Recumbent Stone Circles (often abbreviated RSC) refers to the scholarly name of approximately 100 megalithic stone monuments in northeastern Scotland, and about 25 in Cork and Kerry counties in southwestern Ireland. Their most massive component is "recumbent": a large rectangular block of stone that was laid flat on the ground. Typically, two large standing pillars bracket the block on either end. Radiocarbon dates on associated charcoal suggest that the recumbents were assembled roughly between 2500 and 1750 BC, or Late Neolithic/early Bronze Age.
In northeastern Scotland, RSC are only found within an area of about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from north to south and 50 km (30 mi) from east to west. The monuments are typically located on low hilltops, or on sloping ground commanding a southern or southwestern view point. They are found in the more fertile areas, where Neolithic/Bronze Age farmers could be found.
Details of the RSC
RSC are generally, but not always, associated with ring cairns, circular rubble platforms demarked by a curb. The recumbent part of the arrangement is generally high enough to obscure the immediate foreground so that the flanking stones frame a distant area of high land and sky.
The top of the recumbent is most often flat with respect to the horizon, and in some cases cup-shaped depressions were ground into the sides or tops of the stones. Most cupmarks appear once or twice, although some have dozens.
The purpose of this alignmnent within the landscape is generally attributed to sky watching. The primary orientations identified for the RSCs are the azimuth at 147 and 237 degrees, between WSW and SSE. While the lack of precision of the recumbent alignments rules out their use as "astronomical observatories", scholars are generally agreed that they were likely used for ritual purposes associated with tracking the movements of the moonrise and set during the year, although some may refer to celebrating solstice.
Excavating RSC
Excavations at three recumbent stone circles in Scotland (Tomnaverie, Cotheimuir Wood and Aikey Brae, described in Bradley et al. 2002) revealed some additional similarities. Each of the three had been associated with earlier features: at each site, the earliest feature was a deposit of cremated bone and/or a stone cairn and all three had had some form of circular platform or enclosure, with a stone curb marking the edge. Careful attention to color and a preference for quartz is in evidence at the sites: Tomnaverie is built primarily of red granite, Cothiemuir Wood and Aikey Brae both had elements of alternating red and gray stones, particularly in the curb marking the edge of the rubble platform.
In all three cases, the recumbent arrangements were later additions to the circular enclosures, with the flankers set in sockets that were cut into the cairn. This interpretation is a new one: traditionally, scholars had believed that the recumbent came first: Bradley and colleagues have shown that in the three cases studied (as well as at a handful of others examined briefly), a hearth/cairn came first, and a stone circle built of a rubble platform with a curb was built next. These constructions appear to be associated with Beaker Neolithic pottery.
During the early Bronze Age, the recumbents were built into the southwestern edges of the circles. This reassessment of the timing and length of use of the RSC is parallel to that of other henges and stone alignments throughout Europe: the monuments were built, rebuilt and used over several hundred or a thousand years, as rituals and cultural traditions changed.
Archaeologists associated with recumbents include Clive Ruggles, Aubrey Burl, V.G. Childe, Howard Kilbride Jones, Richard Bradley and Sean Ó Nualláin.
A Few Recumbent Stone Circles
Scotland: Tomnaverie, Old Keig, Cothiemuir Wood, Loanhead of Daviot, Aikey Brae, Sunhoney, Berrybrae, Strichen, Midmar Kirk, Castle Fraser, Esslie the Greater, Druidsfield, Auchmallidie, North Strone, Auchmachar, Balquhain, Cothiemuir Wood, Dunnideer, Cairnton, Potterton, Dyce
Ireland: Drombeg, Ardgroom, Carrigagulla, Cashelkeelty, Dromroe, Oughtihery, Knockraheen, Kenmare, Glenleigh, Cousane
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Megalithic Monuments , and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Bradley R, Ball C, Croft S, and Phillips T. 2002. The stone circles of northeast Scotland in the light of excavation. Antiquity 76:840-848.
Burl A. 1980. Science or symbolism: Problems of archaeo-astronomy. Antiquity 54:191-205.
Grove M. 2011. An archaeological signature of multi-level social systems: The case of the Irish Bronze Age. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30(1):44-61.
Ó Nualláin S. 1975. The stone circle complex of Cork and Kerry. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 105:83-131.
Ruggles CLN. 1984. A new study of hte Aberdeenshire recumbent stone circles, 1: Site Data. Archaeoastronomy 6:S55-S76.
Ruggles CLN, and Burl HAW. 1985. A new study of the Aberdeenshire recumbent stone cirlces, 2: Interpretation. Archaeoastronomy 8:S25-S60.
