I am not sure about 'tombs', but I would say that standing stones probably predate agriculture. Although they have been discussed as being boundary markers and 'site of battle' markers one thing they are very good at (it's a bit of a theme in all explanations) is marking a point with a kind of permanance. "This is a good place to cross this mountain range." "There's good eating around here." "Stig woz 'ere" etc.
I would imagine that Mesolithic man needed to mark good (or bad) points in the landscape and would have soon realised that you can't necessarily have relied on 'somewhere near that birch tree'.
Carrowmore has very large implications for the way we view these folks. I believe (as do many others) that the builders of these ancient temples were not farmers in the sense we imagine them to be. A Lapp-like herdsman society could have existed or they could have relied simply on hunting and fishing - the middens show that it was a very rich area.
Just around the corner in Mayo are the Ceide Fields: a Neolithic field system. The plot thickens! This showed tremendous organisation, with two field strips per house, probably indicating that a primative rotational system was in operation. These date to around 2000BCE - a full 3000 years later than some of Carrowmore. That's a lot of time to develop agriculture in, but it's very unlikely that full-on agriculture was in operation for all that time - so, that would indicate that the builders of Carrowmore probably weren't farmers.
I don't believe that the Portal Tomb builders were agriculturalists either. I do think that the Court Tomb (and therefore Clyde Cairn) builders became the first agriculturalists, as indicated at Ceide.
Next question from someone will be: Aren't portal tombs 1500 years younger than court tombs? And I would say "yes, interesting isn't it!" :-)
Reply | with quote | Posted by FourWinds 19th April 2004ce 23:09 |
Fields Recordings From The Sea (Annexus Quam, Apr 19, 2004, 18:37)- Settlers, semi-settlers, nomad-hunters (Annexus Quamm, Apr 19, 2004, 18:58)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 19, 2004, 20:54)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (Hob, Apr 19, 2004, 22:48)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 19, 2004, 22:57)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (Hob, Apr 19, 2004, 23:10)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (FourWinds, Apr 19, 2004, 23:12)
- spare time (TomBo, Apr 19, 2004, 23:15)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (Hob, Apr 19, 2004, 23:21)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (wideford, Apr 19, 2004, 23:43)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (fitzcoraldo, Apr 20, 2004, 09:37)
- King Of Province Glacial (Annexus Quamm, Apr 20, 2004, 18:51)
- Blood Red And True (Annexus Quamm, Apr 20, 2004, 18:49)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (FourWinds, Apr 19, 2004, 23:09)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 19, 2004, 23:23)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (GordonP, Apr 20, 2004, 06:07)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (FourWinds, Apr 20, 2004, 06:47)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (GordonP, Apr 20, 2004, 06:52)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (FourWinds, Apr 20, 2004, 08:39)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 20, 2004, 15:22)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (GordonP, Apr 20, 2004, 18:02)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 20, 2004, 18:15)
- "slavery outlawed" (TomBo, Apr 20, 2004, 18:19)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 20, 2004, 18:26)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 20, 2004, 18:29)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (GordonP, Apr 20, 2004, 18:59)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (FourWinds, Apr 20, 2004, 19:43)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (nigelswift, Apr 20, 2004, 20:11)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (TomBo, Apr 20, 2004, 23:35)
- Them and Us (FourWinds, Apr 21, 2004, 00:18)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (nigelswift, Apr 21, 2004, 00:55)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (nigelswift, Apr 21, 2004, 01:29)
- no sound ever comes from the gates of eden (TomBo, Apr 21, 2004, 01:41)
- and as for the stones and mounds... (TomBo, Apr 21, 2004, 01:48)
- arborescence (TomBo, Apr 21, 2004, 01:51)
- Re: no sound ever comes from the gates of eden (nigelswift, Apr 21, 2004, 07:30)
- Re: no sound ever comes from the gates of eden (nigelswift, Apr 21, 2004, 08:05)
- Re: no sound ever comes from the gates of eden (BlueGloves, Apr 21, 2004, 08:46)
- Re: no sound ever comes from the gates of eden (FourWinds, Apr 21, 2004, 09:46)
- Walden Schmalden (morfe, Apr 21, 2004, 12:37)
- Re: no sound ever comes from the gates of eden (TomBo, Apr 21, 2004, 17:54)
- a correction (TomBo, Apr 21, 2004, 00:57)
- Opaque (Annexus Quamm, Apr 20, 2004, 18:44)
- stonehenge environs (fitzcoraldo, Apr 20, 2004, 10:11)
- New Discoveries in Pastoralism (gorseddphungus, Jun 14, 2005, 10:40)
- Re: Fields Recordings From The Sea (FourWinds, Jun 15, 2005, 11:08)
|
|