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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 22:32
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Eternal Flow Of all the times I’ve visited the Evora-Montemor megalithic axis, these last two weeks have been the most fruitful. Not only is the number of antas (ie. the slender dolmens that are scattered in massive numbers up and down Western Iberia) incredibly huge, but the effect it’s had on me has been life-trascending, to the extent that I would gladly move there tomorrow if I had the chance. A bright, deep and glamorous green clothes the rural rolling hills of the area, which is the most untouched part of Europe I may have visited. Few cars in very remote roads, most of the ones that lead to the most fantastic areas are merely npaved muddy country lanes, bumpy and hard to get along, very often flooded by rivers, with wonderfully all-dominant mother hills aplenty, kind farmers that let you in their farms in search of the lost standing stone and a total lack of modern infrastructure and stinky wanker-led corporations make this a very appealling region. In the areas which ‘smell’ of neolithic pastoral sacredness, I have literally stumbled upon some amazing intensely atmospheric sites, basically un-catalogued!! Now there’s this groovy local archaeologist who finds all kinds of stuff from the air, while he’s up there ‘hanging’ in his glider. Recently, an untouched area near the famous cave of Escoural was found to contain yet another new cromlech / stone circle of fantastic beauty as well as a group of about a dozen antas. Every time I return to the area new megaliths are being found. I’ve seen plenty of gorgeous stuff elsewhere, but the beauty and atmosphere in these cromlechs is amazing. Precisely because, as they have been newly discovered, they are not yet subject to the bored tourist drone that the famous and fantastic megalithic circles of the Almendres have been subject to over the years. Also, this part has not been raped to the extent of other places, where, in order to get to a monument you get in the car, drive for miles, and park it beside it on parking space designed by some drunken council worker. Here you have to sweat, trample and crawl, AND the effect is all the more powerful, completely losing touch with snivilisation, literally shivering with excitement to the only sounds of birds, occasional sheep, brooks and your own steps. And research has yielded some fantastic results. If this is true, it would be supposed that the menhirs and cromlechs / stone circles were built BEFORE the majority of megalithic burials. If you ‘ve never seen a Portuguese cromlech, the shape of the stones is very much like cosmic objects, shaped like elongated eggs, of amazing beauty, as if polished by the stars, and fallen big and upright inside the land. They are not like, say, a British circle. And, also, the dates of these cromlechs fall somewhere within the years 5,000 and 4,000 BCE. They were also built around areas of Ur-cult, i.e. worship of natural rock, brooks or caves, whilst the dolmen slabs, like in the UK, were transported from distant places. I have always believed that once the late Bronze Age began in Europe (including Britain) due to a more intense arrival of Indoeuropean peoples from, possibly, the Caucasus, the ancient traditions had already begun to fade. Late Bronze Age Beaker burials attached to most megalithic monuments show a certain sense of ‘loss’, of ‘distance’, though still continue the tradition. It’s like the newcomers somehow knew that the locals considered these places sacred, but even they (the locals) had *already* forgotten all about their origin. We must remember we are dealing with, not centuries, but, millenia, of a slowburning process which, at the same time, paradoxically creates some sort of eternal continuum, some stability. These places were conceived as messages for the people at the time AND for future generations like us, most likely FOR EVER.
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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 22:34
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A XVIth century bishop ordered the locals to have their processions go ONLY to the church or local shrine and stop going to the rocks and other gorsedds. But when Christianity became the official religion at the end of the Roman occupation, it was at the cities that the new cult was adopted by the governing elite, the rural inhabitants keeping their pre-Roman/Christian traditions. The continuous bans against pagan superstitions issued by the church around this time are proof of the strong resistance against the new monotheistic faith. The church begins to eventually *assimilate* sacred traditions and places. Crosses on top of rocks, saints that replace the supernatural beings of the wells and forests, and the Virgin Mary being the new name for the ancient divinities, amongst them the Mother Goddess that mysteriously turned up in caves or near wells or certain trees. It was not only the physical appropriation of the monument but also of a sacred space. Portugal in this case still shows five huge antas turned into Christian chapels and another five built next to them. Even the only surviving Neolithic people today, the Basques, on the Spanish/French border, used to have their Goddess named Ma- / Marj-, later taken over by the Christian Ma, the Virgin Mary, the ‘Holy Mother of God’. The funny thing is, magical beings like the snake (serpent) and the bull (tor-us) keep appearing wherever I go. Even a snake was beautifully carved on a beautiful and tall menhir that stood in the middle of a big dolmen in central Iberia. Ethnologists agree to the various beliefs surrounding the magic of the stones, e.g. fertility, health, love, happiness… Whatever the case, those beliefs are precisely what’ve filled my recent days. “To be born free is nothing, to become free is heavenly”, J.G.Ficht. Now, my questions: 1) Any examples of snakes carved on, if not neolithic sites, at least on early Christian ones that you know of? 2) I’ve found central pillars quite uncommon (only within half a dozen dolmens) – as they were not used as supports, they must have been the repositories of something sacred? 3) Big granite formations have been part of our early pantheistic faiths until recently – next time you see some huge granite groups, tremble with excitement cos they’re bound to give you more than just an expression of amazement; and there’s bound to be a dozen dolmens around them, I’m sure!
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fitzcoraldo 2709 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 22:54
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Welcome back AQ. Glad to here that you've had a successful trip. Snakes and the Ma. Many statues of the virgin mary portray her with her foot on the head of a serpent. The obvious allusion is to the crushing of the devil. However it would also symbolise the new christian cult crushing the old faith. Sexually ,you've got a virgin crushing a snake, is that a freudian thang going on there or am I stretching it a bit.
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Martin 401 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 23:19
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Hiya AQ, I've come across many carved serpents- most of them being on Pictish stones. However- one megalithic one (Iron Age) I can think off is carved on one of the roof lintls of a souterrain up in Angus; http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/image.php?image_id=518 On Pictish stones the serpent appears at least 19 times. It is reckoned that it is used a s symbol of healing (as it is in many other cultures) and also as wisdom, renewal and immortality. Cheery, Martin
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FourWinds 10943 posts |
Apr 09, 2002, 23:58
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The serpent was used in romanesque carvings to represent punishment in hell, usually in association of representations of lust. Go to some of Spain's superb romanesque churches and check out the corbel tables. Also buy this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415151562/026-0236126-7852473 Bull cult was evident at Lough Gur in Ireland. I reckon St. Patrick did not rid Ireland of snakes but of Serpent Cults. A few Irish tombs have free standing stones inside them, Loughcrew Cairn L springs straight to mind. That has a narrow light pillar that the cairn may have been built around.
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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 11:37
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Thanks, Fitz, hope all's well with you. Yeah, I totally agree, that picture of yours is quite explanatory, the new faith crushing the old faiths is a constant in European history - I am also intrigued by the creation of the devil, was it perhaps created AFTER monotheism crushed the ancient faiths and as a representation of 'what not to believe in'? Even today Christians fancifully ask 'do you believe in the devil then?', once told you believe in 'something else' - this stupid duality is not to be taken for granted, European history has suffered from it extensively
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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 11:41
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Fantastic, Martin!! That's what I wanted to see. You know, I don't believe in theories of a unique pan-megalithic/ancient faith (there were unique inbred characteristics depending on the area), but a common thread / group of similar faiths is slowly beginning to unravel Even late isolated sections of Northern Europe like the Picts still retained large chunks of ancient lore until historical times! Freak'n'Roll
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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 11:51
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I must see that cairn then!! "I reckon St. Patrick did not rid Ireland of snakes but of Serpent Cults" Oh yeah, it makes sense. What the hell, those 'snake cults' that the church erased were only simplistic and silly representations of the earlier faith; the ancient world must have been full of representations of snakes as well as other spiritual beings and animals. Still, legends retain continuous references to those particular animals in our collective memory. It is interesting you say the pillar was the foundation for the creation of a later cairn, as most people would tend to think the pillar was put there after it. I agree with you, most archaeologists seem to forget this aspect of continuation, to the extent that many of the big passage graves may have been made up of menhirs or other sacred most ancient paraphernalia, a kind of Ur-recycling of Ur-cults. As I was told recently by a researcher, 'stone was never wasted in ancient times', in fact, until very recently. Nothing was wasted in any case. Wastefuckers and timewasters are a totally modern phenomenon.
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phil 126 posts |
Apr 11, 2002, 19:12
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http://www.caer.co.uk/carving.htm shows the supposed carving of a man and serpent , found on the inside of a Cornish Fogou. The article on the webpage is an extract from 'Fogou - A Journey into the Underworld' by Jo May. Phil
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fitzcoraldo 2709 posts |
Apr 12, 2002, 09:30
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Not too relevant for this thread but in the general snake banishing vein. Legend has it that one of our local christian saints, Saint Hilda, was so plagued by snakes at her abbey in Whitby that she banished them by driving them over the cliffs, were they instantly became petrified. Evidence of this is the abundance of serpent stones (ammonites) to be found in the cliffs around Whitby. This legend has had a scientific 'nod' towards it. One local species of Jurassic ammonite has the latin name Hildoceras.
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