Stonehenge Cursus.
I've never done very well in walking the Cursus.
There have been too many cows...
The first part, closest to Woodhenge can be entered quite easily, and there are only sheep there.
The second part, after the sewerage works
Has cows.
.png)
Using Google Earth
Drawing a line along the Cursus and measuring the angle (Flash MX)
It looks to me as if the right time to be there was autumn.
Using a computer program to turn the sky back to 3000 BC
The Cursus becomes the earthly mirror to the path of stars
The Milky Way.
Imagine yourself at Durrington Walls.
It is 3000 BC.
The sun is setting and you are walking towards The Cuckoo Stone.
It is around the time of the equinox
When Sun and Moon cross.
The tipping point of the year.
You are walking towards the setting sun.
Just beyond the stone
The three stars: Altair, Deneb and Vega point the way.
Led by the swan.
The Cursus begins.
Above the Cursus
The the river of stars.
The Milky Way.
Unfortunately...
Even without the street lights drowning the stars
The universe has moved around too much to repeat the experience.
The time to try to see the Milky Way parallel to The Cursus is now late December, early January. The Milky way links the Cursus and Stonehenge at the beginning of February.
The link between earth and sky recorded in the Cursus, has been dislocated by time.
Go back to 3000 BC.
Here is the sky as seen from the Durrington end of the Cursus at sunset (September 13th to 5th October) looking West.
Midwinter Solstice.
At the midwinter solstice, just after sunset, the Milky way points from The Cursus to Stonehenge (or the other way around). The Cursus is probably older than Stonehenge (Long barrows and timber circles are found, built on them) but its relationship to the Milky Way could have seemed significant to the builders of Stonehenge.
If people followed the midwinter Cursus, then followed the direction of the Milky way, they would get to Stonehenge.
But then..
Perhaps the pathway wasn't for the living?
A cursus is not an avenue, an avenue leads between places.
A cursus is a long, enclosed space
No entrance or exit
Doesn't go anywhere... for quite a long way.
They are found in areas with long barrows.
They may well be contemporary with causeway enclosures.
Though English Heritage say that the Stonehenge Cursus was constructed between 2800-2400 BC. Long barrows were constructed a thousand years before that date.
Timber circles (like Woodhenge and The Sanctuary) occur in at least two cursus in Britain: Springfield, Essex and Dorchester-on-Themes. The Dorchester cursus contained two timber circles.
It is more probable that the timber circles were built after the cursus, and though they may have been used at the same time, they were not analogous- the circles do not share the same orientation as the cursus they are a part of.
Something left over from a Mesolithic tradition?
There is a link with modern times.
---
I've never done very well in walking the Cursus.
There have been too many cows...
The first part, closest to Woodhenge can be entered quite easily, and there are only sheep there.
The second part, after the sewerage works
Has cows.
.png)
Using Google Earth
Drawing a line along the Cursus and measuring the angle (Flash MX)
It looks to me as if the right time to be there was autumn.
Using a computer program to turn the sky back to 3000 BC
The Cursus becomes the earthly mirror to the path of stars
The Milky Way.
Imagine yourself at Durrington Walls.
The sun is setting and you are walking towards The Cuckoo Stone.
It is around the time of the equinox
When Sun and Moon cross.
The tipping point of the year.
 |
| The Cuckoo Stone, 2011. |
Just beyond the stone
The three stars: Altair, Deneb and Vega point the way.
Led by the swan.
The Cursus begins.
Above the Cursus
The the river of stars.
The Milky Way.
 |
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01 |
Even without the street lights drowning the stars
The universe has moved around too much to repeat the experience.
The time to try to see the Milky Way parallel to The Cursus is now late December, early January. The Milky way links the Cursus and Stonehenge at the beginning of February.
The link between earth and sky recorded in the Cursus, has been dislocated by time.
Go back to 3000 BC.
Here is the sky as seen from the Durrington end of the Cursus at sunset (September 13th to 5th October) looking West.
Midwinter Solstice.
At the midwinter solstice, just after sunset, the Milky way points from The Cursus to Stonehenge (or the other way around). The Cursus is probably older than Stonehenge (Long barrows and timber circles are found, built on them) but its relationship to the Milky Way could have seemed significant to the builders of Stonehenge.
If people followed the midwinter Cursus, then followed the direction of the Milky way, they would get to Stonehenge.
But then..
Perhaps the pathway wasn't for the living?
A cursus is not an avenue, an avenue leads between places.
A cursus is a long, enclosed space
No entrance or exit
Doesn't go anywhere... for quite a long way.
They are found in areas with long barrows.
They may well be contemporary with causeway enclosures.
Though English Heritage say that the Stonehenge Cursus was constructed between 2800-2400 BC. Long barrows were constructed a thousand years before that date.
Timber circles (like Woodhenge and The Sanctuary) occur in at least two cursus in Britain: Springfield, Essex and Dorchester-on-Themes. The Dorchester cursus contained two timber circles.
It is more probable that the timber circles were built after the cursus, and though they may have been used at the same time, they were not analogous- the circles do not share the same orientation as the cursus they are a part of.
Something left over from a Mesolithic tradition?
There is a link with modern times.
---
“The main pilgrimage route to Santiago follows an earlier Roman trade route, which continues to the Atlantic coast of Galicia, ending at Cape Finisterre. Altahough it is known today that Cape Finisterre, Spain’s westernmost point, is not the westernmost point of mainland Europe (Cabo da Roca in Portugal is further west), the fact that the Romans called it Finisterrae (literally the end of the world or Land’s End in Latin) indicates that they viewed it as such. At night, the Milky Way overhead seems to point the way, so the route acquired the nickname La Voje Ladee – the Milky Way [...] Pilgrims walked the Way of St. James, often for months, to arrive at the great church in the main square of Compostela and pay homage to St. James. So many pilgrims have laid their hands on the pillar just inside the doorway of the church that a groove has been worn in the stone. The popular Spanish name for the astronomical Milky Way is El Camino de Santiago. According to a common medieval legend, the Milky Way was formed from the dust raised by travelling pilgrims. Compostela itself means ‘field of stars’. Another origin for this popular name is Book IV of the Book of Saint James which relates how the saint appeared in a dream to Charlemagne, urging him to liberate his tomb from the Moors and showing him the direction to follow by the route of the Milky Way.” — Wikipedia s.v. The Way of Saint James
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