The question of the purpose of the ancient stone labyrinths has not been finally resolved. A number of scientists consider labyrinths to be places of entertainment or military sports games. Perhaps these are models of fishing traps or the fishing facilities themselves. But most researchers consider the labyrinths to be objects of cult and religious purposes. Other versions are not excluded.
The main meaning of the word labyrinth is a structure in which it is difficult to find a way out. The Greek word "labyrinth" itself is associated with the name of a double-sided ax (labrys) - a symbol of the horns of a sacred bull, worshiping him was part of the Minoan culture. The famous labyrinth in Crete, known only by reports, has not yet been found.
Geography of labyrinths
Mysterious northern labyrinths of unknown origin are found on the territory of Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Great Britain. They are located on islands, peninsulas and near sea bays. More than five hundred of them were found. But not all stone labyrinths are the same, there are several types: single-spiral, double-spiral, concentric and radial. In shape, these are circles, ovals, less often squares. What kind of people created them? For what purpose? How were they used and why are there so many of them? So far, these questions remain without a clear answer.
In Russia, the largest number of labyrinths is represented on the Bolshoi Zayatsky Island of the Solovetsky Archipelago. Most of them are low, rounded ground structures, laid out mainly of small boulders. But sometimes there are also larger stones that rise up to half a meter above the ground. Inside each labyrinth are heaps of stones or flat boulders set on edge.
Another feature of labyrinths is that they always have one entrance, it is also an exit: following the path between the stones, without crossing the barrier, after a while a person comes out to the place from which he began to move. Often the labyrinths are not located one by one, but in twos, threes; sometimes they form a semicircle, inside which there are stone heaps of various sizes and types.
One of the reasons for the concentration of stone structures on the Solovetsky Islands is boulder material of glacial origin, concentrated at different altitude levels corresponding to the position of the gradually receding surf strip. On neighboring islands, for example, rocky Kuzovy, there are no such conditions, and labyrinths are less common. Geomorphological criteria for dating the labyrinths (based on the time of draining of the terraces) give an age of at least 3-4 thousand years BC.
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In the 20s of the last century, the labyrinths were described and investigated in detail by N. N. Vinogradov, a prisoner of the Solovetsky special purpose camp. He came to the conclusion that the labyrinths are not burial structures, but sanctuaries, giant altars left by some ancient people.
Some researchers, the proximity of the labyrinths to the sea and fishing grounds suggested that the stone labyrinths are models of the oldest fishing traps. But when the same labyrinths began to be found in the depths of the Kola Peninsula, this hypothesis had to be abandoned.
It has been suggested that these are diagrams of the orbits of the Sun, stars, planets. The magical properties and therapeutic potential of the labyrinths were discussed. Many works offer a variety of interpretations of the semantic meaning of signs … The discussion about labyrinths lasts for centuries, but the main question remains open - why are they needed and what do they symbolize?
Researchers agree on one thing - the labyrinths were created by the bearers of a single culture within the maritime civilization localized in the north of Europe, which flourished in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC.
We propose a way to search for the purpose of mysterious labyrinths through identifying the features of their geographical location and those specific conditions of the natural environment of the northern regions of Europe in which a person carried out his activities, which he mastered and reflected in the objects of his culture.
Special lighting mode
Most of the labyrinths are located in areas with a specific lighting regime: within the zone of white nights and in the subpolar zone. Here the sun does not set over the horizon for a period from one day to 102 days a year, creating the phenomenon of a polar day. This creates significant difficulties for orientation. In the conditions of the sun not setting beyond the horizon - in space and time devoid of clear time boundaries and directions, this is much more difficult to do, especially in the case of a shipwreck, and for orientation by the stars, one must wait for the polar night. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider a tool for orientation by the sun as a basic necessity in this region. Such a tool, which does not require anything for construction except soil, stones and a pole, is a gnomon. It is downtime and effective. With the help of the gnomon, you can determine the direction of the geographical meridian,latitude and longitude of the place, the moment of the onset of noon.
These days, geoscience manuals recommend using a centered tripod with a tablet attached parallel to the horizon for this purpose. A sheet of Whatman paper is fixed on it, lined with circles of different diameters with a center at one point, where a pointed object is installed vertically, giving a narrow strip of shadow. By fixing the position of its top in dots throughout the day, you can get a graphical representation of the shortest shadow, when connected to the center pointing to the north. This point on the graph corresponds to noon. Observations make it possible to obtain pairs of points symmetrically located in relation to the midday shadow, corresponding to the same height of the sun in the morning and afternoon. Their paired connection gives parallel lines, the midpoints of which lie on the noon direction, making it more precise. The higher the object giving the shadow,the more accurate the measurement result.
There is reason to believe that in those distant times people knew the principle of the gnomon's work. True, not possessing modern materials, they had to create it from scrap materials.
The use of a gnomon, created from improvised material on the earth's surface, usually inclined, introduces an error that can be eliminated by resorting to duplication, which explains the detection of groups of mazes. In addition, changes in the position of the geographic pole made the old calculations unusable; obvious errors forced to create new contours nearby.
In this "calendar" boulders can be used to mark seasons, important dates associated with useful or dangerous weather and phenological changes in nature. The pile of stones in the central part of the maze is great for setting up a pole to give shade. The pole requires regular replacement, since the wood in the open air does not last long. Stones outside the labyrinth are suitable for recording current and long-term information; they can be used to mark a new day on the labyrinth calendar, to highlight the time boundaries of planned stages and expected events.
If the installation of the gnomon and the determination of the position in space and time of day from it is a matter of one fine day and does not require great complexity from the structure of the labyrinth, then the creation of a calendar requires painstaking observations for at least a year, hence their greater or lesser complexity.
Features of observations
On the territory of the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago, a large number of labyrinths is explained by the dispersed type of settlement. Probably, the sea could feed quite a lot of families here, living in separate camps, and each settlement has its own clock and calendar.
Moreover, the areas of distribution of labyrinths outside the current position of the Arctic Circle in the distant past could have been polar. It is known that the inclination of the earth's axis, which determines the mode of illumination of the earth's surface, in particular the strike of the polar latitudes, depends on the speed of the axial rotation of the planet and changes with time. Under conditions of a lower daily rotation rate, the polar circle shifts towards the equator. Its current position 66 ° 33 'corresponds to the inclination of the earth's axis 23 ° 27'. By how many degrees the inclination of the axis increases, the latitude of the boundary of the polar regions decreases. In addition, the position of the pole is not constant.
Practical confirmation of the proposed concept is provided by compass mapping of labyrinths with determination of orientation along the sides of the horizon. A detailed description of the Solovetsky labyrinths, compiled by N. N. Vinogradov, presents the results of measurements that confirm that in the vast majority of labyrinths the entrance is from the south, the width along the north-south axis is less than the width measured in the west-east direction. In the description of the central part of the stone labyrinths, the author notes the presence of depressions, rolls of larger material and, in some cases, the strict orientation of the planes of the four central stone blocks to the northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest, so that the joints of the stones are exactly indicate the main sides of the horizon. How it resembles the main symbol of geography!
The listed parameters of the Solovetsky labyrinths unambiguously correspond to the idea of a gnomon: the entrance from the south is convenient, since in the belt of white nights the shadow of the gnomon does not fall into this sector; the meridional axis is less than the latitudinal axis, since the shadows in the northern sector are shorter. Deviations of the position of the entrance of some labyrinths from the southern one can be explained not only by errors in determining the sides caused by the inclination of the surface, but also by the displacement of the position of the geographic pole.
Experimental testing of the gnomon's action on a model of a typical labyrinth suggests some key points in its creation. The outer contour corresponds to the shadows during sunrise and sunset, which are always the same in length and move towards each other throughout the year until a closed circle is formed in those areas where the points of entry and sunrise coincide in the extreme northern position. The midday shadow does not change its direction and changes only in length, reflecting the maximum height of the sun and the duration of daylight hours. This property was used to break down the year into seasons, the boundaries of which are combined with the achievement of a certain length of the shadow, fixed by the lines of the inner circles. By the way, in typical labyrinths there are 12 rows of stones (between which there are 11 paths),which corresponds to most of the known ancient calendars and the modern breakdown of the year.
However, the number of periods allocated per year could be determined not by astronomical, but by practically significant landmarks, then the width of the tracks should differ.
Variety of shapes
The variety of forms of labyrinths shows that there were no uniform rules for its construction, or they developed gradually, often only the necessary conditions for the action of the gnomon were maintained, and the shape of each particular labyrinth reflected both geographical factors (lighting mode) and environmental (breakdown into seasons by stages of life cycles commercial populations). When highlighting the periods of illumination by the setting and non-setting Sun in the labyrinth drawing, two zones are noticeable in terms of the degree of closedness of the circles: the outer one with an obvious gap and the inner, closed one - this is how the labyrinth in Iceland is arranged.
The complex structure of the central group of stones suggests that the device also included the inclination of the gnomon in the direction of the earth's axis, i.e. to the Polar Star, which increases the accuracy of determining hourly intervals. For the inclined fastening of the wooden pole, rollers-curbs and relatively taller stones serve, and for the clarity of distinguishing the direction of the shadow - flat table-like blocks bearing traces of processing. It should be noted that the Greeks perfected (tilted) the gnomon only around 530 BC.
Comparison of labyrinths with known ancient calendars shows that spiral shapes were used in the calendars of many peoples. An example is a mammoth ivory buckle with a hole in the center from the Malta site on the Angara, dating from the Late Paleolithic. Until the beginning of the XX century. The Yakuts used a “perpetual” calendar similar to the mentioned buckle. There are 367 holes on the helix of the large circle. The small disc at the top has seven holes - for the number of days in a week. The days were marked by rearranging the wooden peg.
As ancient prototypes of the northern labyrinths, archaeologists consider stone kereksurs (in Mongolian - khereksurs) - structures of the 9th-7th centuries. BC, found in Mongolia, Sayan-Altai and Transbaikalia. They are located mainly in the basins and along the river valleys, they are stone embankments surrounded by a square or round stone fence with additional ring structures. From the central hemispherical embankment of stones, stone "rays" often radiate in different directions, abutting against round external stone fences. During the research, it turned out that their structure fixes the azimuths of the rising and setting of the sun on the days of the solstices and equinoxes, as well as the most significant positions of the high and low moon, i.e. temporary aspects. Some "rays" of kerexur have a connection with the main dominants and landmarks in the surrounding landscape.
Comparison of the labyrinths with the other mentioned astronomical structures allows us to draw some historical and geographical conclusions.
First, the dating, frequency of occurrence and the degree of complexity of gnomons may indicate the center of origin and ways of spreading this knowledge.
The second generalization: the size of the gnomon depends on the productivity of the enclosing landscape. In the tundra and steppe, where the biomass is low, low gnomons such as labyrinths and kerexurs, built for temporary use in conditions of nomadic movement by the efforts of a small group of people, are clearly visible, not shaded by anything. In the midst of wooded landscapes or fertile oases, be it the temperate zone or the tropics, the gnomons give way to grandiose structures that require an organized workforce to build.
Since the importance of communicating information has been evident at all times, the labyrinths were set up in places noticeable and convenient for stopping and became a sign to those who came later. In addition, the rock carvings - one of the first maps and textbooks - meticulously convey to us the simplest images of the gnomon.
In understanding the symbolic essence of the labyrinth sign, one can argue with the medieval Christian interpretation, inclined to associate the exit from the labyrinth with the renewal of the spirit. If you follow the sun, relying on the concept of the labyrinth-gnomon, then the apogee of enlightenment corresponds to the center of the stone structure. It is no coincidence that talented and daring pagans, instead of a wooden pole, used a vertically placed stone, sometimes sharpened as an ancient (phallic) symbol of the victory of life over decay.
On Cretan coins
Let's turn to the ancient Cretan coins, the double spiral of which in the finest way repeats the pattern of stone labyrinths and their images on the rocks of the North. It seems that the people who printed them knew exactly about the purpose of the labyrinth and the technology of its creation. The upper part of the labyrinth depicted on the coin is signed "AP", i.e. "top". Let us recall that this syllable, sometimes involuntarily pronounced by us, is translated in some languages. Under the letters to the right and left of the labyrinth, we see an image of a spear and a knotted rope - the necessary and sufficient material for its creation. The inverted position of the sign on the coins remains a mystery, but this is a separate conversation.
It is known that penetration into northern countries and the ability to navigate in a different, Arctic, space promised great benefits. This leads most researchers to assume that the highly developed ancient Cretan culture put a sign alien to it on their coins. However, historical practice shows that when choosing a sign, preference is given to what is closer, more familiar, to those objects that reflect the basis, the essence of the designated territory or community. Therefore, we believe that the coin found in Crete was printed by representatives of the northern civilization, and this convincingly shows the fact of their presence and the scale of their influence in the Mediterranean.
Further following our concept of "gnomon-labyrinth", we come to the conclusion that the search for the labyrinth in Crete will remain unsuccessful as long as the association of the labyrinth with a tangled chain of semi-underground premises prevails. If you look for the labyrinth - the Temple of the Sun, in which, by definition, the central part belongs to the gnomon, then it is clear that this is an observatory temple similar to Stonehenge.