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Monday 16 August 2010

Slabs, blocks and boulders



On the matter of predominant stone shapes at Carn Meini, I'm pretty convinced that slabs are more common than pillars or columns. This picture shows the famous "Altar Stone" or "Sacrifice Stone" at Carn Meini. It was probably neither an altar nor a place where virgins were sacrificed, although there seems to be a consensus that it MIGHT have been a small "sub-Neolithic" burial chamber. Slabs like this are very common in the area -- there are several others visible in the photo.

Of course, it is also a myth that most of the bluestones at Stonehenge are pillars. I have pointed out before that they are of all shapes and sizes, including small chips or flakes, small cobbles, rough boulders and slabs, and some pillars. I do not buy the idea that all of the small fragments have come from the working of the larger bluestones -- it would be absolutely typical of an erratic assemblage of bluestones that there would be a mixture of stone shapes and sizes, not to mention lithologies.

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