Rows of stones in Scotland

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Hill o 'Many Stanes looking south

The multiple rows of stones in Scotland are among the most enigmatic monuments to the prehistory of the British Isles , although hundreds have been identified in Great Britain, Ireland ( Eightercua ), and especially Brittany ( Le Menec ). For a long time, archaeologists were primarily concerned with surveying them. The age and function of the monuments remained unclear.

description

Within the large group of rows of stones , the rare multiple occupy a special position. These monuments can be found in Cornwall ( Buttern Hill ), Scotland ( Ballochroy ) and North Wales ( Gwytherin ). They sometimes consist of hundreds of small stones that do not have the character of menhirs , in four or more rows. Most are associated with Bronze Age sites. By far the largest British concentration is in Caithness and in the north of Sutherland . There are about 20 multiple rows of stones here, the most famous being Hill o 'Many Stanes . They typically consist of six or more rows that radiate out from a point. Some consist of parallel rows, typical of the Dartmoor . Many series have been the subject of research. Her supposed role as "Moon Extrapolation Sites" was created in the 1960s by Alexander Thom and has remained unchallenged for a long time.

An examination of the multiple rows of stones in Scotland with the aim of providing an archaeological explanation for the role, dating and evolution of these monuments was carried out between 2003 and 2007. The project was carried out by Kenneth Brophy, Andrew Baines and Amelia Pannett, who wrote a joint monograph entitled “Megalith -Overkill: multiple stone rows of Caithness and Sutherland ". Their excavations and geophysical investigations in the Battle Moss concerned the eight rows of stones around 40 m long and a previously unknown cairn 50 m away with a stone box in the north of the rows.

While the project failed to determine the date of the Moss series, it was significant that the monuments developed during the Bronze Age. The exploration of the multi-phase Cairns in the Battle Moss (Loch of Yarrows) with its accurate ceramic industry has brought a new understanding of the Bronze Age in Caithness.

One of the mysteries of the remarkably similar multiple rows of stones remains why they occur in such isolated and distant places as Dartmoor and Caithness.

The Isle of Mull standing stones are unique to Scotland in that they are often arranged in short rows ( Baliscate , Dervaig C , Kilmore , Maol Mor , Quinish ) of three to five stones.

Dating

The row of stones discovered in 2004 on Cut Hill in north Dartmoor in Devon , England, is the first to be dated. The peat under stone 1 was calibrated to 3700-3540 BC using the radiocarbon method. The peat above it is calibrated to 2476–2245 BC. Chr.

See also

literature

  • Kenneth Brophy, Andrew Baines, Amelia Pannett: Megalith-Overkill: multiple stone rows of Caithness and Sutherland. 2013 University of Glasgow

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The row of stones discovered in 2004 on Cut Hill in north Dartmoor in Cornwall is the first that could be dated. It dates from 3,500 BC. It was previously assumed that rows of stones date from the Bronze Age (around 2,000 BC) but the oldest (north-western European) dates from the Neolithic .
  2. ↑ Ralph M. Fyfe, Tom Greeves: The Date and Context of a Stone Row: Cut Hill, Dartmoor, South-West England. In: Antiquity. Vol. 84, No. 323, 2010, ISSN  0003-598X , pp. 55-70, doi : 10.1017 / S0003598X00099762 .

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