I did a post the other day about the fine sculpture in Kensington Gardens, London -- well, more of a boulder placement than a sculpture, much discussed with due reverence for the intentions of the sculptors and the nature of the setting. The sculptors admitted that they were trying to mimic nature, having been inspired by seeing perched erratics in Norway.
So, feast your eyes on some other works of nature -- many locations and many origins.
Hampi, India
One of the perched Norber erratics in Yorkshire
One of the castle kopjes of South Africa
Perched erratic boulder, Newfoundland
Perched boulder, New South Wales, Australia
The Devil's Doorway in Wisconsin
Rocklands, South Africa, where huge boulders are used by the mad free-climbing fraternity for their exploits
Boulders on soft sediment pillars, New Mexico, United States
Lego man castle kopje, South Africa
Castle Kopje, South Africa
Perched erratic block, North Salem, New York State, USA
Dragon's Head, Phu Phrabat, NE Thailand
The biggest of the perched erratic blocks, Phu Phrabat, NE Thailand
Another perched erratic block, Phu Phrabat, NE Thailand
Marvellous!
ReplyDeleteBrian,
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing photos! Thanks for that. So what makes the dolmens different from these?
Kostas
Quite a few PERCHED boulders amongst these great photos.
ReplyDeleteBut can any of them be classed as RED HERRINGS?
The Wild Goose, sorry Quarry, Chase, continues in Brian territory......join the League Against Frenzied and Expensive Sport
These pictures are amazing and not stuff i've seen before.
ReplyDeleteClose to home there is also Cantilever stone on Glyder Fach in Snowdonia and much nearer to home there is that shed sized boulder perched on smaller stones near Garn Fawr on Mynydd Dinas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyder_Fach
Thanks for the comments, folks -- yes, that's a nice stone on Glyder Fach, Davey. I seem to remember something similar on Tryfan? Kostas -- there has been some speculation that the perched erratic in New York State is a dolmen. Nice idea, but rather dubious. You would need room under the capstone for a chamber of some sort, and some evidence of human interference (particularly signs of burials) before you could call something a dolmen or a cromlech. That having been said, I reckon that some of the cruder features, sometimes called "sub-Neolithic burial chambers", have simply involved the opportunistic use of convenient perched boulders or slabs of rock that happened to be supported by some smaller stones, allowing a chamber to be created by burrowing underneath. That may be what has happened at Garn Turne.
ReplyDeleteAnd for every breathtakingly beautiful natural sculpture the universe sends us, there's always someone who wants to vandalise it - your post reminded me of the Goblin Valley incident of last year; this video still makes me angry:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYFD18BwmJ4
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI accept the basic stone formation for dolmens may be natural! And only opportunistically used by prehistoric people for burials. Much like people using caves for burials. They did not built the caves. Just used them.
Kostas
Don't distort things, Kostas. I said SOME are probably natural -- most have clearly been "built" and have involved the movement of stones and the use of levers etc to get capstones into position.
ReplyDeleteForgive this tangential comment, but I've just come across a website with some rather lovely stone balancing art by Michael Grab at http://www.gravityglue.com/ which I thought you might enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen -- great fun! And of course there are all the famous things created by Andy Goldsworthy......
ReplyDelete