Auchquorthies
Auchquorthies (also Aquhorties Nord or Hillhead of Aquhorties) is a stone circle of the Recumbent Stone Circle (RSC) type, which is south of Aberdeen about 700 meters west of the A90 across from Portlethen in Kincardineshire in Scotland . The rare, double circle in the pasture and arable land lies on a trapezoidal, rounded platform of 23 m × 40 m. About 300 m to the southeast is Old Bourtreebush , two more stone circles.
Research history
Auchquorthies is first mentioned in a report from 1791. In 1829 Logan published a drawing on which the flank stone east of the "resting stone" was already missing. He is the first to notice that the resting stones are always completely smooth (processed) on the outside. Thomson gives the dimensions of the three stone rings and reports on excavations on the "resting stone" that did not yield any findings. In the innermost circle he found charcoal, half- calcined bones , black oily earth, and fragments of a vase. Schmied mentions in 1880 that Auchquorthies means "field of want". The stone circle was also examined by Fred Coles, who published an initial survey of the Scottish circles in 1899. He gives the exact dimensions of the system and notes that the resting stone weighs over ten tons. A. Burl describes the so-called platform as "an artificial, irregular, rocky platform that was created for leveling ". In fact, the “platform” is a natural dome, the edge of which is accentuated by the stone setting.
description
As early as 1791, a stone box 0.9 m long and 0.45 m wide with an urn was discovered on the east side between the outer edge and the inner circle . The circle consists of three concentric stone rings.
The outer circle
About twelve stones of the outer circle measuring about 24 m are in situ . The circle stones, made of local reddish granite, are graduated in height, from 2.4 m in the southwest to 1.1 m in the north. The ten largest stones show the image of the height grading that is typical for this type most clearly.
The resting stone
The resting stone is not on the outer circumference, but about three meters further inside. This is a feature of the Kincardineshire counties. It measures 2.8 mx 1.3 m and is about 0.8 m thick. The western flank stone is 1.7 m high. Both stones are made of gray granite that contains many quartz inclusions. The use of the same stone material for these main elements of the circle is unusual. One abnormality is that rows of small stones form a kind of forecourt between the two neighboring circular stones and the flank stones. The resulting trapezoidal area on the smooth side of the resting stone is reminiscent of the forecourts of megalithic structures .
The inner circle
The mostly intact inner circle of about 15.4 m in diameter is formed by closely adjoining stones. These stones, lying in the height range between 0.7 and 0.3 m, are arranged in height in the same way as those of the outer circle. The inner circle is interrupted in the area of the "lying stone". However, the western flank stone is connected to the inner ring by a 1.8 m long stone. In Fred Cole's plan from 1899, a similar stone, which has now disappeared, connected the eastern flank stone, which was already missing at that time, with the inner circle, so that a space bay was created.
The inner hill
The inner stone circle of a central stone hill about 3.2 m in diameter has disappeared except for five rectangular slabs 0.7 m high. The bulk of the small boulders that filled the space between the stone rings was removed a long time ago.
The stone circles on the River Dee
The Deeside Stone Circles form a group of Recumbent Stone Circle (RSC). About 100 of them were born between 2500 and 1500 BC. In Aberdeenshire. The ensembles of the "resting stones" are usually in the southeast and (usually) on the course of the ring.
See also
- Nine Stanes
- Old Bourtreebush or Auchquorthies South
literature
- Anna Ritchie, Graham Ritchie: Scotland. To Oxford Archaeological Guide . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-288002-0 , ( Oxford archaeological guides )
- A. Welfare: Great Crowns of Stone (2011) RCAHMS
- C. Richards: Building the Great Stone Circles of the North (2013) Windgather Press
- R. Bradley: The Moon and the Bonfire: An Investigation of Three Stone Circles in NE Scotland (2005) Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Individual evidence
- ↑ A characteristic of the RSC is a "lying stone" accompanied by two standing, high, often tapering "flank stones" that are located within the stone circle or near the circle.
Web links
Coordinates: 57 ° 3 '28.9 " N , 2 ° 9' 48.4" W.