Trade Secrets

[Mick Harper]

It is time, I think, we decided that all sea stacks and sea-arches (fallen or extant) are artificial and proceed accordingly. Mother-and-daughters, the three fates etc etc are just folk names for what are -- if you look carefully at Mac's pic



waymarkers telling mariners how to proceed (or where not to proceed). And don't ignore the juxtaposed headland either. Though I suppose it could just be art.

[Mick Harper]

I don't suppose banging the bell-shaped rock would make a sound, would it?

[macausland]

I don't know if she would ring or sing or not but I've been looking, without success, for the report that came out a few years ago in which archaeologists of the more adventurous kind climbed up some sea stacks off the Scottish coast and found the remains of ancient fires.

They didn't know why anybody would have lit fires there. I think meals were mentioned. But why anybody in ancient times would climb a sea stack to have a meal is beyond me unless it was for the view. I would imagine these would have been beacons. Whether the stack was isolated from the land or formed part of an ancient headland is another thing.

Anyway I couldn't find the article but I came across this related to Jersey.

http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba114/m ... vels.shtml

Discussing La Hougue Bie the writer wonders why the Romans never seem to have settled there and then discusses this prehistoric burial chamber.

'This is one of those tombs or monuments where the sunlight floods down the passage on a specific date in the year – in this case the rising of the sun at the spring and autumn equinoxes. But this monument also seems to have been "Christianised" later, as there is a medieval chapel built on the top of the mound.'

This seems to be the typical response to something unknown and strange. Something which should 'ring bells' so to speak is glossed over as the writer gets on to the important stuff and even then seems to lose his investigative facilities. It is revealing though that it is acknowledged that floodlight flooding into ancient burial mounds is quite common.

[Boreades]

Stone the crows?

Especially for Mick.

A truly excellent video (taken from a BBC wildlife programme) of a crow using tools to solve a complex problem.

http://www.flixxy.com/this-crow-is-the- ... r-seen.htm

I'm sure I work with some humans who wouldn't be able to solve that problem.

[Mick Harper]

And yet when I claim the Megalithics stationed crows at crossroads to tell travellers which route to take, people fall about laughing.

[Boreades]

And yet when I claim the Megalithics stationed crows at crossroads to tell travellers which route to take, people fall about laughing.

Don't take it personally.

They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian. They're not laughing now.

[hvered]

At least Mick makes (some) people laugh. The problem with most megalithic researchers is they're humourless.

[macausland]

Oh no they're not.

[Boreades]

We should tell them about megalithic football and what Quoits were for.


So that's what all the round objects in the Orkneys were for!
Obviously it needed some megalithic Scots to get the engineering right.

[hvered]

The Orkney stones look like the stone spheres found in cleared jungle in Costa Rica which are perfectly round and, as no one knows what they were for, purportedly mystical. Do you think there's any connection?

Commentators (English ones anyway) keep telling us that Brazilian football began when some football-mad civil servant brought a football with him in the nineteenth century. Another great public-school sport, lacrosse, was the other way round though it's only played by girls so probably doesn't count.