BADGERS, STONEHENGE, AND A FURSTY FERRET

THE EUROPEAN BADGER, MELES MELES.  PHOTO COURTESY OF BBC.

 The big news from Maidenhead, UK, (see previous post) centers around badgers.  Yes, those ornery furry members (Meles meles) of the weasel family.  It appears that a substantial number of people believe the boogers need culling (a nice word for killing).  Another substantial number of citizens love the critters.  A fight is brewing!

I learned that UK cattle have a serious problem with bovine tuberculosis—to the tune of tens of thousands of cattle being slaughtered at a large monetary cost to the farmers.  As with many personal financial losses, there is a tendency to fix the blame on an external force rather looking to an internal cause.  Bovine TB is a nasty disease and in most other countries farmers slaughter an entire heard to prevent its spread.  However, in the UK farmers tend to slaughter only a single infected animal.  That leads us to badgers!  It seems that cattle can infect badgers and vice versa with the disease.  So, the obvious answer to many people is, wait for it, shoot most of the badgers.  But the badgers are quite prolific breeders this year and have vastly increased in numbers.  And those of us who have lived in the Midwest know that unlimited shooting of deer in areas of chronic wasting disease was about as successful as a lead balloon.  So, the argument goes on and on—to shoot or not to shoot.   The problem has reached the highest level of the government and Prime Minister Cameron has now postponed the culling—kicked the can down the road.

In my previous post I lamented about the lack of outcrops in the Thames River basin near Maidenhead.  Perhaps I just missed the rocks, or they were obscured by the vegetation, or maybe modern construction activities destroyed the evidence.  At any rate, I needed my fix of rocks and so begin hunting for areas external of the town.  Well, we located some fascinating rocks; however, they were exotic to the area and not arranged in stratigraphic order!  On the other hand, these rocks were located at a World Heritage Area the world knows as Stonehenge. 

THE STONE STRUCTURES AT STONEHENGE.

We decided to brave the traffic and head west from Maidenhead driving “on the wrong side of the road” for about 70 miles to near the village of Amesbury.  Other than some white knuckle stress the trip was completed without incident.  I do feel fortunate that this excursion was completed midweek in October rather than in prime summer visitor season.

Millions of people around the world have at least heard of Stonehenge, mostly due to these very large rocks laid out in a mysterious arrangement.  There is some sort of stone alignment with the sun and the Summer and Winter Solstices are special times.  However, we (modern populations) often fail to understand that some members of past civilizations were “very intelligent” and were able to interpret and predict celestial events with great accuracy.  These events were marked in a variety of ways including rock windows, stone markers, displays on rock faces, etc.  At Stonehenge the builders marked these celestial events by importing some really large rocks, some as large as 25 tons, and arranged them in a methodical order to maximize astronomical observations and mysticisms. 

A PLACE OF REVERENCE AND MYSTICISM.

The more I tried to learn about the history of Stonehenge, the more confused I became!  However, that seems normal as scientists have been unable to unravel but a small part of the history.  Media outlets have popularized the pagan ceremonies of the modern neo-Druids at Stonehenge, and equated these activities with ancient Druids.  In doing so, they have piqued the interest of the public.  However, the British Museum believes neo-Druids have no connection with ancient Druids, a group of priests living in the UK and France before the arrival of the Romans. And, Stonehenge was long constructed before the ancient Druids obtained any sort of power in the population.

The history of Stonehenge is complex and certainly beyond the scope of this posting. So, I encourage readers to locate some of the hundreds/thousands of articles and books written on the subject—just carefully scrutinize the sources and stick to reputable authors such as the British Museum and academic geologists, historians, and archaeologists. 

Stonehenge, at least what remains, is a circular placement of large exotic rocks arranged within a series of ditches and earthworks.  Although unique in several ways, it is far from being the only example of ancient works.  There are literally hundreds of Neolithic (~4000-2500 BC) and Bronze Age (~2500-800 BC) rock works, rock monuments, and burial mounds located in the UK.  The earliest evidence of human activity at Stonehenge dates to perhaps ~7500-8000 BC and is in the form of holes that held posts (that would be postholes!).  What these poles held up seems to be anyone’s guess. The earliest rock construction seems to be ~3100 BC and involved digging a ditch, and piling up the rocks, in the poorly exposed chalk bedrock (Cretaceous Seaford Chalk).

PERHAPS THIS WAS STONEHENGE?  SKETCH FROM MANDALASROK.COMUF.COMJ.

By around ~2600 BC the builders were using an igneous rock (Ordovician dolerite/diabase) locally called bluestone, and lesser amounts of rhyolite and tuff.  The original source of the bluestone was from Wales, and scientists have long debated the mechanisms of transporting large (several tons) rocks over 150 miles.  Recently workers from the British Museum have suggested the bluestones were actually taken from local glacial erratics—still from Wales but transported to a closer location by Pleistocene glaciers.  

A major building phase from ~2600-2400 BC produced perhaps the most impressive part of the Stonehenge structure—construction of a ring of 30 standing rocks (each 13 feet high, 7 feet wide, 25 tons) capped with 39 “lintel” rocks (10 feet by 3.5 feet)—the so called Sarsen Stones!  These rocks, a silicified Tertiary sandstone, came from quarries perhaps 25 miles distant, or from local glacial erratics.  Inside this circle is a U-shaped arrangement of five “trilithons” (two standing rocks topped by a lintel) held together by a mortise and tenon joint system.  Inside of this arrangement are other rocks including the “alter stone”.

HOW DOES ONE MOVE MULTI-TON LINTEL STONES TO REST ON THE UPRIGHT STONES?

Additional building, and rock rearrangement, of Stonehenge continued for several hundred years, and modern civilizations have contributed to its demise by “taking away” bits and pieces and even whole rocks.  Today Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and surrounding land is protected by a trust.

THE HEELSTONE, COMPOSED OF SILICIFIED TERTIARY SANDSTONE, IS NOT LOCATED WITHIN THE STONEHENGE CIRCLE.

Theories abound as to the use of Stonehenge—take your pick.  Was it a cemetery? Yes, at least part of the time.  A place of mystical or spiritual worship?  Probably.  A place for astronomical observations?  Yes, at least part of the time.  A place for healing?  Maybe, that is a recent proposal. Whatever its use, the builders and users left behind no written record and Stonehenge’s place in history may always be debated.  However, we found it to be a place of marvel and reverence. 

A COOL FURSTY FERRET AFTER A WHITE KNUCKLE DRIVE.

Upon returning to Maidenhead I poured myself a pint of Fursty Ferret and tried to interpret what I had seen—it was confusing!   However, I could picture in my mind a group of ancient people gathering at Stonehenge trying to decipher the events of a Summer Solstice.  

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER 27, 2013 FROM THE BBC:

A badger cull is under way in England despite protests, the National Farmers' Union has confirmed.

About 5,000 badgers are expected to be killed in controlled shootings over six weeks in Somerset and Gloucestershire.
Supporters say the cull is necessary to tackle bovine TB, which can be spread from infected badgers, but opponents say it is inhumane and ineffective.