The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi, Cultural heritage
BEFORE getting to Stonehenge let us refer to two more examples relating to stones in Zimbabwe in order to derive some generic principles. The first example is that which refers to the burial traditions of the Makoni chiefs in Rusape, Manicaland.
Their chiefs, we are told, are buried in caves on a particular mountain. In addition to that, there is some element of embalming the body of a chief, so it was in the olden days. What we do see, once again, is the link between rock, “burial,” spirit, eternity and spirituality. Places of burial assume spiritual significance and the living progeny approach the mountains that are imbued with spiritism to propitiate the living spirits.
The next example comes from the home of late former Chief Mthatheho Marupi. I visited him Gwanda South when I was undertaking research on the Babirwa people some few years back. Within his homestead was a short wooden pole dug into the ground. What seemed significant about the relatively stout and short wooden pole was that its top end had three forks aligned in the same direction.
The resulting wooden trinity seems to bear some spiritual significance, in the same manner as it appears to do in the Bible. However, of relevance to this article is the fact that the spiritual trinity exhibited in the wooden structure is fringed on both sides by two rounded dolerite stones slightly smaller than the size of a soccer ball. Here the spirits were addressed and propitiated.
This compares with a similar structure for a similar purpose among the BaKalanga. In both cases the stones are the dark dolerite. The two examples given above link stone and spirit, while in the first example the aspect of death and cemetery was included.
This is a common phenomenon among several African communities. We shall see whether there are commonalities between African ideas relating to death, (cemetery) stone, spirit and eternity and what used to obtain at Stonehenge.
At Stonehenge the most prominent cultural feature are stones. The question is whether the creators and builders of Stonehenge shared similar ideas with regard to stones their African counterparts.
Research at Stonehenge through application of mineralogy, petrology and geology have revealed the mineral composition of bluestone orthostats (standing stones) that were transported all the way from Western Wales. It is interesting that Mthatheho of the Babirwa and the BaKalanga used stones that compare with the bluestones imported from Wales.
In all three instances volcanic dolerites were chosen for spiritual use. The debitage (stone debris found buried within Stonehenge cultural landscape) have, through these research methodologies, been traced to dolerite outcrops in eastern Wales close to the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. In the main, the bluestones were Rhyolites and dolerites.
It would appear the mineral content of rocks influences perceptions of various rocks by humans and the use to which they accordingly put the rocks. Dolerites are igneous rocks which solidified and crystallised slowly under the surface of the earth.
The ancients somehow knew about the mineral content of rocks though they did not possess electron microscopes and related scientific technologies. In one way or another they were able to figure out the potency and power in rocks such as the dolerites. In the case of Stonehenge the first stones to be arranged into stone circles were the bluestones which were later partly replaced by the larger sarsens quarried in England.
The choice of stones seems to have been determined by mineral composition and that translates, in practical use terms, to varying solidities of stones. Eternity thus was perceived as differing according to solidity, itself determined by chemical composition.
If indeed that was a determinant of the type of stone to use at Stonehenge, it was also true in Africa as demonstrated by Mthatheho’s example and that of the BaKalanga. In the case of both ethnic groups the equivalent dolerites and Rhyolites were associated with spirituality. Would we therefore be wrong to surmise that spiritual considerations abounded at Stonehenge?
The one other aspect of stones that was considered related to standing positions (the orthostats). A look at the bluestones that were quarried at the Craig Rhos-y-felin Neolithic quarry-face were in upstanding slab forms that were pried off through the use of wedges driven into the upright slabs.
Standing rocks in their natural state makes them different. Even before they are quarried, they already possess elements of eternity if we apply the African mind. When such rocks are later, through cultural intervention, dug into the ground so as to stand, they undergo cultural enhancement. The ideas identified earlier, that is those of sexuality, come into play.
If the Welsh ancients embraced similar ideas as Africans what was sought after was eternity through solidity, which consideration had to do with the choice of stone to be used on the basis of its mineral content and the process of formation. For now, we shall park themes of circularity, movement, repetition (of identifiable units within stone circles) and rhythm. At this stage we seek to concentrate on rocks in terms of their properties prior to erection in a particular way, that is, circularity in this particular case.
Regarding stone, what we observe is partial replacement of the bluestones by the larger and more indigenous sarsens. We however, need to appreciate that even as that happened in terms of arrangement in space, similar ideas were applied. The sarsens were dug into the ground, turning them into orthostats.
There was thus no difference in the manner of arrangement between the bluestones and the sarsens. The sarsens were much larger and formed the outer stone circle, with the bluestones forming the inner stone circle.
Before we consider the ideas that we parked the major introduction relates to size. Size has to do with exhibition and display of power: political, economic, social, cultural and spiritual.
There was probably some ideological change or succession that translated to change in the built environment or architecture. History may assist in pinning down the social changes that took place as a result of indigenous or exotic stimuli. Megalithic structures symbolise political power through their colossal nature initiated by the creators and builders of same. At the same time application of stone in architecture reinforces and accentuates the message of political power which is viewed as eternal through perceptions of stone-related attributes resident in architecture.
That Stonehenge is a cemetery is not in doubt. Research has established that beyond any shadow of doubt. The link between death, stone, spirit, eternity and spirituality in Africa is quite clear. This is a link that derives from the embracement of the idea of Duality of Being.
When there are so many similarities between identified elements and their attributes between Stonehenge and African cultural ideologies, how wrong would we be to surmise that, even in this early stage of interpretation, the Stonehenge cultural landscape exhibited the presence of spirituality?
Life and the afterlife are separated by interface and one can be confused with the other.
