Witness. Standing stones and the cosmic order

Abstract

This paper contains a summary of many of the ideas that I have had, discussed or encountered about standing stones over the years and much of which has been published or are in press. In particular, this includes the possible anthropomorphic connotations and roles that standing stones might have played in the communities that built them. It begins with a very short review of some of the inter-pretations on standing stones known to date, firstly the oldest known standing stones, or their first appearances in some regions and then those of Britain, followed by a discussion of the author’s re-search results that incorporate standing stones connection to Nature. The chapter finishes with the ideas on the place that standing stones had within societies within Scotland, namely as active indi-viduals of their communities.