Conundrum 4 – Totem Poles
(Book Extract………………………………………………….The Great Stonehenge Hoax)
Lots of cowboys (archaeologists) but no Indians (scientists)
The Problem
Four post holes were found in the old visitor’s car park at Stonehenge in 1966; these holes were excavated, and the pine charcoal found was dated (by observation) to be Neolithic, and the same date as the carbon-dated Antler picks found on the site some 50m away. The problem arose when someone pointed out that Pine trees didn’t exist in the Stonehenge area in the Neolithic and that the post holes were filled in with ‘silt’ (from a river). So they carbon-dated the pine to find out it was Meslithic some 5,000 before Stonehenge was supposedly built – so they came up with a story of ‘Totem Poles’ placed at random from a hunter-gather tribe, which had nothing to do with Stonehenge.
The Solution
The most compelling evidence for the rise in water tables during the prehistoric period can be found in the old car park of Stonehenge. Ignored by visitors who used to casually park their cars near the stones, three giant circles (similar to mini-roundabouts) were painted on the floor.
These painted circles showed where post holes were discovered when the car park was first constructed, measuring at least 1 metre in diameter. Interestingly, and somewhat ironically, the original car park was built at this location because archaeologists believed that this area had no historical relevance – which was far from the truth. During these excavations, three pits were discovered, which contained pieces of bone and fragments of charcoal – as the pits had held large wooden posts. When this pine charcoal was eventually carbon-dated, it was found to be some 10,000 years old, over twice the age of any other part of Stonehenge.
Traditional archaeology describes these posts that would have been placed in these post holes as ‘totem poles’. However, if this were true, why would the Mesolithic people need to struggle with using giant trees over 1 metre wide (which would be 150 to 200 ft tall) to erect a ‘ritual’ totem pole? Our ancestors only possessed flint axes and fire, it would seem more plausible that smaller trees would have been utilised (as seen in North America) to create these ‘totem poles’ rather than the giant metre-wide variety?
The old car park is 10m lower than the Stonehenge site, and recent radiocarbon dating (by Darvill and Wainwright’s excavations in 2008) has confirmed from charcoal remains (inside the Sarsen Circle) that the area on which the Stonehenge monument is situated was also in use by 7200 BCE and this was confirmed a couple of years later by a team from the Open University, who found an OX tooth, from ‘feasting’ in a nearby site called ‘Blick Mead’ that was also dated during the 7th millennium BCE at 6250 BCE, emphasising that this area of Stonehenge was for other purposes, rather than an isolated site with marker posts.
If my hypothesis is correct, these post holes housed posts which were functional mooring posts for boats. They were utilised for unloading their stone cargo, and as it was on a tidal river – the post’s cross-beams could be used as simple lifting devices. These cross beams were placed on two of these 1 metre wide posts, secured with a simple mortise and tenon joint, as used on the Stonehenge lintels.
This lifting device could have been used to raise stones from boats during high tide by merely tying the stones to the cross beams. Then, as the tide receded, the vessel holding the stone would naturally lower in the water, lifting the stone ‘like magic’ into the air. This is the first example of a hydraulic lift, which shows the level of sophistication in our ancestor’s thinking. The stone could then be lowered to either a sledge or rollers placed under the cross beam for the 50m journey to the top of the hill.
Archaeologists have always calculated that to transport the Bluestones, our ancestors had taken a very long and dangerous boat trip around the coast of South West Britain to an outlet on the South coast that allowed boats to travel up the River Avon or to the banks of Somerset in the North, and had then to dragged the stones some 50 miles South, to their resting place in Salisbury Plain. Or some have even imagined dragging these 4-tonne stones on sledges over 200 miles through woods, forests, and rivers.
My ‘Post-Glacial Flooding Hypothesis’ now enables us to understand how they could have easily travelled on a direct water route between South Wales through Somerset to the Rivers Kennet and Avon to bring these stones to Stonehenge and how easy it was to use tidal hydraulics to place these stones carefully on to boats for the journey.
For more information about British Prehistory and other articles/books, go to our BLOG WEBSITE for daily updates or our VIDEO CHANNEL for interactive media and documentaries. The TRILOGY of books that ‘changed history’ can be found with chapter extracts at DAWN OF THE LOST CIVILISATION, THE STONEHENGE ENIGMA and THE POST-GLACIAL FLOODING HYPOTHESIS. Other associated books are also available such as 13 THINGS THAT DON’T MAKE SENSE IN HISTORY and other ‘short’ budget priced books can be found on our AUTHOR SITE. For active discussion on the findings of the TRILOGY and recent LiDAR investigations that is published on our WEBSITE you can join our FACEBOOK GROUP.
To understand why rivers were larger in the past we have video with all the relevant information.
