Geomythography
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Stuart McHardy Centre for Open Learning Lecture notes 04/11/20 Geomythography The interpretation of prehistoric and later societies through a combination of oral tradition, place-names, landscape analysis and archaeology. The process is a means of finding new perspectives and interpretations to further the understanding of early societies. The process of geomythography is rooted in the awareness that the passing on of tradition in pre-literate societies is, though time and locale specific, predicated on certain realities. In many cases, such as Scotland, communities have survived within the same environment over remarkable periods of time. This has created a rootedness, not just in terms of physical environment but in socio-psychological terms that have led to considerable depths of continuity between the generations. This can perhaps be understood as an ongoing cultural relationship with the physical environment which exists simultaneously at an individual and communal level. One way of understanding this is to see ‘ancestor worship’ not as something inherently religious but something much more akin to respect, respect for those who paved the way for contemporary society, physically – by handing on prepared ground with the knowledge of how to use it, much as understanding of how to read the weather was passed on – and significantly in the field of human inter-relatedness with that environment. The respect for the ancestors in traditional societies is accompanied by sense of responsibility towards coming generations who are expected to perpetuate the continuity of the community. We must also remember that humans are animals and that the rootedness of such communities is matched by the rootedness of individuals within such communities. This in turn created an attachment to the land that was essentially visceral rather than intellectual. What is known as Diaspora poetry and song underlines this cultural reality in many cultures. In Building The Great Stone Circles of the North, Colin Richards makes the following point when writing about folklore associated with ancient monuments, Stuart McHardy Centre for Open Learning Lecture notes 04/11/20 ’objects become invested with meaning through the social interactions they are caught up in. These meanings change and are renegotiated through the life of an object…..those things are always in the process of becoming; in this sense we can say, monuments are always in the making through discourse.’ [2013, p292] This is particularly relevant in those societies and locales where the population remain essentially localised over long periods of time as appears to have been the situation in most of Scotland pre the 18th century. People loved on the land inhabited by their ancestors. Within the clan system, which apparently arose directly from earlier forms of tribal society, local beliefs may well have been handed down over truly remarkable lengths of time. It has been established in Australia that some of the traditional stories of the aboriginal population may well have originated over thirty thousand years ago (N). The dates of flint scatter from Elsrickle at 1200 BCE suggest the possibility that some of the material in Scottish folklore tradition may well have considerable antiquity. What is of considerable import is that as Richards points out ‘the monuments are in the making” and effectively have been for a long time, This can only have helped to reinforce important locales within contemporary culture time and gain. So places associated with supernatural figures like the paps have become the focus of a range of sociological and communal constructs and as they are still prominent in the landscape their everyday cultural relevance continued to very recently. Appendix A shows the variety of such constructs that can be, and have been associated with some of these sites, going far beyond the out-dated notion that everything on the top of a hill must have been a military structure. There is also a level of practicality that can be discerned in much of what is considered to be mythological thinking. Who created the land? Who made humankind? Who controls the weather? These are fundamental questions for all human societies and in much early mythological construct we can see that the explanations of such deep questions are based on a practical approach to the environment and how to survive in it. It is a fundamental tenet of the geomythographic approach that we retain an awareness of both practicality and continuity in dealing with early human society. In The Pagan Symbols of the Picts I presented an interpretation of the symbols based on the concept of an underlying Weltanschaung based round the idea that life itself was driven by a force that was essentially feminine. This idea was specifically based round interpretation of material relating to those sites known in Scotland as Paps. (see Appendix A)These breast shaped hills, perhaps deliberately echoed in localised ritual mounds, are the locales of what I have referred to as ‘clusters”(see Appendix B) These clusters include a considerable range of different examples of human interaction with these specific locales and include the breast shapes themselves - perhaps perceived of as deliberately shaped by the Goddess figure associated with landscape creation; the stories of powerful female (and sometimes male) figures associated with the locales; ancient monuments suggestive of ritualised behaviour; place-names referring to mythological and legendary figures; oral traditions referring to weather patterns linked to the role of the powerful female figures as weather-workers. What is clear is that these Pap sites conform to the ideas suggested by Bradley in The Archaeology of the Natural World MORE? It has also become clear (see Carlin Maggie below) is that the some sites seem to have been the foci of a further level of interaction where specific viewpoints bring extra levels of interpretation. Just as the Paps themselves are the focus of belief through stories of the powerful supernatural beings associated with them, so it seems they had extra layers of meaning when seen from specific locales. The extent of how much this interfaces with solar and lunar alignments – as appears to be the case with the Carlin Maggie site - is something that merits further investigation. The following are examples of the discoveries made in the development of this process. Stuart McHardy Centre for Open Learning Lecture notes 04/11/20 Uamh nan Deargan, Scarba The name translates as Cave of the little Red One and I visited it the first time because in the tale of Mac Iain Direach in Campbell’s Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1994 reprint) V2 p93 collected circa 1860, the action, while supposedly set on Jura, actually starts as Creagan nan Deargan which is on Scarba. This tale is full of interesting mythological material, some of it linked directly to the Paps of Jura, which are themselves significant in pre-Christian thought. Arriving there you walk through a natural stone arch in the outcrop known as Creagan nan Deargan and are immediately below the entrance to a cave. Stone arch looking north east Cave The cave is not far from the opening of the Gulf of Corryvreckan, between Scarba and Jura, which contains the world’s third biggest whirlpool and is associated with the Cailleach, a supernatural female figure, the traditions regarding whom suggest was originally a goddess type figure. A major fault line which cuts across the entire island runs through the roof of the cave and its name Uamh nan Deargan, the Cave of the Little Red One, may be related to the fact that the northern side of the cave is composed of red-streaked rock. several suggestions have been made that this may have been a ‘birthing cave.” The fact that the floor of the cave is flat and smooth is clear indication of human activity here, and initial investigation suggests at least as far back as the Neolithic. The evidence of human occupation is confirmed by scorch marks from a long term hearth fire on the northern wall. Skull Within the cave itself is a naturally-occurring outcrop of stone closely resembling an upside down human skull. It is approximately the right size for a new-born baby and is in the cleft of rock that forms the cave itself. The cave’s name. the upside down skill shape and the red- streaked rock combined lead to the speculative possibility of this having been some sort of birthing site. It’s proximity to the Corryvreckan and its association with a goddess figure perhaps reinforce this, especially as the Cailleach in some surviving tales is clearly presented as a dual figure whose other half is Bride, the Goddess of Summer and a striking symbol of fertility and rebirth. Lochnagar In the summer of 2011 I went to Lochnagar with my son Roderick. The intention was to look at Meikle Pap. The name Lochnagar was given to the mountain in the 19th century supposedly to avoid embarrassing Queen Victoria, who purchased the Balmoral estate in 184?, by using its earlier name Beann na Ciochan, the hill of the paps or breasts, there being Little Pap south of Meikle Pap. This is of course similar to the name of Bennachie, which is likewise named for its prominent nipple shaped peak nowadays known as Mither Tap, but earlier as Mither Pap. This underlines the association with the Cailleach/Carlin the landscape-shaping and weather-working supernatural female of both Gaelic and Scots tradition. She is commemorated on the Lochnagar massif by the place-names Caisteal na Caillich – another lesser peak of the massif - and Allt na Caileach the stream which runs northwards along Glen Muick. The name Glen Muick may also have some significance as I have pointed out (PSOP) that there were strong traditional associations between Goddess type figures and porcine animals.