BRONZE AGE CARVED STONES FROM ORKNEY - FIGURINES OR WHAT?

Two of the figurines

before cleaning.

Photo - finstown.orkney

Over the past few years enigmatic shaped rocks have been recovered on the British island of Orkney. The team discovering them has dubbed them "human figurines."

Photo - finstown.orkney

Compared to Paleolithic carvings, or other bronze age stone carvings from elsewhere, these are laughable - loom weights or fishing weights perhaps? I just don't see human figures in these.

"Figurine" shown in situ

next to hearth.

finstown.orkney

Perhaps they served as "deadmen" buried in the floor to tie cords to for holding something upright. Indeed, this quote gives one such possibility. "Some of the objects look remarkably like stylized representations of the human form whilst others look more like stones set upright into the floor of a Bronze Age building excavated by EASE Archaeology at the links of Noltland, Westray. These may have been used to tie mooring ropes onto, to help hold the roof on." (Heritagedaily 2019)

Internet photo.

"Dating the necked stones firmly will require further work, since they have also been found on Iron Age sites in Orkney. On initial evidence, the ones from Finstown possibly date to around the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, roughly 2000 BC. Identifying the purpose of these stones, and if they are figurines, will also require further work, with a close study for abrasion, wear, and any other marks on these anthropomorphic objects." (Lisle 2019)

Note the smoothed neck

as if abraded by a

rope tied around it.

Internet photo.

I am tempted to think that these so-called "figurines" represent another example of pareidolia in rock art. On both March 2 and March 9, 2019, I wrote about the phenomena of pareidolia and mimetoliths in rock art. "This is manifested in pareidolia (recognizing ponies in the clouds, for instance), and also by fascination with mimetoliths (items that naturally look like something else - mimic them)." (Faris 2019)

"Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists. Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, the Man in the Moon, the Moon rabbit, hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at high- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing indistinct voices in random noise such as that produced by air conditioners or fans." (Wikipedia)

Whatever these pieces of rock recovered in Orkney actually are, I certainly cannot see human figures in any of them, and so I have to classify them as mimetoliths, and examples of pareidolia manifested within the discoverers imaginations. Perhaps the "further work" mentioned above will provide enough information to better guess the purpose of these rocks.

REFERENCES:

Anonymous,

2019 A Team From ORCA Archaeology Has Discovered An Amazing Series of Half-Metre Tall Stone-Carved Objects, Heritage Daily, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2019/12/nine-possible-bronze-age-figurines-unearthed-at-substation-excavation-in-orkney/124965

Faris, Peter

2019 Are These Ute Wooden Maps? - or Apophenia - Pareidolia - Mimetoliths - Manuports, March 9, 2019, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com

2019 Pareidolia, March 2, 2019, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com

Lisle, Sean

2019 Nine Possible Bronze Age Figurine Unearthed at Substation Excavation in Orkney?, University of the Highlands Archaeology Institute, https://archaeologyorkney.com/2019/12/06/ nine-possible-bronze-age-figurines-unearthed-at-substation-excavation-in-orkney/

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia)