The Sunday News
Cultural heritage with Pathisa Nyathi
THE story of stones is vast, more so when we consider the varied origins, chemical composition, differing solidities, occurrence in geographical space and related orientation, such as the vertical or horizontal position in relation to the ground, altitude where quarried, uprightness, inter alia.
These considerations in isolation and severally do influence the use to which the rocks are put. There is congruence between the rock attributes and the cognition and worldview of the community which underpin the functionality of rocks. There is thus some very critical interplay between the natural attributes of rock and the thought perceptions that the users of rock hold.
We have already dealt with bluestones and their natural attributes and the use to which they were put, initially in Wales and later at Stonehenge. To some extent we unpacked their attributes which tallied with the thought patterns of the creators and builders of stone circles whether in Europe (Germany for example) or in Africa (the Nabta Playa on the border between Egypt and Sudan). In a later article we shall avail readers with ideas attending the world’s oldest astronomy megalith and what researchers think the stone circle was created and built for.
Before we do that let us turn to stones other than the bluestones quarried from the Presell Hills in Western Wales. Researchers have not done adequate work on the sarsens which partly originated in Wales and partly in England at the Marlborough Downs. The stones in question, whether quarried from Wales or England are sandstones. There is some indication that some of the sandstones (orthostats) were quarried along the way from Wales en route to the Salisbury Plain. This, it is argued, may be a pointer to the fact that, that the route used to get the stones to Stonehenge was the overland route.
There were indeed sandstones that were quarried in Wales and joined the load of bluestones being transported to England.
Our interest lies in rock types and perceived natural attributes which help us to appreciate why they were used in the manner they were used. Sandstone orthostats (uprights) were more colossal than the bluestones. Upon the arrival of the more colossal sand iconic sarsens they partly replaced or resulted in the re-arrangement of the earlier bluestones.
What is important is to note that the bluestones were not entirely replaced. In their re-arrangement they maintained the circular design or its reconfigured forms such as the horse-shoe, curvilinear form, lozenge, the crescent and other manifestations of the pervasive circular design that is the basic design and building block both on the terrestrial and cosmic planes.
The sarsens from England and Wales are sandstones. They differ from the bluestones in the way of their origin.
Whereas bluestones were igneous (fire) in origin, the sarsens as sandstones were formed under different conditions.
There was weathering of pre-existing rocks. The weathered stone particles were then transported through the agency of flowing liquid water, moving ice (such as ice glaciers) and wind. When the energy in the transporting agencies began dissipating velocity reduced and as a result suspended particles began settling(being deposited) to constitute sedimentary rocks such as sandstones. When the deposited layers increased in volume, due to heat and pressure the sedimentary rocks were transformed into stronger metamorphic rocks.
However, with regard to the stones we are interested in, these did not transform to a stronger from. What is important for now is to contrast and compare the two types of rocks with a view to explaining their use in relation to their perceived rock attributes. The first comparison relates to the fact that sandstones are as much stone as the igneous dolerites and rhyolites. As stones they are expressions of eternity-the Rock of Ages on account of their solidity. Clearly, the dolerites have higher solidity and thus a stronger representation of eternity than the sarsen sandstones.
Where the cultural landscape encompasses eternity, one expects the dolerite and rhyolite bluestones to be used in the inner stone circles which are the equivalent of the “holy of holies” where spiritual leaders have exclusive access. In addition to rock solidity, the two different stones were uprights, meaning they were standing stones. The cultural meaning to that has already been explained.
A columnar stone slab (male) thrust into the ground/earth (female) expresses sexuality which symbolises eternity, continuity, endlessness and perpetuity. Another aspect of comparison relates to altitude. However, I have not been able to get information regarding the position of quarry sites. All we can reiterate is that the higher the altitude the higher the energy levels of the quarried stones. The argument here is that the higher the altitude of the source of stones the higher their perceived potency.
The advantage that the sarsens have over the bluestones was their magnitude. They are, even to this day, the identity markers of Stonehenge. The Altar Stone, the most colossal and enigmatic of the stones and the trilithons are sandstones. It is important to relate origin of stone and its potency.
Sandstones were formed under life-inducing circumstances. Water, in liquid or solid states is the primary element. Life began in water prior to relocating to dry land. Where spirituality is a consideration, water plays a role. There are spirits such as the mermaid which are associated with water. Water itself is an expression of eternity. It has the capacity to exit in three different states.
This is an attribute that we perceive as expressing eternity. The question is which, between igneous and sedimentary rocks, express more cogently solidity and therefore eternity? Whichever is considered better suited would be selected to constitute the more central stone circles where rituals take place, the areas of restricted access. The rituals whose timing was informed by position of celestial bodies in terms of movement and position were not part of public ceremony. The defined spaces differ in their ritual strength, purity and potency and the rocks best expressing eternity are used in matters spiritual. The Kalanga and Mthatheho examples used in spiritual propitiation were dolerites.
What then is the story behind magnitude? Here we should appreciate that what we seen as a built environment is a manifestation of mental ideological developments Size is a measure of changing ideas regarding cognitive transformations. The stone circles in Wales seem to have been much smaller. Stonehenge was initially smaller when the bluestones were the only stones being used. In terms of expressions of solidity and hence eternity, they were suitable. But in order to match the new grandeur and social complexity and perceived power, the sarsens were better suited.
One would therefore expect the sarsens to constitute the external circle which looms large and visible from afar. There was thus balance in terms of locating the different types of stones in relation to their expressions of eternity and power. Growing political power needed to be stamped on the physical landscape while the smaller stones found their way to the “holy of holies: where they expressed spiritual essence.
