Thursday 1 August 2013

Brodgar Lozenge

Exciting news of a neolithic engraved stone discovered at the Ness of Brodgar.
"Decoration on stones from Orkney from the Neolithic period is almost entirely angular and shares a commonality with the decoration found on Grooved Ware ceramics."

Reminds me of something else as well....
The Bush Barrow Lozenge

3 comments:

  1. "Decoration on stones from Orkney from the Neolithic period is almost entirely angular and shares a commonality with the decoration found on Grooved Ware ceramics."

    That's seriously interesting Tim. This shape looks to be very similar to bronze age metalwork at Stonehenge. Is it possible that there is some similarity between this and motifs elsewhere which link together a common thread?

    I guess any researcher wanting to find out would have to look at all of the early stage neolithic monuments which reference this type of pattern and then work out what all those monuments have in common in order to come up with a theory which could explain the sequence?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This geometric triangular/chevron design is similar to that on the Neolithic chalk plaques from King Barrow Ridge,and many Grooved Ware designs as stated. Also found in stone carvings on earlier monuments in Brittany, Ireland and Wales along with circular and spiral designs again later found on Grooved Ware. From the Mesolithic post found in the Rhonda valley recently it seems the tradition may go back further in Britain on timber structures,(mesolithic posts at Stonehenge Car Park?) and there are also similar designs amongst the animal carvings at Gobekli Tepe and further back in cave art, I also came across very similar designs in Taino drawings on caves in Jamaica which are from 1200-1500AD and I would think there are many more examples.
      This suggests that these designs are innately linked symbols in the human mind, the Taino triangular symbols which are amongst animal and human representations may have represented the sea or water.

      Delete
  2. This suggests that these designs are innately linked symbols in the human mind

    Quite: It is very strong suggestion. So much so that, if another explanation were apparent, it would be almost impossible to separate it out from this most obvious suggestion?

    ReplyDelete