Walking from our front door towards the hill known as ‘del crocifisso’ because of the cross at its top one comes across some ancient rocks which, although clearly natural outcrops at the path’s ridge, seem almost sculpted by a forgotten race of giants.
Rock engravings dating back to Neolithic times have been discovered in other parts of our valley, in particular the area of Monte Limano, and several interpretations have been given to them. Is it possible that this stone has a faint inscription on it?
Were the stones used for ritual purposes? Did they have a religious use? After all, reading the warning against idolatry in the Bible’s Deuteronomy 4:28 which says “And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell”, it’s perfectly feasible that this could well be the case. In the UK, places like Avebury and Stonehenge had particular significance for those peoples who constructed them, not just for their astronomical alignments but for the actual stone element which formed them.
Sometimes wood and stone combine themselves in a strange forest marriage in our examples at Longoio.
At the top of the hill is a wooden cross, erected around ten years ago, to replace the one which formerly stood here and which marked the climax of the Via Crucis procession which took place within living memory. Here, was performed the enactment of Christ’s crucifixion in a procession which included flagellants (rather like those I once encountered many years ago in a Shia procession in Basra commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali.)
Whatever the why and wherefore of the stones, the hidden memories of forgotten pasts are lost in the mists of time and the Maytime beauty of these woods. The views towards other villages of our Lima valley are marvellous and the greenery around one distils an elixir of absolute peace.
Amazingly some of these stones still form the edges of a pathway cart route who knows and it is still mostly standing as a dry stone wall with moss abounding denoting the excellent air in this part of the area as we had in Mid Wales all around where we were staying there it is that light green moss that grows on tress only in good unpolluted and healthy air. I can only imagine that maybe there was a fort or small village hill castle as many of these surrounding hills seemed to have as lookout posts and towers from which were sent messages all around these hills as they lit their bonfires quite understandable practices as these were times without phones let alone mobile phones. Perfect peace and no nasty invisible air waves to connect such gizmos as computers mobile phones alarms handsets galore for tv blinds doors windows all quite harmful to our very own brain waves as the transmitters around and about transmit connecting features so necessary nowadays to our daily way of life. What is scary though is when all this technology fails and humans become imprisonned by these inventions. I say the Good Life unsophisticated quiet living in touch with Nature suits me well to see and be in the changing seasons embraced by the Beauty and colours of Nature the dawn chorus the cuckoo song Spring is in full swing as we celebrate the mystery of this planet earth.
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