Lengthy earlier than the pyramids of Egypt and England’s Stonehenge have been even conceived, a functioning prehistoric ritual website was inbuilt Neolithic instances in Scotland, which is known for its many megalithic standing stones. In keeping with the specialists, an “monumental historical ritual website” is suspected to lie beneath the topsoil of the west facet of the Isle of Arran.

The Isle of Arran is an archaeologist’s playground and boasts a number of the oldest and highest standing stones in northern Europe. Arran can also be house to one of the vital intense concentrations of Neolithic burial tombs and monuments within the UK. Farmers terraformed the island way back to 6,000 years in the past.

Furthermore, the Isle of Arran was “world well-known” for its pitchstone (a boring black glassy volcanic rock just like obsidian), which was used because the uncooked materials for making numerous objects from the Mesolithic by means of the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.

A staff of archaeologists engaged on the Scottish island are presently trying to find a “large-scale ritual website.” In keeping with a report in The Scotsman historical folks from distant areas throughout Britain made pilgrimages to this website as early as “5,000 years in the past.” However this was no peculiar sacred website. The archaeologists stated the attendees would have witnessed “a dramatic present of ceremony,” in keeping with The Scotsman.

Archaeologists and volunteers investigating the location of the doable cursus monument. (The Scotsman)

The Isle of Arran’s Drumadoon “Afterlife Matrix”

The Neolithic interval (10,000–4,500 BC) was a time of serious social and cultural change within the historical world. In Scotland, the Neolithic period occurred about 4000 BC with the primary types of farming and everlasting settlement.

Within the Neolithic interval people worshipped a large pantheon of looking spirits, who have been believed to guard fresh-water springs, fish-abundant rivers and mushroom patches. In addition they worshipped omnipotent farming deities who “ruled” the seasons. Collectively, these non secular views resulted within the erection of many nice standing stones, which symbolically symbolize the union of the earth (fields) with the sky.

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A typical scene on the west facet of the Isle of Arran: two megalithic standing stones surrounded by fertile agricultural fields. (Matthias / Adobe Inventory)

Greater than a millennia earlier than a single stone was reduce for the Nice Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, geometrically sound stone monuments have been being raised amidst the ample agricultural landscapes of the Isle of Arran.

Right here, on this distant Scottish island lots of of generations of regional chiefs and rising non secular leaders have been buried inside a matrix of historical websites.

The chambered cairns of Drumadoon Level are usually not removed from the King’s Caves of the Isle of Arran, that are pictured right here from the skin. (swen_stroop / Adobe Inventory)

The Isle of Arran’s Machrie Moor and the Drumadoon Cairns

An article on Arrange O Park says complicated historical timber circles, Bronze Age stone circles, and standing stones have been found at Machrie Moor, on the west coast of the Isle of Arran. However extra related to us right here is the neighboring website of Drumadoon and its 28 chambered cairns. These stone burial chambers functioned as a backdrop for demise rituals and rites.

The archaeologists inspecting the Drumadoon website say that in some instances rituals occurred at sure cairns “over lots of of years.”

An aerial laser scan has revealed an 800-meter-long (2625-foot-long) slope on Drumadoon Level. Two earth banks, measuring 7-8 meters (23-26 ft) vast and round half a meter (1.6 ft) excessive, type lengthy parallel rows, which is a characteristic additionally discovered at Stonehenge and lots of different Neolithic websites in Britain.

For so long as archaeologists have been digging, the unique perform of so-called cursus monuments has been debated. However it appears sure these monuments marked off sacred areas, and that they served as phases for historical ancestor worship.

Nonetheless, cursus monuments are additionally astronomically important of their orientation and alignment. Due to this fact, they may additionally, in some instances, have served as time-keeping gadgets.

A Neolithic standing stone on Machrie Moor which may be seen from the highest of Drumadoon Level. (Campo / Adobe Inventory)

Drumadoon’s Cursus Monument: “Dying” Rites and Processions

A report in Daily Record says the cursus monument at Drumadoon was amongst different issues used for “processions linked to the honouring of the useless.” The in depth Drumadoon cursus overlooks the Machrie Moor stone circle positioned about one kilometer (0.62 miles) east and inland. This implies the 2 websites may need labored in tandem throughout community-wide ceremonies and rituals.

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Professor Kenny Brophy, a professor of archaeology on the College of Glasgow, informed The Scotsman, “Cursus monuments appeared to convey folks collectively in a giant labour mission.”

Earlier than it grew to become a sacred website, and a beacon of demise rites throughout prehistoric Britain, the Drumadoon website required clearing, levelling and digging. And all this was achieved with instruments product of stone, wooden, and bone. As soon as accomplished, a sacred area was created for demise associated rituals and ceremonies.

Dr Brophy suggests the cursus may need used just like the “demise roads” of medieval Britain, which linked church buildings with graveyards. In reference to this, Professor Brophy stated, “Lifeless our bodies might have been moved from one finish to the opposite [of the Drumadoon cursus].”

High picture: Machrie Moor on the Isle of Arran at sundown with two magnificent standing stones within the foreground. Supply: swen_stroop / Adobe Inventory

By Ashley Cowie