Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has confirmed the so-called “Stone of Scone” on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles III, the successor to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Considered a local symbol, this stone was used for centuries during the coronation of the kings of Scotland, before the Scottish crown was united with the English: it has been in Edinburgh for more than 25 years, but will be reinstated on the throne soon to be occupied by Charles III. is crowned, the same on which Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953.
Also known as the Coronation Stone or the Destiny Stone, this large stone is just one of the many rocks at the center of stories and customs involving folk legends, religious beliefs, and significant historical events.
Stone of Scone, United Kingdom
The Coronation Stone is approximately 66 cm long, 42 cm wide and 27 cm thick; it is made of sandstone and weighs about 150 kilos. It has a shape vaguely reminiscent of a pillow, as ancient Celtic legend would suggest, and is decorated with a roughly engraved Latin cross on one side only. It is also equipped with two iron rings that serve to make it easier to carry.
It takes its name from the Abbey of the town of Scone, where it originally stood, some forty kilometers north of the capital, Edinburgh, near Perth. Tradition has it that it was brought there by Kenneth MacAlpin, who lived between 810 and 858, was King of the Picts and is believed to be the first king of Scotland. With the invasion of Scotland by the English in 1296, Edward I of England took possession of the stone and had it placed in a throne used for all subsequent coronations of the kings of Great Britain and the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey, London .
In 1603, after the heirless death of Elizabeth I, the throne passed to the King of Scotland, James VI, who became James I of England: the fact that James I was born with the Stone of Scone on the British Crowned on the throne was seen by the Scots as a symbol that the crown had returned to rule a territory that had always been hers.
Edward VIII’s coronation throne with the Stone of Destiny photographed in 1936 (AP Photo)
The stone was not returned to Scotland until November 1996, 700 years after it was taken by the British and four centuries after the fusion of the two crowns. On Christmas Day 1950 it was stolen from Westminster Abbey by four nationalists who wished to bring it back to Scotland: it was found in April of the following year on the altar of Arbroath Abbey, some fifty kilometers east of Perth, and then brought back to London. The stone is currently kept at Edinburgh Castle. In November 2020, Scotland’s Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced his intention to bring her back to Perth.
When the official coronation ceremony of Charles III. will take place, which became king immediately after the death of Elizabeth II on September 8 and was proclaimed two days later in a solemn ceremony, is not yet known. However, he is expected to be crowned in 2023, both to mark the period of mourning the death of the longest-lived sovereign in UK history and because the ceremony is expected to be solemn and grandiose – can be organized in detail. However, the stone should only be “borrowed” and after the coronation of Charles III. be returned to Scotland.
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The Blarney Stone, Ireland
This limestone slab is part of the tower of Blarney Castle, which dates from the mid-15th century and is just outside Cork in south-west Ireland. According to legend, whoever kisses the plate receives “the gift of the gab”. The problem is that it’s a bit tricky because to be able to kiss her you have to lie on your stomach, tilt your head back and hold on to two metal poles (preferably with someone’s help) so as not to drop from 29 meters height at which it is positioned.
People who have kissed the stone in their lives include former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger and actor Eddie Redmayne, 2015 Oscar winner for The Theory of Everything. .
Plymouth Rock, United States
One of the other well-known stones is Plymouth Rock, the stone that points to the spot on the coast of present-day Massachusetts where the Mayflower ship landed in 1620, where the first Pilgrim Fathers founded their first colony in North America. There are no documents prior to 1741 that specifically identify the rock as the arrival point of the Pilgrim Fathers, but today it is still considered one of the most important symbols of the state and one of the most well-known in the United States.
According to some estimates, this rock must have originally weighed more than 9 tons: however, in 1774, in an attempt to move it, it broke into various fragments, which were stolen, sold or bought. What is left of it can be seen today in an open-air monument erected in the town: the year 1620 is clearly visible on the large stone, but it was engraved at the end of the 19th century. Another piece of the stone is kept on a plinth at Plymouth Church in the borough of Brooklyn, New York.
The Rosetta Stone, Egypt
It is probably the most famous stone slab in history: it contains the inscriptions of a 196 B.C. The decree issued in Memphis in three languages - hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek – was essential for archaeologists to be able to translate the Egyptian hieroglyphs, shedding light on one of the world’s most mysterious and long-lived ancient civilizations.
The stele was discovered in 1799 by French archaeologist Pierre-François Bouchard in the Egyptian city of Rosetta, but was confiscated by the British after the surrender of Alexandria, which ended the French campaign in Egypt in 1801. It, too, was part of a larger stele: today, at its highest point, the Rosetta Stone is just over 110 centimeters high, over 75 centimeters wide and 28 centimeters thick, weighs around 760 kilos and can be seen in the British Museum in London, where it has been since 1802 is preserved.
The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum (EPA / Neil Hall, ANSA)
The Hunger Stones, Germany and the Czech Republic
They are rocks carved into the waterline of rivers with short scripts indicating water levels of previous droughts as a warning to future generations.
Several were found this summer in Germany in the Rhine and Elbe rivers in particular, indicating that current drought conditions have in some cases reached and exceeded those of hundreds of years ago. The Elbe also flows for kilometers in the Czech Republic, where a hunger stone was found near the town of Decin, the inscription of which probably dates from the 15th century: “If you see me, cry”.
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The Black Stone, Saudi Arabia
The Black Stone (“al-Hajar al-Aswad”) is an ancient relic kept in the Ka’bah, the cube-shaped shrine located inside the Mecca Mosque and the holiest building in Islam. . Every year around two and a half million believers visit the Ka’bah on the occasion of the Hajj, the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca.
The stone is often described as a block of lava, basalt or meteorite. According to an Islamic tradition, it fell from heaven to show Adam and Eve the place where an altar should be built that would become the first temple on earth. According to another interpretation, it was originally white, but over time it turned black due to all the sins absorbed, so to speak, by the faithful who touched or kissed it during the pilgrimage. In ancient times, this stone was also much larger: today various fragments have survived, which are assembled and stored in a silver frame visible on the eastern corner outside the Ka’bah.
A soldier watches over the Black Stone in July 2021 (AP Photo / Amr Nabil)