Packer Culture

The Packer Culture was the last society to form in the Vandarch Basin prior to the arrival of the Fenni people, and existed from at least 70,000 BC or earlier to approximately 5,000 BC, with its decline beginning around 6,000 BC due to Fenni settlement. Packer culture was largely rediscovered after the 1840s, as their namesake, Packing Stones, were believed to have been Celtic in nature by previous scholars and disregarded as the previous sites of pagan idols. In large part, this was due to many Celtic peoples using guidestones similar in appearance to some Packer Culture stones.

The modern understanding of Packer Culture is largely due to Mark Belham and Yyves Pascal, a pair of Fhainnin and Burgoignesc archaeologists who confirmed the existence of the Packer Culture in 1843 and continued research into it through the 1860s. Prior to their discoveries, many Packer artifacts had been either destroyed or mislabeled, often during periods of religious repression.

Packing Stones
A Packing Stone, as opposed to a Celtic Standing Stone or Boundary Stone, is believed to have been primarily practical rather than cultural in nature. A Packing Stone consisted of two elements - a base and a relatively moveable slab or top block - of varying sizes and arrangements. While some Packing Stones were decorated with dyes or carvings of animals or simple wave shapes, most were simple rock. Packing Stones generally evolved from a flat press in the open to a slot carved into an existing rock, most notably standing boulders near a shoreline, which would form the basis of migration routes as the users travelled across an area. These came in a variety of square, triangular, and rectangular shapes, and would typically involve smoothing an existing divot in a rock into the desired shape, or simply carving a drainage line for water from a suitable spot and fashioning an appropriate pressing stone. The advantage of carving a slot arduously into a large stone rather than using an open-air one appears to have been that two slabs or one slab leaning in a packing slot allowed for safer storage of blocks of pressed kelp or algae away from herbivores; additionally, most types of Vandarch algae mats produce mild antibacterials that slow decay significantly, as well as giving them a bitter taste. Many Packing Stones are believed to have had multiple pressing slabs present at a time, as the Packer peoples appear to have had little understanding of how to prevent stones from when used with poorly-made base stones. The art of Packing Stones was adapted by Fenni settlers into a tradition of wooden presses, which were not as well preserved. Fenni settlers took the majority of pressing stones and reused them, as well as successive Gaelic peoples, as both had significant stoneworking cultures. Three known, original pressing stones remain intact today, two of which are currently not available for photography or viewing and held by the Teindún National Library.

Prior to the rediscovery of the Packer Culture, Pressing Stones were considered a Celtic tradition, with a variety of theories ranging from religious practice to sites for fires to seating for a Tyn, although these theories make little sense in context. Many damaged pressing stones have been found reused as bricks in old bridges, as part of roadways, or broken and abandoned across the Vandarch Basin for centuries, with some still bearing worn carving marks.