Stonehenge Solved Its Three Observatories, Who built them, How and Why

Introduction

This work is a distillation, and completion, of a fundamental research project recorded in the thirteen typescripts listed below. It is also the key by which those wishing to study the research in greater depth can access these typescripts; the lower case Roman numerals in the text are the means for doing this. Occasionally these provide information of potential interest to all categories of reader. The abbreviations used are as follows:

• pt refers to a part of 1, the main body (MOS), see below
• ill refers to an illustration in the main body; each of these carries all the text page numbers on which it is mentioned
• R prefixes the number of each publication (of which there are over 80) in References and Bibliography pt VI.

1. This is the main body of research and is entitled The Meaning of Stonehenge: an Exploration (with an introduction to Euthyology) 1996. It comprises six parts:

Part I

Introduction; straight ways and henges at Dorchester, Oxon; speculations.

Part II

henge at Barford,War; Rollright Stones, Oxon; shaft at Swanwick,Hants; Maumbury Rings, Dorset; shaft at Wilsford, Wilts; Longmound, Crickley Hill, Glouc; Le Grande Menhir Brise, Carnac, Brittany; henges and straight ways at North Mains, Perthshire; Woodhenge; Circles at Durrington Walls, Wilts; barrows near Shrewton and at Winterbourne Stoke, Wilts.

Part III

Analysis of Design, Function and Construction of Stonehenge.

Part IV

straight ways in the vicinity of Stonehenge; principles of identification of ways; way numbering system.

Part V

The Early henge; Rock Art: evidence on the Moon; The Avenue and arch (Heel Stone); Radiocarbon dates; The Final henge; Egyptians; construction teams.

Part VI

Findings; Appendices: Clarkes' radiocarbon dating table; Glossary; Calculations for tree stem lever; Addenda; Author's Note; References and Bibliography.

The title of 1. above, subsumes the following occasional papers which develop the work and concepts it records, and hence they are to be regarded as an integral part of it.

1.1

Determination of the Straight Way Infrastructure on which Stonehenge and later Iron Age earthworks were founded. March 2000

1.2

Archaeoastronomical and chronological relationships of Stonehenge and Woodhenge. July 2002

1.3

Transportation of the Bluestones Updated 2003

1.4

Archaeoastronomical evidence from the Moon, Newgrange and Rock Art indicates Lunar Disturbance. Third revision April 2007, with amendment.

1.5

Deleted but still retained by Wilts. CC Local Studies Library, Chippenham

1.6

A Stonehenge contemporary: the six development phases of Silbury Hill, its function, and wider significance. Revised April 2006

1.7

Contemporaries of Early Stonehenge in Avebury District: their functions and methodological development. May 2006

1.8

Stonehenge: a logical explanation of its function and relations with Silbury Hill and Woodhenge. A new theory of particular interest to structural engineers, mathematicians, Earth and Planetary scientists and archaeologists.

All are typescripts and copies are held in:

• The Library, English Heritage,National Monuments Record Centre, Kemble Drive, Swindon, SN2 2GZ Wiltshire. tel 01793 414632 or 414630 email library@english-heritage.org.uk
• Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Cocklebury Road, Chippenham, SN15 3QN tel 01249 705500 email heritageadmin@wiltshire.gov.uk

Chapter 1

1. Cunliffe and Renfrew (ed) 1995 OUP Science and Stonehenge
2. Timothy Darvill 2005 English Heritage Stonehenge World Heritage Site
3. Albert Watkins 1974 Sphere Books The Old Straight Track. R74/5
4. Paul Devereux and Ian Thomson 1979 Thames and Hudson The Ley Hunters Companion. R25
5. See the introduction of Notes and References above
6. David Miles Nov 2007 Heritage Today p20 '....When radiocarbon results were checked against tree rings of specific dates (dendrochronology) they proved to be too young. Radiocarbon measurements of an 8000 year old object were almost a 1000 years out.

   Thanks to dendrochronology, however, it was possible to construct a calibration curve and to translate radiocarbon dates closer to real calendar years. Unfortunately the calibration curve is not smooth – it wiggles like a snake. So when the radiocarbon date is read across to the snaking calibration curve it may strike more than one place. The result is that radiocarbon calibration is statistically reliable but not precise. It is the equivalent of saying that there is a 95 per cent probability that the Battle of Hastings took place between AD900 and say1250. True, but of limited value. If prehistory is not indeed wrapped in a thick fog it is true that it has remained misty and out of focus

7. Steve Mitchell Feb. 2008 Chronology and Catastrophism Workshop 2008:1 Society of Interdisciplinary Studies
8. Mike Baillie 1999 B T Batsford Exodus to Arthur

Chapter 2

1. The Oxford English Dictionary (10^th ed rev) defines a henge as 'a prehistoric monument consisting of a circle of stone or wooden uprights', to which I subscribe, but seemingly not all archaeologists do. Archaeologists, and myself, in different ways use the term loosely, and usually as a convenient convention.
2. pt 1 pp19-60
3. pt 1V pp 429-40, pt VI pp 649-52, ch 20

Chapter 3

1. The probable explanation of Thom's geometric sub-circles. See Douglas Heggie 1981 Thames and Hudson Megalithic Science pp23-31, 60-82. R45
2. For its identification see 1.1 pp 11-2, and ptIV pp 482-4
3. For its identification see pt III, ill197, ptIV pp484-6, ptV ill 267, 1.1 pp18-9
4. When examining the references to ways in pts IV, V and VI, a preliminary study of paper 1.1 is essential.

Chapter 5

1. See pt III for all of this chapter

Chapter 6

1. See pt III for all of this chapter

Chapter 7

1. 1.2 fig 2

Chapter 8

1. See 1.8

Chapter 9

1. Peter Warlow 1982 J M Dent The Reversing Earth

Chapter 10

1. Lamb H H Climate: Present, Past and Future, vols 1and 2, Methven, London 1977

Chapter 11

1. See 1.7
2. pt V pp564-97,1.8 appendices A and B
3. The height under the lintel, or beam, is after allowing for weather erosion of 30mm (12in)

Chapter 12

1. Pt II pp145-6. Evan Hadingham1978 Sphere books Circles and Standing Stones

Chapter 13

1. See Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1979 EUP Stonehenge and its Environs, and PDF The Stonehenge Riverside Project
2. See 1.2
3. See 1.6
4. See 1.7
5. The dimension between the foresight stone top and backsight ditch flank scales a notional 24m in Gray and Vatcher's schematic section fig 8 in 1.7.The author measured this at the west and southwest arcs and found it to be accurate at both locations.
6. At Carnmenyn SN145325 and thereabouts. See Ore Petrology and Archaeological Provenance. RA Ixer School of Earth Sciences University of Birmingham. Google 'Bluestones Petrology'

Chapter 14

1. pt III ill197
2. pt III ill150, R4 p37, p126, p203-5
3. See 1.3

Chapter 15

1. pt III ill 211
2. John E Dayton and Mike Rowland 1996 Chronology and Catastrophism Review 1996:2, Society of Interdisciplinary Studies. British Museum staff.

Chapter 16

1. pt III ill 171
2. pt III ill 149
3. pt III ill 211, as ch15

Chapter 17

1. pt III p348, pp405-15, ill213/4, ptVI pp719a/b (Author's Note), R5

Chapter 18

Nil

Chapter 19

1. R20 p28
2. Ch2, 1.1 map MA
3. R20 p78, p122, p158
4. Pt II pp 248-56
5. Pt II pp 147-225

Chapter 20

1. Also see OS sheets in pt IV and 1.1
2. pt IV pp456-7, ptIV ills235,239,241, ptVI ilI 309A
3. pt IV pp480-2, p495, ptV iIIs280,282, p536 pp559-60, ptVI ill 318
4. R22a p507, fig265

Chapter 21

1. A full, detailed, explanation is to be found in 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 in combination
2. 1.8 Fig 25, ref 22
3. ptV pp533-7, iIIs 260-66G, 1.4,0 R55

Chapter 22

1. Godwin 1956 p203, ch10 (i) p373,
2. See (ii) ch 21

Chapter 23

1. Mention of the moon here, implies the time when it is full moon, nearest to the summer or winter solstices. Thus at midwinter the moon will appear on the northeasterly horizon covered by sector 1, and sector 4 indicates the direction where it will set. In a similar way summer moonrise will be in the southeasterly direction marked by sector 2. About six hours later the moon will set towards the southwest in sector 3.

   We now consider an important 'anomaly'. Let us assume the moon is seen to rise in the direction of A (sector 1) one midwinter day in late afternoon. It will travel southwards and reach its highest point when it is south, and then slowly descend until it sets in the direction of A (sector 4). Six months later, the point of summer moomrise would be about in line with a (sector 2)

   If the same observations were taken each subsequent year, the point of winter moonrise would gradually move towards the right and after nine years it would be in line with B (sector 1), and the corresponding summer moonrise would have moved from a to b (sector 2). Thereafter the points of moon risings slowly return to the a positions, completing the whole cycle in 18.61 years. Similar conditions apply to the setting moons marked by sectors 3 and 4.

   [This description is founded on that of CA Newham 1972 The Astronomical Significance of Stonehenge, Moon Publications, Gwent.]

2. R58B: Antiquity 1956 Stonehenge: a review

Chapter 24

Nil.