Ring of Brodgar forum 16 room
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At the first meeting yesterday of FOAT's successor the Orkney Archaeological Society an image by Orkneyjar shewed how this circle would have looked when there were no places bereft of standing stones, as per this season's investigations here [in contrast to the Stones of Stenness which never had such regular spacings]. Only today it struck me that unrolled this is parallel to what I term 'standing stone fences', to whit lines of more or less regularly spaced erect stones [unlike the slab fences of the mid-19th century where there are no gaps between the flags]. Both are obviously symbolic thresholds rather than physical barriers. But could there be an actual continuity between the two forms, enclosed and unfurled ? Are there anywhere else lines of erect quadrilateral stones with spaces in between, as [presumably] distinct from the usual stone rows ?

wideford wrote:
At the first meeting yesterday of FOAT's successor the Orkney Archaeological Society an image by Orkneyjar shewed how this circle would have looked when there were no places bereft of standing stones, as per this season's investigations here [in contrast to the Stones of Stenness which never had such regular spacings]. Only today it struck me that unrolled this is parallel to what I term 'standing stone fences', to whit lines of more or less regularly spaced erect stones [unlike the slab fences of the mid-19th century where there are no gaps between the flags]. Both are obviously symbolic thresholds rather than physical barriers. But could there be an actual continuity between the two forms, enclosed and unfurled ? Are there anywhere else lines of erect quadrilateral stones with spaces in between, as [presumably] distinct from the usual stone rows ?
Not sure if I get your drift W . , but what about Ballymeanoch ?
In what way would they be distinct from stone rows ?

Some Irish stone rows have been dismissed as prehistoric. With these it is believed that they were uprights in more recent dry stone walls from which the intervening stones have been robbed away.

How they know that the row wasn't there before and used to create a later wall without excavating is beyond me, though.