[NatureNS] Neolithic stone rings etd.

From: David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>
To: NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 19:34:12 -0300
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Dear All,                            Aug 17, 2014
    The August issue of National Geographic has an article that features the 
stone rings and other old (~5000 yrs.) structures of the Orkney Islands. 
From this article & Wikipedia; the circular Ring of Brodgar; spaced for 60 
stones of which 27 remain and the slightly nearly circular but elliptic (so 
they say) ring of the Stones of Stenness; spaced for 12 megaliths with 
perhaps 1 or 2 never erected.

    Is it now so widely recognized that such structures served as 
observatories (an analog calendar and crude sundial) that it is too obvious 
to mention ? Alignment to the winter solstice at sunset (which would also 
fit the summer solstice at sunrise I think) is mentioned but surely these 
could have been used to keep track of time throughout the year.

    Even short stones would cast a long shadow at sunrise and sunset and the 
changes in direction  with time would be consistent from year to year. A 
circular structure with 12 stones is a snap to lay out if you have enough 
rawhide and this natural and practicable number likely accounts for our 12 
signs of the zodiac, 12 months of the year and 24 hours in the day. But a 
ring with 60 markers is slightly more tricky to lay out, using Neolithic 
hardware, then say a ring of 48 or 96. The number 60 has the advantage of 
being divisible by 2,3,4,5&6 so the designer of this ring was just a step 
away from a 360o circle; dividing a circle into 60 or 360 parts is 
essentially the same problem and both have similar advantages if fractions 
are difficult to deal with.

Yt, Dave Wwbster, Kentville

Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville


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