FourWinds
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 08, 2006, 14:03
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'owl' or 'goddess' at Sess Kilgreen
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/33065
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tiompan
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 08, 2006, 14:07
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I think the owl and the goddess are in the eyes of the beholder. But there is the stone at Knowth that is the owl shaped. That's a tough one.
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FourWinds
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 08, 2006, 16:21
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>> I think the owl and the goddess are in the eyes of the beholder.
Well, yes and that is exactly why I used 'owl' and 'goddess' in inverted commas :-)
The state of the carving is terrible now, but if you see an older image or a drawing you begin to see why some people think of it as an 'owl' or 'goddess'. Personally I just think it's pretty.
Even in this one (taken 20+ years ago) it's tricky to see:
http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zSessKilgreen1.htm
I have a good drawing at home. I'll dig it out and post it.
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Littlestone
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 08, 2006, 22:03
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>...a tendency to perceive faces doesn't have to lead to the placement of any significance.<
Quite. Whether or not there is a predisposition in humans to recognise facial simulacra in trees, rocks etc is really not relevant to this discussion (any more than a predisposition in humans to hunt lends argument to the moral justification to do so). What <i>is</i> important is the cultural backdrop that may have influenced the creators of rock art and megalithic structures in their choice of medium and the way they chose to manipulate it.
I'm sorry to have to repeat myself but if we're ever going to get close to what rock art (or megaliths) might have meant to the people who created them we have to start from the premises of what might have been the most important things in their lives.
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tiompan
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 08, 2006, 22:59
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Considering that RA is found in passage graves , chambered cairns etc it would appear to have some connection with religion /cosmology. After the basics needs are met , and the practice of building very time consuming monuments suggests that those needs were met , my money is on the relationship with either the gods or ancestors , or both as the most important thing in their lives .
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PeterH
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 09, 2006, 04:17
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most important things in their lives were the same as they are now and have always been - water, food, shelter, procreation
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FourWinds
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 09, 2006, 06:56
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>> Considering that RA is found in passage graves , chambered cairns etc it would appear to
>> have some connection with religion /cosmology.
Paintings are found in churches. That does not mean that all painting have something to do with religion. The paintings found in churches <i>may</i> have something to do with religion, but we can only say that they do because we know the iconography of the religion of churches and more importantly we know that churches are definitely religious buildings. We know neither of these facts about passage tombs etc.
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jacksprat
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 09, 2006, 08:57
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I think some people would disgree with that. Not everyone was buried in cairns or portal tombs were they? Wouldn't that indicate that, just like today, status was also important to them? Maybe the art was commissioned! :-)
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tiompan
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 09, 2006, 09:18
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"water, food, shelter, procreation" = Maslowian (maybe that should be Malovian but it's early and I've just made it up) basic needs , the one thing missing and possibly intermediate between these and religion/cosmology is power .
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tiompan
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Re: Hardwired
Mar 09, 2006, 09:52
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"Paintings are found in churches. That does not mean that all painting have something to do with religion. "
Yes the RA found outwith monuments may have an entirely different function .
"The paintings found in churches may have something to do with religion, but we can only say that they do because we know the iconography of the religion of churches and more importantly we know that churches are definitely religious buildings. We know neither of these facts about passage tombs etc."
I think it is fair to say that the major monuments that have RA in their structure ,whatever their purpose , were extremely important to the builders, and as the RA is found in large numbers and in some of the most important areas of the structures there is an importance by association . What we do know of those monuments is that there is at least a slight connection with some mortuary practices they were , if not tombs then "places of transformation" surely it all adds up to not a kick in the arse away from the R words
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