You put stones on the material at the bottom of the side of a tent to keep the wind from coming in at the bottom. Do I get a PhD in Archeology now? Doctor Blueunicorn6....has a nice ring to it.
Maybe they ran out of redwood and vinyl and had to use stones for fences.
I was watching an old western movie and the wagons formed a circle for protection at night.
Ahhhhhh.....very clever NYer.....I took a closer look at that picture.....it’s from Woodstock. The rings are from where the porta-potties were.
The orginal 10 commandments, written by the finger of God. If the left hears of this, they will say they are offended and want it removed.
"There seems to be some overarching cultural continuum in this area in which people felt there was a need to build structures that were circular."
1) surface rocks that must be cleared to use an area
2) need barrier around cleared area for protection of whatever it's used for (caravan animals? traveling herds? seasonal gardens? something else?)
3) circle has smallest perimeter for a given area
4) for given amount of material, shortest perimeter = highest barrier for given thickness/thickest barrier for given height
5) it's an oasis in the middle of desolation, meaning (usually) periodic, not permanent usage, so the barriers are the only permanent structures.
Therefore, circular areas should be no surprise, nor should be (given the lack of large scale workforces with skilled engineering overseers, & intermittent usages) the small size & crudeness of the stack works.
Look for firepits and related artifacts; and maybe discarded broken harness/saddle parts in any excavations, but not much else.
The native American medicine wheel is an example of the reoccurring tradition of the mandala in world religions. The mandala is a sacred circle which is also one of the most reoccurring physical shapes in the universe. It is the circle of life, which is eternal.
Hm, these things might be a little tricky to blow up.
ping
Nothing to see here folks, just ordinary random structures as found everyday in a random universe. Theories of evolution don’t only apply to living creatures, they also apply to structures like this. No intelligence behind these what so ever. Nope...