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accidental fires. Careful planning and construction were population or army must have been that built and inhabited these needed. ancient structures. Janet and Colin Bord in their book, Mysterious However, one Scottish archaeologist, Helen Nisbet, believes Britain, speak of Maiden Castle to give an idea of the vast extent that the vitrification was not done on purpose by the builders of of this marvel of prehistoric engineering. the forts. In a thorough analysis of rock types used, she reveals It covers an area of 120 acres, with an average width of that most of the forts were built of stone easily available at the 1,500 feet and length of 3,000 feet. The inner circumference chosen site and not chosen for their property of vitrification.° is about 1% miles round, and it has been estimated...that it The vitrification process itself, even if purposely set, is quite a would require 250,000 men to defend it! It is hard, therefore, mystery. A team of chemists on Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious to believe that this construction was intended to be a defen - World subjected rock samples from 11 forts to rigorous chemical sive position. analysis, and stated that the temperatures needed to produce the A great puzzle to archaeologists has always been the multi - vitrification were so intense—up to 1,100°C—that a simple burn- ple and labyrinthine east and west entrances at each end of ing of walls with wood interlaced with stone could not have the enclosure. Originally they may have been built as a way achieved such temperatures.’ for processional entry by people of the Neolithic era. Later, Nevertheless, experiments carried out in the 1930s by the when warriors of the Iron Age were using the site as a famous archaeologist V. Gordon Childe and fortress, they probably found them use - his colleague Wallace Thorneycroft showed ful as a means of confusing the attack - that forts could be set on fire and generate ing force trying to gain entry. The fact enough heat to vitrify the stone.* In 1934, that so many of these "hill-forts" have these two designed a test wall that was 12 two entrances—one north of east and feet long, six feet wide and six feet high, the other south of west—also suggests which was built for them at Plean Colliery in While ancient astronaut some form of Sun ceremonial. Stirlingshire. They used old fireclay bricks . . With 250,000 men defending a fort, we for the faces and pit props as timber, and theorists may believe are talking about a huge army in a very filled the cavity between the walls with small that extraterrestrials organised society. This is not a bunch of cubes of basalt rubble. They covered the top . . . fur-wearing Picts with spears defending a with turf and then piled about four tons of with their atomic fort from marauding bands of hunter-gather- scrap timber a brustwood against the walls weapons vitrified these ms. The questions remain, though. weet and set fire to them. Because of a snowstorm . uge army might have occupied these cliff- in progress, a strong wind fanned the walls, it seems more side forts by the sea or lake entrances? blazing mixture of wood and stone so likely that they are the And what massive maritime power that the inner core did attain some vitri- were these people unsuccessfully result of a man-made apocalypse of a fication of the rock. defending themselves against? chemical nature. In June 1937, Childe and The forts on the western coast of Thorneycroft duplicated their test vitrifi- Scotland are reminiscent of the myste- cation at the ancient fort of Rahoy, in rious clifftop forts in the Aran Islands Argyllshire, using rocks found at the on the west coast of Ireland. Here we site. Their experiments did not resolve truly have shades of the Atlantis story, any of the questions surrounding vitri- with a powerful naval fleet attacking fied forts, however, because they had and conquering its neighbours in a ter- only proven that it was theoretically rible war. It has been theorised that possible to pile enough wood and brush the terrible battles of the Atlantis story on top of a mixture of wood and stone to took place in Wales, Scotland, Ireland vitrify the mass of stone. One criticism and England—however, in the case of of Childe is that he seems to have used a larger proportion of the Scottish vitrified forts it looks as if these were the losers of a wood to stone than many historians believe made up the ancient —_ war, not the victors. And defeat can be seen across the land: the wood and stone fortresses. war dykes in Sussex, the vitrified forts of Scotland, the utter col- An important part of Childe's theory was that it was invaders, lapse and disappearance of the civilisation that built these things. not the builders, who were assaulting the forts and then setting What long-ago Armageddon destroyed ancient Scotland? fire to the walls with piles of brush and wood; however, it is hard In ancient times there was a substance known through writings to understand why people would have repeatedly built defences as Greek fire. This was some sort of ancient napalm bomb that that invaders could destroy with fire, when great ramparts of solid was hurled by catapult and could not be put out. Some forms of stone would have survived unscathed. Greek fire were even said to burn under water and were therefore Critics of the assault theory point out that in order to generate used in naval battles. (The actual composition of Greek fire is enough heat by a natural fire, the walls would have to have been unknown, but it must have contained chemicals such as phospho- specially constructed to create the heat necessary. It seems unrea- tus, pitch, sulphur or other flammable chemic: sonable to suggest the builders would specifically create forts to Could a form of Greek fire have been responsible for the vitrifi- be burned or that such a great effort would be made by invaders to cation? While ancient astronaut theorists may believe that create the kind of fire it would take to vitrify the walls—at least extraterrestrials with their atomic weapons vitrified these walls, it with traditional techniques. seems more likely that they are the result of a man-made apoca- One problem with all the many theories is their assumption of a lypse of a chemical nature. With siege machines, battleships and primitive state of culture associated with ancient Scotland. Greek fire, did a vast flotilla storm the huge forts and eventually It is astonishing to think of how large and well coordinated the burn them down in a hellish blaze? weapons vitrified these walls, it seems more likely that they are the result of a man-made apocalypse of a chemical nature. NEXUS - 57 theorists may believe that extraterrestrials with their atomic AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2000