It seems to me a bit irresponsible to just shrug and say we don't need to know, or that one gets enjoyment purely from being there, and that's enough. A bit, mind you, a bit.

First, if the stones have no particular significance, why go to them to enjoy them? Why not sit in one's back yard enjoying the bird songs? That we seek them out proves we still feel, in some way, they or their placements have SOME significance. And they do. The Neolithic structures are a--relatively--easily accessible part of the beginnings of our own culture, of modernity. Viewing the smaller bits collected in museums gives much the same feeling: this is where we began.

Certainly the threads connecting our particular modern ways of life to those ancient ones are thin. If one wants to get stuffy about it, there's no demonstrable direct continuity from any particular set of stones to any particular TV program. It's certainly possible the society putting up, say, the Grampian four posters died out, or were overrun or taken over by others different from them.

But in general, taken by and large, the stones and barrows and henges are the very visible and atmospheric remains of a vast shift in behavior: from wandering gatherers-hunters-fishers to settled farmers. That's important; it implies--although I may be over estimating the difference--a whole different way of thinking, of dealing with the world, and, I think, the basis of a whole set of assumptions by which we still live. Trying, even if in fits and starts, with one step back for every two forward, to figure out that change ends up telling us a lot about ourselves, how we think; about our assumptions and their effect on the world and each other.

All learning is frustrating to some degree. It's hard work and I know I'm not good at it--poor study habits and all that. It's even more difficult trying to study and learn on one's own. It was so much easier being in school, where all one's time is devoted to it, where there is a whole community of interested persons and the library is right next door. So here we are, recreating and creating anew a learning community, with few of the physical benefits of university or college and the huge frustrations of having to communicatie solely by typing.

Keeping all that firmly in mind is a great help overcoming the frustrations, for me.