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AFTER doing some labour on Stonehenge to a point where I penned a book titled Journey to Stonehenge, last week I received a precious gift, as precious as the earlier one. Both were books on the iconic English World Heritage Site (WHS) located within the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.
The first book, written by Mike Parker Pearson was titled, Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery. Mike is a Professor in Archaeology at the University of London College.
Professor Jocelyn Alexander gave me the second book. Joss is from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. The book, penned by Francis Pryor is titled Stonehenge: The Story of a Sacred Landscape. The book is just the kind of stuff that I cherish and hold dear. One may begin to wonder just what my interest is in an ancient English cultural landscape belonging to the Neolithic Age (4 000-2 400 BC).
I have a keen interest and an insatiable desire to learn more about prehistory. That was the time when the ancients, as I have discovered, shared a common view of the world, a common thought and, a common philosophy.
As a result, their cultural practices were comparable. The ancient Egyptians, the Mayans, the Incas, and the Aztec shared some common stone structures and related spiritual and cultural practices.
Besides, I have an interest in what I have termed Ancient African Science (AAS) that I will visit with a view to unpacking and understanding the applicable Laws, Principles, Rules and Elements of Physics and Quantum Physics that govern the science. What principles are at work when several witches and wizards take off Chitundumuseresere style in a winnowing basket?
I pray they spare me until I have unpacked their ancient profession, science and craft that lies at the heart of the profession that defies the force of gravity and friction. It is my intention, when I am done with the “Journey to the Stars” to venture into the fascinating and tantalising spiritual field and profession of witchcraft. Another journey beyond the stars is beckoning.
This is not all. It dawns on me that a well-grounded understanding of African Thought and resulting cultural practices relies on better-informed archaeological findings.
Mike’s book lay at home gathering some thick grime. One day I dusted the book and cursorily flipped through some of the pages. What captured my interest on that day was to discover the African Mind at the Stonehenge.
In addition to that, I found the author and his colleagues in the Stonehenge Riverside Project had made some breakthrough in explaining and interpreting the cultural landscape by listening and taking on board ideas from one Ramilisonina, known just as Ramil to his friends in the Archaeology field.
Essentially, what he had told Mike when they worked together on a project in Malagasy where there still exist some chamber tombs related to stones, wood transience and eternity. Stones were used in relation to the ancestors while wood was used for the living.
The Stonehenge had the two aspects, standing stone circles made out of sarsen stones quarried from the Marlborough Plains. In addition, there were stone circles made out of the smaller bluestones quarried and transported to the Salisbury Plain from south-western Wales. At the Stonehenge, there were found the remains of the departed ancestors.
Cremated bones were found within the ditch and bank that surrounded the Stones. At the Stonehenge, there were wooden structures, the Woodenhenge and the Durrington Walls. The wooden structures were built for the living whose sojourn on earth was ephemeral or transient. That is precisely what Africa posited.
An answer had been found. The Stonehenge itself was devoted to the ancestral spirits while the wooden henges accommodated the living who were constructing the Stonehenge.
That was an African practice. Stones, because of their solidity and resistance to weathering, symbolise eternity. On African graves, stones are/were placed on earth mounds. In England, in addition, the graves were made as mounds and grave designs changed over time.
Some were circular, just like those of the Ndebele people in the pre-colonial times.
Later, some were elongated causewayed enclosures. The sizes of stones used in both instances do not take away anything because of the Law of Representation.
To this day stones are gathered and brought near the grave by women. It was a conscious decision to make it in that design. The people would have flattened it if they had so decided. The design they opted for had a meaning with regard to the spirit that was undertaking a journey to the other world.
It is worth noting that Francis was bold enough to declare that the Stonehenge landscape was sacred one. Mike on the other hand was circumspect though their research findings were quite elaborate. In my own book on Stonehenge, I did not hesitate to declare that the cultural landscape was spiritual. It vindicates me when Francis too sees what I saw.
Two research projects were undertaken. One was the Stonehenge Riverside Project led by Mike. There was another one titled, The Stonehenge Environs Project, that was undertaken in 1990. It was the second project that assumed an African holistic approach. One Chikomo from Harare revealed that approach to me when I published his book on Seashell Divination.
There are several varieties of divination methodologies in terms of objects that are made use of. Some people, seeking to identify the illness that is troubling an individual use wooden tablets, amathambo/hakata. Others use seashells as already indicated.
There are also halves of peach-like kernels that have been prized open. At times, it is a combination of all three. Of course, others resort to direct possession where the spirit commiserates with those seeking divination.
The objects used are coded and when they fall, their combinations have messages that they convey. What will happen is that a group of seashells may cluster and fall in a particular way. Several probabilities or combinations litter the surface that may be a mat, animal skin or something else.
What is important is that each has a story based on the manner of falling. Some may fall on each other. However, the bottom line is that each set tells an aspect or sub-story.
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When the sub-stories, each represented by a particular combination, the totality of all clusters, each with its own story, end up with a comprehensive, all embracing and complete story that the diviner will tell to those seeking divination.
Each cluster is equivalent to the secondary cultural landform found around the major or central or primary cultural landform on its own can never tell a full story. In combination, the primary cultural landform and the secondary cultural landforms, together will all other cultural landforms will complement and reinforce each other to present a comprehensive and complete story of the cultural landscape such as the Stonehenge.
The primary cultural landform on its own will not render a satisfactory explanation and interpretation. Cultural landforms are integrated and constitute a scintillating and vibrant completely. That is the holistic approach to divination in Africa.
It is important to realise that below built cultural landforms there are landscapes of a terrestrial nature. The ancients were alert to these and had the capacity to detect them despite their being invisible above ground level. These days there are advanced scanning technologies that see what is below ground level. Some of these make use of magnetic susceptibility and aerial surveys.
it is the same with divination regardless of its type. A total story emerges when the secondary stories are put together. Similarly, when the cultural landforms around Stonehenge were investigated through the Stonehenge Environs Project, a total story and purposes of the entire cultural landform is understood as each cultural landform has its own distinct role that builds towards the overall purposes and functionalities of Stonehenge.
Where cultural landforms are viewed as separate and independent of each other, it is difficult to come up with a satisfactory explanation and interpretation of a cultural landscape.
The ancients knew that their cultural landforms sometimes had to be sited on particular underground features that would complement the top cultural features.
For example, without using advanced technologies, they knew what geological attributes or features lay below ground level. For example, it was the case at Stonehenge.
At its north-eastern entranceway which was in alignment with the midsummer solstice that was in turn, in alignment with the midwinter solstice. Thus, the siting of Stonehenge was a deliberate and conscious decision made after a careful identification process seeking to unpack the geological qualities of the underground, the cosmic circumstances and surface features.
Our thrust in this, “Journey to the Stars,” is on celestial bodies. The position of these in relation to chosen sacred sites was important. What this translates to is that the chosen site was a mediated position in relation to several considerations-the heavenly bodies, the geological attributes and surface features.
We turn to that in the next article before we resume our usual journey to the stars.