Hello, Fitz, mate. I put lots of comments and explanations to the pictures shortly after RG made them public on HH. I was mighty glad to see some of those pictures on the net, and it was easier than sending copies to friends all the time.
Yes, that’s just what I’m saying: ‘these solar temples in axial/oracle positions, were taken over by proto-Celtic / Indoeuropean tribes (i.e.Keltic) as they arrived in Europe some time in the Bronze Age and that they belonged to an earlier cult‘. I know about Zarathustra’s altar (though I’d appreciate your pix, please) and, you know, Indoeuropeans that moved west gave the name of KERKUR to ‘altar stones’ (or even dolmens?). Whether this word was a proto-Celtic innovation (the steps may well be) or an earlier megalithic element I’m not sure. But stone altars have always been there, and they date back to the New Stone Age, perhaps even earlier in cases of continuity. Last Friday I discovered a strange rock-cut stone altar with a virgin inside, almost in the middle of nowhere, though probably inspired by the lake and village nearby, and still in use, to judge from the fresh flowers.
We accept it when Iron Age cultures adopted elements of earlier ones but I’m sure the worshipping of natural altars dates back to the Mesolithic and beyond. After all, the Cult of the Dead was the first one there ever was.
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