CornISH Legends
Saints, Mermaids & Phoenicians
Conclusions
Having read the previous pages I wonder how much of what I have written you can accept as the truth. After all it is only my interpretation of the things I have heard and read. But so is much of the history you read in the books written by anyone else. We all try to source our materials in order to make our arguments stronger yet at the end of the day we are only repeating what others who wrote as a result of either reading what someone else had written or listening to someone repeating a legend.
I am often struck by the number of people who I think should have taken time to learn lessons from history who seem to ignore it. Why do 21st century humans with their so called sophisticated minds believe that they always have the answers. Surely a look back in time will clearly show them that they may not.
The history of Cornwall's people started with the building of stone circles some 5,000 years ago Yet we have no idea why they built them. Were they a means of marking graves, or maybe a device for studying the stars, or even a temple to worship their gods? Where the Druids set up as a priesthood to pass on a message to future generations about the power created within the circle by the natural radiation that lies in the earth. Today no one knows the true answer. Yet in America and Scandinavia scientists and scholars are trying to find the best way of warning future generations about the dangers of radiation of a different kind, the kind given off by nuclear waste, at such a level that it will remain harmful for thousands of years. These countries are already starting to bury it in the ground and they need to find a way of stopping people in the future digging it up as the radioactivity it contains would kill some one digging 250,000 years from now. You can read a report in the July 11th, 2002 National Geographic News on line here.
5,000 years from now people may stand in a
field and look at a marker like the one in the picture and wonder whether the
message it gives is true. This one was modelled on the marker design spelt out
in the report of the Sandia National Laboratories panel of outside experts In
the final paragraph of their report they said the following:
"To design a marker system that, left alone, will survive for 10,000 years is not a difficult engineering task.
It is quite another matter to design a marker system that will for the next 400 generations resist attempts by individuals, organized groups, and societies to destroy or remove the markers. While this report discusses some strategies to discourage vandalism and recycling of materials, we cannot anticipate what people, groups, societies may do with the markers many millenia from now.
A marker system should be chosen that instills awe, pride, and admiration, as it is these feelings that motivate people to maintain ancient markers, monuments, and buildings."
The designers of the Cornish stone circles certainly succeeded in doing the above. However if they were meant to also carry a message to future generations then that part failed.
Perhaps the people in the future will believe a legend that tells them not to dig in the ground because of a danger that will last for 250,000 years. A danger created by people who wanted to boil some water for a cup of coffee.
They may also hear someone telling the legend about Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea visiting Cornwall and wonder whether there is any truth in any of the stories.
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