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| A '''recumbent stone circle''' is a type of ] that incorporates a large monolith, known as a ''recumbent'', lying on its side. They are found in only two regions: near ] in the ] region of north-east ], and in the far south-west of ] in the counties of ] and ]. They are thought to be associated with rituals in which moonlight played a central role, as they are aligned with the arc of the southern moon. | |||
| #REDIRECT ] | |||
| ==Typology== | |||
| Up to 99 recumbent stone circles are known to exist in an area of ] spanning about {{convert|80|km|mi|abbr=on}} north to south by {{convert|50|km|mi|abbr=on}} east to west. They are clustered in areas characterised by low hills, away from the mountains and alongside patches of fertile and well-drained soil, which would indicate that they were built by local farmers.<ref name="RugglesBurl">{{cite journal|title=A New Study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, 2: Interpretation|author1=Ruggles, C.L.N.|author2=Burl, H.A.W.|journal=Archaeoastrology|number=8|year=1985|pages=25-60}}</ref> They were normally constructed on sloping hillsides, aligned towards the southern moon.<ref name="Burl2005" /> A few sites were deliberately levelled before construction of the circle; one, at Berrybrae, was built on an artificial clay platform.<ref name="RugglesBurl" /> | |||
| The diameters of the Scottish circles range from {{convert|18.2|m|ft|abbr=on}} to {{convert|24.4|m|ft|abbr=on}}. They are typified by the presence of a massive recumbent stone, averaging 24 tons in weight, lying between the circle's two tallest stones, known as ''flankers''.<ref name="Aberdeenshire>{{cite web|url=http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/archaeology/special/recumbent.asp|title=Recumbent Stone Circles|publisher=Aberdeenshire Council|accessdate=9 May 2015}}</ref> The recumbents were carefully positioned by the circle builders and generally appear on the southwest side of the circle, with their bases supported (in some cases on mounds) so that their tops are level. The other stones in the circle taper off sequentially so that the smallest are to be found opposite the recumbent. Irish recumbent stone circles take a rather different form, with the recumbent being small and placed in an isolated position on the southwest side while the two tallest stones, known as ''portals'', stand opposite on the northeast side.<ref name="Ruggles2005">{{cite book|last=Ruggles|first=Clive L. N.|title=Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Q9YYqiXm-lkC|date=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-477-6}}</ref> | |||
| It is highly likely that the recumbent stone circles of northeast Scotland and south-west Ireland are related, given how similar they are, but the geographical distance between them - several hundred kilometers of mountain terrain, bogs and sea - has prompted debate about how exactly the relationship came about. It is possible that rather than there being direct communication between the two locations, the ideas underlying recumbent stone circles were transmitted by a single influential person or group of people who - for whatever reason - left one location and perhaps settled in the other.<ref name="Ruggles2005" /> | |||
| ==Usage== | |||
| Recumbent stone circles are believed to have been designed for ritualistic astronomical purposes. The moon would appeared above the recumbent stone, framed between the flankers. Scotland's recumbent stone circles have an average diameter of about {{convert|20|m|ft|abbr=on}}, so a recumbent stone that was {{convert|3.7|m|ft|abbr=on}} long would have given an observer an arc of vision of around 10 degrees. This would have given the worshippers about an hour during which the moon would pass over the stone.<ref name="Burl2005">{{cite book|last=Burl|first=Aubrey|title=Prehistoric Astronomy and Ritual|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=JCTryg7lKcMC|year=2005|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-0-7478-0614-1|pages=44–5}}</ref> | |||
| About every eighteen and a half years, the moon would make a closer approach in which it would appear to be "framed" between the two flanking stones above the recumbent; this was presumably a peak time for ceremonies.<ref name="Hadingham1985">{{cite book|last=Hadingham|first=Evan|title=Early Man and the Cosmos|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NYPYd5zY6ooC|year=1985|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-1919-9|pages=64–7}}</ref> The nature of the ceremonies is unknown, but Audrey Burl suggests that "the rites enacted in the rings were closely connected with the flourishing and dying of plants, crops, animals and human beings in the short-lived world of four thousand years ago."<ref name="Hadingham1985" /> | |||
| The interiors of some excavated recumbent stone circles have been found to contain pits filled with charcoal, sherds of pottery and the cremated remains of human bones (sometimes those of young children). However, they were not funerary monuments in the ordinary sense; the remains appear to have been merely "tokens" representing a few individuals and a small portion of the bodies. It is possible that they may have been used to lend a sanctity to the sites. The builders also scattered crushed quartz around the recumbents, which would have refracted and reflected the beams of moonlight. It may have been seen as "moonstone", serving to draw down the influence of the moon into the desired spot and imbue the ceremony with its radiance.<ref name="Hadingham1985" /> | |||
| ==Development and analysis== | |||
| The recumbent stone circles of Scotland have been linked to an earlier type of monument erected around 3000 BC, the ]s near ]. The type example of the monument is the three circular cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, which are surrounded by a ring of standing stones rising in height from the northeast to the southwest. The cairns have burial chambers in the interior, each one reached by a passageway that leads in from the southwest side. An analysis published by Burl in 1981 revealed that the tomb passages all lay within the arc of the moon during its eighteen-and-a-half year cycle. However, they could not have been used for observations as their sightlines were too restricted.<ref name="Hadingham1985" /> | |||
| The cairns fell into disuse after about 2500 BC, but the lunar astronomical tradition reflected in their structures appears to have been transferred east to the Neolithic farmers of central Aberdeenshire. The gradation in height of the stone rings at Clava is replicated in the recumbent stone circles which appeared across Aberdeenshire during the third and second millennia BC. Their alignment with the southern moon is more precise that that of the Clava cairns; whereas the cairns encompass the entire arc of the moon, the orientation of most of the recumbent stones focuses on a much shorter arc. The degree of precision is limited, however, and the circles were clearly not observatories nor meant for precise knowledge of the moon's movements.<ref name="Hadingham1985" /> | |||
| Most of the circles are of fairly modest dimensions and Burl has theorised that they could have been constructed by a single family. Transporting the massive recumbents was a different matter, however; the fifty-ton recumbent at Old Keig was transported from six miles away and may have needed up to 200 people to drag it to its final resting place. The circle at Strichen provided a unique opportunity to test how the recumbents might have been transported. It was incorrectly restored in the 19th century by Lord Lovat, so between 1979-83 it was fully excavated and correctly restored by a team led by Burl, Ian Hampsher-Monk and Philip Abramson. The restoration required the team to move some of the stones, and it was found that the most efficient non-mechanical means of doing so was to use drag the stones along a slippery path of wet straw using logs as a kind of sledge.<ref name="Hadingham1985" /> | |||
| Unlike the more grandiose Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments found elsewhere in Scotland, the recumbent stone circles of Aberdeenshire do not appear to have been intended to overshadow or overawe other more modest works. Even considering their geographical clustering, they are also well-spread out. Clive Ruggles and Aubrey Burl suggest that this indicates that they were constructed to serve as local ritual centres for groups of subsistence farmers living in territories of about {{convert|10|sqm|km2|abbr=on}}, living on a egalitarian basis without powerful leaders and possibly numbering no more than about twenty or thirty people per group.<ref name="RugglesBurl" /> | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 17:58, 9 May 2015
A recumbent stone circle is a type of stone circle that incorporates a large monolith, known as a recumbent, lying on its side. They are found in only two regions: near Aberdeen in the Grampian region of north-east Scotland, and in the far south-west of Ireland in the counties of Cork and Kerry. They are thought to be associated with rituals in which moonlight played a central role, as they are aligned with the arc of the southern moon.
Typology
Up to 99 recumbent stone circles are known to exist in an area of Aberdeenshire spanning about 80 km (50 mi) north to south by 50 km (31 mi) east to west. They are clustered in areas characterised by low hills, away from the mountains and alongside patches of fertile and well-drained soil, which would indicate that they were built by local farmers. They were normally constructed on sloping hillsides, aligned towards the southern moon. A few sites were deliberately levelled before construction of the circle; one, at Berrybrae, was built on an artificial clay platform.
The diameters of the Scottish circles range from 18.2 m (60 ft) to 24.4 m (80 ft). They are typified by the presence of a massive recumbent stone, averaging 24 tons in weight, lying between the circle's two tallest stones, known as flankers. The recumbents were carefully positioned by the circle builders and generally appear on the southwest side of the circle, with their bases supported (in some cases on mounds) so that their tops are level. The other stones in the circle taper off sequentially so that the smallest are to be found opposite the recumbent. Irish recumbent stone circles take a rather different form, with the recumbent being small and placed in an isolated position on the southwest side while the two tallest stones, known as portals, stand opposite on the northeast side.
It is highly likely that the recumbent stone circles of northeast Scotland and south-west Ireland are related, given how similar they are, but the geographical distance between them - several hundred kilometers of mountain terrain, bogs and sea - has prompted debate about how exactly the relationship came about. It is possible that rather than there being direct communication between the two locations, the ideas underlying recumbent stone circles were transmitted by a single influential person or group of people who - for whatever reason - left one location and perhaps settled in the other.
Usage
Recumbent stone circles are believed to have been designed for ritualistic astronomical purposes. The moon would appeared above the recumbent stone, framed between the flankers. Scotland's recumbent stone circles have an average diameter of about 20 m (66 ft), so a recumbent stone that was 3.7 m (12 ft) long would have given an observer an arc of vision of around 10 degrees. This would have given the worshippers about an hour during which the moon would pass over the stone.
About every eighteen and a half years, the moon would make a closer approach in which it would appear to be "framed" between the two flanking stones above the recumbent; this was presumably a peak time for ceremonies. The nature of the ceremonies is unknown, but Audrey Burl suggests that "the rites enacted in the rings were closely connected with the flourishing and dying of plants, crops, animals and human beings in the short-lived world of four thousand years ago."
The interiors of some excavated recumbent stone circles have been found to contain pits filled with charcoal, sherds of pottery and the cremated remains of human bones (sometimes those of young children). However, they were not funerary monuments in the ordinary sense; the remains appear to have been merely "tokens" representing a few individuals and a small portion of the bodies. It is possible that they may have been used to lend a sanctity to the sites. The builders also scattered crushed quartz around the recumbents, which would have refracted and reflected the beams of moonlight. It may have been seen as "moonstone", serving to draw down the influence of the moon into the desired spot and imbue the ceremony with its radiance.
Development and analysis
The recumbent stone circles of Scotland have been linked to an earlier type of monument erected around 3000 BC, the Clava cairns near Inverness. The type example of the monument is the three circular cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, which are surrounded by a ring of standing stones rising in height from the northeast to the southwest. The cairns have burial chambers in the interior, each one reached by a passageway that leads in from the southwest side. An analysis published by Burl in 1981 revealed that the tomb passages all lay within the arc of the moon during its eighteen-and-a-half year cycle. However, they could not have been used for observations as their sightlines were too restricted.
The cairns fell into disuse after about 2500 BC, but the lunar astronomical tradition reflected in their structures appears to have been transferred east to the Neolithic farmers of central Aberdeenshire. The gradation in height of the stone rings at Clava is replicated in the recumbent stone circles which appeared across Aberdeenshire during the third and second millennia BC. Their alignment with the southern moon is more precise that that of the Clava cairns; whereas the cairns encompass the entire arc of the moon, the orientation of most of the recumbent stones focuses on a much shorter arc. The degree of precision is limited, however, and the circles were clearly not observatories nor meant for precise knowledge of the moon's movements.
Most of the circles are of fairly modest dimensions and Burl has theorised that they could have been constructed by a single family. Transporting the massive recumbents was a different matter, however; the fifty-ton recumbent at Old Keig was transported from six miles away and may have needed up to 200 people to drag it to its final resting place. The circle at Strichen provided a unique opportunity to test how the recumbents might have been transported. It was incorrectly restored in the 19th century by Lord Lovat, so between 1979-83 it was fully excavated and correctly restored by a team led by Burl, Ian Hampsher-Monk and Philip Abramson. The restoration required the team to move some of the stones, and it was found that the most efficient non-mechanical means of doing so was to use drag the stones along a slippery path of wet straw using logs as a kind of sledge.
Unlike the more grandiose Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments found elsewhere in Scotland, the recumbent stone circles of Aberdeenshire do not appear to have been intended to overshadow or overawe other more modest works. Even considering their geographical clustering, they are also well-spread out. Clive Ruggles and Aubrey Burl suggest that this indicates that they were constructed to serve as local ritual centres for groups of subsistence farmers living in territories of about 10 m (1.0×10 km), living on a egalitarian basis without powerful leaders and possibly numbering no more than about twenty or thirty people per group.
References
- ^ Ruggles, C.L.N.; Burl, H.A.W. (1985). "A New Study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, 2: Interpretation". Archaeoastrology (8): 25–60.
- ^ Burl, Aubrey (2005). Prehistoric Astronomy and Ritual. Osprey Publishing. pp. 44–5. ISBN 978-0-7478-0614-1.
- "Recumbent Stone Circles". Aberdeenshire Council. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- ^ Ruggles, Clive L. N. (2005). Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-477-6.
- ^ Hadingham, Evan (1985). Early Man and the Cosmos. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 64–7. ISBN 978-0-8061-1919-9.