Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum

BuckyE

468 posts

Re: Ritual Landscapes

Oct 10, 2005, 08:30

Well, I hope I didn't throw the thread off with my choice of "view" as an EXAMPLE of a value that would pertain to real estate (sacred or profane.) I merely hoped to illustrate the kind of analysis we'd have to apply to determine ANY hypothetical relationship to the land (view, proximity, orientation, etc. being others.)

I'm sure that at least SOME of any type of monument were built with SOME relationship to the surrounding land in mind. As a matter of fact, I'm dead sure, but have no way to prove it, that ALL these stone monuments were specifically intended to mark the land as a humanly controlled posession: to claim, proclaim and enforce ownership in the face of recalcitrant Nature (and probably, by the Bronze age, neighbors.)

Local traditions would have established different types of significant places, for differing reasons, well before the monuments were conceived, and I have no problem believing the monument builders themselves believed or co-opted earlier beliefs, or, given a probably more stratified society, some still believed and some co-opted. This would have been exactly like what Christians did, siting churches on earlier "significant" places in an attempt to use the that belief to THEIR advantage.

So, that "land claiming" is a "relationship to the landscape" of a very powerful kind, and no doubt there were rites that expressed the beliefs outlined above.

I'm fascinated to hear of your regression analysis, Nigel, and hope I live long enough to see someone apply it to the Neolithic!

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Re: Ritual Landscapes (nigelswift)

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Re: Ritual Landscapes (Paulus)

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