Who Built The Stones?

[Mick Harper]

Oh, come on, Borry, think it through. I do not normally indulge in semantics. Of course the Church rested on the secular arm whenever it could but we are dealing with a time when either physical force was absent or it was fractured. In fact it was the Arians (for example) that had the physical force because most of the post-Roman 'barbarian' regimes were in fact Arians.

But in any case the Catholic Church is surely sufficiently versed in history to know that the secular arm is a very slender, all-too-temporary, reed to rely on. Ideology, a monopoly ideology, is a much safer long-term bet. As I think history demonstrates.

[Boreades]

[Boreades]

[Boreades]

Tisi might be able to guide us on all things to do with sheep in Yorkshire.

But mention of "foreign and particularly Italian (more specifically Florentine and Lucchese) merchant societies often in return for huge sums of liquid capital" reminds me that these were part of international trading empires that preferred to by-pass local rules and taxes.

[TisILeclerc]

[Boreades]

Just because it's Sunday lunchtime I suppose

But what about the long distance sheep herding?

[hvered]

[TisILeclerc]

We are faced with a problem.

We know that our ancestors were busy chipping flints and eating berries. Unless they were also hunting deer.

We know that after the ice age they moved north from their refuges wherever they were.

We know that a variety of cultures and peoples came later.

I am happy to be called a hunter gatherer. Or at least the descendant of these people. I am ignorant.

But we also know that at Orkney they were building huge stone structures. Not one, but many. And all perfectly formed.

We can explain the buildings because we understand the need for buildings. Circles are a bit more problematic. Why would they do that?

And they did it all the way down to the south coast of England.

Did my ancestors watch them as they were roasting venison and wonder what it was all about? I don't know but I can't see them building anything. Although they may have supplied the builders with food. Someone had to.

So we have the hunters and gatherers who were here until the farmers came and the builders.

And how did the builders build? We don't know. Even the clever people don't know. They don't know who, how, why or anything else.

And all this was going on just after the ice age. Where did these people come from and where did they get their knowledge and expertise. Anyone can catch a rabbit but not anyone can build Stonehenge for example. And how many people were there?

According to the experts there can't have been many people. It's not logical.

What we should be examining is what was happening before the ice age. Assuming we can. Because the knowledge of these people could never have been developed while struggling for survival under those conditions.

[Boreades]

[Boreades]