Discussion
New Drystone Diary: Whose History Is Worth Knowing? From Great Zimbabwe to Sacsayhuamán to the famine walls of the Scottish Highlands. Who gets recognised and who gets erased was, and still is, a story told by the same people about the same people.
https://kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/drystone-diary-history-worth-knowing
#DrystoneDiary #History #Nature #World #Scotland #Writing #Craft
@kristiedegaris So much important (and fascinating) history lost or hidden this way.
The Beinn Dearg wall runs above my family's old farm at Auchindrean, and I suspect the famine in question was what drove them to leave for the US. They had already been forced off the farm at that point, and much of the family had fled to Nova Scotia years previous. I've read their letters, complaining of predatory ship captains demanding to strip them of all their remaining assets in exchange for (un)safe passage to a chance of a life, and can't help but think of folk who may be in comparable straits across the channel today.
On the erasure of African history, another branch of my family had lived in Nigeria for a time and I encountered what seemed a particularly egregious example in studying the history of that place. The remarkable 15th century head sculptures found at Ife were initially claimed as evidence of the discovery of Atlantis by the first Westerner to excavate one in the 20th century. This despite the neighbouring Kingdom of Benin having had a tradition of making impressive sculptures using comparable techniques stretching back hundreds of years, and lasting right up to its destruction by the British less than 15 years prior to the first Ife find. The history being ignored here was virtually the present, and firmly in the photographic era. (There will be folk here much better versed in Nigerian history than I am - corrections welcome!)
I knew a little of Great Zimbabwe* and Sacsayhuamán (amazing places), but most of the other sites were new to me. Naletale is spectacular!
I wondered what Nigeria might have in the way of dry stone traditions, and found this notable example:
https://museum.ng/sukur-cultural-landscape/
* I found Henry Louis Gates Jr's series Africa's Great Civilisations really interesting on Great Zimbabwe and other such places often overlooked/ignored in Western histories
Thanks for another thought-provoking post, and hope you'll excuse the essay reply
@edsoldat No excuses necessary. This was all fascinating to read. Thank you!
@kristiedegaris So much important (and fascinating) history lost or hidden this way.
The Beinn Dearg wall runs above my family's old farm at Auchindrean, and I suspect the famine in question was what drove them to leave for the US. They had already been forced off the farm at that point, and much of the family had fled to Nova Scotia years previous. I've read their letters, complaining of predatory ship captains demanding to strip them of all their remaining assets in exchange for (un)safe passage to a chance of a life, and can't help but think of folk who may be in comparable straits across the channel today.
On the erasure of African history, another branch of my family had lived in Nigeria for a time and I encountered what seemed a particularly egregious example in studying the history of that place. The remarkable 15th century head sculptures found at Ife were initially claimed as evidence of the discovery of Atlantis by the first Westerner to excavate one in the 20th century. This despite the neighbouring Kingdom of Benin having had a tradition of making impressive sculptures using comparable techniques stretching back hundreds of years, and lasting right up to its destruction by the British less than 15 years prior to the first Ife find. The history being ignored here was virtually the present, and firmly in the photographic era. (There will be folk here much better versed in Nigerian history than I am - corrections welcome!)
I knew a little of Great Zimbabwe* and Sacsayhuamán (amazing places), but most of the other sites were new to me. Naletale is spectacular!
I wondered what Nigeria might have in the way of dry stone traditions, and found this notable example:
https://museum.ng/sukur-cultural-landscape/
* I found Henry Louis Gates Jr's series Africa's Great Civilisations really interesting on Great Zimbabwe and other such places often overlooked/ignored in Western histories
Thanks for another thought-provoking post, and hope you'll excuse the essay reply
👆 “The best drystone I know of is not in Europe. The fact it took me a long time to see that is not an accident. It is the result of a set of choices, made over centuries, about whose work is seen as valuable.”
Found a couple more images of a barrier wall we placed, this time next to a river bank in 2010 in the middle of a Mexican rain forest...
This part: "Who gets recognised and who gets erased was, and still is, a story told by the same people about the same people." ...yup. Bothers me so.
In my youth I spent many happy days and nights in the Mournes in Co Down walking and rock climbing. We'd climb over and walk beside this dry stone wall and never give it a lot of thought.
@artnacrea It's on my bucket list. Hoping to go next year.
Install bonfire.cafe
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