Register here - as a registered user you get more features and fewer ads.
The above report is referring to the bits of granite 'grus' that was found - some more background:
Granodiorite and sarsen
One objective of the 2021 work was to investigate the extent of the spread of imported granodiorite, to establish whether the rock derived from a single manuport or several transported pieces, and ascertaining whether granodiorite was utilised in stone settings at the site. An additional 12.5kg of the rock was recovered in 2021, bringing the total to over 22kg. The majority of pieces came from the larger post-holes, notably F.3002 (with over 9.4kg), but there were also several fragments from grave F.908.
There are no instances of granodiorite occurring in primary contexts in the post-holes: all the fragments derive from the upper parts of the post-pipes, re-cuts in the post-pipes or later features such as the grave. It seems likely the rock arrived on site either when the timber structure was in an advanced state of decay, or after it had decayed.
It is now evident that the rock arrived as smaller, rounded and weathered pieces (so-called grus) – not a monolith – most likely collected from glacial tills along the North Sea coast (Rob Ixer pers. comm.). The implication is of a combination of glacial and human transport, the latter still involving considerable distances (perhaps 250-300km as the crow flies). The rock’s wide distribution across Trench 9 (and a single piece was recovered from Trench 2 in 2019) strongly suggests we have not captured the entirety of its distribution, and that greater quantities of the rock may be spread across the unexcavated portion of the monument. It is striking that no pieces of grus have been found outside Structure 5: its presence is particular to this monument.
The find recalls that of twenty ‘small, mostly rounded pieces’ of Niedermendig Lava, identified by H.H. Thomas, from the lower half of post-hole C27 at the nearby Sanctuary (Cunnington 1931). The post-pipe being present, the excavator was adamant that there had been no disturbance, making a convincing case for the rock’s transport and deposition within that monument during the Late Neolithic
So says Josh Pollard et al!
Read more from the Interim Report here (thanks Tim)
www.sarsen.org/2022/02/west-kennet-palisades-avebury-interim.html
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road