The First History-a mystery

      You are looking at perhaps the oldest discovered evidence of humankind on the planet.
     Both are on the windswept Orkney Islands, the northern reach of Scotland. Above are the Stones of Stenness. Below is Skara Brae, the site of the oldest archeological find on the planet. Both are shrouded in mystery.

  Skara Brae is at least 5000 years old, putting it before the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge, Mayan, Incan, or Aztec temples. 

     A North Atlantic storm in 1890 stripped the dunes and laid bare evidence of a community on what is now the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest of the Orkney's.

   Skara Brae was a community. Individual stone homes, linked by tunnels and passage ways.

  Historical interpreters have fitted one of the homes with artifacts or replicas. Each home featured a kind of center shelf and cabinet.

  There were separate chambers for sleeping.

   The homes were built in a fashion of interlocking stones without the benefit of mortar. 

  The original excavation work was supervised by Gordon Childe of the University of Edinburgh from 1928-1931.

 Study and exhibitions have continued since. Skara Brae is a world heritage site.

  The builders were from what we call the neolithic or stone age. Stone age perhaps, but the people were clever, ingenious and reasoning. 

   I can't speak for the veracity of these images, but they are offered at the interpretive display as a suggestion of how life in the homes may have been conducted.

   This depicts what the homes may have looked like from the top.

   Scholars continue to study and speculate, but little is known about the people who lived here, or their fate.

    It's fascinating to consider that some of our earliest ancestors sketched indelible evidence of social order and intelligent life in an age most regard as a time of "cave men."
    And there is the mystery of from whence they came, the source of their knowledge and learning and where did they go. How much of their DNA may be pulsing through own bodies now?
    And a few miles south is yet more mystery.  

     On the shores of Loch Stenness are the Standing Stones.

   The Standing Stones of Stenness are a companion to the nearby Ring of Brogdar. They are from the era of Skara Brae and older than other standing stones like Stonehenge.

   Scholars think Brogdar was known as the Temple of the Sun and these Stones of Stenness were the Temple of the Moon. No one knows for sure, because they too are a mystery.

    Mystery is a companion to these stones as it is to all standing stones on the planet. How were they milled or cut? How were they transported the distances they were? Why were they placed where and how they were? Where did the knowledge of Astronomy derive?

       There were more Stones of Stenness, but in 1814 a tenant farmer, wary of the scholarly interest began to dynamite them. Scotland intervened and has cared for them since. 
        I find that hardworking farmer's behavior rather symbolic of modernity's lack of regard for the wisdom and knowledge of native and sovereign cultures.

     

     Some 500-600 miles south in Ireland is another UNESCO World Heritage site, of the approximate age. And the mysteries here are staggering.

Bru na Boinne, or Newgrange, is a marvel in County Meath, in Boyne Valley. It was built some 5,200 years ago and thought to be an ancient transit tomb.

   Newgrange is one of 3 such structures, with nearby by Knowth and Dowth. Each has a different astronomical alignment. 

         The sites are large circular mounds with inner chambers and stone passageways. Some 200 thousand tons of stone were used to build Bru na Boinne. The stones were cantilevered and stacked and no mortar or cement was used. It is nearly 300 feet across, 40 feet high and covers more than an acre.

   The tomb is partially covered with reflective white quartz stone on a base of kerb stones. The kerb stones are each between 1 and 10 tons.
   Some of the stones were from as far away as the distant mountains of Wicklow and Mournes, the tallest in Ireland.

  Human bones and grave offerings were found in the inner chambers. After it's original use it was sealed for several thousand years.
   Newgrange is a pivotal venue in Irish mythology and folklore. It is said to be a place of deities, particularly Dagda and his son Aengus.
   Dagda is regarded a father like king. He has powers of fertility, agriculture, manliness, strength, magic and wisdom and according to the mythology has influence over life and death. 

  Many of the kerb stones are covered with symbols. The site has a commanding view of the Boyne valley.

  There is no understanding of what the site was used for other than some ceremonial or perhaps religious activity.

     The entrance is built in alignment so on the winter solstice, December 21st, the sun enters the passage way via the top, the "roof box." It makes it's way into the inner chamber.

   We were not permitted to photograph the passage or the inner chamber. When the lights are out it is as dark as dark can be. A simulation of the solstice sun begins to illuminate the inner chamber and quite phenomenally the cantilevered and corbelled stones that arch above you begin to assume a soft glow and shapes. It is quite stunning. Magical perhaps.

    I am not fond of tight spaces and so our guide aligned me near the entrance of the inner chamber, my back to the passage way . Because the passageway is built on a slight incline, once you are in the inner chamber one would need to lay on their stomach and inch forward into the passageway to see out. What extraordinary architecture design!
    There is no agreement on the meaning of the megalithic art. Scholars also have differing theories on how long it took to construct.
    Mysteries remain at Bru na Boinne and the other Irish passage tombs. They are similar to sites in Scotland, Wales and Brittany.
    There was in fact a palpable and even physiological response to our experience in the chamber.
     For generations people cue up or enter lotteries for the opportunity to be in Newgrange, especially on solstice day. Many visit the site frequently. Though as our host Kay noted being a world heritage site, eventually the direct human contact with the inner chamber will likely end, so as to preserve it. The affect of human breath is being measured and they've begun to see a slight affect.

    So, I come away from these interactions with "Stone Age" mysteries marveling. Why, How, what did they know, what was the origin of their knowledge for construction, design, logistics, and what does it mean?

    These were fellow human travelers on this blue marble and we know so very little about them, or their intent. But they have left us mysteries and a history to ponder.

     See you down the trail.

the view from the homeland

  Since our last visit, I've been looking at things differently, under a Scot's influence.

  This is being written on the Isle of Skye, the largest island in the inner Hebrides archipelago. The harbor is a dark midnite out the window of my room. A few lights shine well down the shore, fishing boats are moored below, behind an old stone seawall and a red navigation light flashes out in the channel.The television flashes the BBC news and the latest in the Brexit circus. The UK is adrift on their own sea of political madness. 

     In Edinburgh I was told 63% of the Scots voted against Brexit, preferring to stay with Europe. Opinion polls now say closer to 80% want to say.  And so this political storm has wonderfully put you know who completely out of mind. It is like magic-not just the Brexit business, but something about these climes, and latitudes.

      Sitting in the Elephant House, waiting for my tomato basil soup, smoked salmon and caper berries on oat crackers and a cup of green tea the magnetism of the place where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter was as obvious as the non stop people's paparazzi who lined up angles dodging the busy Edinburgh traffic whizzing past 21 George IV Bridge to get their keepsake photo. As I wondered how many such photos existed on social media platforms a young lad in Potter robe and regalia broke through the sunny door with his family.

      There is something happening here and to your writer. 

  What you see above is the Scottish Motto. "No one harasses me with impunity."  

   Basically Scotland declared itself, and self rule, into existence in April of 1320 with words that have now taken up residence in such a way as to change my equilibrium.

      For we fight not for glory nor riches, nor honors but for Freedom alone, which no good man give except with his life.

    Those words in the Declaration of Arbroath put this nation on the path to be at the cutting edge of reform, resistance, independence, justice, and progressive social evolution since.

    There is new talk this week about Scottish independence. When I visited Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament last week I asked a security detail about the presence of Gaelic language in all government and public places-road signs, in schools, and the like. She said it was something that should be preserved, it set the nation apart. He said he hadn't learned it in school, but knew he would be learning it..

      It's a link to a strong past, that is deeper that I knew.

     Everyone seems to know about Stonehenge, or perhaps the Great Pyramids and they mystery they hold. Well, they are relative latecomers.  The stone rings and the standing stones, like the rings of Brogdar or the Standing Stones of Stenness, seen above, are even older. They are on the main island of the Orkney chain, northern islands of Scotland, between the North Sea and the Atlantic. And there is something more historic

    This is part of Skara Brae, on the Scottish Orkney Islands.

It is some 5000 years old, part of a Neolithic village that among other things demonstrated intelligent social organization, community and a peaceful way of life.

     As some one in the US often says, "Who knew?" Well, I did not and since immersing in this culture I have, as I said before, been looking at things differently.

     There will be more from the homeland and from Irish cousins who have magic and power of their own. 

      The old certainties, and fixed points of power are gone. But there is history, and in history is destiny. It is there we learn and that is the alchemy of change.

     See you down the trail.