Standing Stones of the Orkney World Heritage Site

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The World Heritage Site The Heart of Neolithic Orkney on the Orkney island of Mainland ( Scotland ) currently includes four menhirs . According to the technical usage in English literature, standing stones are not grouped positions of individual stones.

description

The stones of the world cultural heritage stand on both sides of the former ford (today's bridge) at the transition between the Lochs of Stenness and Harray. The stones north of the transition are on the Ness of Brodgar headland.

The stones on the south bank of the loch are:

On the Ness of Brodgar and on the south bank of the lakes there is also a pair of smaller stones each. One group is near the Ring of Brodgar , the second near the Watch Stone.

Furthermore, there is a certain knowledge that there were other, large menhirs in this area in earlier times. The Odin Stone , for example, is documented up to the 19th century , which has a prominent position in Orkney folklore and must have been near the Barnhouse settlement before it ended up as a quarry for a stable.

As a rule, menhirs are difficult to date if they are not lifted out of their anchors in order to extract material that can possibly be dated from the bottom of the setting pits. There have been no such investigations on Orkney before. Nevertheless, it is relatively unanimously assumed that they were erected in connection with the surrounding large buildings - or only a little later - of which at least Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness are reasonably certain to the early 3rd millennium BC. Are dated.

In popular scientific literature there is as much speculation about the shape of the stones as about those of the stones that were used in Brodgar, Stenness and Maeshowe. They are of course caused, go back to natural weathering forms of the Middle Old Red Sandstone , as can be seen on the cliffs and in the quarries on Orkney. This does not exclude that one or the other selected natural product was processed before installation in order to represent an ideal-typical shape or to adapt the broken block to specific structural requirements. However, no traces of such processing have been found to date.

Comet Stone

The Comet Stone is closest to the Ring of Brodgar. At around 1.75 m high, it is a relatively small, slender stone. What makes the object interesting is the way it was set up. This is because it stands in the middle of an almost circular platform about 14.0 m in diameter, which has been carefully carved out of the rock. Two additional holes were found in the platform, but they are so small that they are more likely to be interpreted as post holes for wooden beams, like the small post holes between the entrance and the central stone setting of the Stones of Stenness , which are no longer visible today . Its actual function is unknown. The connections with the Ring of Brodgar as a Stone Age lunar observatory described by A. Thom are still rejected by representatives of archaeological research.

It has also been suggested that the stone was once part of a dolmen , similar to the one that was once at the center of the Stones of Stenness .

The poetic name of the monolith - the comet stone was probably only coined in the late 19th or early 20th century by antiquarians who viewed the stone as "circling the ring of Brodgar". Whether the stone was known by any name at least in the late 19th century is open. In the 1890s, local resident George Marwick wrote that old men called him “Ulie Stane ??” (which means “oil stone”).

The use of the word “oil” in connection with the stone indicates traditions that are better documented elsewhere than stone cults . It has been handed down that despite edicts against the anointing of standing stones, a tradition that was preserved in the Near East and elsewhere in Europe until the early 20th century, when stones were smeared with honey, oil and wax. They were consecrated by the anointing of mazzebi , sacred stones. (Gen 28.18; Gen 31.13; Gen 35.14).

This has parallels to the Comet Stone, which was believed to be the remains of a fossilized giant fiddler.

Bridge Stone

At just under 4.0 m, the Bridge Stone is the second largest in the complex. Although it stands in a prominent position north of the transition, its function is unknown. In any case, it is too big as a simple marker stone for the ford - if it was in the early 3rd millennium BC. The land bridge was already flooded at its deepest point.

Watch Stone

The watch stone

The Watch Stone is a huge, even stone that rises a good 5.5 m - and is probably at least another estimated 1.7 m to 2.0 m deep in the earth. In doing so, it surpasses even the largest stones built into the Maeshowe . Its function is also unknown, but is seen in close connection with the equally striking Bridge Stone.

Barnhouse Stone

The Barnhouse Stone is a few centimeters smaller than the Comet Stone, but is distinguished from the stones described above by its irregular, width-wise shape (similar to the shape described for the lost Odin Stone ). For the Barnhouse Stone, however, there is an amicable functional description : It is seen as an outlier to the neighboring Maeshowe grave, possibly served as a rough reference point when observing the seasonal changes in the position of the sun and thus probably the most precise possible determination of the time to close the grave, so that the The light effect observed inside could come into its own.

See also

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ of around a dozen in a 1000m radius around the Ring of Brodgar
  2. ↑ The term menhir, which is used for continental stone setting, is unusual in the local context.
  3. ↑ Comet Stone at stonepages.com
  4. ^ Watch Stone at streetmap.co.uk
  5. ↑ Barnhouse Stone at streetmap.co.uk
  6. ↑ Man and woman who shook hands through a larger hole in the center of the stone were considered married couples before the law. This tradition is secured, for example, by the trial report by Daniel Defoe on the trial The Crown vs John Gow, there: Confirmation of the right to refuse to give evidence of the wife of the pirate arrested on Orkney who was married in this way.
  7. ↑ For the Maeshowe alone , some traces are disputed. However, more precise results can only be expected in the future when the results of the photogrammetric re-measurement of the interior and the secondary cells 2002–2004 and the parallel digital macro images are available.

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