John North - Stonehenge - Neolithic Man and the Cosmos

COPYRIGHT

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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London SE1 9GF

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First published by HarperCollins Publishers 1996

Copyright © John North 1996

John North asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780002558501

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780008192167

Version: 2016-10-06

PRAISE

Further praise for Stonehenge :

‘North has many ingenious new proposals … the leading title for scientists who take an interest in archaeology.’

CHRISTOPHER CHIPPENDALE, New Scientist

‘Professor North is a distinguished historian of science teaching in the Netherlands, and therefore also a historian of past ideas and beliefs … He is the right kind of person to be involved in these immensely taxing enquiries and can alone offer fresh understandings of what may have driven and coloured Neolithic activity … The book’s length partly reflects the author’s successful intent to provide explanations in near-plain language. Occasionally the prose seems quite lyrical … I suspect we shall never know what certain phases of Stonehenge were really designed for, and the same goes for some of the less intricate monuments in that region, but I also now suspect that John North is nudging us with considerable skill in the only credible direction.’

CHARLES THOMAS, Literary Review

‘ Stonehenge covers years of study by an eminent historian of science, and pays meticulous attention to archaeological surveys, ancient knowledge of the heavens and other prehistoric remains in Britain and northern Europe.’

Hampstead and Highgate Express

DEDICATION

TO

MARION

CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

PRAISE

DEDICATION

LIST OF FIGURES

GLOSSARY

PREFACE

CHRONOLOGY

1 INTRODUCTION

The People

Alignments and Orientations

2 THE LONG BARROWS

Neolithic Chamber-Tombs—an Introduction

Orientation of the Body

Inconstant Stars

First Thoughts on the Taper of Long Barrows

The Orientation of Long Barrows

Fussell’s Lodge

Wayland’s Smithy I

Wayland’s Smithy II

Frame and Form at Wayland’s Smithy

Fussell’s Lodge Revisited

Lambourn

Horslip (Windmill Hill)

West Kennet and its Star Chambers

The West Kennet Ditches

The West Kennet Neighbourhood. Silbury Hill

Beckhampton Road. Stars and the Sun

South Street

Skendleby: Giants’ Hills 1 and 2. Stars and Sun

The Radley Parallelogram

The Grendon Square Barrow

Hazleton North and Burn Ground—Cotswold–Severn Long Cairns

An Assessment

A Postscript on Venus

A Postscript on Chance

3 CURSUS AND ENCLOSURE

The Great Earthen Monuments

Windmill Hill and Barrow Rings

The Two Stonehenge Cursus and their Dorset Precursor

The Probable Evolution of the Dorset Cursus

Another Bokerley Cursus?

The Lesser Stonehenge Cursus

Long Barrows, Territories and Totems

The Greater Stonehenge Cursus

The Coombe Bissett Parallelogram

4 STARS IN CHALK

The Uffington White Horse

The Wilmington Long Man and Neighbouring Barrows

The History of the Long Man and his Staves

The Bledlow and Whiteleaf Crosses

The Cerne Giant

5 SUN AND MOON

The Seasons: an Astronomical Sketch

Risings and Settings of the Sun and Moon

Some Examples of Extremes of Rising and Setting

6 AVENUE AND ROW

From Cursus to Avenue

Pits and Posts

Avenue and Row

The Stonehenge Avenue

The Stone Rows. Tracks across Dartmoor

The Avenues near Avebury: Introduction

The West Kennet Avenue

The Beckhampton Avenue

The Principle of Tangent and Centre

Long Barrow, Cursus, Avenue and Row

7 TREEHENGE AND AUBREY CIRCLE

Changes of Style

Henges of Timber

Barrow Rings in the Low Countries

Harenermolen and the Counting of Holes

Harenermolen: Symmetries and the Spacings of Rings

Probable Styles of Observation Using Posts

Harenermolen: Alignments in Both Rings

Numbers of Posts

The Earliest Stonehenge Structures

Why Fifty-six Aubrey Holes?

Ditch, Bank, Treehenge and Aubrey Holes

The Aubrey Holes and Normanton Down Tracks

Post Numbers as a Guide to Events

8 THE GREAT TREEHENGES

Stonehenge’s Timber Ancestry

Woodhenge

Woodhenge: the Supernumerary Posts

Woodhenge: the Third Dimension

Woodhenge: the Integration of Sun and Moon

Durrington Walls: the Constant Horizon

Durrington Walls: the Circles

Durrington Walls: the Dimensions of the Posts

Durrington Walls: the Southern ‘Façade’

Durrington Walls: the Four-Posters and Post Rows

Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant: Alignments on Stars

Mount Pleasant: the Glare of the Sky

The Henge at Arminghall

Treehenge and Barrow

9 STONEHENGE ASTRONOMY—A HISTORICAL PROLOGUE

First Reports

Stonehenge and the First Calculators

Symbolism on a Grand Scale

The Coming of the Theodolite

10 STONEHENGE—AN INVENTORY

Banks and Ditch

Timber Posts and Rings. Post Holes A

The Aubrey Holes

Bluestones in the Q - and R -Holes

Stone 97 and the Heel Stone (96) and its Ditch

The Avenue

Stones B and C , and the Hollow

The Sarsen Trilithons

The Ring of Sarsens

Stone Holes D , E and the Ditch Stone

The Station Stones (91–94)

The Altar Stone (80)

The Slaughter Stone (95) and Holes D and E again

The Extant Bluestone Circle

The Bluestone Horseshoe

The History of the Dressed Bluestones

The Y - and Z -Holes

11 THE FIRST THREE STONEHENGES

The Q-R Henge

Reversible Alignments

The Levels of the Sarsen Trilithons and Circle

The Geometry of the Sarsen Pillars

The Geometry of Obscuration

The Blocking of Rays through the Q - and R -Circles

Sarsen Ring and Midwinter Sun

Altar Stone and Midwinter Sun

Geometers, Engineers and Astronomers

The Sarsen Ring and Midsummer?

The Sarsen Ring and the Moon

The Moon and the Stone Stations