“...the circular enclosure crowned by a stone tiger or horse, which once was the color of fire and now was that of ashes”    

“The Circular Ruins”  Jorge Luis Borges

Throughout the world ancient stone remains exist in a state of half-life, identifiable structures losing their mass while still attesting to sophisticated past civilizations. Outlasting their purposes and creators, these sites differ from when they were constructed. Centuries of vegetal invasion and assault by the elements have caused massive erosion and created beautiful shapes and places. In their half-life, they are altogether new.  

Some names of these sites are near-mythical, others are less familiar. All sites, however, represent the apex of powerful and advanced cultures, the ancient Maya, Inca, Shona, Anasazi, Thai and Khmer. In distant parts of the globe, in roughly the same era one millennium ago, these societies flourished. For different reasons, most waned and some disappeared altogether, leaving only hints of their many achievements. 

By their very existence the stone remains show that these ancient societies knew how to channel resources efficiently in often harsh surroundings. This enabled them to support large communities and to construct massive, labor-intensive sites. Devising ingenious engineering techniques, they built into existing monoliths and assembled stone hewn from nearby cliffs and distant quarries. A structural harmony with the local landscape is still evident in the construction and function. A visual harmony blurs where nature ends and human work begins. At some sites, whole buildings carved with images and legends remain, and human presence is palpable. At others, wind and water have nearly erased man’s mark. Of sharp building lines, only faint impressions remain.

In all these ancient places, environmental processes have changed the play of the constructed to the natural. New harmonies and beauty are being created while the earth is reclaiming the human effort. These ancient stone sites are disappearing, and it is doubtful that most will last another millennium. As they persist, they keep a hold on time and our imaginations.

I made this collection of photographs during sixteen years while working on refugee and development issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America, or just traveling. Sometimes I went intending to photograph. Other times, scrambling up a hill in eastern Zimbabwe or the Peruvian Andes, I looked up and was struck by these unexpected traces of a different time and by the scene as it exists today--the shapes and sites created by the remains, the surrounding geography and vast landscapes, and the visual patterns caused by textures, overtaking growth, and the natural and cut edges of the rocks and the stones.

Ancient Stone Remains