Just been reading the threads on cup marks and the Bullaun stones etc, and as usual, started wondering..
I read the other week about large flat stones in Wales and around the country, having deep holes drilled into them, (several centimetres deep) and connecting channels running between them. I cant recall the period - probably 18th/19th C - but the idea was to fill the holes with gunpowder, and lace the channels with it. Lighting the fuse resulted in a timed detonation of each pit as the charge was ignited following the spark chasing the powder along the channel. The charge was calculated to produce a resonant boom, but not enough to split the rock - purpose being some kind of ceremonial use (?!). This sparked off (pun intended/groan!) the business about Quartz fluorescing on impact and the possible use of cup marks as receptacles for primitive gunpowder-like minerals. If Captain Kirk could do it in 'Arena' with a handful of rock dust and carbon, surely its not unreasonable to theorise that all that chipping and shaping of stones might lead to the discovery of a similar effect ? What say ?
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