Over the last 25 years, I've walked through nearly every clump of trees, copse, wood, and forest near Avebury and on Overton Down, Fyfield Down and Marlborough Downs, to show visitors the various attractions and noteworthy features.
In particular (and in no particular order)
- Savernake Forest, with (some say) the biggest collection of ancient oaks in Britain.
- West Woods in May to show them the famed bluebells as far as the eye can see.
- Overton Down and Fyfield Down, with smaller sarsens scattered everywhere
- Totterdown Woods
- More recently, since the BBC article, the northern part of West Woods where there are still big untouched sarsen stones lying in the woods (twelve feet long or more)
And, by the way, a few more small but very prized copses where an experienced dog with a good nose can help you find £100s worth of Fresh Black Summer Truffles. No, I'm not saying where they are. ;-)
In every one of these woodlands, even days after it's been raining, one will encounter a wet and slippery mush of chalk, clay and silt. It seems to be feet deep in places. Locals with farming ancestors tell me it's always been like that. Grass and crops won't grow in it, so nobody tries to farm the land. Only trees grow there, hence the woodland areas in the first place.
One young farming lad told me this wet and slippery mush of chalk, clay and silt has got a name. It's called marl. He reckons there used to be so much of it, that's where Marlborough got its name from. Sorry folks, nothing to do with Merlin after all. The truth is always boring.
My first thought was that a wet and slippery mush of chalk, clay and silt would also be pretty good as a lubricant for sliding heavy megaliths around. Certainly as far as Avebury (mostly downhill).
But according to Wikipaedia
Marl has been used as a soil conditioner and acid soil neutralizing agent
and is used for the manufacture of cement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlhttps://www.geology.arkansas.gov/minera ... /marl.htmlCould megalithic people have been using this marl to make sarsens as well? Or "concreted alluvial deposits" as the geologists prefer to call them.