Irish Circles
I started a Irish history class last week, and we started off with studying archaeological evidence. There really isn’t all that much to study other than the various ring forts that were built. There are only a few hundred artifacts from early Irish history, and no writings that are known. Compare this to the Egyptians, Romans, Greek, or American Indian cultures, and it’s quite scarce. It amazes me that we know anything at all about the culture and society of ancient Ireland.
One of the lasting items are the various ring forts that were built. There are four Royal Sites (Cruachain, Tara, Dun Ailinne, and Emain Macha) that are heavily studied. They are not royal in the sense of kings and queens, but in the fact that they hold the most archaeological evidence available in Ireland. In one of the books that we are reading, there are many aerial photos and diagrams of the circles that were built. The remind me very much of the crop circles, and it makes me wonder if the crop circles were inspiration for the ring forts that were built.
I learned ages ago that it is easier to defend a circle than a square for many reasons. All of the ring forts follow this wisdom, but something that I wondered was why they were all circles. It seems to me that through trial and error, there would be some square, rectangular, or (maybe) triangular shapes. I asked my instructor if there were any non-circular shapes to be found. She said that there was one, and that was because it was built along a sea cliff. There was no way to build a complete circle around the fort. However, the one wall that they did build as a defense was built in an arc. Had there been room for a full circle, there would have been one.
It amazes me that a culture was able to build such perfect circles, and that they managed to hit upon the best defensible structure without any errors. Something in my conspiracy theorist mindset tells me that the Reptilian Overlords gave the secrets of fire, engineering, and warmongering to the Irish before fading into the background to watch the fruits of their labor.
