I’ll begin by stating that these are just my thoughts, my personal interpretation of a very complex situation.
The archaeological dig at The Cairns, South Ronaldsay is now over – for good.
After 20 years of excavation the site will be infilled and once again become a green field.
Thanks to the work done during the dig, things are known which were not known. Some facts, some inferences, about the lives, diet, resources and interactions with other groups of people, of the folk who lived there when it was occupied as a living space, and then approached as a place of reverence.
At one time it was purposely de-commissioned as a living space and evidence of that is shown in the careful deposition of objects, the fact that areas were purposely filled in, and that the lintel of the stair entrance was broken, closing off the stair-way ‘for good’. Thoroughly de-commissioned as a living-space.
Ultimately, the whole site was ’let go’. The observances and ceremonies carried out there as a place of reverence ended and the place was forgotten.
Until modern archaeologists discovered it and proceeded to dig.
The Broch, The Well and the souterrain came to life again, briefly – 20 years is briefly in the time scale of a site such as this.
I wrote the following at the end of the 2019 dig season…
The Cairns – Sleeps
Our Dancing Floor is covered
The Well of Wishes – sealed.
Our place, so long neglected
Is starting to be Healed.
We’ll sleep – in Dreamtime
The winter weather through.
Next year – Sometime –
They will return.
And then, we’ll wake
Our place will wake
To youth and light.
Red hair, dark hair
Gleam of light on bronze,
Beads, and benediction of burnished bowl.
We’ll dance again
Weave new life
For the land.
They are Us
And We are They.
Namaste
BB 2019
And now, it’s been closed down again.
I was thinking about the holy stone, right in the centre of the Broch living-space…
Back in the day, that piece of stone was carefully chosen, the hole was drilled in just the right place, just the right size. The stone was then placed centrally, with another stone behind it, to catch the Equinoctial light in the heart of the Broch.
It stood for, we don’t know how long, channelling light, channelling the sun.
Then, it still stood, though buried in the earth.
The light won’t have been able to go down the passage-way to form a sun-circle, but the idea remained – the stone stood – with the hole – and the possibility of light in the Broch.
Zen.
And then it was revealed again. The significance of the placing of the stone was explained by a knowing-man. The idea was re-kindled, and those who heard of it, wondered…
Then, towards the end the last dig at the site, it fell over. It didn’t break or crack, it simply…fell over.
This was explained as being because, un-knowingly, by excavating round it the diggers had under-mined its footing. And so it fell, and the idea could be said to have fallen with it
The holy stone is the recumbent, yellowish slab inth centre of this image, now revealing the large standing stone behind it, onto which the sun circle will have shone.
Whether standing free or buried in the earth, the stone was there, the concept was there, made real. Now, it’s gone.
Though, the idea remains, exists, as it existed before it was real-ized, made solid.
And this is where I get to the point of my ramble. I was thinking. The dig is finished, the site back-filled, the stone has fallen and will not be raised again. A second, more final, de-commissioning of the site
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