Senegambian stone circles Cerchi di pietra di Senegambia

Siamo in Africa occidentale, in Gambia, dove si trovano dei cerchi di pietre del tutto simili ai più famosi cerchi in pietra di Stonehedge.
proprio grazie a questi cerchi di pietra africani, un archeologo è giunto a formulare l'ipotesi che anche  Stonehenge sia stato costruito per ricordare i morti.
Per i cerchi di pietra africani infatti è stato semplice definirli come monumenti funerari in quanto hanno rilevato numerose sepolture.
Questi megaliti furono eretti tra il III° e XVI° secolo a. C.
Questi sono - dal 2006 - un patrimonio mondiale dell'umanità dell'Unesco.

The site consists of four large groups of stone circles that represent an extraordinary concentration of over 1,000 monuments in a band 100 km wide along some 350 km of the River Gambia.

Senegambian stone circles

• The four groups, Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch, cover 93 stone circles and numerous tumuli, burial mounds, some of which have been excavated to reveal material that suggest dates between 3rd century BC and 16th century AD. Together the stone ...
• These megaliths were built by the ancestors of the Serer people or the Jola.
• The stones are believed to have parallels with the steles of Roog (the supreme deity in Serer religion) built by the ancient Serers in veneration of their god.
• The steles of Roog represents the axis of the world in Serer cosmogony.
• They are arranged according to the tenets of Serer religious symbolism, and form part of some of the most sacred Serer sites.
• Scholars like Henry Gravrand as well as Cheikh Anta Diop (who among others referred to it as the Serer cult of upright stones) notes that, the steles of Roog are still built by modern day Serers though in a much smaller scale i.e. in people's homes.

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