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Stoneshifter wrote: Holed stones are a hot topic - I guess they mean what you want them to - but the hole was perhaps for something symbolic to pass through. It might have been enough just to see the full moon through them but the holed stones are also associated with stone rows in the Uk too. Not that anyone will admit though.
I enjoyed your other two film - split into two pieces - about the ancient masonry. Those stones had been worked identically to the way the great Victorians worked stone for the railway bridges in Britain. (And not just railway bridges). Which is a bit strange, really, and implies they were using very similar tools.
Hey thanks for watching. Very interesting about the Victorian railway bridges. I'd love to see some pictures and will search it out.
As far as holed stones go, I've been fascinated by them ever since visiting Zorats Karer for the first time. Like any prehistoric monument, they seem to have had many different functions and meanings, possibly at the same time.
I was always inspired by the stories told about the Odin Stone and its use in oaths and contracts. It may be significant that Zorats Karer is right near a major trade route, indeed it is a branch of the Silk Road, which we know was around at least as early as the 1st millennium BC, at the time of the Urartians, and was probably there when ZK was built. More likely, ZK was probably built to be near it. I remember Burl writing about the use of stone circles as meeting points along the ax trade in prehistoric Britain. Perhaps ZK also had a similar role as well? Furthermore, several miles away, a medieval caravansarai was built for Silk Road travelers right beside at least three more holed stones. As a result, I've come to see holed stones, together with whatever cosmic function they certainly had, as sacred places connected with pledges and oaths, whether in commerce, marriage, or other important legal matters.
Armenians were major mithraists before becoming Christian - our name for pagan temple means 'place of mihr', and mithra was the overseer of contracts, so maybe these sites tie in to a pre-Zoroastrian mithra-type divinity. In that part of the world there really aren't any new gods, just new names.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is the fertility/healing aspect of holed stones, i.e. the Tolven Stone, etc. There are so many natural Tolven Stones still in use in Armenia, that it seems pretty clear the holed stones of ZK had a role in fertility rites as well, especially considering folk legends connecting the site to weddings...
Then again, I've met several archaeologists in Armenia who say the holes were drilled quite simply for dragging the stones into place. But that's no fun!
Sorry for rambling Shifter. By the way, for a good study on holed stones, with great data from India, have you checked out J. Michell's Megalithomania?
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