Larger mapFig. 55.—Photograph of Ordnance Map, showing sight-lines.
Larger map
Fig. 55.—Photograph of Ordnance Map, showing sight-lines.
The May-sun alignment, it may be noted, differs from that from the circle. The heights of hills when determined may give us the same solar declination; that now used gives the declination for April 28 and August 15 in our present calendar.
Regarding the alignment on Lanyon Quoit, it need only be pointed out that the Pleiades date obtained is some 200 years after the date obtained for the analagous alignment from the circle, showing that if these two monuments—the Tregaseal circle and the Longstone—have any relationship, the removal to the high plain, now known as Woon Gumpus and Boswen Commons, was an afterthought improvement.
I next come to the holed stones, not only the nest of them not far from the circle, but the famous Mên-an-tol itself.
I had heard before going to Tregaseal that the four holed stones shown on the Ordnance map had been knocked down and set up again (not necessarily in their old places) two or three times. Mr. Horton Bolitho and Mr. Thomas, however, in their examination were convinced that the largest of them has never been moved. They also express the belief that the others are not more than a foot or so from their original positions, and that this change is only due to their re-erection by Mr. Cornish after they had fallen down. So far I have heard nothing of the direction of the hole in the stone which retains its original position.
Another interesting matter is that the explorers in question were able to trace an ancient stone alignment from the circle to the holed stones.
I have long held that these holed stones were arrangements for determining an alignment. The famous Odin stone at Stenness, long since disappeared, was, if we may trust the very definite statements made about its position, used to observe the Barnstone in one direction and the chief circle in the other.
Larger planFig. 56.—Plan of the Mên-an-tol from Lukis, showing that it was an apparatus for observing the sunrise in May and August in one direction and the sunset in February and November in the other. Sun’s declination, 16° N. or S.
Larger plan
Fig. 56.—Plan of the Mên-an-tol from Lukis, showing that it was an apparatus for observing the sunrise in May and August in one direction and the sunset in February and November in the other. Sun’s declination, 16° N. or S.
The azimuths suggest that theodolite measures may show that the Tregaseal stones might have been used in the same way; they, the Longstone and Lanyon Quoit, are in nearly the same straight line, the alignment, holed stones to Longstone and Lanyon Quoit, being N. 67° E., so that the May sunrise may have been noted in this way.
Photo. by Lady Lockyer.Fig. 57.—The Mên-an-tol.
Photo. by Lady Lockyer.
Fig. 57.—The Mên-an-tol.
Several other monuments,e.g., Chûn Castle and Cromlech, are to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the Tregaseal circle and the Longstone, but these will have to await further investigation as to their character and antiquity before any conclusions concerning their astronomical use can be deduced.
Fig. 58.—The Mên-an-tol. Front view and section, from Lukis.Front view:D. Looking S.W.,SCALE 1 INCH TO 1 FOOT.Section:SECTION OF D.
Fig. 58.—The Mên-an-tol. Front view and section, from Lukis.
Front view:D. Looking S.W.,SCALE 1 INCH TO 1 FOOT.Section:SECTION OF D.
Front view:D. Looking S.W.,SCALE 1 INCH TO 1 FOOT.Section:SECTION OF D.
Front view:D. Looking S.W.,SCALE 1 INCH TO 1 FOOT.
Front view:D. Looking S.W.,SCALE 1 INCH TO 1 FOOT.
Section:SECTION OF D.
Section:SECTION OF D.
Not only do we find in this neighbourhood the nest of holed stones to which I have referred, but the Mên-an-tol, the most famous of them all, in England at all events. This, then, is the place to say a few words about them. I have before stated my opinion that these stones, instead of being used as slaughter stones or posts at which to tie up the victim before sacrifice, or in any other similar employment, were really sighting stones to enable an alignment to be easily picked up. As such these were, of course, treated as sacred, and hence the folk-lore connected with them. This folk-lore seems to be most complete in the case of the famous stone of Odin at Stenness, so I condense Mr. Spence’s account of it.
Children brought to the stone at Beltaine and Midsummer, after being carried sunwise round the holy well were passed through the hole as a protection against the powers of the evil one. Marriage ceremony consistedof joining hands through the hole, a vow held as sacred as the legal marriage of to-day. Pains in the head cured by inserting the head in the cavity, cure of palsy in children. Children and adults travelled many miles to secure relief in this way.
At the Mên-an-tol the curative effects could only be obtained by crawling through the aperture, which is of considerable size.
As a rule, however, the aperture is much more restricted. The general size of the holed stone and the position of the aperture in it may be well gathered from the fact that almost all of them have been used for gateposts, and are now to be seen fulfilling that function. In some cases the old special use can be inferred, but in others this is more difficult, as the stones have been shifted or slewed round, or the ancient monument to which the sighting stone was directed has disappeared.
The astronomical origin of the Mên-an-tol, which obviously has never been disturbed, is quite obvious.Fig. 56(from Lukis) shews that it was arranged along the May year alignment, the advent of May and August, February and November being indicated by the shadows cast by the stones through the aperture on to the opposite ones.
To the south-west the alignment for the February and November sunsets passes exactly over Chûn Castle.
The “Tolmen” near Gweek, Constantine, another famous holed stone 7 feet 9 inches high and with an aperture of 17 inches, is according to a magnetic bearing I took last Easter parallel to the Mên-an-tol, and doubtless was used for the same purpose.
[117]In Cornwall this is the name generally given to a monolith.
[117]In Cornwall this is the name generally given to a monolith.
My wife and I visited Boscawen-un on a pouring day, when it was impossible to make any observations. Mr. Horton Bolitho, who was with us, introduced us to the tenant of Boscawen-noon—Mr. Hannibal Rowe—who very kindly, in spite of the bad weather, took us to the circle and the stone cross to the N.E. of it.
Lukis thus described thismonument:[118]—
“The enclosed ground on which this circle stands is uncultivated and heathy, and slopes gently to the south. Twenty years ago a hedge ran across it and bisected the circle.
“This monument is composed of nineteen standing stones, and is of an oval form, the longer diameter being 80 feet and the shorter 71 feet 6 inches. One of the stones is a block of quartz 4 feet high, and the rest, which are of granite, vary from 2 feet 9 inches to 4 feet 7 inches in height. On the west side there is a gap, whence it is probable that a stone has been removed. Within the area, 9 feet to the south-west from the centre, is a tall monolith, 8 feet out of the ground, which inclines to the north-east, and is 3 feet 3 inches out of the perpendicular.
Larger mapFig. 59.—Photograph of the Ordnance Map.
Larger map
Fig. 59.—Photograph of the Ordnance Map.
“In 1594 Camden describes this monument as consisting of nineteen stones, 12 feet from each other, with one much larger than the rest in the centre. It must have been much in the same condition then as now. As he does not say that the monolith enclosed within it was inclined, it is possible that it was upright at that time.
“Dr. Stukeley’s supposition was that it originally stood upright, and that ‘somebody digging by it to find treasure disturbed it.’
“On the north-east side there are two fallen stones which Dr. Borlase, in 1749, imagined to have formed part of a Cromlech. It is more probable that they are the fragments of a second pillar which was placed to the north-east of the centre, and as far from it as the existing one is. There are instances, I believe, of two pillars occupying similar positions within a circle. One of the stones, that markedCin my plan, on the eastern side of the ring, was prostrate in the Doctor’s time.
“At a short distance to the south-east and south-west there are cairns, which have been explored.”
For this monument I have used the 6-inch map, as the circle lies nearly at the centre, and all the outstanding stones are within its limits. The heights of the sky-line were measured by Mr. H. Bolitho at a subsequent visit with a miner’s dial; the resultingdeclinations have been calculated by Mr. Rolston. A theodolite survey will doubtless revise some ofthem:—
Larger chartFig. 60.—Showing azimuths in Lat. N. 50° for the summer solstice sunrise, with different heights of hills for 1905A.D.and 1680B.C.Vertical axis from bottom:Sea Level,1⁄2°, 1°, 11⁄2°, 2°.Horizontal axis, top, from left: 1905A.D., 49° 20′-54° 20′.Horizontal axis, bottom, from left: 1680B.C.(Date of Stonehenge), 48° 40′-53° 40′.
Larger chart
Fig. 60.—Showing azimuths in Lat. N. 50° for the summer solstice sunrise, with different heights of hills for 1905A.D.and 1680B.C.
Vertical axis from bottom:Sea Level,1⁄2°, 1°, 11⁄2°, 2°.Horizontal axis, top, from left: 1905A.D., 49° 20′-54° 20′.Horizontal axis, bottom, from left: 1680B.C.(Date of Stonehenge), 48° 40′-53° 40′.
Vertical axis from bottom:Sea Level,1⁄2°, 1°, 11⁄2°, 2°.
Horizontal axis, top, from left: 1905A.D., 49° 20′-54° 20′.
Horizontal axis, bottom, from left: 1680B.C.(Date of Stonehenge), 48° 40′-53° 40′.
I gather from a report which Mr. H. Bolitho has been good enough to send me that modern hedges and farming operations have changed the conditions of the sight-lines, so that 1 and 3 are just invisible from the circle. This is by no means the only case in which the sighting stone has just been hidden over the brow of a hill and in which signals from an observer on the brow itself have been suggested, or avia sacrato the brow from the circle; there are many monoliths in this direction which certainly never belonged to the circle.
From the menhir P (No. 2) a fine view is obtained from N. to S. through E., so that the Blind Fiddler and the two large menhirs, and almost the circle, are visible. The curious shapes of 1 and 2 are noted, the east face vertical and the west boundary curved, like several sighting stones on Dartmoor.
The circle itself has several peculiarities. In the first place, as shown by Lukis, it is not circular, the diameters being about 85 and 65 feet; the minor axis runs through the pillar stone in the centre and the “fallen stones” of Dr. Borlase towards the “stone cross” (which is no cross but a fine menhir) in Az. N. 43° 15′ E. This would suggest that this was the original alignment in 2250B.C., but against this is the fact that the two stones of the circle between which the “fallen stones” lie are more carefully squared than the rest. It is true, however, that this might have been done afterwards, and this seems probable, for they are closer together than the other circle stones.
The one quartz stone occupies an azimuth S. 66° W. It was obviously placed in a post of honour. As amatter of fact, from it the May sun was seen to rise over the centre of the circle.
As there are both at Tregaseal and Boscawen-un alignments suggesting the observation of the summer solstice sunrise, it is desirable here to refer to the azimuths as calculated. For this purposeFig. 60has been prepared, which shows these for lat. 50° both at the present day and at the date of the restoration at Stonehenge.
My readers should compare this withFig. 36, which gives the solstice sunrise conditions of Stenness in Lat. N. 59°. Such a comparison will show how useless it is to pursue these inquiries without taking the latitude and the height of the sky-line into account.
This is a very remarkable circle consisting of 5 erect and 11 prostrate stones situated on a circular level platform 175 feet in diameter on the boggy south slope of Hawk’s Tor on the Hawkstor Downs in the parish of Blisland. The circle itself is about 148 feet in diameter, and the whole monument is, in Lukis’s opinion, the most interesting and remarkable in the country. Surrounding the platform is a ditch 11 feet wide, and beyond that a penannular vallum about 10 feet in width. The peculiarity of the vallum is that it has three bastions situate on the north-east, north-west, and east sides. It is to the north-east bastion that I wish to refer.
Sighting from the huge monolith, which is nowprostrate but originally marked the centre of the circle, along a line bisecting the arc of this bastion we find that the azimuth of the sight-line is N. 25° E.; the angular elevation of the horizon from the 1-inch Ordnance map appears to be about 0° 22′. From these values, proceeding as in the former cases, we find
indicating that this alignment was formed for the same purpose as that which dominated the erection of the “Pipers.”
In this monument we find a very different type from those considered previously.
The Nine Maidens are simply 9 stones in a straight line 262 feet in length at the present day; possibly, as suggested by Lukis, it may have extended originally to the monolith known as “The Fiddler,” situated some 800 yards away in a north-easterly direction. Measuring the azimuth of the alignment on Lukis’s plan, and finding the horizon elevations from the 1-inch Ordnance map, we have thefollowing:—
It may be remarked that here we have a date for the use of Capella intermediate between those obtained for the “Pipers” and the “Strippie Stones” respectively.
[118]Prehistoric Stone Monuments of the British Isles: Cornwall.W. C. Lukis. P. 1.
[118]Prehistoric Stone Monuments of the British Isles: Cornwall.W. C. Lukis. P. 1.
I have now finished my astronomical reconnaissance of the British monuments. I trust I have shown how important it is that my holiday task should be followed by a serious inquiry by other workers so that the approximate values with which I have had to content myself for want of time may be replaced by others to which the highest weight can be attached. This means at each circle reversed observations with a six-inch theodolite and determination of azimuths by means of observations of the sun if necessary.
I propose in the present chapter to bring together the general results already obtained in cases where the inquiry has been complete enough to warrant definite conclusions to be drawn.
The first result to be gathered from the observations, and one to which I attach the highest importance, is that the practice, so long employed in Egypt, of determining time at night by the revolution of a star round the pole, was almost universally followed in the British circles. This practice was to watch a first-magnitudestar, which I named a “clock-star,”[119]of such a declination that it just dipped below the northern horizon so that it was visible for almost the whole of its path.
Doubtless this same method of determining the flow of time during the night watches was also employed in Babylonia,[120]but there, alas! the temples, or, in other words, the astronomical observatories, have disappeared, so that only the Egyptian practice remains for us to study.
Let us, before we proceed, consider some results which have been gathered from the study of the Egyptian observations.
One of the earliest temples in Egypt concerning which we have historical references to check the orientation results was built to carry on these night observations at Denderah, lat. N. 26° 10′. The star observed was α Ursae Majoris, decl. N. 58° 52′, passing 5° below the northern horizon; date (assuming horizon 1° high) about 4950B.C.,i.e., in the times of the Shemsu Heru, before Mena, as is distinctly stated in the inscriptions.
After α Ursae Majoris had become circumpolar in the latitude of Denderah, γ Draconis, which had ceased to be circumpolar, and so fulfilled the conditions to which I have referred, replaced it. Its declination was 58° 52′ N. about 3100B.C., and it, therefore, could have been watched rising in the axis prolonged of the old temple in the time of Pepi, who restored it then, no doubt onaccount of the advent of the new star, and is stated to have deposited a copy of the old plan in a cavity in the new walls.
Here, then, we have two dates given by orientation of a clock-star temple entirely agreeing with the most recent views of Egyptian chronology.
In Dr. Budge’sHistory of Egypt(iii. 14) the story of the rebuilding of the temple at Annu by Usertsen (2433B.C., Brugsch) is given from an ancient roll. Supposing this temple built parallel with the faces of the remaining obelisk, γ Draconis would rise in its axis prolonged 2500B.C., proving that Usertsen did at Annu what Pepi previously did at Denderah, and that the same reason for restoration and even the same star were in question.[121]
When the clock-star ceased to be visible in the chief temple other subsidiary temples were subsequently built to watch it. Thus γ Draconis was watched at Thebes from 3500B.C.to the times of the Ptolemys by temples oriented successively from that of Mut Az. N. 72° 30′ E. to 68° 30′, 63° 30′, and 62°.[122]
It is worth while to show that what we know now of the Egyptian methods of observation enables us to carry the matter further, while we gather at the same time that in consequence of the difference of latitude the method employed in Egypt could not be followed in Britain.
I showed in theDawn of Astronomythat several ancient shrines consisted of two temples at right anglesto each other (seeFig. 13), one axis pointing high N.E. to observe the clock-star—the worship of Set—the other low N.W. to observe either the sun by itself, or in association with some important star of the same declination as the sun.
The temples of Mut and Menu (or Min), and of Amen, with the associated temple M. of Lepsius, at Karnak, are the best extant examples of this principle of temple building.
There is evidence that both at Annu and Memphis the same principle was followed, but at Annu one obelisk alone remains, and at Memphis one temple; from these, however, Captain Lyons and myself have obtained sufficient data to enable the original directions of the temple-systems to be gathered.
At Denderah, if such a N.W. temple ever existed it has disappeared, but as the monument stands there are still two temples at right angles to each other, but the second one faces S.E. instead of N.W.
This premised, I will now give, in anticipation of another one dealing with the British monuments, a list of the most ancient star temples in Egypt, with their azimuths and the first-magnitude clock-stars which could have been observed in them at different dates. These dates have been approximately determined by the use of a precessional globe, an horizon of 1° elevation being assumed. As I have shown, the present views of Egyptian chronology and the inscriptions carry us back to α Ursae Majoris, at Denderah. But there is a suggestion at Luxor, and perhaps also at Abydos, that Vega was used before that star, though there are, so far as I know, no temple traces of Arcturus.
There is a very great difference between determining the date of a temple erected to the rising or setting of a particular star, and of one erected to the rising or setting of the sun on a particular day of the year. In the latter case no date can be given unless we have reason to believe that both the sunanda star rose or set at the same point of the horizon at the same date; in other words, the sun and star had the same declination, and the rising or setting of both could be seen in the same temple.
I assumed, without historical data, that this view was acted on in Egypt, at the temple of Menu; Mr. Penrose found, with historical data, that it was actually acted on in Greece at the Parthenon. To show that we are at all justified in this view we must study the association of gods with temple worship, and look for temples in different azimuths erected at different times if the god is a star; and we can run the star home if the dates fall in with the star’s precessional change. Thus there is reason for supposing that the god Ptah and the star Capella were associated. There is a temple of Ptah at Memphis, Az. N. 77° 15′ W., hills 50′, decl. N. 11°, star Capella, date 5200. In the rectangular system at Memphis, then, α Ursae Majoriswas watched in one temple and Capella in the other at that date. There is also evidence that the god Menu was associated with the star Spica. In the temple system of Mut at Thebes, in 3200B.C., γ Draconis was used as a clock-star in one temple, while the setting of Spica was watched in the other.
If a temple is erected to the sun with no specially named cult, it may be a sun-temple pure and simple, not connected with star worship because there was no star with the proper declination at the time.
In Greece temple-building was carried on at a much later time, so late that perhaps water clocks were available, so that we should not expect to find many clock-star temples in that country. As a matter of fact there is only one, of which the data, according to Mr. Penrose, are asfollows:—
It will be seen that the star used in Greece was the last clock-star traced in the Egyptian temples.
I now come to Britain. So far as my inquiries have gone, these clock-star observations were introduced into these islands about 2300B.C.
In my statement concerning them I will deal with the astronomical conditions for lat. 50° N., as it is in Cornwall that the evidence is most plentiful and conclusive.
In that latitude and at that time Arcturus, decl. N.41°, was just circumpolar with a sea horizon, and therefore neither rose nor set. Capella, decl. N. 31°, when northing was 9° below the horizon, so that it rose and set in azimuths N. 37° E. and N. 37° W. respectively; it was therefore invisible for a long time and was an awkward clock-star in consequence.
Fig. 61.—Arcturus and Capella as clock-stars in Britain.AB = sea horizon.A′B′ = horizon 3° high.
Fig. 61.—Arcturus and Capella as clock-stars in Britain.
AB = sea horizon.A′B′ = horizon 3° high.
Fig. 61represents diagrammatically the conditions named, the circumpolar paths of Arcturus and Capella being shown by the smaller and larger circle respectively.A Brepresents the actual sea horizon andA′ B′a locally raised horizon 3° high, whilst the dotted portion of the larger circle represents the non-visible part of Capella’s apparent path.
What the British astronomer-priests did, therefore, inthe majority of cases was to set up their temples in a locality where the N.E. horizon was high, so that Arcturus rose and set over it and was invisible for only a short time, as shown in the diagram by the raised horizonA′ B′.
The two lists following contain the names of the monuments where I suggest Arcturus was used as a clock-star. In the first, the angular elevation of the sky-line as seen from the circle in each case has been actually measured, and the date of the alignment is, therefore, fairly trustworthy; but in the second list the elevations have been estimated from the differences of contour shown on the one-inch Ordnance map, and the dates must be accepted as open to future revision.
ARCTURUS AS A CLOCK-STAR.
In some cases, for one reason or another, this arrangement was not carried out, and Capella, in spite of the objection I have stated, was used in the followingcircles:—
CAPELLA AS A CLOCK-STAR.
At the Merry Maidens, however, with nearly a sea horizon, when Arcturus ceased to be circumpolar and rose in Azimuth N. 11° 45′ E., it replaced Capella, and was used as a clock-star after 1600B.C.
In this system of night observation we have the germ of the use in later times of an instrument called the “night-dial,” specimens of which, dating from the fourteenth century, can be seen in our museums. The introductionof graduated circles permitted the employment of circumpolar stars, and the “guards” of the Little Bear or the “pointers” of the Great Bear were thus used. There was a disc with a central aperture through which the pole star could be observed; the disc could be adjusted for every night in the year; an arm was then moved round so that the direction of the pointers (or the guards) with regard to the vertical could be measured; on a second concentric circle the time of night could be read off.