<< Feature Articles >> Sieds of Vottovaara in North Western Russia under threat
Submitted by Aluta on Sunday, 23 December 2007 Page Views: 12306
Site WatchCountry: Russia Type: Standing StonesInternal Links:
"Stone blocks with smaller stones of top of them were everywhere. I climbed on top of one. Seids were ahead of me and on my left. I looked around and was stunned. SEIDS WERE EVERYWHERE! Big, small, of different shape and color, but those were seids. To say that I was taken aback is to say nothing! The whole surface of the plateau was covered with seids. Who put them here? For what purpose? Why so many?..." --a visitor to Vottovaara. Now a remote group of these sites are under threat, first from visitors, and now from mining activities.
Seids or seitas are objects or sites revered by the Saami people as representing nature or earth spirits. Found throughout the area once called Lapland, they were constructed and revered in the distant past by the Saamis’ pre-Christian ancestors. They can take many forms, including constructions of wood or just secluded pools or valleys, but in this case the word refers to seid stones, which are stones or boulders, often of unusual shapes or placed in unusual ways. These are the megaliths of the ancient northern peoples.
Usually these special stones are placed sparingly or singly, sometimes near stone rows or stone circles. But Vottovaara, a mountain in the Republic of Karelia, part of the Russian Republic, is host to a bewildering abundance of them, from 1000 to 1500 seids and other stone constructions all in one area.
Among the most striking features at Vottovaara are its propped boulders, sometimes called flying stones because of the way the boulders, often of interesting shapes, are elevated by smaller stones, making them seem as if they are lifting into flight. Some have pools of water either on their upper sides or in the solid rock beneath. An ancient belief that the water in those pools has healing powers survives among some people today.
While propped and perched boulders exist in many places in the world, most are solitary and therefore often called glacial erratics even by anthropologists, no matter how carefully they seem to have been propped. In Finland and western Russia, however, so many occur in association with one another or with other structures that the consensus is that many or most of them were placed by human hands, even though some weigh many tons.
Other man-made stone constructions and megalithic features occur at Vottovaara. Stairs appear to have been carved in the bedrock and stone rows and circles have been set out on the rocky summit and in places down the slope.
After receiving publicity when an adventurer rediscovered it in 1978, the mountain quickly became a popular place for artists, musicians, and those intrigued by ancient mysteries. Creative people claimed to gain great insights and inspirations while visiting there, while others said they found it eerie and even terrifying. Modern Finnish and Russian pagan groups came to regard it as a sacred site.
Visitors to Vottovaara even today say that the flat mountain top with its small, pure lakes, rows of seita stones, stone rows and circles, carved steps and sheer precipices, creates a mystical ambiance which is enhanced by the grotesquely twisted dwarf pines and birch trees that grow in the spare soil and the mountain winds. Some people take picture after picture in the effort to capture the elusive feel of the place.
When Vottovaara first became the center of so many kinds of attention, it drew locals and tourists who vandalised the stone constructions for fun or because of their heathen origins, and many features were lost. Those abuses decreased as awareness of the importance and fragility of the site increased, but the ancient landscape faces a much greater challenge: in 2007 the government of Karelia gave a company permission to mine stone in the area.
All of our megalithic sites are precious, it seems deeply wrong to allow a site like this to be destroyed when so few people have had a chance to learn about it, study it and visit it. Here’s hoping the strong international voice of the megalithic community can keep the Vottovaara megalithic site from the destruction that seems to be creeping toward so many of our sites these days. Who would have thought that the ancient stones that have survived the forces of nature for millennia could turn out to be so fragile in our modern times?
An original article by Aluta for the Megalithic Portal
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Links to more images of Karelia and the Vottovaara Mountain.