Traditionally the megalithic monuments are associated with solar alignments, as for example with Stonehenge, or they are attributed an astronomical observatory function, case of corridor tombs that we reviewed here a year ago.
Now archaeologists working in the Hendraburnick Down area of Cornwall, southwest of England, point to another possible nocturnal function for this type of monument, perhaps the setting for some kind of ceremony performed in the moonlight.
They are based on the discovery of numerous marks made on megalithic stones, which are not visible with sunlight but when the sunset begins and during nights with a moon.
In a article, published in the archeology journal Time and Mind, they expose how the analysis of the quoit or megalithic dolmen of Hendraburnick revealed the existence of up to 105 marks that until now had gone unnoticed, and suggest that they were made precisely to be seen in Darkness. In fact its discovery was realized using a camera with flash during the night.
The quoit of Hendraburnick.
Is a controversial megalithic monument. Although it has visible decoration in its upper part, there are experts who believe that it has a natural origin, although it would have served as burial. Others believe that it is a dolmen whose top of 16 tons ended up falling but once was held by two vertical stones, dating to the early Bronze Age, around the year 2,500 BC.
Precisely the original intention of the investigators, who began the excavations and the analysis in 2013, was to determine if the monument was megalithic or natural. Not only did they find that it was indeed human work, but the place seems to have been the center of a nocturnal activity from which they have found numerous fragments of different artifacts.
Decorated top of the quoit.
The quoit of Hendraburnick is located near the locality that gives its name, and next to the sources of the river Camel. And in addition the new brands found make it the most decorated and complex megalith in the whole of South England.
Archaeologists also found a multitude of quartz fragments that were deliberately scattered around the monument, so that they could glow in the moonlight or bonfires, creating an impressionable luminescent effect that revealed at the same time the marks hidden in the light of day ., creating a kind of aura around the quoit.
Marks only visible in the dark
According to Andy Jones and Thomas Goskar, members of the Cornwall Archaeological Unit and authors of the study, the discovered marks show that the site was used during the night, and probably other megalithic sites would have been.
Fuente: portalancestral.com
