The Band of Holes, on Monte Sierpe (Serpent Mountain), Peru. There are around 5,200 aligned holes or pits, stretching for about 1.5 kilometres and thought to date back to around 1400. Some feel the pits - at the intersection of two Inca trade routes - may have been used to measure out goods for accounting and tax purposes. Others have suggested that the holes were graves or defensive fortifications or that they had a religious significance. #archaeology #history #mythology #folklore #architecture

The Band of Holes, on Monte Sierpe (Serpent Mountain), Peru. There are around 5,200 aligned holes or pits, stretching for about 1.5 kilometres and thought to date back to around 1400. Some feel the pits - at the intersection of two Inca trade routes - may have been used to measure out goods for accounting and tax purposes. Others have suggested that the holes were graves or defensive fortifications or that they had a religious significance. #archaeology #history #mythology #folklore #architecture

A bench end carved with a mermaid in the church of the coastal village of Zennor, Cornwall. A legend claims that a mysterious woman would sometimes attend church services, singing in a captivating, otherworldly voice. There seemed something of a spark between her and a handsome young chorister, and their voices would intertwine beautifully. After one service, the two walked to a nearby cove, disappeared beneath the waves, and were never seen again. The villagers realised the woman was a mermaid and had the bench she sat on carved with her image as a warning to men to beware of these dangerous creatures. Images of mermaids were quite common in medieval churches. Usually portrayed clutching mirrors and combs, they admonished worshippers about the temptations of vanity. At Zennor, the legend may have been invented to explain the carving after its meaning had been forgotten. #folklore #mythology #churches #medieval #gothic #history #architecture #weird #Cornwall

#StorytellingPSA

I know I have ranted about this before, but: now I am running across entire websites with "folktales" that don't exist, referencing sources that also don't exist.

Why is it a problem, you ask? A story is a story?

No. Not if it is assigned to an actual existing culture. If it is claimed to represent the heritage of an indigenous tradition. Oral tradition is endangered already in many ways. We don't need AI to enshittify this.

Check your sources.

#AI #folklore #culture