I feel a bit uneasy doing this...
I've rotated the plan of The Sanctuary drawn up by Robert Cunnington, a Royal Engineers-trained surveyor.
In 1930 magnetic declination- the difference between magnetic north and True North was thirteen degrees.
The burial at The Sanctuary, using the plans (using north as drawn on the plan) as found in the report of the excavation by Maud Cunnington, is closer to 80 degrees.
The concrete posts (the red ones are all over the place...but the blue ones seem to be in their original place).
Magnetic declination is now just -1.
So...as the plans are now, the burial stone is about 10 degrees north of east (80 degrees.)
In 1930, north (by the compass) was 13 degrees west. Unfortunately when I made inquires to find out what year the posts were put in place, I drew a blank.
If the plan is rotated to compensate for that 13 degrees...
The burial is now aligned east from the center, directed to the only place in the sky where sun and moon take the same path twice a year...and the the sun and moon solstice rise and set positions are aligned to the avenues...
Clive Ruggles: Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland published 1999. doesn't think that the equinox lasts long enough, or does anything spectacular enough to merit embodying in stone. I think he is completely wrong about that..a cross over of sun and moon positions for one, and secondly the behavior of shadows; at the equinox, the tip of the shadow marked on the ground creates a straight line, not a curve.
Rotating the plan...
Sun and moon line up nicely with the avenues.
As the Sanctuary is laid out now (with concrete posts) the midsummer sun does not rise in the NE avenue.
When looking at the angles of the inner (G) posts, it seemed to me quite possible that summer solstice sunrise and summer sunset shadow positions would be the perfect way top replicate their configuration.
Anyway!
That's on-going work.
The 1999 excavation of the Sanctuary by Mike Pitts indicated that the post holes (and they are big these holes!) were more or less in the right place according to the diagram ( magnetic north). but the 'more or less' is the other hand, as much as 20 cm.
So...I don't honestly know what to think.
Note.
The 1999 excavation found many more arrows than the Cunnington's had reported, in the sector of the burial (D 5 and D 6).
There is no evidence that the person buried there had been killed by arrows, but nor is there evidence that the person - aged about 14 years - was not killed by arrows...
I've rotated the plan of The Sanctuary drawn up by Robert Cunnington, a Royal Engineers-trained surveyor.
In 1930 magnetic declination- the difference between magnetic north and True North was thirteen degrees.
The burial at The Sanctuary, using the plans (using north as drawn on the plan) as found in the report of the excavation by Maud Cunnington, is closer to 80 degrees.
The concrete posts (the red ones are all over the place...but the blue ones seem to be in their original place).
Magnetic declination is now just -1.
So...as the plans are now, the burial stone is about 10 degrees north of east (80 degrees.)
In 1930, north (by the compass) was 13 degrees west. Unfortunately when I made inquires to find out what year the posts were put in place, I drew a blank.
The burial is now aligned east from the center, directed to the only place in the sky where sun and moon take the same path twice a year...and the the sun and moon solstice rise and set positions are aligned to the avenues...
Clive Ruggles: Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland published 1999. doesn't think that the equinox lasts long enough, or does anything spectacular enough to merit embodying in stone. I think he is completely wrong about that..a cross over of sun and moon positions for one, and secondly the behavior of shadows; at the equinox, the tip of the shadow marked on the ground creates a straight line, not a curve.
Rotating the plan...
Sun and moon line up nicely with the avenues.
As the Sanctuary is laid out now (with concrete posts) the midsummer sun does not rise in the NE avenue.
When looking at the angles of the inner (G) posts, it seemed to me quite possible that summer solstice sunrise and summer sunset shadow positions would be the perfect way top replicate their configuration.
Anyway!
That's on-going work.
The 1999 excavation of the Sanctuary by Mike Pitts indicated that the post holes (and they are big these holes!) were more or less in the right place according to the diagram ( magnetic north). but the 'more or less' is the other hand, as much as 20 cm.
So...I don't honestly know what to think.
Note.
The 1999 excavation found many more arrows than the Cunnington's had reported, in the sector of the burial (D 5 and D 6).
There is no evidence that the person buried there had been killed by arrows, but nor is there evidence that the person - aged about 14 years - was not killed by arrows...
Comments
Post a Comment