Significance | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

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gorseddphungus Mar 28, 2006 22:30:37

Replying to nigelswift

Yes. Thus, a miserable existence farming your life away acquired enormous significance when one realised daily things were part of some sort of cosmic godlike drama. Imagine you plant the seeds ON the day of the big equinoctial celebrations when in the stories of your ancestors the gods of the old year / winter become the gods of the new year / summer, and EVEN the sun and the moon are said to be acting accordingly and constellations come and go following certain myths. Suddenly things 'make sense'. I suppose it's a bit like the feeling you get when you are in a big gathering and you feel elated, that you are part of a whole. Manipulation? Nah, possibly just a deliberate collective drunken break in the dreadful drag of a dreary calendar.
The stars, sun and moon were the jugglers and actors that performed the same drama every year in that sense.

nigelswift Mar 28, 2006 23:00:33

Replying to gorseddphungus

The stars, sun and moon were the jugglers and actors that performed the same drama every year in that sense.

Nice.

I wonder whether modern people don't notice the drama like ancient people did - and perhaps modern country dwellers do - simply because our view of the heavens is so hemmed in by townscapes. I happen to have a house with an extensive view to the west and I see the sun tracing the progress of the year nearly every evening. The sunsets creep from the Abberley Hills, halfway to the Clees, pause and return, and that's another tick in the age-old cycle over. It doesn't half put you in your place.

Steve Gray Mar 28, 2006 23:01:13

Replying to gorseddphungus

Ancient people would have been well aware of the repetitive patterns of life - day and night, the waxing and waning of the moon, the coming and going of the seasons. However, anyone monitoring these cycles from one year to the next would notice that they were not synchronous. It's a common human characteristic that we like to feel in control and things in our lives that are unpredictable tend to worry us.

Most modern religions are founded on promises of some kind of afterlife to offer an alternative to the fear and uncertainty associated with death. In mediaeval times whole groups of people were branded as heretics and murdered in incredibly brutal ways just for having a slightly different view, sometimes within the same basic religious belief (e.g. the Cathars). So it's clear that the desire to be in control of their particular world view will motivate people to do just about anything.

I think it's very possible that stone monument building was just such an enterprise aimed at bringing order to the seemingly chaotic natural world. If you can erect a stone (relative to some other stone) and be able to say with certainty that the moon will never pass beyond it, then you might feel that you have gained control over the moon. Stone monuments may have been an attempt not just to map the movements of the heavens, but to control them. Perhaps they thought that the bigger the stones, the harder it would be for the sun or moon to escape their control.