The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

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The Modern Antiquarian
Re: Conclusions...Stone circles, are we learning much?
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It's fun to speculate. Pointless, for so many reasons (as i'm sure you are aware) but it's certainly fun. I would guess most of us here, and the majority of people involved in a professional capacity were drawn in by the mystery of the subject and we should never let ourselves lose that sense of wonder. I enjoy reading both academic texts & some of the more fanciful ideas about these monuments, and I often find that the academic texts, rather than being what some might consider dry, actually fuel that sense of wonder more than the wilder ideas grabbed out of the ether with no real basis. When it comes to this subject, and especially the Neo/BA I feel the truth maybe stranger than fiction.

But it is a great pleasure to be able to simply visit these places, 'feel' them and imagine what they were for and what the people who constructed them were like.

So - Stone circles.

Haven't a bloody clue.

Given the difference in size, shape, materials, location and date they may have meant different things to different people.
If we say a circle in Cumbria was built around 3000BC, can we say a circle built in Perthsire over a thousand years later was used for the same purpose? A lot of generations in between, surely some shifts in belief? (If belief had anything to do with it, of course)
Was the original idea or purpose (if there ever was one) lost or changed or discarded even?
What do we pay attention to? The shape of a stone? The colour? Possible alignments? The soil?

Considering the full sweep of possibilities makes me feel exhausted on a Monday morning. Friday night with 3 glasses of wine inside me is a far better time. :)


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Evergreen Dazed
Posted by Evergreen Dazed
14th October 2013ce
12:14

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