Paper short abstract:

This paper presents a case study of the Callanish stones on Lewis to argue that the introduction of different paradigms of ‘scape’ as an analytical tool is not merely helpful but fundamental to the successful interpretation of this group of Neolithic monuments, with concomitant implications more generally for interpretations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper takes, as its starting point, the challenges posed by attempts to interpret the Callanish stones on the Isle of Lewis. The interpretations of a series of commentators on the subject are briefly reviewed, together with some personal glosses, and the contrasting conclusions drawn are noted. It is then argued that the ‘landscape’ around these monuments, together with the monuments themselves, encapsulated an entire cosmology or form of religion in the minds of the builders and subsequent users. The conclusion drawn is that there was not only an external, physical, measurable landscape associated with the Callanish stones, albeit one partly a product of cultural forces, but also an internal landscape reflecting the ideas of those who built or used the monuments - their perception(s) of the various attributes of the external landscape and their experience of being within it. It is suggested these perceptions and experiences would have included not only ideas about tasks or activities related to certain places (cf Ingold) but would also have incorporated elements of memory, emotion and perhaps even an explicitly constructed cosmology. This might be referred to as a ‘mindscape’. It is argued that while it should be axiomatic that the physical surroundings of an archaeological site and the latter’s situation with respect to that landscape are essential considerations in reaching a proper understanding and interpretation of that site, the same should also apply to the internal landscape or mindscape of the users of these monuments, even though these must of necessity be inferred. It is concluded that what is important in the use of ‘scape’ is that we clarify the type of ‘scape’ to which we are referring.