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A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The best known examples include those at the henge monument at Avebury, the Rollright Stones, and elements within the ring of standing stones at Stonehenge. Scattered examples exist from other parts of Europe. Later, during the Iron Age, stone circles were built in southern Scandinavia.
Alexander Thom was a Scottish engineer most famous for his theory of the Megalithic yard, categorisation of stone circles and his studies of Stonehenge and other archaeological sites.
Harry Aubrey Woodruff Burl HonFSA Scot was a British archaeologist best known for his studies into megalithic monuments and the nature of prehistoric rituals associated with them. Before retirement he was Principal Lecturer in Archaeology, Hull College, East Riding of Yorkshire. Burl received a volume edited in his honour. He was called by The New York Times, "the leading authority on British stone circles".
Félix Aguilar Observatory is an astronomical observatory. It was established in 1953, in San Juan Province, Argentina. In 1974, it was renamed to Carlos Ulrrico Cesco Astronomical Station.
Gerald Stanley Hawkins was a British-born American astronomer and author noted for his work in the field of archaeoastronomy. A professor and chair of the astronomy department at Boston University in the United States, he published in 1963 an analysis of Stonehenge in which he was the first to propose that it was an ancient astronomical observatory used to predict movements of the sun and moon, and that it was used as a computer. Archaeologists and other scholars have since demonstrated such sophisticated, complex planning and construction at other prehistoric earthwork sites, such as Cahokia in the United States.
Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found in the Atlantic seaboard of Europe (Ireland, Wales, Northern England, Scotland, France, Portugal, and Spain – and in Mediterranean Europe – Italy, Iran, Azerbaijan and Greece, as well as in Scandinavia and in Switzerland.
Uriel's Machine: The Prehistoric Technology That Survived the Flood is a bestselling book published in 1999 by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas. The book's name is derived from a character of the same name in the Book of Enoch. In Knight and Lomas's interpretation of the Book of Enoch, Uriel warns Enoch about the impending flood, giving him instructions for building a form of solar observatory for the purpose of preserving advanced knowledge into a time of global disaster by teaching him the movement of the Sun against the horizon over a period of time, which Enoch then records in detail in the Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries.
Nabta Playa was once a large internally drained basin in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22.51° north, 30.73° east. Today the region is characterized by numerous archaeological sites. The Nabta Playa archaeological site, one of the earliest of the Egyptian Neolithic Period, is dated to circa 7500 BC.
Rujm el-Hiri is an ancient megalithic monument consisting of concentric circles of stone with a tumulus at center. It is located in the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, some 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) east of the coast of the Sea of Galilee, in the middle of a large plateau covered with hundreds of dolmens.
The El Leoncito Astronomical Complex is an astronomical observatory in the San Juan Province of Argentina. CASLEO is one of two observatories located within El Leoncito National Park, which is in a part of the country which rarely sees cloud cover. The other facility in the park is the Carlos U. Cesco Astronomical Station of the Félix Aguilar Observatory. CASLEO was established in 1983 by an agreement between National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MINCYT) of Argentina, the National University of San Juan (UNSJ), the National University of La Plata (UNLP), and the National University of Córdoba (UNC). The facility was dedicated in 1986 and regular observations began in 1987.
Carahunge, also known as Zorats Karer, Dik-Dik Karer, Tsits Karer and Karenish, is a prehistoric archaeological site near the town of Sisian in the Syunik Province of Armenia. It is also often referred to in international tourist lore as the "Armenian Stonehenge".
Christian Arthur Edgar "Tim" O'Brien was a British exploration geologist and author. In 1936 he was also involved in the discovery of the Chogha Zanbil ziggurat in Southern Iran. Appointed by BP In 1967, he retired in 1971 as chairman of the boards and general managing director of the Iranian Oil Operating Companies, stationed in Tehran, and was appointed a CBE for services to the oil industry.
The Cromlech of the Almendres is a megalithic complex, located 4.5 road km WSW of the village of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, in the civil parish of Nossa Senhora da Tourega e Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, municipality of Évora, in the Portuguese Alentejo. The largest existing group of structured menhirs in the Iberian Peninsula, this archaeological site consists of several megalithic structures: cromlechs and menhir stones, that belong to the so-called "megalithic universe of Évora", with clear parallels to other cromlechs in Évora District, such as Portela Mogos and the Vale Maria do Meio Cromlech.
Portingbury Hills or Portingbury Rings is a hill in Hatfield Forest, Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, United Kingdom.
The stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany are a megalithic tradition of monuments consisting of standing stones arranged in rings. These were constructed from 3300 to 900 BCE in Britain, Ireland and Brittany. It has been estimated that around 4,000 of these monuments were originally constructed in this part of north-western Europe during this period. Around 1,300 of them are recorded, the others having been destroyed.
Terence Meaden is an English author who writes on archaeoastronomy, mostly focusing on the megalithic sites of Avebury, Stonehenge and the Drombeg stone circle in Cork, Ireland. He is a retired physicist with a doctoral degrees in physics from the University of Oxford and a master's degree in applied landscape archaeology also from University of Oxford. Meaden is influenced by the work of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas who wrote about the Goddess worshipping Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe".
An axial stone circle is a megalithic ring of stones of a particular design found in County Cork and County Kerry in southwest Ireland. Archaeologists have found it convenient to consider the axial five-stone circle and axial multiple-stone circle separately. The circle has an approximate axis of symmetry aligned in a generally northeast–southwest direction. The stone at the southwest side of the circle, rather than being an upright orthostat like all the rest, is a slab lying horizontally with its long thin edge along the circumference of the ring. Because it marks the axis of the circle it is called the axial stone.
References
- ↑ Juan Pedro Laporte (1993). Tikal y Uaxactún en el preclásico. UNAM. pp. 5, 9, 27, 37, 38, 72, 79, 81, 86 & 90. ISBN 978-968-36-2673-8 . Retrieved 13 March 2011.
- ↑ Fialko, Vilma., Laporte, Juan Pedro., New Perspectives on Old Problems: Dynastic references for the Early Classic at Tikal. In Vision and Revision in Maya Studies, edited by F. Clancy and P. Harrison, pp. 33–66, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
- ↑ "National Parks and Reserves in Argentina: El Leoncito National Park". Ripio Turismo. Archived from the original on 8 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-06.
- ↑ "Public Outreach". Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito. Archived from the original on 2006-08-29. Retrieved 2006-09-06.
- ↑ Prudence M. Rice (2004). Maya Political Science: Time, Astronomy, and the Cosmos. University of Texas Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-292-70569-2.
- ↑ University College; London. Institute of Archaeology (2000). Archaeology international. Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
- ↑ Hawkins, Gerald., Stonehenge Decoded, Nature, 200, 306–308, 1963
- ↑ Hawkins, Gerald., Callanish, a Scottish Stonehenge, Science, 147, 127–130, 1965.
- ↑ D. C. Heggie (1982). Archaeoastronomy in the Old World. Cambridge University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-521-24734-4.
- ↑ Hoppit, David (1978). "The Wandlebury Enigma Solved? – Line A Loxodrome". Sunday Telegraph Magazine, Issue 78, March 18th.
- ↑ Johnson, Mark, R., University of Idaho Astronomical Complex, Moscow, Idaho, 214 pages, University of Idaho, 1984
- ↑ Grothkopf, Uta., Astronomical Society of the Pacific conference serie, Volume 153, p. 3, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1998.
- ↑ Henry Robinson Luce, Time, Volume 87, Issues 1–12, p. 84, Time Inc., 1966.