<< Feature Articles >> The Great Stone Circles – How they Work Part 10
Submitted by JACKME on Wednesday, 02 November 2005 Page Views: 3441
Alternative Archaeology
Glaciers
Following my fantastic trip touring the Viking sites of Greenland in August this year, which included, on a lovely sunny day, a visit to the ‘Twin Glaciers’, I have decided this week to make a slight detour from the main series of articles and to discuss the significance of glaciers on the landscape with reference to prehistoric sites in this country. During the last Ice Age large areas of the UK were ravaged by glaciers, creating the characteristic countryside we see today. Rocks and boulders were ripped up by the flow of ice and redeposited, sometimes hundreds of miles from their original location. In some areas, such as the low-lying areas of the Cheshire Plain, glacial erratic boulders were the only real main source of hard rock for the ancient builders.At the Twin Glacier site in Greenland one arm empties into the fjord and the other limb melts on dry land. It is a truly magnificent sight with the ice invisibly moving down the slope. The ice falling into the water was mainly white, whilst that melting on the land was distinctly dirty, polluted by thousands of years of debris from the air concentrated on the top of the ice, eventually running away as cloudy melt water.
The fjord was sprinkled with icebergs of varying sizes ranging from small pieces up to some 50 yards or more across and 20-30 feet tall. Even the small ones did not move when the wash from the boat struck them, showing there must have been a great deal more ice under the water. Some of the icebergs were very blue, due to the fact that the ice had come from the bottom of the ice cap having been compressed by the great depth of ice (over 3,000 metres deep in the central area!). The main icecap of Greenland has only approximately 60cms of snowfall a year, with the air trapped in each snowflake giving the white appearance.
The ice melts from the top, the front face and the bottom and as it melts away from the rock underneath, it is possible to look up and see rocks of varying sizes hanging in the ice. As the melt continues the smaller rocks fall out first while the bigger ones are held a while longer before falling out. Sometimes the larger stones (1-2 metre size plus) fall onto other smaller pieces which then act as packing stones and prevent the larger rocks from rolling down the slope.
This rather negates my article on July 16th ( numbered 6b ) where I implied that these skyline boulders had been erected by man. I said this because they are located on the downstream side of the ridge and I was taught by my geography teacher that the boulders got stuck on the upstream side of a ridge. This photo however shows several stones clearly on the downstream side of the ridge, where no man has probably ever set foot, and if he had, has certainly not erected all these stones. The only conclusion I can come to, is that the ancients must have adjusted their circle stones to align with these ‘perched’ boulders left on the skyline by the glaciers. We can all look and learn. As the moon continually varies in its movements slightly, these annual skyline markers, as discussed in my previous articles, are as accurate now as they ever were. It still leaves the query though as to why the prehistoric people used skyline markers for the moon.
To return to the glaciers, as the ice clears it leaves bare rock, worn according to its varying hardness and faults. These channels in time collect debris, providing a base for the growth of vegetation. This last photo shows what the Lake District would have looked like when the glaciers finally went. Picnickers already in place! Last week I visited the Coniston area having a much greater understanding of how the glaciers had left the area, with its scatter of erratics, some of which were incorporated into various stone arrangements. It can be very difficult to tell which were placed by man and which were there already.
Next: Finding the focal point of the circle
Contents page for the whole series is here
Note: This is the fourteenth of a series of previously unpublished articles by retired farmer, Jack Morris-Eyton.
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.