Dragon stones and lighthouse blocks
This sort of report reinforces my sense that human beings were more advanced earlier in the past than we used to give them credit for. I’d never heard of dragon stones before, but here’s the story:
A new study has illuminated the mysterious “dragon stones” of Armenia—the giant prehistoric monuments called vishaps locally—finally answering a question that has been intriguing researchers for over a century. Standing up to 18 feet high and weighing several tonnes, these carved stones, frequently fish-like or cowhide-shaped, are found irregularly scattered throughout the Armenian Highlands. Long thought to have been part of a forgotten cult, new evidence now suggests that they were used in ancient water-linked rituals and early irrigation practices. …
… [T]he study is the first statistical examination of the monuments, utilizing radiocarbon dating, spatial analysis, and precise measurements. The findings reveal that the stones were deliberately placed near springs, lakes, and prehistoric irrigation channels, suggesting that they were employed as sacred markers in a complex system of water management.
Dating to between 4200 and 4000 BCE, the dragon stones belong to the Chalcolithic era and are comparable to the earliest construction phases of other mega-sites such as Stonehenge. The researchers determined that the stones fall into two different groups. Fish-shaped stones are at higher elevations—at one point over 9,000 feet above sea level—close to natural water sources, while cowhide-shaped examples are more common at mid-altitudes in valleys where water was being used for agriculture. This distribution pattern aligns closely with ancient irrigation zones, supporting theories proposed nearly a century ago.
The process of sourcing, carving, and transporting the stones was enormous.
You can say that again.
Who knows whether this theory about the stones is correct; I certainly don’t, but I find such things fascinating. It’s intriguing to wonder about humans and how they operated back then, because they certainly went to a lot of trouble in a lot of places to haul huge pieces of stone around to no obvious purpose we can discern.
And speaking of huge pieces of stone, I missed this other intriguing news at the time it was announced, which was in July of 2025 [emphasis mine]:
After centuries underwater, 22 huge stone blocks of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, have been recovered from the Mediterranean seabed, a breakthrough in an ambitious digital reconstruction effort.
Restoration is part of the ongoing “PHAROS” project … [which] aims to virtually reassemble the structure using advanced technology.
Among the recently excavated finds are the massive lintels and uprights of the monumental entrance to the lighthouse, its threshold stones, foundation paving slabs, and fragmentary remains of a previously unrecorded pylon. The doorway of the pylon intriguingly blends Egyptian stylistic elements with Greek construction techniques, evidencing the multicultural diversity of Hellenistic Alexandria. …
Each of these blocks, weighing up to 80 tons, will be scanned using detailed photogrammetry and then passed on to volunteer engineers from the Dassault Systèmes Foundation. These specialists will digitally analyze and virtually reposition the blocks as if the fragments were pieces of a vast archaeological puzzle. Their efforts will ultimately result in a virtual twin of the Lighthouse of Alexandria so that researchers and the public will be able to view it in its original glory and understand why it collapsed.
Exciting. I’ve been fascinated by the lighthouse since I first heard about it many many years ago.
If the thing to be done required thought, or time, our ancestors were perfectly capable of doing it. They were not dumber than we were. Moving heavy stones from here to there is a thought and time exercise, if you don’t have heavy machinery. Coral Castle in Florida was built out of 1100 tons of oolitic limestone by one guy working from the 1920s to the 1940s, but he did use a truck when he moved it from one town to another…
There is a limit to how advanced ancient people could have been, and that is shown by mining. The low-hanging fruit of mining was found relatively recently. Ancient people in historic times trafficked metals and minerals over thousands of miles. For example, the Bible talks about Solomon’s “ships of Tarshish”: Tartessos in Spain was a center of commerce in tin which largely came from Cornwall. Almost all the tin that went into Bronze Age bronze from Western Europe to the Near East came from Cornwall. Solomon’s ships might not have gone as far as Spain but they bought from people who did. A large-scale, ancient, advanced civilization before the ones we’ve heard of would have not have left those mines for them.
Good example is Irish gold. The bronze age people of Ireland created stunning works of gold from 2500 BC on, but they quickly exhausted all the sources near them. A large-scale, advanced, ancient civilization predating them would have left them no gold to mine.
Another thing I would like to add is that these ancient monuments didn’t happened overnight. I’ve always believed that there was something going on for a long, long time before they built the pyramids in ancient Egypt (and elsewhere); I mean it isn’t like some desert nomads decided one day to just settle down and built those massive stone tombs.
No, some sort of civilization must have existed for thousands of years, if not longer, before they came up with the idea of creating massive stone structures.
It just boggles my mind to think of what must have existed before anything of substance they created that lasted until our time.
I also marvel at these discoveries but wonder why was the knowledge lost and what role did it play in the rise and fall of earlier civilizations.
If you enjoy discovering ways in which our distant ancestors weren’t as dumb as we think they were, I recommend a little research until the production of cloth. Fun stuff!
Having walked on a Roman Road in the wilds of Yorkshire Dales that was a mere 2000 or so years old, I marvel at the longevity of what “Ancients” built.
@charles:I’ve always believed that there was something going on for a long, long time before they built the pyramids in ancient Egypt (and elsewhere)
Indeed, the Great Pyramid was built in 2600 BC. Egypt was unified by the pharaohs 400 years before that. Their Neolithic period ended about 6000 BC so they had something like 3000 years to figure out how to build pyramids. Clearly there was nothing on TV.
They will build an actually replica, or a virtual one?
SCOTT,
I have the same confusion. The article is worded poorly. It would be great to do an actual one, but my guess is it will be virtual.
Many stones are missing, taken for use in other buildings
”They will build an actually replica, or a virtual one?”
A virtual one. The term “digital twin”, which is what I assume they mean here, is a computer modeling term that means a highly accurate part-for-part computer model of a physical object. It usually includes not just the physical appearance but also the dimensionally accurate physical and functional properties of the object.
I have often wondered why modern day Greece and Italy (and others?) don’t rebuild their ancient monuments and buildings with modern techniques. They would seem to be more compelling in a completed form than fallen down and spread around. Or perhaps just make completed 1/10th scale models in museums nearby??
I understand from a Jewish friend that when the Israelis added to the Western Wall or other old (temple?) structures, they were careful to delineate the new/added material from the old.
And of course “Göbekli Tepe is a Neolithic archaeological site in Southeastern Anatolia, dating from around 9500 to 8000 BCE. It is famous for its large circular structures with stone pillars and reliefs, and its role in the Neolithic Revolution.” [Wikipedia] is much older than this set of Armenian sites. When I see photos of these archeological sites, often dug many feet below current ground level, I find it frustrating that the archeologists (plus geologists and biologists) don’t make more effort to describe the local environment from that older time. That it is a barren and scrubby land now might have been a fairly lush savannah or forest back in the day? That could also help to understand how these otherwise isolated groups of people could come together to develop a religious site or in response to a charismatic leader, or ??? Plus they could well have been more plentiful than we might otherwise suppose.
A related question is just how many man years would be required to establish some of these sites? I recall more recent estimates for building the pyramids claim 20,000 workers working for 20 years would have been enough, vs. earlier guesses of 100,000 slaves, etc.?? So the sites in Turkey or Armenia or Stonehenge, etc. might not have needed that many people for all that long, all things considered.
In addition, why do the Armenian stones need to be “ritual”? Are there actual signs of rituals being done, or writings of such? Or is it just assumed nothing else could be worth the effort?
Niketas
I’ve heard that Afghanistan, as well as Cornwall, shipped tin to the Med Bronze Age cultures.
Having spent a short time in my youth concerned with bullets, beans, and beer, I am always looking at these issues and wondering…how did they feed the guys who were doing nothing productive? Indeed, the craftsmen may not have produced a mouthful of food in their entire lives, given their need to learn and then perform their craft.
One question is how long it took to do this stuff. If the surplus food were pretty scarce, might have taken a long time. If they could afford a massive work crew for a year, say, chow was easily come by. Relatively speaking.
Gobekli Tepe has gotten mixed up with the Neolithic. If they didn’t have effective farming, then there was a lot of hunting to feed the workers. The hunting part of the effort, including families, had to eat. And then the workers. Wouldn’t the place get hunted out? If the hunting team had had to schlep a dead deer three or four days because that was how far they had to go to find one, there might have been a strike.
The Armenian stones are a lot more work than sticking up and saying, “HERE’S WATER FOR IRRIGATION!”. Gratitude to….Somebody for the water? A lot of work providing no local version of bullets, beans, or beer. Quite a sacrifice. If you could live fatter and better by putting this effort into material welfare…and chose not to….
Years ago, I happened on a book promising to be about Britain’s prehistoric stone works. Turned out to be mostly the name of some stone thingy and its angle and declination. And references to the moon and certain stars. Over and over. Did speak, however, to somebody keeping records over sufficient time that the stones could be oriented in a fashion as to mean whatever they meant. Not only was somebody making the observations, possibly every night it wasn’t raining, but the records were preserved long enough against war, cockroaches, lack of interest, to allow for conclusions as to their necessary–for what–orientation.
Wonder if, in various situations, the food producers were voluntarily handing over some of their produce. Or was there sufficient organization to collect it, regardless of the producers’ views on such things. The organizing folks didn’t produce, either.
“…In addition, why do the Armenian stones need to be “ritual”? …”
Because “ritual” is the default assumption when they can’t think of anything else. It basically means “I have no idea”.
What we can say with some confidence is that civilization can be traced back about 10,000 years (give or take a millennium or two), while Homo Sapiens seems to be a couple of hundred thousand years old. So, what were our ancestors doing for the first 190,000 years, and why did they stop doing whatever it was and start doing civilization ?
Maybe “Civilization” is a lot older than we think.
@ David and richf > “…In addition, why do the Armenian stones need to be “ritual”? …”
Because “ritual” is the default assumption when they can’t think of anything else. It basically means “I have no idea”.
David Macaulay has it covered.
https://www.academia.edu/97616140/Motel_of_the_Mysteries
“Motel of the Mysteries, written by David Macaulay, is a satirical exploration of archaeology through the fictional character Howard Carson. Set in the distant future, Carson mistakenly excavates a modern motel, interpreting everyday items as sacred artifacts from a bygone civilization. The narrative humbly showcases the potential for misinterpretation in archaeology while delivering humor from its absurdity and its reflection on the nature of historical understanding.”
PDF available at that site.
Or read it here.
https://onlinecampus.fcps.edu/media2/Social_Studies/WHGII_2010/Era1Topic2/Resources/Motel_of_Mysteries.pdf
The book is better, along the same lines as his “Pyramid,” “Castle,” and “Mosque” explanations, with drawings, of the typical example of each.
Excellent additions to any library if this sort of thing interests you.
Obviously, it does me!
I have walked on sections of the ancient Lycian Way in Turkey. Where I walked was closely paralleled by a modern road, and as I recall it was of a noticeably more consistent grade in that hilly section than the modern road!
Of course, this constant grade was achieved by the old roadway meandering much more than the newer roadway, in which the builders used modern earthmoving equipment to cut and fill through elevation changes to achieve a straighter route alignment.
This phenomenon can also be observed in the older canals of England, such as the Oxford Canal, on which I have also journeyed. They tend to meander excessively, following the land contours to avoid the necessity of building locks where possible. A notable exception that I recall was the Somerton Deep Lock, that was cut extremely (and scarily) deep in order to do in one lock what might have been done in two or three at a later date.
@richf:Maybe “Civilization” is a lot older than we think.
Not one that used metal, or the mines wouldn’t have been there for the civilizations we’re aware of that we know mined them out.
One example, besides the Irish gold I mentioned. In Spain the Romans broke apart mountains to mine the gold there, using shafts filled with water to apply hydraulic pressure. A previous civilization in that area could not have been that advanced as the Romans, or it wouldn’t have been there for the Romans to do it. And the Romans wouldn’t have gone to that trouble had the Carthaginians or Greeks or Celts left them any easier mining. Likewise the kind of mining we do in Europe today, we do because the Romans didn’t leave anything easier for the Middle Ages miners, who didn’t leave anything easier for us.
That Roman mining even put lead in the atmosphere that can be detected in ice cores. There’s more than one way to establish what people could possibly have been doing in ancient times, they leave clues behind that people with purely casual interests in ancient history might not have thought of or heard of.
In the 1632 series of books, it becomes clear how knowledge of the Fresno scraper–and how and where to use it–can be a strategic and tactical game changer. In a world where if it doesn’t move by water, it doesn’t move, the ability to build roads can make a superpower.
The Fresno scraper is a horse-drawn machine that replaces pick, shovel and crappy wheelbarrow.
In re Macaulay’s excellent series on how major buildings were built in the medieval-Renaissance eras, I left out “Cathedral,” which is an especially poignant omission these days.
https://pjmedia.com/raymond-ibrahim/2025/05/21/video-mosques-are-replacing-churches-in-america-but-whos-to-blame-n4940026
https://granitegrokcom.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/church-to-mosque.jpg
@richf:Maybe “Civilization” is a lot older than we think.
One anecdote: when I visited the British Museum around 1990, they had an exhibit portraying a flint mine credited to (maybe) 50,000 years ago. It was a rough hole that required very dexterous maneuvering by the “miners” to go around the twisted (downward) passages to retrieve the more readily available flint. Not a simple cave with easy access. There was minimal material removal outside of that. But the implication was that this flint was collected as part of a trading relationship with some other far away group, hence an early element of “civilization”, or at least cooperation within and across groups.
AesopFan, as part of that same trip to England, we saw many small (usually stone) churches across the countryside. I understood there was limited if any attendance at many of them. Mostly attracted more tourists than congregants. I presume if current day Muslims were numerous enough to afford buying them, they could also become mosques, even outside of city centers.
But I also wonder how in the US, if our Muslim population is less than 3 million adherents(?), there is enough money to buy and convert all that many churches, unless either they are going for fire sale prices or there is foreign money being added to the contract offers?? Do you, or Kate, have any insight into that possibility?
@ richf – I’ve seen most stories, and that picture, from Europe and Britain. In France, there are some old posts about empty churches being bought (cheaply, probably) or even gifted to the Muslims.
https://tomhaeg.substack.com/p/when-mosques-replace-churches-islams
https://www.christiantoday.com/news/french-churches-becoming-mosques-isnt-the-big-problem-its-rabid-secularism
There are plenty more on the internet, a lot of them warning the US about what’s down the road if the Christians don’t get on the ball.
However, this is a promising trend, and probably not well known to MSM readers
https://www.christianity.com/wiki/cults-and-other-religions/why-are-thousands-of-muslims-converting-to-christ.html
https://cbn.com/news/world/irans-jesus-revolution-mosques-close-1-million-muslims-accept-christ
Not exactly a safe option there, and I doubt any mosques will be converted to churches.