Stonehenge Phase I: An Openpit Coalfield Model; The First Geologic Mining School

[Garry Denke]

Stonehenge Phase I: An Openpit Coalfield Model; The First Geologic Mining School

 

Round about 5,000 years ago ancient South Wales coal miners transported approximately 800,000 pounds (241 cubic-metres; 8,510 cubic-feet) of South Wales "Carboniferous Limestone" (see Map below, No. 22 therein) to a South sloping hill on Salisbury Plain for the purpose of constructing an Openpit Coalfield Model of their roughly circular 'sacred boundary' South Wales Carboniferous Limestone outcrop (modeled Counterscarp Bank at Stonehenge), their roughly circular South Wales "Millstone Grit" outcrop (see Map below, No. 20 therein), and their roughly circular (centre basin) South Wales "Coal Measures" outcrop (see Map below, No. 19 therein), coating the bottom of their 56 "Coal Measures" firepits (modeled 56 Aubrey Holes at Stonehenge) with the perimetre 'sacred boundary' Carboniferous Limestone. (Note the ancient South Wales coal miners had no arial photographs 5,000 years ago believing the white stone circled their South Wales Coalfield home)

 

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg/South-Wales-map-1300.jpg

 

Today the South Wales Coalfield is mapped and well known. It is a very large basin which measures some 90 miles on its east-west axis and about 16 miles wide. The rocks of this basin belong to the Carboniferous System. This can readily be divided into three main formations; Carboniferous Limestone, the Millstone Grit, and the Coal Measures. Because of the round basin-like shape, the Carboniferous Limestone, being the oldest of the formations, forms a thin outer rim. Inside this is the Millstone Grit, with the Coal Measures being the youngest formation filling the centre of the basin. The lower coal seams rise to the surface towards the edges of the basin. Because the inclination towards the centre is much steeper on the south and east boundaries, the working of coal in more recent times was confined to the north and west edge of the coalfield. As a result, the South Wales Coalfield was later developed on an extensive scale by the Iron Masters of North Glamorgan and Monmouthshire.

 

In the Stone Age, Before the wheel, Coalfire was king...

 

The remains of an ancient African barbecue suggest our ancestors had learned to control fire nearly 1.5 million years ago. Using a new method to analyze heated bone, researchers from the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa, and Williams College in Williamstown, Pennsylvania, have pushed back the first instance of controlled fire use by a million years. The researchers analyzed burned bones collected in South Africa's Swartkrans region in 1998. Some bones appeared to have been heated to higher temperatures than others. Hearth fires can attain temperatures nearly 300 degrees Celsius higher than brush fires. For this reason, scientists suspected the bones were evidence of early fire use. Now, a technique called electron spin resonance analysis proves that the bones must have been heated to intense campfire temperatures in order to reduce so much of the material to pure carbon. One of two pre-human species living in the area at that time, Australopithecus robustus and Homo erectus, likely cooked the bones. The next-oldest evidence of fire use, in Zhoukoudian, China, is 400,000 to 250,000 years old. In comparison, Stonehenge Phase I, is 5,000 years old.

 

http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3557077.stm

 

1) Denke, G.W. 1973. Stonehenge Phase I: An Openpit Coalfield Model; The First Geologic Mining School (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) GDG, 73: 1-56.

2) Denke, G.W. 1975. Invertibrate Paleontology of the High Tor Limestone (Lower Carboniferous) and the Upper Senonian Chalk (Late Cretaceous) of Stonehenge. (Arizona State University) GDG, 75: 1-7.

3) Denke, G.W. 1977. Possible Source Areas of the High Tor Limestone (Early Mississippian) Fill of the Aubrey Holes and Heel Stone Ditch in Europe. (Arizona State University) GDG, 77: 1-24.

4) Beus, S.S. 1984. Fossil Associations in the High Tor Limestone (Lower Carboniferous) of South Wales. (Northern Arizona University) Journal of Paleontology, 58: 3; 651-667.

5) Denke, G.W. 1984. Mid-Dinantian (Waulsortian Facies) High Tor Limestone: The First Stones Transported to Stonehenge from the South Wales Coast. (Arizona State University) GDG, 84: 1-4.

6) Denke, G. 1984. Magnetic and Electromagnetic Surveys at Heelstone, Stonehenge, United Kingdom. (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) GDG, 84: 5-42.

7) Lees, A. and Miller, J. 1985. Facies variatian in Waulsortian buildups, Part 2; Mid-Dinantian buildups from Europe and North America. (Revised) Geological Journal, 20: 159-180.

8) Geologist, Denke, G. 1986. The Paleontology of Stonehenge, England. (Arizona State University) GDG, 86: 1-3. (State of Texas, County of Stonewall, Deed Records, Volume 393, Page 851-853)

[atinymonkey]

Hi Gary! Nice to hear from you again.

I might ask a dim question, but where the link with coal based fire is made with the amount of bone carbonisation; what bypasses both peat and charcoal as fuel sources? Is it based on the link with basic open cast mining in the low valleys, or is there a more direct connection between the two?

[Garry Denke]

Hi Garry! Nice to hear from you again.

Hi atinymonkey! Nice to hear from you again.

 

The South Wales coalfield is the largest continuous coalfield in Great Britain. It has an area of approximately 1000 square miles covering much of the old counties of Glamorgan, Monmouth and Carmarthenshire with a small incursion into South Pembrokeshire. At its broadest north-south extent, the coalfield is eighteen miles in width and the area is criss-crossed with numerous deep valleys running North- South and East-West where coal has been primarily mined and communities established. These narrow valleys are separated by upland moors and hills that, both in the past and present, make direct communication between them very difficult. The coalfield is bowl-shaped which dictated that mining began at the rim of the bowl, or edges of the coal field, where coal is nearest to the surface. In the centre of the coalfield, or the bottom of the bowl, the coal is much deeper and more difficult to mine. An additional problem is that in an area of mountains and valleys, the coal seams are fractured and uneven, making mining both expensive and labour intensive.

 

 

I might ask a dim question, but where the link with coal based fire is made with the amount of bone carbonisation; what bypasses both peat and charcoal as fuel sources? Is it based on the link with basic open cast mining in the low valleys, or is there a more direct connection between the two?

South Wales coal is of three varieties. Anthracite, the deepest in the ground, is of the highest carbon content and is used for central heating, thus making it the last to be exploited from around 1880 onwards. Bituminous is nearest to the surface and is particularly appropriate for the smelting of metals. Steam coal is found in the heart of the coal field and was invaluable for use in the boilers of railway engines and shipping. As demand for these various types of coal arose at different periods, the respective regions of the coalfield developed separately.

 

 

Stonehenge Mound is Circled by a Black Ring of Carboniferous Coal Stone

 

 

(Foreground E-SE Stonehenge Mound and Background is Stonehenge)

 

 

Stonehenge Mound's Coal Ring is from South Wales Coalfield's Cross Keys

 

 

(Altar Stone from Red, Mound Stone from Blue, Coal Stone from Black)

 

 

Neolithic Coalfield Quest for Campfire Coal Stone in North Western Europe

 

 

(Non-Productive Coal Stone Sites in Blue) (Productive Coal Stone Sites in Black)

 

 

Today Explorationists Simply Use Maps to Record Non-Productive Sites

 

 

(The Clear Circles having Quartercircle Pegs are the Non-Productive Sites)

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

Garry W. Denke

Geologist/Geophysicist

Denoco Inc. of Texas

Wildcat Station, P.O. Box 866488

Plano, Texas 75086-6488 USA

(972) 422-8268 Office

(972) 423-6337 Fax

(940) 521-1667 Mobile