFa0MKFXnro7S1WyGKYjfvE5P3t8pZs8qw0F0Wlu12edf2pQuRCm7ROLyBcqcszyJC2XVzTBkT416KZVkbdQUEkboBgtc_PL3K8imUPYqOF8I2zE2OPhOwLw465hxKUfe9LR7fB0C/s1600/Dry_Ice_in_Water.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWlLUIFa0MKFXnro7S1WyGKYjfvE5P3t8pZs8qw0F0Wlu12edf2pQuRCm7ROLyBcqcszyJC2XVzTBkT416KZVkbdQUEkboBgtc_PL3K8imUPYqOF8I2zE2OPhOwLw465hxKUfe9LR7fB0C/s320/Dry_Ice_in_Water.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dry ice and water - NOT the effect used at the Taiwan water park.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But CO2 extinguishes fire. Might it have been
liquified propane (BPt. -42 degrees C) or more probably butane (Bpt -1 degrees C) instead, the latter as used in aerosol spray cans etc? In other
words, it wasn't the coloured solid, whatever that was, that was the
culprit, but a flammable gaseous propellant. Propane gas (C3H8) has
about 1.5 times the density of air, butane (C4H10) more than double, so
would<a href="http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/if-co2-is-so-heavy-why-doesnt-it-sink.html"> tend briefly to hug the ground before dispersal via diffusion</a>. We shall see. Burns are terrible things. My sympathies to all the victims and their loved ones.<br />
<br />
<b>Late update (July 9)</b> on the MIXED chemical composition of propellant liquified gases: have come across this on the BOC site:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDHIIJnQyr8kOl6_64RbhrbafaxlOKAg5y1ln8aqcMvpDlZj3us_3YbTiKVEhdD7f0Z2HjHS5IIZQUVeC3TaO7opprtuzdXWe5zjpSs2oFy94xZNf2ZzDjxCzR6_YQl00GskcuvP3-iPWO/s1600/boc+propel+range.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDHIIJnQyr8kOl6_64RbhrbafaxlOKAg5y1ln8aqcMvpDlZj3us_3YbTiKVEhdD7f0Z2HjHS5IIZQUVeC3TaO7opprtuzdXWe5zjpSs2oFy94xZNf2ZzDjxCzR6_YQl00GskcuvP3-iPWO/s400/boc+propel+range.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
All the mixes, from those with lowest to highest ejection pressure, are a mixture of 3 gases. propane (3 carbon), n-butane (4 carbon, straight chain) and isobutane (4 carbon, branched chain, BPt -11.7 degrees C, i.e. significantly lower than n-butane with correspondingly greater vapour pressure). In short, liquified butane is insufficiently volatile, liquid propane is too volatile. A mix of the two butanes with propane is chosen that gives the desired vapour pressure and propellant force.<br />
<br />
Further late insertion (July 10): here's a freeze frame from a YouTube video of the disaster, showing a gas cylinder on the stage, used to eject powder.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uhCdgJyy4ppioRwuawpqwCF08tDRFmSxOOXuriVmrblKanUGfUhGA6C5W-HHBEpjAzy6g-MnN6wJ-Ki-PGoAMm39O4_319bFqzEzZui0eJwj10HQsDCR778ax3dM7TjzucZkX2N2nz5H/s1600/gas+cylinder+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uhCdgJyy4ppioRwuawpqwCF08tDRFmSxOOXuriVmrblKanUGfUhGA6C5W-HHBEpjAzy6g-MnN6wJ-Ki-PGoAMm39O4_319bFqzEzZui0eJwj10HQsDCR778ax3dM7TjzucZkX2N2nz5H/s400/gas+cylinder+cropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gas cylinder, left of centre.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
That downward sloping delivery nozzle is suggestive of a cylinder that delivers a liquified gas as a cloud of fine vapour or adiabatically-supercooled solid particles. It's reminiscent of CO2 fire extinguishers as used in my own country (UK), except the latter are red. and have a large hollow black horn instead of a short nozzle.<br />
<br />
If one is to look at the causes of that deadly conflagration objectively. one cannot focus exclusively on the solid powder, despite its potential fire hazard when finely dispersed in air. One must also look at the means used to propel it into the crowd. Was it really liquified CO2 that was used as propellant as stated in a minority of reports? Or was there a tragic mix up, i.e. inadvertent substitution of a highly flammable butane/propane propellant? What is the colour-coding of gas or fire extinguisher cylinders in Taiwan?<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Update on that BBC report: 14:25 French time</b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"The fire department said the powder ,used to create a party
atmosphere, may have ignited due to the heat of the lights on the stage,
or from sparks from machinery. </i><br />
<i>The substance is also used in
other countries. It is made of dried corn and can be highly flammable,
says the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei.</i><br />
<i>The 519 victims were sent to 41 hospitals, and 413 are still in hospital, say municipal authorities."</i><br />
<br />
Flammable
solid maybe, but it still needed a propellant gas to shower it over the
crowd. I still suspect itr was the propellant gas that ignited first.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 16:40</b><br />
<br />
Here's a freeze-frame from the video clip that accompanied the Telegraph's report:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnNAYclEWDKTXQfs8GzQBQZlR8PG7lZOkB33jtfyMKqbVEfQpEzWSmrDx-Xy1L0WwmJT3eN6OGqSCK2ss7FRLoxmkmxpgOPPGj7b44yKDS7zqFU68K4sOpfwc4UIjkWkkpdshxrx0b-AE3/s1600/taiwan+water+park+cloud+white+vapour.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnNAYclEWDKTXQfs8GzQBQZlR8PG7lZOkB33jtfyMKqbVEfQpEzWSmrDx-Xy1L0WwmJT3eN6OGqSCK2ss7FRLoxmkmxpgOPPGj7b44yKDS7zqFU68K4sOpfwc4UIjkWkkpdshxrx0b-AE3/s400/taiwan+water+park+cloud+white+vapour.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video still: Taiwan water park, immediately prior to fireball</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
A instant later, the white cloud of vapour (butane?) was replaced by an orange fireball.<br />
<br />
<b>Further reading:</b> see the wiki entry on '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_smoke_and_fog">Theatrical smoke and fog</a>".<br />
<br />
Here's a particular (hair-raising) section, meaning not entirely clear due to missing words and/or punctuation, that may or may not be relevant to what happened in that water park. Note the reference to propane and kerosene:<br />
<br />
<i>An obsolete method for creating theatrical fog on-stage (although the
technique is still commonly used in motion pictures) is to use a device
known as a <a class="new" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thermal_fogger&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Thermal fogger (page does not exist)">thermal fogger</a>, initially designed for distributing pesticide, which aspirates a petroleum product (typically <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene" title="Kerosene">kerosene</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propane" title="Propane">propane</a>)
ignites the fuel, and then mixes in air and pesticide to create a dense
fog. For theatrical purposes the pesticide is typically replaced with
glycol, glycol/water mixtures, or water. This technique is similar to
the smoke generators used by militaries to create <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_screens" title="Smoke screens">smoke screens</a>, and is generally only used outdoors due to the volume of fog produced and the petroleum fuel required. </i><br />
<br />
<b>Also from wiki, a passage from its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosa_Fun_Coast_explosion">new entry on the tragedy</a> (my bolding)</b><br />
<br />
<i>Investigators raised the question of whether the powder was ignited by a
cigarette or spark; the supplier of the flammable, starch-based powder
said "if it's in dense quantities and if it's hot, it can catch fire".
Organizers had purchased three tons of the powder, and wrote on their
Facebook page that it consisted of cornstarch and food coloring. <b>The
powder was sprayed from the stage onto concert-goers "at high velocity"</b>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYT_23-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosa_Fun_Coast_explosion#cite_note-NYT-23">[23]</a></sup></i><br />
<br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYT_23-1">It omits to say what method of propulsion was used.</sup><br />
<br />
<b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYT_23-1">Further update:</sup></b><br />
<br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYT_23-1"> Here's a <a href="http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201506300028.aspx">new video clip taken from behind the stage.</a> </sup><br />
<br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYT_23-1">The accompanying text says that high-pressure CO2 was used to propel the powder into the crowd, and that ignition had occurred at the nozzle delivering gas. That makes no sense whatsoever. As mentioned earlier, CO2 is used to extinguish fire. What seems more likely is a mix-up of cylinders, with butane or maybe propane having been used in place of CO2.</sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYT_23-1"> </sup><i> </i><br />
<br />
<i><b>Update: 1st July 2015: </b>Changing the subject: I have just added this comment to an <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/11709314/Allison-Pearson-Im-a-good-driver-its-the-roads-that-got-bad.html">Allison Pearson article on the Telegraph.</a> (This blogger has been ridiculing the national obsession with demonising the so-called motorway middle-lane hoggers for more years than he cares to remember).</i><br />
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<i><a class="user" data-action="profile" data-username="IfIMayMakeSoBold" href="https://disqus.com/by/IfIMayMakeSoBold/">
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<span class="author publisher-anchor-color"><a data-action="profile" data-role="username" data-username="IfIMayMakeSoBold" href="https://disqus.com/by/IfIMayMakeSoBold/">ColinB</a></span>
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Pre-script: From the Campaign for Better Transport site:<br />
<br />
<b>Lorries involved in rising percentage of fatal crashes</b><br />
22 October 2013<br />
<i>Lorries
are involved in a increasing percentage of fatal traffic accidents on
Britain's roads. New analysis has shown that last year HGVs were
implicated in more than half of fatal motorway accidents and one-in-five
fatal accidents on A-roads, continuing negative trends over the last
five years.</i><br />
<br />
Yes, the Highway Code simply refuses to take on
board the reality of mixing convoys of HGVs with private motorists, many
with their precious family members on board.<br />
The Highway Code is an
anachronism where motorways are concerned. It's a poor reflection on our
police and motoring organizations that they continue to demonize the 65
-70 mph middle lane 'hogger,' essentially legitimizing the 70+ mph
middle lane hogger, specifically the sort who resorts to intimidation
and tailgating as soon as he encounters someone going slightly slower
than himself, and refusing to use the third lane to overtake.<br />
<br />
PS Here's a link to an item that appeared on the BBC's site some 2 years ago.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22784983" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...</a><br />
<br />
It
starts with an AA spokesman being quoted about research that shows that
middle lane hogging is bad because it allegedly reduces motorway
capacity (not a word about safety). And who did the research? Answer:
the RAC Foundation we are told. Later in the article we have an academic
being highly dismissive of the RAC's conclusion that hogging cuts
capacity by a third. Regardless, since when has it been the job of
motoring organizations to do traffic flow modelling - a highly complex
business - especially if one tries to factor in driver psychology
influenced as often as not by survival instinct. What gives the lie to
RAC research is the observation that when motorways are fully occupied
most of the time, as is the case with certain stretches of the M25, one
finds very little lane switching at all, effectively 3 lane "hogging"
(see that BBC link).<br />
<br />
I tried to find some quality research on the
pros and cons of middle lane hogging. The old Road Research Laboratory,
now privatized, calls itself the Transport Research Laboratory, but
nothing came back when I searched its website under a range of
keywords.One suspects there is NO quality research on the topic.<br />
Personally
I think the AA and RAC should butt out of things that are beyond their
brief and/or competence. Why should they be concerned anyway with
motorways being used to their full capacity? They are dangerous enough
as it is, used at half capacity, when private motorists are forced to
mix it with lane-switching HGVs in Lanes 1 and 2. Would they not be
better occupied pressing for more roads, dual carriageways as well as
motorways, or even designating new roads for HGV or non-HGV use only?</div>
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<b>Update: Friday July 10</b>: back to Taiwan: even allowing for cultural differences, it seems strange to this Westerner that there is so little by way of analysis, enquiry, speculation, human interest follow-upon the Taiwan disaster. Had that mishap occured in Europe or the US there would have been intense interest (bordering on fury) that something like that could have happened, killing 3 people already, and inflicting 'life-changing injuries' on scores more with those 50%+ burns. Something's not right, and maybe it's to do with those ' cultural differences'. Like the fact that the 'color play' was part of a Gay Pride festival? Have the local police investigated the possibility of foul play? Nope, I'm not into conspiracy theories, but it is the job of police to rule out 'foul play' before blithely assuming it was all just a terrible accident.<br />
<br />
<b>Update Saturday July 11</b><br />
<br />
Here's a somewhat disturbing discovery from browsing through suppliers' sites for commercial gases. This one is admittedly propane gas only, but note the colour of the cylinder, the same light grey as the one in my Taipei video screen-shot:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHktYOatLh5ZSDgGZxnCAcALMq1GrtxyEb6jgRzgS_ZuB7UAVWBFhJhGdVowlW9s_HYaeoIYIMKoZJ-yNWAEXKBpFepR9o0XC5psbCayQBr29Y_kD8jda3_7Z6gpplMToTTtDpYKCZXCPV/s1600/propane+gas+cylinders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHktYOatLh5ZSDgGZxnCAcALMq1GrtxyEb6jgRzgS_ZuB7UAVWBFhJhGdVowlW9s_HYaeoIYIMKoZJ-yNWAEXKBpFepR9o0XC5psbCayQBr29Y_kD8jda3_7Z6gpplMToTTtDpYKCZXCPV/s400/propane+gas+cylinders.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Update: 15 July</b><br />
<br />
Hallelluja. Wilipedia has finally recognized that some form or propulsion was needed to get all that powder airborne so quickly, and in such quantity. Here's its new(ish) edit, from which i've removed the reference numbers. (My bolding)<br />
<br />
<i>"The concert organizers deployed colored corn starch powder in the
festivities. The method of powder application at the concert created "an
extremely dense dust cloud over the stage and its immediate vicinity"
people near the stage were standing "almost ankle-deep" in colored corn
starch powder, and the powder was repeatedly suspended into the air<b>
using air blowers as well as compressed gas canister</b>."</i><br />
<br />
But it's still failing to be specific as regards what was inside the "compressed gas canister" as if that were of no relevance. In fact, some press reports describe it as CO2 gas, which by itself might allay suspicions (mine) that the propellant gas had a role to play. But this blogger has seen one comment that after the initial conflagration one quick-thinking individual on the stage picked up a "CO2 cylinder" and deployed it on the (reasonable) assumption it could serve as a fire extinguisher. But that created a fresh fireball, which the commenter put down to the gas having blaster still more powder into the air.<br />
<br />
When is it going to be recognized that thee could have been a mix up with cylinders, that the propellant gas was not CO2 but a mix of liquified petroleum gases, e.g. the propane/butane/isobutane mix mentioned earlier? Wikipedia is doing us all a disservice, being more a hindrance than a help in establishing the facts, the first step of which is <i>to rule out plausible alternatives to initial preconceptions.</i><br />
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<b>Update: April 26, 2016</b><br />
<br />
It's now about a year since that catastrophic fire that ended the lives of 15 young people and maimed scores more for life. I was reminded of it this morning by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/26/taiwan-party-organiser-sent-to-prison-over-fireball-that-killed/">this article that appeared in the Telegraph. </a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">x</td></tr>
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<i> </i>But I continue to despair of the comments we read, now few and far between, as to the cause of the conflagration, and the report above leaves me none the wiser.<br />
<br />
Right at the end, we read:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>An investigation showed the hottest parts of the stage lights hit
temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius, while the powder's
ignition point was just 500 degrees Celsius.</i></blockquote>
<br />
The "hottest part" of stage light is the electric filament, which if tungsten can get much hotter than 1000 degrees. But it's not a bare filament, exposed to air. It's encased in metal and glass, which is constructed so to be realtively cool and safe, so as not to burn anyone who inadvertently brushes again it. So why are they STILL talking about the stage light as the source of ignition?<br />
<br />
My initial suggestion was that a cylinder of flammable gas, e.g. propane or butane, had inadvertently been used to disperse the powder. Later, I read another report suggesting it might have been a cylinder of compressed air (or maybe even pure oxygen?) that had been used, promoting ignition and combustion, which while less probable is not beyond the realms of the possible.<br />
<br />
Naturally one needs to see a more detailed report than a single sentence in a UK newspaper, but for the moment I not only remain deeply sceptical about the "stage lights" hypothesis. I'm beginning to suspect there's been some kind of cover up and/or an attempt to divert attention from the real cause of the tragedy. If anyone reading this has 'inside information' please don't hesitate to contact, either by leaving a comment, or by direct means to sciencebod01 (at) aol.com.<br />
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<i><br /></i>sciencebodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12051016731274875332noreply@blogger.com0