Seriously thoughtful Guide Stones.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by nohmi2

Do we now require your permission to post that which happens to interest us?

No, I was wondering why that particular object-- thus, my asking why that participial object. The reason for which you subsequently explained in oddly paranoid post #22.

As far as I am concerned you are 'trolling' and baiting. Get a life for goodness sake ands start haunting someone else.

Look, you asked for opinions and discussion on the subject. If your skin is so thin that you can't endure anything short of undiluted praise for your wit and wisdom in choosing your subject, you should have said so in the original post. Serious discussions between adults can and should include serious disagreements when those disagreements exist. And once you open a thread on an open forum you don't own it. You can't say who gets to reply to it, and you should not conciser posts made in that thread as "haunting you." I don't know who you are. I'm not discussing you-- I'm discussing the relative "mystery" in various monuments.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Sure, it is a "mystery"-- but on the same level and compellingness of mystery as wondering who spray-painted a badly-spelled ethnic slur on the highway overpass last night.

Originally Posted by nohmi2

kk & ardegee and whoever. It would appear that you have a problem with my post regarding the guidestones, as if I have some ulterior motive.

Actually KK and ardegee normally have issues with what each other says - it is refreshing to see them playing nicely with each other.

Originally Posted by nohmi2

I always thought that fun, plus politeness, plus information were part of the rules.

They are being polite - you should see them when they are angry.... not helping am I

Actually I think they were both just pointing out that they did not think that what you proposed was all that great a mystery. It is just their opinions, no one said you were wrong, they just have a different criteria for what interests them. I like the idea of finding one we can all agree on... that carhenge - now that's some mystery - how did they all park like that?

Originally Posted by nohmi2

You have some strange interests, don't you?

Why yes, yes they do.

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

like the real Stonehenge? Easter Island maybe? the great white horse on the hillside? the mound builders? so very very many

I thought Stonehenge was pretty much figured out? Horse on the hillside? Never heard of that one - I'll have to google it.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by dsvick

Horse on the hillside? Never heard of that one - I'll have to google it.

Here's the uffing horse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

Like many, many things, it has an equivalent on the Discworld.

[kindlekitten]

The Uffington Horse

The Uffington white horse is undoubtedly Britain’s oldest and most famous hill figure, which has recently been dated at 3000 years old by the Oxford Archeological Unit. 1000 years older than previously thought. This the oldest hill figure and inspired the creation of many of the other white horses although and particularly its closeness to Uffington castle may have inspired the creation of the first Westbury horse by Bratton camp, which also faced right. The earliest reference to it was in in the 1070's when white horse hill was mentioned, the first actual reference to the horse itself was in 1190.

The horse is unique in its features, the horse being a very long sleek disjointed figure and this leads some to believe it represents the mythical dragon that St. George slain on the adjacent Dragon hill or even his horse. However others believe it represents a Celtic horse goddess Epona, known to represent fertility, healing and death. It may have been created to be worshipped in religious ceremonies. Similar horses feature in Celtic jewelry and there is also evidence for horse worship in the Iron Age. The scouring of the horse is believed to have been a religious festival in later times, giving more creditability to the figure being of religious origin. Others believe that it commemorates Alfred’s victory over the Danes in 861 AD or that it was created in the seventh century by Hengist in the image of a horse on his standard, however the recent scientific data upon its age seem to discount these more modern theories. Several Iron age coins bearing representations of horses very similar to the Uffington horse have been found and would support the theory of the horse being from an earlier period than the seventh or eight centuries.

Also unusual is the fact that the horse faces to the right while all other horses and other animal hill figures face left, with three exceptions, the very first Westbury horse, the Osmington horse and the more modern Bulford Kiwi. The earliest record of the white horse is from Abingdon Abbey in the late 12th century, although white horse hill was mentioned a century earlier. There are many records after this period with a very good historical record from the 18th century in which the horse has changed little in appearance from then to the present day. There were occasions when the horse became overgrown, 1880 for example and was in danger of being lost like some of the other hill figures. There is no danger of this happening now, with English Heritage caring for this Ancient monument.

[ardeegee]

When thinking of ancient artifacts last night, I thought of a spear-thrower found in the shape of a deer or hart with a huge turd coming out of it, but couldn't google anything up. So today I checked my deadtree reference book the artifact was listed in, and it is an ibex. Found midway down this page:

http://www.donsmaps.com/masdazil.html

and from that page, it seems that some say the ibex is actually giving birth (which makes sense, looking at the images) and that they have found fragments of several throwers of the same design. An early fad!

[kindlekitten]

I love the ancient "venus" goddess statues which are found in almost all cultures. it was originally thought that they might be fertility goddesses but recently it has been suggested that they were an early sort of obstetrical aid as this is the image a pregnant woman looking down would see.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I love the ancient "venus" goddess statues which are found in almost all cultures.

Yes, and mind-staggering to me is that these figures were produced over a period of tens of thousands of years-- several times longer than all of written history put together. Made and used by people no different from us in mental capacity or any other meaningful way (and that condition possibly ranging across several species of humans over at least a couple of hundred years) and all of their many cultures and languages and religions and folklores and oral histories and crafts and artworks and knowledge of those countless millions of lives are all utterly unknown except for a few scraps of bone and stone and pigments scratched on to cave walls.

[kindlekitten]

yep that ranks up there as a mystery to me.

btw has pshrynk seen that otter you've been dragging around? you do know that is likely to set off an episode right?

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

btw has pshrynk seen that otter you've been dragging around? you do know that is likely to set off an episode right?

Hey, a guy's got to protect himself! Note that it is the "Otter from The Dead Zone"

"At the rally, Stillson begins his speech, when Johnny decides it's now or never. He begins to fire at Stillson, but misses several times. Stillson's bodyguards open fire on him, but don't mortally wound him. Johnny has Stillson in his sight and is about to pull the trigger when Stillson grabs a young child and holds him up as a shield. Johnny pauses, not being able to shoot, and is shot twice by the bodyguards, falling off the balcony, breaking his legs and back. Meanwhile, the young photographer Johnny met earlier gets a few pictures of Stillson using the child as a shield and runs off. When Johnny touches Stillson again, he sees and feels nothing, and knows that the terrible future Stillson would bring around as President will never come to pass (thanks to the photograph of Stillson hiding behind the child, which utterly destroys his reputation)."

[kindlekitten]

sure looks like an otter with an otter baby to me. maybe the water in Mexico finally got to me?

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

sure looks like an otter with an otter baby to me. maybe the water in Mexico finally got to me?

No, that is so an otter candidate for president who, on being faced with a potential assassin, grabbed a nearby child to shield himself!

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

No, that is so an otter candidate for president who, on being faced with a potential assassin, grabbed a nearby child to shield himself!

my brain just needs to stick at cute little otter mommy and baby. I have too much other weird "Alice felll through the looking glass" moments going on in my real life at the moment to be dealing with otter assasins. leave me with illusions or delusions, whichever is most effective right now

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I have too much other weird "Alice felll through the looking glass" moments going on in my real life at the moment to be dealing with otter assasins.

Well, of course-- "otter assassins" is just silly.

The assassin is a stoat.

[kindlekitten]

wow! sure looks like an otter! I guess this means pshrynk can't go episodic then!

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Here's the uffing horse:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

The Uffington Horse

Thank you both. ardeegee, I first read yours as "effing" as in f___ing