I have decided to feature the cromlechs of Wales each day that I have seen in the past. It is a bit like a revue and an opportunity to allow my mind to think about wormholes the mind goes down and comes up with no answers.
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| Carreg Coetan - Newport |
You have to admit our progress into smaller gravestones was a technical advancement but Neolithic people were already studying the weight and balance of these cromlech stones. The upright stones look like a dog or seal, balancing the capstone on their noses. One asks the question were these stones shaped like that or were they natural but something tells me that shoulder curve was shaped.
These burial places sit all over Britain, relicts of the past, immovable almost, that is why they are left. This cromlech is but a few miles from Pentre Ifan, were they tribal points in the landscape. A stone monument declaring this is where so and so tribe lives. Can we imagine the ceremonies of committing the dead either to fire or the birds in excarnation? A 2007 blog here.
Geologically the different types of stone in our country is many and varied. I often used to walk along the coast path of Pembrokeshire marvelling at the horizontal layers of rocks. You would see the same in the small quarries or the stone houses, the bronzed nature of some of the rock layers.
Stone is beautiful, you have only to look at Bath buildings to understand that and also in the prehistoric use of them. They would be chosen for their colour and durability. The Bluestones of Stonehenge were brought down from the Presceli Hills, and the glint of quartz is often to be found in some stones.
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Last night I listened to a Green Party women's discussion on Zoom. It was mostly about bullying within the party and I guess control of what was being said. Now if you know the GP it bases itself on a democratic method of discussion within the party. Everything fair and equal. But then of course you must add humans to the pot and that is where the disarray happens.
Lots of words bubble to the surface, am I an ecofeminist for instance, do I have strong views on misogyny and trans people, to a degree but whether I am willing to spend endless hours discussing it - no. I do feel though that since Andrew has committed himself to helping out locally I should take an interest.
I looked up the bio on Wiki of a certain person who bullied our wing of the GP in Bath, and remembered when he was a young lad working on an excavation with us, think it was the medieval pottery kiln at Chippenham. He was full of himself then, Derek Wall should have followed archaeology not politics.
Is it Derek Wall, rather than Walls? Interesting.
ReplyDeleteCorrect and altered. A very intense personality.
ReplyDeleteWhat strange things Cromlechs are. I wonder what people in East Anglia thought when they travelled west in Neolithic times and found these burial mounds and the huge stones inside, when there were no stones in the east. Did they want to take big stones back to Suffolk?
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting question Sue (as they say on the radio). Because there is a stone that appears in the East in odd places. It is called the puddingstone. It is a conglomerate of pebbles in a silica of cement. Paul and I went hunting it at one stage. You can see sometimes in the foundation stones of churches, probably harking back to pagan worship. I have found the link which is now on the blog. ThelmaX
ReplyDeleteWhat surprises me is that you can still find them all around? No graffiti on them, no damage done to them - it seems like people respect the history of them and leave them alone. Here I think they would be knocked over or painted on. How nice that history is preserved for all to see.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post.
ReplyDeletei have just read a wonderful book called "Stone Mad" by Seamus Murphy about the stone carvers of Cork, before concrete became mainstream. Tickled an interest in the qualities of stone and the vocabulary of stone work. Not your period but a delight to read.
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