I hold many treasured memories from my childhood within me..."petroglyphs" if you like, from my old Arthur Mee Children's Encyclopedia. I was given a set as a young boy and every so often when I want to escape down the rabbit hole I will browse through my Arthur Mee's.
My fascination in ancient standing stones and stone circles dates back to my Arthur Mee's (Photo above). One of my favourite Scott Peck books is In Search of Stones
. We've visited Stonehenge, Newgrange, and many of the ancient megaliths in England, Ireland, and Scotland thanks to my cousins Ken and Eleanor Garvie who share a similar interest in ancient monuments.I often wondered, why, if the "Cradle of Humankind" was here in Southern Africa, there were no stone circles? That was until I came across James Bailey's The God-Kings & the Titans and later read Brenda Smith's fabulous little book, Spirit of the Rocks. I was simply oblivious to my own local heritage of ancient stone cultures. Of course I knew, being a child of the Drakensberg, that we were custodians of the greatest rock art gallery in the World! But standing stones and circles? Where?
A while back I was introduced to the books of Michael Tellinger. Needless to say his discoveries and views are controversial and challenging, daring to speculate beyond the realms of traditional archaeology, anthropology, cosmology, and even theology. In his view "everything is connected", mythology is history.
An evening or two ago, Sylvia and I had the opportunity to attend one of Michael's presentations at Umhlanga Rocks, of all places. It was fascinating. We listened and watched enthralled at pictures of ancient stone circles and ruins, many only visible from the air or Google Earth. They are all over, but many centred in the gold rich Barberton, Carolina, Machadodorp Triangle in Mpumalanga, nostalgically called, Makomati. They were all too familiar.
My fascination was not only because of the beauty and mystery of these ancient ruins and interest in stones but engendered also because this was where I spent the first seven years of my life! In Makomati! I grew up on a farm, Gemakstroom (Leasure Stream) below Skurweberg (Rough Mountain), through which the Komati River flowed. Those ancient rocks, among the oldest rocks on the Earth must've rubbed off on me. As a little boy, I recall building little pebble circles in our Gemakstroom garden. My aloe rockeries were the same...stone circles.
More astonishing, I only discovered many years later that my wife Sylvia, who was born thousands of miles away in Nigeria, would come to South Africa and spend her childhood holidays on another farm at Moedig (Courage) also on the Komati River! My childhood farm, Gemakstroom, was a matter of a few miles from hers at Moedig, just downstream as it were! We never knew it! Destiny was then already conspiring to bring us together (again?)! We were Kids of the Komati! Talk about prevenient grace! I tease Sylvia that these ruins are the remains of her ancient ancestors. Her maiden name is Adam! Didn't Tellinger call it "Adam's Calendar"?
As a small boy on the rocks of the Komati
Do read Michael Tellinger. You may not agree with all of his conclusions but you will certainly be intrigued!
Note:
Michael Tellinger will be one of the speakers at this year's Glastonbury Megalithomania Conference in May 2007. See http://www.megalithomania.co.uk/
©Colin G Garvie
HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za
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