[net.physics] Ley Lines and Other Things

jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (08/17/84)

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	For those interested in the subject of ley lines, there is a very
informative discussion of them in "Secrets of the Stones" by John Michell
(published by Penguin Books).
	They were first noticed by Sir J. Norman Lockyer and others. In John
Michell's "Secrets of the Stones" we find:

		The development of scientific astro-archaeology at the
	beginning of this century was inspired by one man, Sir J. Norman
	Lockyer, the eminent astronomer and scientist, founder and for
	fifty years editor of "Nature" magazine, credited, among the many
	triumphs of his long career, with the discovery of helium.
		In 1890 Lockyer went on vacation to Greece and noticed some
	interesting alignments among the Greek temples. Later he found similar
	astronomical alignments in the Egyptian temples. In 1901 Lockyer and
	F.C. Penrose, another astronomer-archaeologist, turned their attention
	to Stonehenge. In 1906 Lockyer published "Stonehenge and other British
	Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered". In the second edition of
	this book Lockyer pointed out that key alignments of various megalithic
	sites coinsided with the important days of the Celtic calendar at the
	beginning of May, August, November and February.
		Other stones were arranged to mark the "clock stars" that can
	be used to give the time at night. At Stonehenge Lockyer found that
	sunset in the first week in May and the November sunrise were indicated
	by the two remaining "station stones" when viewed from the center. He
	concluded that these alignments belonged to the earliest part of
	Stonehenge.
		The subject of ley lines was next taken up in 1922 by Alfred
	Watkins in his book "Early British Trackways". Watkins devoted the rest
	of his life to accumulating the traditions and physical evidence that
	confirmed his first intuitive recognition of "leys", as he called the
	prehistoric alignments. In 1925 he presented the complete case for the
	ley system in "The Old Straight Track". Ley enthusiasts formed the Old
	Straight Track Club, whose papers, now preserved in Hereford Museum,
	contain voluminous evidence of leys from all over Britain and beyond.
		Later ley lines were found in Brittany, the Celtic area of
	France, and in Germany by Wilhelm Teudt. Teudt, however, disregarded
	or was ignorant of the fact that these sites were areas of Celtic
	habitation in ancient times and instead attributed them to Teutonic
	tribes and used them as a basis for promoting Nazi concepts of the
	Aryan Master Race.

					bonnie!jmm
					J. M. McGhee