In the beginning, I didn't tell anyone about this website because I wanted to build up a body of evidence; then, I began mentioning it in passing. First to family; then, to a few friends. Initially, most people struggled to see the images that are now so obvious to my eye. After looking at a number of examples, people began to spot and recognize a few of the images that I was pointing out. Despite this, some of the more subtle images continued to elude them and they'd say, "I don't see it."
A part of me knows that if these same stones were sitting under glass in an art gallery or museum and people were told that they were examples of prehistoric art and more specifically, if the museum 'interpreted" this collection for them, they would more easily grasp what they were seeing.
Does this mean that I'm some kind of genius for recognizing these images for what they are? No, absolutely not. It has taken quite a journey for me to get to this point.
As I mentioned at the start of this blog, I went out into the field of our family farm to look for stones ten years ago. Initially, I couldn't recall the reason, but now remember that back in 2005, I walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. While researching the trip, I learned that people making this pilgrimage often bring a stone from home to leave on the Cruz de Ferro. Rather than choose a stone off our gravel lane, I decided to look in the field where drainage tile was being installed.
Thus began this unexpected journey. Later, a friend would tell me that my pilgrimage started before I got on the plane and how true that has turned out to be.
I carried two small stones from home with me. As luck would have it, I sprained my ankle before getting to the Cruz de Ferro and was forced to take the bus to Santiago. While visiting the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, I remembered the stones that were still in my bag. Rather than carry them home again, I decided to place them inside a crack in the outside wall of the cathedral. Reflecting back, I am bemused by the fact that this small piece of our farm rests there.
The interesting thing is that while on this pilgrimage, I walked past the caves of Atapuerca--a designated World Heritage site. They weren't open to the public that day. Many years earlier, when I was travelling through France, the caves of Lascaux were also closed. The great irony to me is that I have flown around the world and been near places such as these and Uluru in Australia, but I did not realize that there was something equally extraordinary right here at home.
I would argue that the reason for this is one of perception.
My family has lived on our farm for over 160 years and undoubtedly, saw stones as obstacles to modern machinery; hence, the activity of clearing them off the land or what is known locally as "rock picking." Therefore, their perception of stones = that of a problem to be removed. From this perspective, small stones were less problematic and could be ignored. For almost fifty years, this was also my perspective.
The only reason I eventually noticed these stones was that I was looking for a stone to take with me on the Camino and while searching for it, I stumbled across the stones that I now call "The Tortoise and The Hare."
This was an eye-opener for me; my natural curiosity as a local historian was piqued. In that moment, I became aware that these stones might be more than just that.
As mentioned in earlier posts, I showed them to archaeological "experts" and they were dismissed as being "just stones." On an intuitive level, I knew they were wrong, but it wasn't until I started reading the Archaeology of Portable Rock Art website that I began to learn about this subject and for what I should be looking.
Now when I walk in the fields, I am armed with two things: knowledge and intuition. Based on this, I have a general sense of what stones to pick up, but often, it's only when I have a stone under the zoom lens of a camera that I begin to realize what I've found. The lens brings this into focus and I'm often blown away by what I see.
The fact that certain images and techniques appear repeatedly in the stones I examine only give weight to my conviction that these stones have been carved by some kind of intelligence.
For instance, the white wizard figure with dark eyes makes yet another re-appearance in this stone as shown in the last few photos of this posting. You'll notice that this time, it seems to have legs. I've interpreted this as being an other-worldly figure. I hesitate to use the word "spiritual" when describing it as that might be putting too much of my own spin on its meaning. Suffice it to say that this does not appear to be human in a realistic sense of the word. To me, it looks more like a figure that might be conjured up in a dream state, but as I say, that's just my take on it.
In the end, does any of this matter? It takes a fair amount of time and energy to maintain a blog like this. Why bother? Why should we care about history--especially prehistory that hasn't made it into the official textbook accounts of those who walked the land before us?
All I can say is that my eyes have been opened. I recognize these stones for what they are and feel obligated to put the information out there--to join others who are building a body of evidence that prehistoric rock art exists in this part of the world and to help others become aware of this.
In the words of the old hymn Amazing Grace, I once "was blind, but now I see." Perhaps one day, this blog will help others see too.
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