Stonehenge: Neolithic Man and the Cosmos

Fig. 134 A general view of Woodhenge in its original state.

Fig. 135 The conjectural rule governing the proportions of an ideal post. The units are arbitrary.

Fig. 136 The orientation of ditch, bank and river in relation to the timber rings at Durrington Walls and Woodhenge.

Fig. 137 One of the long measures that might have been in round numbers of MY at Durrington Walls.

Fig. 138 Durrington Walls, Phase 2 of the southern circle, showing the southeast façade, with ‘bar’.

Fig. 139 A detail of the preceding figure, with some construction lines added.

Fig. 140 Durrington Walls. Post holes at the northern circle and the approaching corridor.

Fig. 141 Potential sight lines at Durrington Walls (southern circles).

Fig. 142 All potential sight lines from the same position as in the previous figure, whether or not they are capable of avoiding the uprights.

Fig. 143 The view through the southern Durrington Walls monument to a person approaching the left post of the southern entrance.

Fig. 144 A reconstruction of the southern Durrington Walls monument on the basis of post heights derived earlier.

Fig. 145 A general plan of the Mount Pleasant enclosure, with henge monument, palisade, ditch and bank.

Fig. 146 The ditches and post holes at the Mount Pleasant timber henge.

Fig. 147 The profile of the northwest to southeast section at the Mount Pleasant timber henge.

Fig. 148 A general view of the main timber post circles at Mount Pleasant.

Fig. 149 Mount Pleasant. The blocking effect of the posts and lintels as presented to an observer in the northeast ditch looking in the general direction of midwinter sunset.

Fig. 150 Potential sight lines at the Mount Pleasant henge.

Fig. 151 The Arminghall henge and its immediate neighbourhood.

Fig. 152 The Arminghall henge.

Fig. 153 The highly regular arrangement of the posts at Arminghall judged by lines tangential to the posts and lines through their centres.

Fig. 154 The most probable arrangement of posts and lintels at the Arminghall henge, in relation to the ditches.

Fig. 155 The different characters of the views from the two ditches, looking over the bank at Arminghall.

Fig. 156 The station stones and the Heel Stone at Stonehenge.

Fig. 157 Some of the main elements in successive phases of Stonehenge’s history.

Fig. 158 Some of the excavated dumbbell shaped cavities with the Q- and R-holes that originally held bluestones.

Fig. 159 The Heel Stone, near the present road.

Fig. 160 A typical section of the Stonehenge Avenue in its present condition.

Fig. 161 The central Stonehenge area, showing the stones in their present state.

Fig. 162 Two alternative positions for the Altar Stone.

Fig. 163 The shape of the Slaughter Stone.

Fig. 164 A stylized view of one possible arrangement of stones (and lintels at the entrance) in the Q- and R-rings.

Fig. 165 The view through the entrance to the Q-R rings as drawn in the previous figure, from approximately the distance of the Aubrey circle.

Fig. 166 One possible arrangement of the Q-R lintels over the corridor at the northeast side of the incomplete double ring, together with the first position of the Altar Stone.

Fig. 167 Various stones excavated by William Hawley, modified and assembled from his drawings.

Fig. 168 Some of the limiting lines of sight under discussion, with stones shown in elevation that are not aligned in plan.

Fig. 169 Additional detail for the last figure.

Fig. 170 The central stones as seen today from the left and right sides of the Heel Stone.

Fig. 171 A skeletal view of the idealized dish-shaped figure created by the trilithon lintels over the drum of sarsens, as seen from the Heel Stone.

Fig. 172 A schematized view of some of the potential blocking stones between the sarsens at Stonehenge and the observer at the right side of the Heel Stone.

Fig. 173 The blocking of lines of sight by the ring of thirty sarsen uprights, for various critical positions of the observer.

Fig. 174 The relatively ineffectual blocking of sight lines by a ring of thinner stones.

Fig. 175 An approximate solution to the problem of placing the observer so as to guarantee the blocking of unwanted sight lines.

Fig. 176 Lines of sight through the monument looking northeast.

Fig. 177 A typical pattern of gaps open to view through the Q-R system, here as seen by a person at the Aubrey ring.

Fig. 178 The line of sight of an observer by stone E (which probably held the Slaughter Stone) to midwinter sunset.

Fig. 179 A detail of the previous figure.

Fig. 180 A line of sight to midwinter sunrise, limited by the trilithons 58-57 and 54-53.

Fig. 181 The lines of sight of Fig. 180 in a perspective view, showing the need to find two astronomically acceptable arrangements simultaneously, for a single Altar Stone.

Fig. 182 The transverse line of sight, for midwinter sunrise, in relation to the stones nearest the (hidden) observer.

Fig. 183 The approximate path of the rising midsummer Sun in relation to the Heel Stone (hidden), the Slaughter Stone, and stone C, assuming an imaginary viewpoint at the southeast edge of stone 16.

Fig. 184 The station stones rectangle.

Fig. 185 The repeating unit of 10 MY in the squares that appear to frame the sarsen ring and trilithons, and that yet seem to relate more strongly to the Aubrey circle and station stones.

Fig. 186 Central diagonals, one and possibly both of which seem to have passed precisely through the Aubrey centre.

Fig. 187 Sight lines that double for northern minimum lunar standstill (setting Moon) and the setting midsummer Sun, although at different altitudes.

Fig. 188 The relation between sight lines grazing the lintels on the trilithons, for an observer at the distance of the Aubrey circle.

Fig. 189 Various potential sight lines for observers standing at various places on the Aubrey circle.

Fig. 190 A stylized view from Aubrey hole 12 showing the creation of windows and the blocking effect of the various central stones.

Fig. 191 The dimensions of conjectured circles of timber posts indicating a connection with the Aubrey ring, through a series of potential lines of sight.

Fig. 192 A construction explained in the text exactly applied to a circle of radius 52 MY and then superimposed as closely as possible on the Stonehenge situation.

Fig. 193 The stations rectangle construction of the previous figure.

Fig. 194 Clay plaque with characteristic spirals and lozenges, from an early fifth-millennium Serbian settlement.

Fig. 195 Spiral and lozenge ornament on one of the Newgrange kerbstones.

Fig. 196 Geometrically constructible lines on the Bush Barrow lozenge.

Fig. 197 The Bush Barrow lozenge superimposed in one of numerous possible ways on a plan of the Stonehenge monument.

Fig. 198 The line of sight to the northern extreme of the rising Moon, as seen from Bush Barrow, exactly as it would have been set by the angle of the Bush Barrow lozenge.

Fig. 199 The domed top of the largest of the Folkton drums.

Fig. 200 A correlation of radiocarbon and calendar dates for four millennia before 1000 BC.

Fig. 201 The geocentric parallax of the Moon.

Fig. 202 Celestial coordinate systems.

Fig. 203 The relationship between azimuth and declination for a star at altitude 2.0° (the approximate extinction angle of Aldebaran, for example) at the latitude of Stonehenge.

Fig. 204 The ecliptic, the path of the Sun on the celestial sphere.

Fig. 205 The maximum and minimum declinations of the Moon.

Fig. 206 The path of the Moon on the celestial sphere, in relation to the ecliptic.

Fig. 207 The variation in lunar declination over one cycle of the nodes (approximately 18.6 years).

Fig. 208 The angle of rising or setting of the Sun or Moon.

Fig. 209 Extreme values on the graph of the Moon’s declination for a typical series of lunations around major northern and southern standstills.

Fig. 210 A star map for the latitude of Stonehenge for 3000 BC, including stars brighter than magnitude 4.5.

Fig. 211 Maximum declinations of the planet Venus in excess of 25° during the 36th century BC.

Fig. 212 Maximum declinations of Venus in a single family of maxima (see the previous figure) over a long period of time.

GLOSSARY

acronycal rising The last visible rising (in the course of the year) of a star at evening twilight. See Appendix 4.

alignment An arrangement in which three or more objects (strictly points on objects) are in a straight line. The word is often used of prehistoric rows of stones, but is here almost always used where one of the points is a rising or setting star, or a point on the Sun or Moon, on the horizon.

altitude Angle above a level plane, sometimes called elevation.

anthropomorphic In human form (to be interpreted generously). Neolithic slabs, often a metre or so across, are often carved in low relief with a face and other human characteristics. Archaeologists, however, cannot always agree on what these characteristics were meant to be.

architrave The main beam that rests on the plate (abacus) topping the capital of a column, as in Greek temple architecture.

ard A primitive plough with a ploughshare of stone or hard wood, and no mouldboard to turn the soil (and so create a furrow).

azimuth A direction in the horizontal plane, usually specified in degrees or as a compass bearing. Any clearly understood conventions for the starting point and direction of increase are acceptable, but star azimuths are commonly measured from north, increasing in a clockwise (eastwards) direction. East is then equivalent to an azimuth of 90°, south 180°, west 270°, and north 0°.

barrow A mound, deliberately erected out of earth and other materials (such as chalk, stone, or wood, depending on time and region), and having a conscious architectural structure. Usually, but not always, built for burial purposes. Long barrows, often but not always chambered, are typical of the Neolithic period, and round barrows of the Bronze Age and later. For various forms of round barrow, see Plate 2.

BC and bc (dates before the Christian era) are distinguished to indicate between ordinary calendar dates and uncorrected dates arrived at from radiocarbon methods. See Appendix 1.

beaker Drinking vessel with the profile of its side S-shaped profile, and often decorated with impressions made by a chord, bone or other tool. The general style seems to have arrived in Britain from the Rhine area in the mid third millennium BC. Many variations of shape are distinguished. Bell beakers look like an inverted bell or cloche hat. They carried incised decoration in horizontal bands round the body and seem to have begun as a regional variant (lower Rhine delta) of Corded Ware beakers. Like the latter they were often placed in single male burials, with weapons.

Belgae A population taking its name from Caesar’s references to a group in Gaul occupying lands to the north of the Seine and Marne. (Certain of their tribes, he said, settled in Britain.) Archaeologists apply the name to earlier cultures in the same general area.

bell barrow See barrow.

Beltane A Celtic feast, in celebration of the beginning of summer, but at a time of year roughly corresponding to our beginning of May. Approximately mid-way between vernal equinox and summer solstice. The festival was associated with fire.

bluestone A name given to some of the stones at Stonehenge, on account of their colour. They are in fact of several rock types (rhyolites, dolerite, volcanic, and some sandstones).

berm The level area usually left between a ditch and its adjacent bank or mound.

Bronze Age The period during which copper and its alloys were first used in significant quantities. The dating of the period depends on the place and culture. For Britain, various definitions have been offered, such as 2500–1800 BC for the early bronze age, 1800–1300 BC for the middle, and up to 700 BC for the later period.

cairn A mound of stones, often erected as a covering for a tomb. A form of barrow.

capstone Stone forming the roof of a burial chamber.

causewayed enclosure Any area enclosed by a system of rings of ditches and banks through which an entrance passage has been left.

Celts A name used by ancient writers of a population group occupying much of Europe and now distinguished by a common language (dialects of which are still found in Brittany, Wales, Ireland and Scotland) and artistic tradition (characteristic is the Swiss La Tène style). Celtic culture seems to derive from a Bronze Age urnfield culture of the upper Danube region of the mid second millennium BC. They might have arrived in Britain by the eighth century BC.

chamber passage The entrance passage in a chamber tomb.

chamber tomb Any tomb with a chamber, usually of stone, and usually with the evident intention of adding successive interments over long periods of time. The word is not usually applied to tombs with only a cist or coffin within them. In the Severn–Cotswold type (Neolithic period) the mortuary chamber was covered by a long barrow in the form of a mound of earth or stones. The chamber was often at the high end of the barrow. When the chamber was reached from the side, there was often a false doorway (false portal) at the high end, with horn-like protrusions to the barrow creating a forecourt (in some cases paved) in which ritual involving fire took place. Cairns with burial chambers are common in Ireland, northern Britain, and Brittany, but not in southern Britain (but there are some in the Scilly Isles, Cornwall and Anglesey).

Charon See obol.

cinerary urn An urn in which the ashes of the dead are placed after cremation.

circle A loose description of a roughly circular arrangement of standing stones or posts, whether or not surrounded by a ditch and/or bank. The word is often used by those at pains to prove that prehistoric people were unable to draw circles.

cist box, usually applied to a box of stone slabs used for burial purposes.

combe or coomb A hollow or valley, especially on the flank of a hill, dry during most of the year.

conjunction An alignment of two celestial bodies (say the Sun and Moon) and the observer, so that the two appear to be together in the sky; or, more generally, appear to be at the same ecliptic longitude. (The latter qualification is added since objects on separate paths may pass close, but not strictly meet.)

constellation A conspicuous grouping or pattern of bright stars, named on the basis of things the shape seems to resemble, or on the basis of an important star in the group. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy named 48 constellations, many traceable to earlier Mesopotamia. Astronomers now accept 88, strictly defined with reference to convenient boundaries (so that all the sky is covered) rather than shapes.

cosmical settings The first visible setting (in the course of the year) of a star or planet at dawn. See Appendix 4.

cove Three or possibly more upright stones, often in a U-shaped arrangement at the centre of a stone circle or henge.

cremation The burning of the dead.

cromlech A stone slab supported on blocks (a Welsh word for a dolmen). The word has occasionally been used for the circle formed by blocks of stone surrounding a barrow (in the form of a peristyle), and past writers have applied it even to Stonehenge and Avebury.

cropmark An evident variation in crop colour, usually visible only from the air, caused for example by variations in soil chemistry, water distribution, or very local weather patterns.

culmination The highest point reached by any heavenly body (Sun, Moon, star, planet, etc.) in the course of the daily rotation when it crosses the meridian.

culture A homogeneous grouping of material effects (tools, weapons, ornaments, pottery, burial paraphernalia, houses, and so forth) and physical and mental habits. In prehistory the latter is almost always inferred from the former.

cup and ring decoration A form of incised or pecked design found on stones, which may be parts of a monument or outlying crops of rock that have never been deliberately moved. The ‘cup’ is a hollow of say 5 cm diameter, and it is surrounded by incised rings, spirals, or other intricate shapes.

cursus Literally a course, as for a race, but applied now by archaeologists to a type of monument where a strip of land is enclosed between long parallel banks and adjoining ditches to the inside or outside of them. Long barrows may be built into cursus. (The plural of this Latin word is also cursus, but some treat the word as English and use the plural cursusses.) See Chapter 3.

declination The angle between a star (or of a point of the Sun or Moon, or other heavenly body) and the celestial equator. This coordinate is paired with right ascension. See Appendix 2 for more details.

disc barrow See barrow.

divination Foretelling the future by some sort of hidden, magical or supernatural means.

dolerite A basic igneous rock, resembling basalt, but coarser grained.

dolmen A Welsh, Cornish and Breton term (due allowance being made for spelling) for a stone table, in prehistory usually comprising upright unhewn stones supporting a large and relatively flat stone. The whole was usually originally covered with stones or earth and functioned as a burial chamber.

druid A priest of the Celtic people who spread across northern Europe and into the British Isles a few centuries BC. Archaeological artefacts excepted, most of what is known about them and their religion comes from classical Greek and Latin authors.

drystone (walling) Stone built up without mortar.

dyke or dike A ditch (occasionally to conduct water) or an embankment to keep water off land. The ambiguity stems from the fact that the two usually go together, for obvious reasons.

ecliptic The (mean) apparent path of the Sun through the stars, covered in the course of a year. The constellations through which the ecliptic passes define the traditional zodiac, but most of the familiar constellations in that band are of Middle Eastern origin, and are probably not prehistoric.

equator (celestial) The great circle in the heavens midway between the celestial poles. Poles and equator are determined by the Earth’s rotation, and the terrestrial equator is in the same plane as the celestial. See also equinox.

equinoctial See equinox.

equinox Loosely speaking, the time of year (spring or vernal equinox, autumnal equinox) when day and night are of equal length. These are the times when the Sun is on (or nearly on) the celestial equator, which is therefore sometimes called the equinoctial.

extinction altitude The altitude of a star below which it is invisible. This depends on various factors such as the brightness (magnitude) of the star and atmospheric conditions.

false portal See chamber tomb.

fiducial Regarded as a fixed basis of comparison (said of a line, point, or other marker).

flint A hard stone, usually steely grey or brown in colour, found in pebbles or nodules within a white incrustation. A relatively pure native form of silica, if suitably struck (knapped) it flakes so as to form (or leave) a sharp cutting instrument. Used for arrowheads, blades, scrapers, adzes, etc.

forecourt See chamber tomb.

gallery grave A chambered tomb in which the entrance passage, running into the burial chamber, is hardly (or not at all) distinguishable from it. There may be side chambers (as in the Severn–Cotswold type).

glaciation An Ice Age, the condition of being covered with an ice sheet or glaciers.

gnomon An upright (for example a stone or post, or later of finely contrived metal) from whose shadow time is estimated. Hence gnomonics, the science of calculating sun-dials.

gnomonics See gnomon.

grooved ware See Rinyo–Clacton.

heliacal rising/setting The rising of a star or group of stars just before sunrise, or the setting of the same just after sunset. See Appendix 4.

henge Circular banked enclosure with internal or external ditch and often one or more internal rings of timbers or stones. (This generic term is used in different ways by different writers, but ultimately derives by analogy with the name of Stonehenge.)

hillfort Hilltop defended by walls of stone, banks of earth, palisades of timber, ditches, or a mixture of these. Whether Neolithic causewayed camps had a defensive function is a moot point, but hillforts are usually taken to have been a late Bronze Age development, and most known examples date from the Iron Age.

hippodrome A course or circuit for horse-races or chariot-races.

Iron Age The period from say 700 BC onwards (the date varying from region to region) when iron had become the chief metal used for tools and weapons. (Bronze and flint continued in use, however.)

kerb Piled up stones forming a retaining wall around a mound. Kerbs may be internal or external and visible.

kist See cist.

leptolith Literally a slender stone. The word is used of slender flint cutting tools.

ley The name given by A. Watkins (around 1921) and his followers to certain alignments of natural and man-made objects that many of them believe follow the lines of certain unspecified kinds of force or energy emanating from the terrain. Their leys typically take in prehistoric, medieval, and even much more recent sites. An interest in leys was revived with the UFO craze in the 1960s.