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The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Stonehenge » new videos of granary model |
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beatles 133 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 11:19
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morning, i have just posted two longer more detailed videos of the grain mill working in the wind. they are on the bottom of the video page of our website. http://www.granaryat stonehenge.org i am sorry for the long download times. the 9MB video has an overhead view of the carousel turning in the wind and should answer a lot of your questions about how the sails work. you can see the sails opening and closing. enjoy
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beatles 133 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 11:20
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that is http://granaryatstonehenge.org sorry
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Penske666 161 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 12:31
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Hi, Great model - not sure if it is accurate though? Is there any evidence on the stones for wear, how would they feed the grain to the top of the stones, is there any evidence in the soil of crushed grains/full grains which fell out? Cheers
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Penske666 161 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 12:43
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"The cleaned straw was saved for fuel, thatching, and weaving into baskets to hold the new grain. A well drained area on a hill or rise would have been preferable for this work. The fact that there is no evidence of ceremonial fire or hearth in most stone circles is understandable when viewed in the light that the circles might have been granaries. The outlying ditch would have been of value as a firebreak. Protecting the valuable grain would have been of the utmost importance to these early farmers." I would expect to find some heath evidence on site for making the wheat into bread and possibly some storage pits to keep the grains in. Also the powder from wheat is extremely flammable having stacks of straw on site would cause major fire risks, plus the powder would blow away quite easily as it on a windswept hill. Apologies for ripping this to bits but any archeologist would do the same - hopefully you can bolster your thesis by looking into this. Cheers and yet again apologies
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scubi63 463 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 13:26
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Hi Beatles Firstly I am no expert on either this sort of engineering or indeed on Stonehenge itself so my apologies if this sounds a bit dumb. Secondly I must admit to not readying the article thoroughly as I am at work at it is not easy to do. The video of the model shows that it is very susceptible to variation in wind speed and I imagine the full scale would be the same but that the inertia would be much greater. My questions are: To control the speed how would the sails be pulled in or let out while it is moving? If somebody was to get caught in the rigging or in the rollers how would such a heavy structure be stopped suddenly e.g. how is all that energy suddenly released?....or wouldn’t they worry about that? If the wind is blowing hard enough to turn the sails how do you keep the grain from blowing all over the place? What would the sails have been made of so as not to be too heavy, especially when wet. Is Stonehenge a perfect circle and perfectly horizontal to allow such a structure to turn freely without there being so much slack that it just becomes unstable as it speed up (bit like a speed wobble on a motorbike for those who know)? Differences in weather conditions (temperature, humidity etc) would change the stresses on the ropes and wood and probably not in an even manner all around the structure. How would they stop the structure from being over stressed one moment and too slack then next to the point where it just breaks (I think this is related to the previous question)? I can tell from the video where the pivot point is but I imagine it is at ground level in the centre. As the structure turned it would create a lot of heat on this pivot point (similar to when Ray Mears light his fires by rubbing two boy scouts together) and would require a lot of lubrication to keep it moving. Is there evidence of heat generation/ in the centre of Stonehenge? Personally I think this idea is all good fun but I can not see this much effort being put into creating both Stonehenge and this sail structure just to grind grain. It seems to me that if you were going to use this design (and I wouldn’t), it would have been easier to have created a series of smaller structures that would be more maintainable and would not put all your eggs into one basket (as it were). :o) Scubi.
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megadread 1202 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 14:40
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is this a joke. cos its got me laughing. !!!!
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beatles 133 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 15:03
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please read the thesis on the site for the answers to your questions. then get back to me if you still have questions... as to wear on the sarsen ring, it is much too weathered by 300 years to show what little wear would have been produced by the wooden rollers of the mill.... thanks' clyde
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beatles 133 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 15:05
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thanks, the grain was not ground into powder. it was rolled and cracked much like modern rolled oats. fire is always a problem in a grain mill hence the outlying ditch as a fire break.
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Spaceship mark 1686 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 15:24
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Sarsen is exceptionally hard, the Pollisher on the Marlborough Downs still has a shiny surface and could be thousands of years older than Stonehenge. The weathered appearance in mostly due to solution weathering that occured before the sarsen was lithified, ie before it was silcreted to become as hard as it is now. The stones of Stonehenge are not much more ragged and weathered looking now than they were when they were erected. Fanciful reconstructions a la Inigo Jones, where they look all Roman and straight and shiny are just that, fanciful. If I had the time I would scan a copy of my university dissertation 'The Sarsen Stones of the Marlborough Downs' in which I talk about the formation and subsequent history of the Sarsens. Anyway, any wear and tear due to Stonehenge being used as a big granary would be very evident today.
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dee 1956 posts |
Mar 11, 2008, 15:30
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I cant see Stonehenge being one of Hovis forerunners!!
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