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For Ceremonial purposes?
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Edited Aug 19, 2013, 19:02
Re: For Ceremonial purposes?
Aug 19, 2013, 19:01
Sanctuary wrote:
The erection of stone circle obviously had to have a beginning and I wonder who exactly planted the initial seed and came up with the idea? Were they preceded by timber circles wholesale before being 'upgraded'? I know the Sanctuary stone circle at Avebury began with a timber post circle which then increased in size before the stones arrived, but how many others I wonder. Did the stone uprights form a different function to the timber ones or maybe it didn't matter as long as the structure was circular. And why circular? Is it a vital clue as to what they may have been used for?


Why is a boxing ring rectangular but the Colosseum (and most other Roman arenas) round? There may be a deep cultural reason for the difference in shape, but it may just be happenstance.

I had a dream once in which a stone circle was being used as a court-room. There was a judge/jury member by each stone with the accused in the centre. When I think back on that dream (and I most certainly don't view it as "received insight" or anything odd), it strikes me as being just as plausible an explanation for the purpose of stone circles as any other I've heard. The point being: it's all theory.

As for "who first came up with the idea"? I suspect that kind of cultural shift; from non-monument builders to monument builders is an organic, systemic shift that can't be ascribed to any single person. Just as I don't think there was one person in history who came up with the bright idea of herding animals, or planting seeds.
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