jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (07/10/84)
>> Furthermore, the site of Stonehenge was chosen for its broad open >> planes, for the most part, unobstructed by trees and other irregularities of >> terrain. >> In fact several >> authors have pointed out that the natural horizon is a bit irregular. It >> rises and falls and is obstructed by intermittent groves of trees. >> Kevin, the site is ON SALISBURY PLAIN and it must be fairly flat or it >> wouldn't have been named Salisbury PLAIN! The question can be quickly settled >> by anyone who cares to look at the photographs in "Stonehenge Decoded", >> "Beyond Stonehenge" or any other book that has pictures of the site. > Make up your mind, Joe. Better still, see for yourself. My own photographs > show a gentle slope to the southeast, which confirms my recollection. Make up your own mind, Kevin. In my first article I stated that the ground had a gentle slope. You said the terrain consisted of "rolling hills". You have changed your statement but you don't seem inclined to acknowledge the fact. Furthermore there is nothing inconsistent about saying a region consists of plains with an irregular horizon. Even the Bonneville Salt Flats are edged by mountains. Salisbury Plain is about as flat as it gets in the British Isles. I was not implying that Stonehenge has mountains on the horizon only a minor variation of a few degrees. If you were really familiar with the literature on the subject you wouldn't even bother to bring up this point. >> Kevin, you seem to be implying that they relied on the natural horizon >> for the sighting of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset. > Why not? Every indication is that the objective was to determine what > *day* the sun/moon rose on a particular arc, not what *minute*. Again, you seem to have made the assumption that the sun and moon rise and set VERTICALLY at this site. Vertical rising and setting only occurs in the region close to the equator. At or near the poles the paths of the sun and moon are at or near horizontal with respect to the horizon. Stonehenge is about 51 degrees north latitude. This means that the AVERAGE angle of the path of the sun is (90 - 51) = 39 degrees above the horizon. At midsummer the path of the sun grazes the horizon at an even lower angle! Thus, a change in the height of the horizon results in a considerable change in the AZIMUTH or direction of rising or setting. >> Midsummer sunrise is observed >> over the TOP OF THE HEEL STONE. > Yes, the Heel Stone, which is *outside* the ditch and circle, and which is > *not* level with the stones of the circle. Its importance was not its height > but the position of it's tip with respect to the edges of the standing stones > in the circle. I have already dealt with the method of leveling the stones along the avenue (including the heel stone) in my article "Stonehenge: Hypotheses Extended". The heel stone would have to be level with a viewing point within the circle, otherwise the line of sight would not be anywhere near the horizon. >> Kevin, I used the word "curragh" for a very good reason. "Curragh" or >> "corwgl" is probably the word used by the builders of Stonehenge. "Coracle" >> is a modern English corruption of the word. > Joe, I used "coracle" because that is the English word that people can use to > look it up in an encylopedia or dictionary. I'm sure it sounds nice in > Gaelic, but I don't speak Gaelic. Both "curragh" and "corwgl" can be found in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary along with a vast number of other Celtic words which long ago became part of the English language. In fact we all use a number of Celtic words every day. Probably the first words you ever spoke were "mommy" and "daddy". While these words are considered colloquial in English, they actually come from "mammai" and "daddai" the Celtic words for mother and father. The English word "galore" comes from the Celtic "go leor" meaning enough. The English word "bale" comes from the Celtic word "bailim" which means to gather. Huddle, cuddle and probably coddle come from the Celtic "chuddladh" meaning bed. Another Celtic word which has come into English is "dun" which means fort or fortified place. "Dun" evolved into "don" and then into "ton" and then became "town". You may recognize the use of this word in a number of old Celtic place names: Dundalk Dunham Dundee Dunstable Donegal Dunkirk Verdun London Doncaster Wimbledon Dunhill J. M. McGhee bonnie!jmm