What was Callanish for?

The Callanish No 1 stone settings, seen from the air

How about this for an hypothesis? "If you draw a straight line from stone 2 to stone 5 of the Callanish Circle, it hits the horizon at the precise location of the brightest star in the constellation Magnus Minor on the 5th day of February every 54th year. This suggests that the builders of the circle were technically very advanced, with a detailed knowledge of the heavens, and that the tribal groups involved performed certain rituals on every occasion that this auspicious event occurred. It also suggests that the movements of the stars, and not the sun, were the events that governed the key ceremonies of the tribal year."

OK -- that's all a bit far-fetched, but it's not all that far removed from the most popular hypothesis relating to the PURPOSE of Callanish.

According to at least some of the literature, Callanish is where it is, and is designed as it is, because the moon skims especially low over the southern the horizon once every 18.6 years, "dancing along the distant hills like a great god visiting the earth." So, the theory goes, those who were blessed with the knowledge of this event (the proto-astronomers) were invested with earthly authority by simple folks whose daily lives were governed by the great cycles of the tides, the seasons, the movements of the sun and the moon and the stars. As fas as romantic twaddle goes, this is almost as delightful as the Magnus Minor hypothesis.

So let's get real here. The stone setting as we see it today consists of the following elements:

1. A circle that is not quite circular or symmetrical, with irregularly spaced stones of many different heights, and a large central monolith that is not quite in the centre of the ring.

2. A southern stone row with irregularly spaced monoliths which is almost aligned N-S, but which is actually slightly curved.

3. An avenue consisting of 19 stones on the northern side of the "circle" -- with two rows that are not parallel. They are actually converging towards the circle. Again, the spacing of the stones is quite irregular. There are considerable gaps in these rows -- have the missing stones been removed, or were they never put up in the first place?

4. Two short alignments of stones roughly at right angles to the avenue, one to the west of the circle and one to the east. They are not truly aligned E-W, and the one is not lined up with the other. They are actually a little to the south of the centre of the circle, and so the big central stone is not on an alignment of either the western arm or the eastern one. Again the spacing of stones in these arms is irregular, and there appear to be gaps.

5. There are two eccentric stones to the south of the stone circle, one to the west of the southern row and the other to the east of it.

The Callanish stone "circle", seen from the centre of the avenue

Some of the stones of the "circle", with the tallest central stone left of centre.  The ruins of the chambered cairn are irrelevant to the present discussion.

The magnificent central stone and some of the others of the circle.  Here we also see the ruins of the chambered cairn.

The stones are mightily impressive, but if truth be told the settings are a bit of a shambles, and one has to do a great deal of stretching of credibility to see any precise geometrical arrangements at Callanish, let alone any attempt on the part of the builders to align their stones with auspicious heavenly happenings.

So what was Callanish for?  I can understand why Colin Richards now says that the final form of the monument was not important in places like Callanish --  indeed, why would lots of clever people want to build a stone monument in which nothing quite fits, and in which the circle is not circular, and the lines are all curved and wobbly?  One would have to conclude that they were either careless or incompetent, or even plain stupid. So if you want to maintain a belief in the cleverness of your Neolithic tribesmen, you might well argue instead, as Colin has done, that the final form was immaterial and that the REAL reason for Callanish lies in the skillful quarrying of the stones from auspicious places and the transportation of said stones to a single place where they could be used as status symbols or for ritual purposes.  The ACTIVITIES themselves were the things that mattered, creating social coherence and demonstrating the organizational abilities of the leaders and the technical skills of the workers.

Hmmm.  Don't like any of that either.  It's almost as fanciful as the Magnus Minor hypothesis. Colin is shifting the centre of attention from the stone settings in the ground to the quarries.  That means he has to find quarries by hook or by crook............ even if there aren't any........

So here's my theory.  The Callanish stone settings are where they are because that is where the stones were.  A lot of STONE GATHERING went on (I use that term quite deliberately, instead of the term "quarrying", since the latter implies a degree of technical skill and organization that I currently see no sign of).  The broad ridge to the north of the glaciated rocky knoll called Cnoc an Tursa was relatively dry and stable, with sediments thick enough for stone sockets.  There was also a good solid surface for dragging and arranging the stones into the positions chosen for the stone settings.  I think the builders were attracted by patterns and not alignments, although there may have been some desire to align the axis of the monument  with the highest point reached by the sun in the middle of summer, with the avenue directed roughly towards the darkest part of the winter sky.  The cross arms might have been deliberately pointed roughly towards the equinox sunset and sunrise. The emphasis is on the word "roughly" -- and I do not think that the builders were especially bothered about accuracy.

Given that a lot of human effort was expended here at Callanish, what was it for?  We may never know the answer to that, and we can speculate till the Highland cattle come home about rituals, but I think Callanish was all about status -- built by people who simply wanted to impress their neighbours.  A grand folly, just like all the other grand follies that continue to be built by arrogant (and even mad) people to this day.

The stones are mightily impressive, but if truth be told the settings are a bit of a shambles, and one has to do a great deal of stretching of credibility to see any precise geometrical arrangements at Callanish, let alone any attempt on the part of the builders to align their stones with auspicious heavenly happenings.

So what was Callanish for? I can understand why Colin Richards now says that the final form of the monument was not important in places like Callanish -- indeed, why would lots of clever people want to build a stone monument in which nothing quite fits, and in which the circle is not circular, and the lines are all curved and wobbly? One would have to conclude that they were either careless or incompetent, or even plain stupid. So if you want to maintain a belief in the cleverness of your Neolithic tribesmen, you might well argue instead, as Colin has done, that the final form was immaterial and that the REAL reason for Callanish lies in the skillful quarrying of the stones from auspicious places and the transportation of said stones to a single place where they could be used as status symbols or for ritual purposes. The ACTIVITIES themselves were the things that mattered, creating social coherence and demonstrating the organizational abilities of the leaders and the technical skills of the workers.

Hmmm. Don't like any of that either. It's almost as fanciful as the Magnus Minor hypothesis. Colin is shifting the centre of attention from the stone settings in the ground to the quarries. That means he has to find quarries by hook or by crook............ even if there aren't any........

So here's my theory. The Callanish stone settings are where they are because that is where the stones were. A lot of STONE GATHERING went on (I use that term quite deliberately, instead of the term "quarrying", since the latter implies a degree of technical skill and organization that I currently see no sign of). The broad ridge to the north of the glaciated rocky knoll called Cnoc an Tursa was relatively dry and stable, with sediments thick enough for stone sockets. There was also a good solid surface for dragging and arranging the stones into the positions chosen for the stone settings. I think the builders were attracted by patterns and not alignments, although there may have been some desire to align the axis of the monument with the highest point reached by the sun in the middle of summer, with the avenue directed roughly towards the darkest part of the winter sky. The cross arms might have been deliberately pointed roughly towards the equinox sunset and sunrise. The emphasis is on the word "roughly" -- and I do not think that the builders were especially bothered about accuracy.

Given that a lot of human effort was expended here at Callanish, what was it for? We may never know the answer to that, and we can speculate till the Highland cattle come home about rituals, but I think Callanish was all about status -- built by people who simply wanted to impress their neighbours. A grand folly, just like all the other grand follies that continue to be built by arrogant (and even mad) people to this day.

Watch this space -- now that I have stopped travelling, I'll soon put up another post about the geology and landscape of Callanish, with some further thoughts on the purpose of the stone settings.