Gouk stones and other cuckoo place-names: prehistoric cult sites.
The common cuckoo was a pre-Christian symbol of male fertility across Eurasia, associated with several European fertility goddesses. Some standing-stones are named after it as cuckoo (coucou is Old-French) or gowk (Anglo-Saxon). Gouk and cuckoo stones can only have been so named from the fifth and e...
| Published in: | Scottish Geographical Journal Vol. 135; no. 1/2; pp. 98 - 123 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Mar-Jun2019
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=139194132&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 139194132 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 14702541 8NB jtl: Scottish Geographical Journal issn: 14702541 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar-Jun2019 vid: 135 iid: 1/2 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 139194132 10.1080/14702541.2019.1635265 ppf: 98 ppct: 25 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 2.1MB tig: atl: Gouk stones and other cuckoo place-names: prehistoric cult sites. aug: au: Nance, David Alexander affil: Department of Geography and Environment, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK su: Geographic names Cuckoos Stone Cults Renal colic Test methods Eurasia United Kingdom sug: subj: Eurasia United Kingdom Geographic names Cuckoos Stone Cults Renal colic Test methods ab: The common cuckoo was a pre-Christian symbol of male fertility across Eurasia, associated with several European fertility goddesses. Some standing-stones are named after it as cuckoo (coucou is Old-French) or gowk (Anglo-Saxon). Gouk and cuckoo stones can only have been so named from the fifth and eleventh centuries respectively but at least one stone was erected in the third millennium BC. It was not known if the naming was recent or if the stones had been associated with the cuckoo since prehistory and through subsequent language transitions. Previous authors thought some cuckoo place-names were places of seasonal ritual associated with specific natural and cultural features. Traditional toponymic methods cannot test these hypotheses being temporally limited by linguistic and textual constraints. A wider study of all known cuckoo place-names in Britain was undertaken using cartographic and statistical analysis independent of language transitions and textual evidence. Several natural and cultural features were very statistically significantly associated with both cuckoo stones and other cuckoo place-names indicating the association with the bird originated in prehistory. GIS geoprocessing also confirmed that early Roman structures were very significantly associated with cuckoo place-names indicating that they were cult-centres targeted for psychological advantage during the conquest period. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Scottish Geographical Journal is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Scottish Geographical Journal holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2019 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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