How the bluestones travelled from the Preseli Mountains in Wales to Salisbury Plain is a contentious issue.
The debate between some geologists and the archaeological community continues to this day, and it will probably never be completely resolved, as each side interprets the evidence differently, finding support for their own theories.
Moving the massive bluestones to Salisbury Plain has long been a mooted point. Richard Atkinson has a novel theory.
Richard Atkinson’s experiments proved that moving the bluestones would certainly have been possible. But in time, new evidence would emerge that cast doubt on the whole theory that humans were involved in moving the stones at all.
Stonehenge is one of the great British monuments. Standing on Salisbury Plain it has been the source of myth, legend and much controversy over its origin.
Dr Alice Roberts trawls through the BBC archives to try and establish the latest truth behind this historic edifice.
Dominic Powlesland’s meticulous surveys of the Yorkshire Wolds support the argument that there was no Anglo-Saxon invasion, just peaceful immigration.
Dominic’s meticulous surveys would have been able to pick up the massive disruption an invasion causes on a landscape, but all he could find was evidence of peaceful and continuous settlement.
The fifth century ruins at Wroxeter provide evidence of substantial, organised building work after the Roman departure.
The history books tell us Roman soldiers pulled out and darkness descended.
Miriam Lincoln “Yeah. It wasn’t happening here. These were native Britons. They had nowhere to go, this was for them, and so had to find a living. Certainly, there was no mass withdrawal from Birdoswald.”
Excalibur being returned to the Lady in the Lake is probably based on a mediaeval tradition of returning weapons to water. As the fens of Witham Valley show.
Over the years, literally hundreds of swords, daggers, and other precious items have been dredged from the Fens here.
The discovery of Mediterranean pottery at Tintagel in Cornwall confirmed the existence of a flourishing Turkish trade network.
David discovered that the Tintagel pottery had been made in one of a series of enormous kiln sites in southern Turkey. So much pottery was produced here that is still lies in huge piles by the side of the road today.
The discovery of cooking hearths along the south coast and shipwrecked tin ingots adds to evidence of cultural, political and religious exchange with Mediterranean countries.
Mediterranean pottery, why is it being used on the port. You don’t get champagne bottles being opened in the Port of London, do you?
Civilisation in Britain did not end with the departure of the Romans. Mark Whyman looks for the proof in the post-Roman pottery found in York.
It’s time to start rewriting the history books. Archaeology, like all humanities, is a product of its time. And Victorian archaeologists were part of the British Empire which compared itself to Rome.
It is more likely that a series of shore forts, like Portchester, along the Norfolk coast were exporting warehouses not defence against Anglo-Saxon raiders.
So you’re suggesting these forts could have been used to help trade from out of Britain rather than stop people coming in?
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