What Are Cairns?
The word derives from the Scottish Gaelic (and Irish) càrn which has a much broader meaning, and can refer to various types of hills and natural stone piles. In German and Dutch, a cairn is known as Steinmann and Stenenman respectively, meaning literally “stone man”. The Inuit inukshuk version is also meant to represent a human figure, and is called an inunguak (“imitation of a person”). In Italy, especially the Italian Alps, a cairn is an “Ometto,” or a “small man”. Starting in the Bronze Age, cists were sometimes interred into cairns, which would be situated in conspicuous positions, often on the skyline above the village of the deceased – perhaps to deter grave robbers and scavengers or as a token of respect as is the case in the Jewish tradition. Cairns can be found all over the world in alpine or mountainous regions, and also in barren desert and tundra areas as well as on coasts. In ancient times they were erected as sepulchral monuments, or used for practical and astronomical us
