You may recall that late last year, there was a bizarre saga that saw mysterious metal monoliths suddenly appear and disappear at seemingly random spots throughout the world.
Although some were later revealed to be the work of good-natured pranksters trying to take people’s minds off the horrors of 2020, it nonetheless remains a mystery as to why many of these monoliths appeared and disappeared so quickly.
But while these pillars understandably captured the world’s fascination, the mysteries behind ancient stone megaliths like Stonehenge have just as many people seeking answers to mysteries set in motion hundreds of years ago.
And as we’re about to see, some can get so carried away with examining these monoliths and unraveling their secrets that they forget to check whether they’re even that ancient.
Throughout the United Kingdom, it’s possible to find ancient “holed stones” that were once believed to repel witchcraft and the diseases people attributed to it.
According to Oxford Reference , the importance that people gave to stones like this one seemed to emerge during the 15th century.
In fact, a farmer back in 1749 observed people gather at this very stone — Mên-an-Tol in Cornwall, England — to try and cure themselves of limb pains and their children of rickets.
But while that rock formation is genuinely ancient — if not necessarily filled with healing properties — scholars can sometimes find that others that seem to fit the bill were put there by farmers.
According to the Aberdeenshire Council , this was a source of some disappointment for the their Archaeology Service, who discovered in 2019 that what they thought was a stone circle dating back thousands of years actually originated in the 1990s.
It turned out that a farmer at the time was just as fascinated by ancient stone circles as the Archaeology Service was and decided to build a replica.
RELATED STORIES
But while it’s easy to see how that mistake occurred, another farmer who faced a similar situation had only intended to set up a stone pillar for a practical reason.
And so as folklore researcher Ian Powell tweeted out, this farmer was perplexed when he saw that the stone he had erected to give his cows a place to scratch their butts was being closely examined by a group of people.
Although the size of the group was unknown, the farmer had gotten the impression that they were worshipping it.
And as Powell said, “Despite him telling them, they insisted on its antiquity.”
And while the farmer didn’t seem overly concerned with why the group was there, he nonetheless wanted them to leave his property.
When they refused, he decided to bring his herd into the area anyway, presumably so they could use the stone for the purpose he intended.
It’s unclear whether they did so while the group was present, but the herd’s presence was apparently all it took for the group to finally leave.
Better luck next monolith, folks!
