Stone circle

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Swinside stone circle, in the Lake District, England.
Swinside stone circle, in the Lake District, England.

A stone circle is an ancient monument. Such a monument is not always precisely circular and often forms an ellipse, or a setting of four stones laid on an arc of a circle. The number of stones can vary between four and 60[1] purposely erected standing stones, and often contain burial pits or chambers.

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[edit] Earliest dates

A stone circle is different from a henge or isolated monolith, although each of these features is often encountered in a single location. Earlier features, such as the Goseck circle in Saxony-Anhalt, may have served similar religious/calendrical/astronomical purposes, though probably at a much earlier epoch. Stone circles usually date from the late Neolithic / early Stone Age, that is, c. 7000-3500 B.C.[2]

[edit] Purposes

Archaeological evidence, coupled with information from astronomy, geology and mathematics[citation needed], suggests that the purpose of stone circles was connected with prehistoric peoples' beliefs, and their construction can be used to infer about ancient engineering, social organisation, and religion. Their precise function will always be open to debate, but a practical purpose could exist in the form of use as a burial ground, a astronomical marker points for use in determining calendar-related event timings, and usable methodologies have been suggested. Since astronomical event timings are intrinsically dependent on location, it is also conceivable that observations taken could form the basis of some understanding concerning geography, and proceeding from that, derivation of standardised units of measurement for not only time, as in the calendar hypothesis, but also for distance.

Because of the timescale involved, many astronomical parameters have changed, further-complicating analysis of the hypothetical purposes of these monuments. Even with modern technology such as computerised star-map simulations, without a firm date in mind, large margins of doubt are unavoidable. Certainly until recently, accurate retrospective calculations of many heavenly events, tied to each given location, made a comprehensive survey of monuments unapproachable. Current technology improves our chance of gaining an insight into possible motives and uses, and perhaps patterns may emerge when large numbers of arrangements are compared systematically by automated means which are able to examine large numbers of sites as well as large ranges of dating.

One such pattern which was already documented before the recent popularisation of computers was common factors in the dimensions of such circles surveyed in Britain.

[edit] Distribution

Prehistoric stone circles are found in many parts of the world.

Megalithic (simply meaning "big stone") monuments in Ireland and the United Kingdom,[3]; several confirmed examples in Brittany, France: two on the island of Er Lannic and two more suggested at Carnac.

The Petit Saint Bernard circle lies further afield, in the French Alps. They are also known as harrespil in the Basque country, where villagers call them mairu-baratz or jentil-baratz that means "pagan garden (cemetery)", referring to mythologic giants of the pre-Christian era.

Stone circle at the Knocknakilla complex, County Cork, Ireland
Stone circle at the Knocknakilla complex, County Cork, Ireland

A unique form of circle, the recumbent stone circle is to be found in North East Scotland, where the largest stone is on its side. These recumbent stones are almost always in the SW quadrant of the circle, and are aligned on the major moonrise. Typically the heights of the circle stones are also graded, with the smallest stone being opposite the recumbent.

In Scandinavia, there was a tradition of making stone circles during the Iron Age and especially in Götaland. The appearance of these circles in northern Poland is considered to be a characteristic of the migrating Goths (see Stone Circle (Iron Age) and Wielbark Culture).

There was a separate period of stone circle building from the eighth to the twelfth century in West Africa. The best known are the Senegambian stone circles, built as funerary monuments, with more than a thousand known. Other stone circles can be found on the Adrar Plateau in Mauritania. Stone circle construction has become popular since the 1970s, built either for purely monumental purposes or to serve a particular mystical purpose. The new stone circles typically lack henges or other auxiliary features and are not on a particular alignment. Notable examples include the Swan Circle at the Glastonbury Festival, while Stonehenge at Maryhill (ultimately built of concrete rather than stone) is an early example, being completed in 1918.

[edit] Stone circles in the United Kingdom and Ireland

The French archaeologist Jean-Pierre Mohan in his book Le Monde des Megalithes described the unusual concentration of stone circles in the British Isles as follows:

British Isles megalithism is outstanding in the abundance of standing stones, and the variety of circular architectural complexes of which they formed a part...strikingly original, they have no equivalent elsewhere in Europe - strongly supporting the argument that the builders were independent.

Often oriented on sight lines for the rising or setting sun or moon at certain times of the year, it seems likely that for their builders the cycle of seasons was very important. The crudeness of the stones means that they could not have been used as advanced astronomical calculators however, and their positioning is more social/educational than analytic.

Stone circle at the Carrigagulla complex, County Cork, Ireland
Stone circle at the Carrigagulla complex, County Cork, Ireland

The earliest known circles were apparently erected around five thousand years ago during the Neolithic period and may have evolved from earlier burial mounds which often covered timber or stone mortuary houses. It should be remembered that when discussing such timescales, geographical forms have come and gone, sea levels have risen and glaciers receded. It is thus impossible to rule out that similar forms have not been applied earlier, and obliterated by human or geographical events. Where there is land today, once there were glaciers, while in the same era, where there is sea today, there was land. [1]

During the Middle Neolithic (c. 3700–2500 BC) stone circles began to appear in coastal and lowland areas towards the north of the United Kingdom. The Langdale axe industry in the Lake District appears to have been an important early centre for circle building, perhaps because of its economic power. Many had closely set stones, perhaps similar to the earth banks of henges, others were made from unfounded boulders rather than standing stones.

Lisseyviggeen stone circle, County Kerry, Ireland. Also known locally as the Seven Sisters
Lisseyviggeen stone circle, County Kerry, Ireland. Also known locally as the Seven Sisters

By the later Neolithic, stone circle construction had attained a greater precision and popularity. Rather than being limited to coastal areas, they began to move inland and their builders grew more ambitious, producing examples of up to 400 m diameter in the case of the Outer Circle at Avebury. Most circles however measured around 25 m in diameter however. Designs became more complex with double and triple ring designs appearing along with significant regional variation. These monuments are often classed separately as concentric stone circles.

The final phase of stone circle construction took place in the early to middle Bronze Age (c.2200–1500 BC) and saw the construction of numerous small circles which, it has been suggested, were built by individual family groups rather than the large numbers that monuments like Avebury would have required.

Many fine examples are to be found within Dartmoor National Park, Devon , the site of 18 recorded stone circles (and 75 stone rows) dating mainly from the late Neolithic to mid-Bronze Age. Grey Wethers, a double circle on an isolated plateau, is among the most significant sites.

By 1500 BC stone circle construction had all but ceased. It is thought that changing weather patterns led people away from upland areas and that new religious thinking led to different ways of marking life and death. Stone circles have often been associated with the druids, but they were abandoned long before druidism came to Britain, and there is no evidence that they were ever used by the druids.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ A Brief Guide To Irish Archaeological Sites. iol.ie. Retrieved on 21 January 2006.
  2. ^ Ó Nualláin, 1984a, 10
  3. ^ Aubrey Burl. The Megalith Map. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.

[edit] External links

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