Cairn
See also: Cairn (homonymy)
A cairn is an artificial stone cluster. One finds them most of the time on the reliefs, the peat bogs or at the top of the mountains. This term is often used in reference to the Scotland, but can also be used in other places.
Another name: Montjoie n.f. Anc. Stone heap to mark the ways or to point out an significant event. (Petit Larousse)
Use
They fulfill several functions:- to mark out a path crossing a rocky or arid ground, or crossing a Glacier
- to locate the top of a mountain
- to mark a funerary site or to celebrate deaths
Moreover, the cairns were used to commemorate all kinds of events: a site of battles, a place where a carriage was reversed, etc …
They can vary simple clusters shaking with erudite prowesses of construction. In certain places, Jeu X are regularly organized to determine that which will build most beautiful cairn.
History
The word comes from the Scottish càrn which has a direction much broader: it can indicate several types of hills as well as natural stone accumulations. Obviously, because of the simplicity of the concept, the cairns are present everywhere in the world in the alpine and mountainous areas. One can also find them in the deserts and the tundras.These current traditions derive from the habit, going up at least with the Neolithic average, to build the burial S inside cairns. They were located in a prominent way, often on the heights of the village of the late ones. One still finds some, and they are often larger than the modern cairns of Scotland. It is thought that these stones were placed there for several reasons, such as for example dissuading the plunderers from tombs or the vultures. A more sinister theory claims than they prevented deaths from reappearing. It is interesting to notice that, still nowadays at the Juif S, the tradition wants that one deposits small stones on the tomb which one visits. It is possible that has a similar origin. The Stûpa S of India or the Tibet were probably set up for the same reasons, although, from now on, they generally contain ashes of saints Bouddhiste S or LAMA S.
In Scotland, it is of habit to transport a stone until in top of the hill to deposit it on a cairn. Thus, the cairns would become increasingly large. An old Scottish saying called “ Cuiridh semi clach air C chàrn ”, i.e. “I would deposit a stone on your cairn”.
In North Africa, they are sometimes called kerkour , and they are also frequent in Corsica.
In the Faroe Islands, which are exposed to frequent fogs and strong precipitations, and which have some of highest cliffs of the world, the cairns are often used as means of location in the middle of the hills or on rough ground. Moreover, formerly, the majority of displacements around the islands being done by the sea rather than by the ground, the reliefs were found often abandoned.
In the mountainous regions of North America, the cairns are often used to mark out the hiking trails or the tracks of Cross-country beyond the forest limit. The majority are small, 30 centimetres or less, but some are built higher to be able to exceed snow. The tradition wants that each one, arrived at the level of a cairn, adds a stone, thus maintaining the work and combatant the destroying effects of the winter bad weather. Often, the habit is to add some only above, and to use a stone smaller than the preceding one, then forming an unstable assembly of small rollers.
Cairns as a character
Although the practice is not widespread in French, the cairns are often indicated by their anthropomorphic attributes. In German and Dutch, the cairns is respectively called Steinmann and Steenman , which means “stone man literally”. A form d
See too
Related articles
External bonds
- Plane of a cairn