Notre présentation à ce sujet rapproche les observations de terrain pour la Pierre des Trois Evêques, et les 10 critères proposés d'un site de mémoire : matching 10 criteria of a mnemonic network
Mnemonic site 10 criteria / Lynne Kelly thesis
1. A stratified society with no sign of individual wealth or coercion
In the small scale oral cultures I am talking about, the elders maintained their power through controlling knowledge. In all other ways, the societies appear to be egalitarian. Obviously my starting point was Australian Aboriginal cultures, but Native American, many African and Polynesian cultures also fit the scenario.
2. Public and restricted ceremonial sites
The imperative to perform the knowledge repeatedly should leave an archaeological record of both public and restricted performance spaces. Platforms, mounds, enclosed spaces, plazas and even flat-bottomed ditches, can act as suitable performance spaces. Restricted spaces ensure those initiated higher into the knowledge can repeat it in secrecy which effectively avoids the so-called Chinese whispers effect. When dealing with knowledge from generations ago, such as surviving severe resource stresses, accurate retention is essential.
3. Large investment of labour for no obvious reason
All historical and contemporary oral cultures value education and formally educate the young. They don’t learn everything casually while out on a daily gather and hunt or round the campfire at night. There is no society which works that way and so there is no reason to believe that oral cultures in prehistoric times were any different. Mobile cultures use significant landscape places in order to keep a record of each aspect of the knowledge. They encode it in the landscape. If a society is to settle they must replicate these set of locations in the local area. That is the very basis of the monuments. But there’s a lot more to it than that!
4. Signs of a prescribed order—the Method of Loci
If a monument is a memory space, then there must be a prescribed order to the memory locations so that information is not lost through lack of reference. The ancient Greeks described their locations from their preliterate times: there should be a defined sequence in a location away from distracting passers-by which is well lit, with loci not too much like one another, of moderate size, with a moderate distance between them. My research shows that all oral cultures did this – and we have ample evidence from Australia of a continuous knowledge culture for tens of thousands of years. Circles or lines of stones or posts, a sequence in the ditches or mounds enclosing open space, or large, non-domestic ‘buildings’ would serve as memory theatres beautifully.
5. Enigmatic decorated objects
Documented oral cultures use a huge variety of memory aids: inscribed stones, notched or decorated wooden sticks or boards, inscribed bark, decorated hides, dance costumes, masks, props, knotted chords, curated human and animal bones, bundles of non-utilitarian or symbolic objects and representations of mythological ancestors on a wide variety of media. Enigmatic objects found at ceremonial sites which match these patterns add to the argument that the monument served as a memory space.
6. An imbalance in trade
Knowledge is traded in every society I have examined, literate and non-literate. If resources and labour are coming into the site but nothing being manufactured or grown there, then it is logical to assume that it is a place when knowledge is being traded in the form of songs, dances and mythological stories and encoded using a variety of memory devices.
7. Astronomical observations and calendrical devices
Whoever maintains the calendar holds a very powerful role in oral cultures. Detailed astronomical observances were common among complex hunter-gatherers, primarily to maintain calendars and schedule ceremonies. The heavens were also used as memory aids, with characters and stories attributed to stars and planets as it is the case with every society, literate or non-literate. Astronomical alignments add to the argument that a monument is a memory space.
8. Monuments that reference the landscape
Landscape references are critical as memory markers in the oral tradition of both mobile and sedentary cultures. Not surprisingly, most of the enigmatic monuments around the world make some reference to the much wider landscape.
9. Acoustic enhancement
Songs are far easier to remember than prose; dramatic performances are more memorable than static recitations. Monuments which are designed to aid memory would have structures which enhance singing, chanting and the music for the dances. And it is those songs which encode all the essential practical information.
10. Rock art as mnemonic
We know from historic oral cultures that rock art is often used to aid memory of the stories, songs, chants and other aspects of the knowledge system. Abstract art is far more useful as multiple layers of information can be encoded and secrecy maintained
On a appelé 'Pilat Quadrant' le système décrit dans ces pages, ou Cadran du Pilat.
Présentation par l'auteur de ce site
1. A network supporting (hypothesis) distribution of high value artefacts, signs of power
Knowledge controlled: jadeite quarry location in Italy (Viso, Beigua), how to get there from Britany / to Britany, how to cross the Alps, where to land in British Islands, evaluate distances and headings directions.
2. At Pilat Quadrant location has public and ceremonial places
We have platforms, enclosed spaces, plazas, that can act as suitable performance spaces. We also have Restricted spaces like stone circles / cromlechs. Same all across the Network: landmarks and posts are enclosures.
3. A network of similar site with circles of stone or carved, or wood henges.
4. Signs of a prescribed order—the Method of Loci
Several cromlech, including Stonehenge are part of the network with rather small size (100 - 200 m perimeter) and regular posts, with different size and shape. Isolated place such as Alesia, Pilat Quadrant, Stonehenge. Not on a circulation road or river. As well, stone alignments, viewfinders.
5. Engraved stones
Signs dictionary limited to circles, foot, cross and lines, on non utilitariant stones, placed in remote locations (but with a view).
6. An imbalance in trade
Nothing comes from locations placed in the network (Carnac, Alesia, Stonehenge). With the exception of carnacean axes reshape technique, which is visible on axes that have been through that step of the circulation. The know-how acquired is traveling that way.
7. Pilat Quadrant is a solsticial device
Alignement 21st of Dec and 21st of June with appearing sunset and sunrise. As well, the network is perfectly oriented N/S and E/W. True North is observed to the 0.1 degree precision.
8. A miniature of the Alps
Small stones mimic Alps specific mountains, at scale : same shape, same relative position, at Pilat Quadrant.
9. Acoustic enhancement
Needs verification at les Faves in the smallest cromlech (n°3). Certainly the case in Ringwould circle (dug in clay). Assessed in Stonehenge.
10. Rock art as mnemonic
Pierre des Trois Evêques and other cup and ring stones are interpreted as at scale maps, orientated, showing summits (cups), cross roads (cross) and directions (foot orientation)
"If an archaeological site demonstrated most, if not all, of the ten indicators given above, then it is logical to conclude that the control of knowledge was a fundamental aspect of the culture which constructed the monument."
De nombreux peuples ont développé des artefacts leur permettant de mémoriser des informations essentielles, en grand nombre, et ainsi de transmettre le savoir. Les objets supports de cette exercice peuvent être des colliers, des pierres, des cordes à noeuds etc...
Une théorie pose que les sites mégalithiques pourraient avoir été des lieux de transmission de la mémoire cartographique.
"Ma théorie sur le but de nombreux monuments antiques soutient qu'ils ont été construits principalement comme des espaces de mémoire. Leur conception visait spécifiquement à permettre aux anciens de pratiquer leur mémorisation, de l'enseigner et de mettre en pratique les savoirs pour la communauté selon les différents niveaux d'initiation de l'auditoire. Les anciens ont mémorisé les connaissances dont dépendait la survie, physiquement et culturellement : guides de terrain complets sur tous les animaux et plantes, cartes de navigation, généalogies, lois, droits sur les ressources, accords commerciaux, gestion des terres, astronomie, géologie… tout cela en mémoire.
Dans Savoir et pouvoir dans les sociétés préhistoriques, je présente dix indices qu'un monument a été construit comme un espace de mémoire, c'est-à-dire qu'il s'agissait d'un monument mnémonique. Ils sont classés par ordre décroissant d'importance. "
Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies Orality, Memory and the Transmission of Culture
Lynne Kelly, La Trobe University, Victoria - Cambridge University Press June 2015
Des sites porteurs d'une architecture précise, géométrique, ayant nécessité un travail important, sans pour autant être des lieux d'échange commercial ni d'occupation permanente répondent aux critères du site mnémonique. On en déduit la probabilité d'un usage de stockage d'information et de transmission d'un savoir.
Le site néolithique américain présente en particulier un 'design' local géométrique, des liens démontrés avec des sites d'échange régionaux et à plus longue distance. L'usage de mesures standards et de propriétés géométriques simples semble avoir permis une telle organisation. On a par exemple l'hypothèse d'un site qui est une représentation miniature d'un paysage 6 fois plus grand.
Signs of Power published by the University of Alabama Press. 2004 incl. Geometry and Design of Early Mound Groups as Meaning and Function. John E. Clark
Dans cette description, on remplacera Poverty Point par nos sites analysés, et on aura sans doute une idée de la converge de nos propositions : "The symbolic time–space dimensions of Poverty Point are revealed in a multiscalar analytical approach that is itself inspired by the geometry of these ancient earthworks. When extrapolated over increasingly larger spatial scales, the nested ridges comprising the core of Poverty Point encapsulate increasingly wider spheres of cultural affiliation. Time expands with space as we incorporate the histories of distant peoples whose connection to Poverty Point is obscured by local, synchronic, and corporate analytical perspectives. I propose that a multiscalar analysis is consonant with the root metaphors of Poverty Pointy culture, namely, that its earthworks were something of an historical atlas, symbolic of the places, events, and forces of its genesis. I further propose that the reproduction and transformation of Poverty Point culture was centered on the making of cosmopolitan persons, a process involving the acquisition of nonlocal materials and knowledge."
Poverty Point as Structure, Event, Process Kenneth E. Sassaman Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
Dans cet article (à gauche) on imaginait que le monument de Stonehenge pouvait avoir été édifié d'abord au pays de Galles.
Il est maintenant démontré que le site de Stonehenge a été créé au Pays de Galles puis démonté et remonté à l'identique, chaque pierre ayant retrouvé sa place à son emplacement actuel.
Ceci contribue à confirmer l'hypothèse formulée avant cette découverte, d'un site mnémonique, dont les éléments sont en soit la forme de conservation de l'information qu'on vient y chercher.
A propose de Poverty Point, site mnémonique et mesures standard
Lynne Kelly à propos de Poverty Point
Poverty Point as Structure, Event, Process Kenneth E. Sassaman Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
Signs of Power published by the University of Alabama Press. 2004 incl. Geometry and Design of Early Mound Groups as Meaning and Function. John E. Clark
A propos de Stonehenge, site mnémonique
Lynne Kelly à propos de Stonehenge
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2021Mike Parker Pearson