Archive 3055

The Ancient World Map of the Paleolithic: How the Stonehenge Avenue Creates a Map of the Night Sky

Posted on 2013/10/24 by dcunningham

Midnight Science (2013-2014), Volume 12, Paper 1

Author: Derek Cunningham

Paper Submitted: 22nd Oct 2013, Published: 22nd Oct 2013

Abstract

Following on from a study that shows the various stone circles in Britain reconstruct an ancient map of the night sky (1), a study is now undertaken on the enigmatic shape of the path known as “The Avenue”, which is located in front of Stonehenge. Though it is often stated that the  avenue aligns with the midsummer sunrise, the path is curved. Thus only one third of the path can be consistent with this specific solstice alignment. As prior studies have shown that the shape of the Long Meg circle, a stone circle located near Penrith in northwest England, matches the shape of the Milky Way when plotted as a Mercator map with the night sky magnified by a factor of three (see 400,000 Years of Stone Age Science for a more detailed explanation), a study was undertaken here to determine if the shape of the avenue located in front of Stonehenge also matches the shape of the Milky Way. The result is a consistent overlay, implying that the layout of the entire Stonehenge area might be consistent with a Mercator map layout.

Introduction

The circa 4,000 to 4,600 year old path known as The Avenue is a “curved” path leading from Stonehenge to the ancient site of Bluestonehenge on the River Avon. Though partially curved, it comprises of three linear parts; a straight line running at 40.3 degrees north of due east, a straight line at 6.5 degrees south of due east and finally a third straight region running at approximately 70 degrees south of due east.

Though many potential reasons have been put forward to explain the structure of the avenue, most suggestions have proven untestable. The most recent suggestion made by lead archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson in 2012 is that the path is simply a fluke of nature and was not constructed by hand. This conclusion by Pearson was made entirely because of the recent discovery of a linear grooved patterns present on the surface of the avenue that the archaeologists concluded were probably formed by running water. It is however not know if the structure of the lines has ever been studied by any expert on water erosion patterns.

A similar path located in front of Durrington Walls is also argued be Parker Pearson to also be a natural formation, and consequently Parker Pearson contends that it was only because of these two “chance” alignments of these natural formations to the solstice angles that Stonehenge was finally built at this specific location, in other words to simply take advantage of the natural formation already present at the site.

A major problem surrounding Mike Parker Pearson largely unsupported suggestion is the presence of two important “coincidence”.

The first “coincidence” is the central region of the Stonehenge avenue, the region that is aligned to 6.5 degrees south of due east is aligned to the same value as the 6.511 draconic month period between solar/lunar eclipses. As has been shown in the prior study of archaic written languages (1-19), all archaic writing, especially early compressional writing styles that date to the time period when the Stonehenge avenue was constructed, were based on drawing each glyph to an array of astronomical values that were central to the accurate measurement of time and the prediction of solar/lunar eclipse events – see 400,000 Years of Stone Age Science.  It was been established that the 6.5 degree alignment is central to the theory that the Pyramids and other ancient monuments align a map of the stars to the earth to create a basic, functional map of earth (1).

The second coincidence is that the various circular earthworks present at stonehenge are drawn to reflect either the 17% difference in apparent size of the earth at apogee and perigee, or the 27.3% ratio drawn by the physical size of the moon relative to earth. This 27.3% value overlaps with the 27.3 day sidereal month, which is the critical month value used for measuring time (1).

Thus here at Stonehenge there exists two of the central values in predicting the onset of eclipses (1-19), the first is the 27.3% ratio drawn by the size of stonehenge relative to Durrington Walls, and the second is the 6.5 degree alignment drawn by the path of the avenue.

As Pearson was unaware of the potential link between the angles drawn by astronomical features at Stonehenge, and the astronomical structure of archaic proto-writing, it seems unlikely that the location of Stonehenge was chosen, as Pearson claims, entirely by the presence of chance “natural” formations. In fact if it is subsequently found that all the grooves located on the surface of the avenue align to the same astronomical values seen in, for example, the compressional writing engraved on the Orkney Venus, or the dressed stone uncovered at Skara Brae it could be subsequently proven that the “natural formations” found on the pathway were in fact entirely constructed by hand. Unfortunately no study of the angles drawn by the various channels was undertaken by the archaeological team undertaking the most recent study of the avenue, and it is now impossible to measure the angle of the lines present on the pathway.

A simple study of the angles drawn by the remaining two limbs of the avenue leading between Stonehenge and Bluestonehenge on the River Avon, LIDAR data (English Heritage) shows that the directions of the two limbs at 40.3 and circa 70 degrees do not overlap with any standard astronomical values considered central to glyphs used in archaic writing (1-19). Thus it cannot be argued that the path drawn by the avenue in front of Stonehenge is related to the measurement of time, or the prediction of eclipses.

In 400,000 Years of Stone Age Science a study of the shape of the Longs Meg stone circle, however, did  confirm that at least some of the stone circles present in Britain were drawn to match the shape of the Milky Way, but only if the Milky Way is drawn in Mercator format, with the star map expanded by a factor of three and the Celestial equator offset by an angle of 6.5 degrees before converting the drawing back to a Mercator map of earth. This process is argued is critical for aligning the stars surrounding the asterism known as the Summer Triangle to the shape of the earth’s continents (1). Once this conversion to a Mercator map is done the shape drawn by the Milky Way then forms a helix, and the shape of the central part of the drawn helix matches the shape of the stone circle drawn by Long Meg.

With the proposed theory that a map of the night sky can be used to create a functional map of earth being known to be consistent with the physical layout of the Great Pyramids it thus appeared logical to apply the exact same astronomical theory that was successfully used at Long Meg to study the enigmatic shape of the avenue between Stonehenge and Bluestonehenge. Again for this test the Milky Way is drawn in Mercator format, expanded by a factor of three and then replotted back to a map of earth with the celestial equator offset by exactly 6.5 degrees (1).

Results

Aligning a drawing of the Milky Way so that the celestial equator aligns 6.5 degrees north of due east, which is the mirror image alignment described by the central spar of the avenue, but matches the drawn alignment described by the Giza Pyramids, creates the following star map (Fig. 1). In this map the underlying Mercator map of earth is also shown, this being the earth star map created using the Great pyramid alignment.

As can be seen a Mercator map of the night sky expanded three times, and then replotted back to earth, and  rotated exactly 6.5 degrees north of due east, which is gain the orientation directly suggested by the layout of the Great Pyramids of Giza, produces a Mercator map of the Milky Way that draws a shape that exactly overlaps the complex direction of the avenue, with the Cursus to the north of Stonehenge apparently aligning to the angle drawn by the Celestial Equator. However care is required in analying the shape of the Cursus as the lines drawn by the cursus are not precisely linear, and further more detailed analysis is required to determine if the Cursus is properly aligned to standard astronomical values.

Discussion and Conclusions

Though many will automatically question the shown alignment, being unsure of the background that led to to use of a Mercator map expanded three times and rotated by 6.5 degrees, the fact is that this specific map, as just described, was developed more than two years ago and has now successfully explained not only the Mayan reset, and the structure of the Great Pyramids, but also easily explains the shape of various stone circles uncovered in Britain, including Callanish Stone Circle in Scotland (1). The map also explains the relative sizes of the various earthwork circles found at Stonehenge, and even the location of the various stone circles relative to one another (1), and now as just shown here the theory fully explains the shape of the avenue located in front of Stonehenge, and perhaps also the enigmatic Cursus earthwork located to the north of Stonehenge. It can thus be now argued that the theory that an ancient civilization did  travel the world, and created a basic but functional map of the earth using the stars is now finally proven.

References

1. 400,000 Years of Stone Age Science, Author Derek Cunningham, Amazon Kindle
2. Cunningham, Direct Comparison of Pictish and Ogham Astronomical Text on the Brandsbutt Ogham Pictish Stone: Confirmation that Ogham and Pictish Glyphs are Compression Languages. Midnight Science Vol 11 (2013-2014), Paper 1.
3. Cunningham, Analysis of the Orkney Venus: Suggestion of Proto-writing in the Alignment of the Etched lines Present on the Orkney Venus Statue to Standard Lunar Astronomical Values, and the Suggestion of an Archaic Global Civilization, Midnight Science Vol. 8 (2011-2012), Paper 2.
4. Cunningham, Accurate Drawing of the Earth and Moon in Pictish Artwork: A Detailed Analysis of the Invereen Stone, Midnight Science Vol. 8, (2011-2013) Paper 4
5. Cunningham, The Decorated Stone of Skara Brae: Presence of Astronomical Data Similar in Structure to that seen at the Irkutsk Geoglyph Field Midnight Science Vol. 9 (2012-2013), Paper 1.
6. Cunningham, Analysis of the Aberlemno 1 (Serpent Stone): Evidence of Accurate Knowledge of the Moon’s Orbit in Pictish Artwork, Midnight Science Vol. 9 (2012-2013), Paper 2.
7. Cunningham, Interpretation of Astronomical Data in Pictish Artwork: Analysis of the Aberlemno III Pictish Stone, Midnight Science Vol. 9 (2012-2013), Paper 3.
8. Cunningham, Analysis of the Fiscavaig Pictish Stone: The Presence of Basic Astronomical Data, Midnight Science Vol. 9 (2012-2013), Paper 4.
9. Cunningham, Analysis of the Astronomical Data Contained in the Dunnichen Stone, Midnight Science Vol. 9 (2012-2013), Paper 5.
10. Cunningham, Presence of Proto-Writing in the Engraved Stones uncovered at the Orkney Ness Site, Midnight Science Vol. 8, (2013-2014).
11. Cunningham, Development of Ogham writing from Lunar Astronomical Values: Analysis of the Ardmore I Stone, Midnight Science, Vol. 10 (2013-2014), Paper 8.
12. Cunningham, Analysis of Ballintaggart I Ogham: Apparent Confirmation that Ogham Writing was Constructed Using Simple Astronomical Values, Midnight Science Vol. 10 (2013-2014), Paper 9.
13. Cunningham, Analysis of the Ballintaggart III Ogham Stone using Astronomical Values to Explain the Angular Alignment of the Drawn Lines, Midnight Science Vol. 10 (2013-2014), Paper 10.
14. Cunningham, The Astronomical Origin of Ogham Writing: Analysis of the Lunar Data Contained on the Drumconwell Ogham Stone, Midnight Science Vol. 10 (2013-2014), Paper 11.
15. Cunningham, Direct Comparison of Pictish and Ogham Astronomical Text on the Brandsbutt Ogham Pictish Stone: Confirmation that Ogham and Pictish Glyphs are Compression Languages, Midnight Science Vol. 11 (2013-2014), Paper 1.
16. Cunningham, Analysis of Mesopotamian Cuneiform Writing: Evidence for the Presence of Compressional Astronomical Writing in Mesopotamian Text that is Identical in Structure to later Ogham and Pictish Scripts, Midnight Science Vol 11, Paper 3
17. Cunningham, Presence of Astronomical Art in the 400,000 year old Bilzingsleben Bone Artifacts, Midnight Science Vol. 9 (2012-2013), Paper 9.
18. Cunningham, Analysis of the Astronomical Data Contained within the Engraved Stone uncovered at the Shuidonggou Paleolithic Site, Northwest China, Midnight Science Vol. 9 (2012-2013), Paper 6.

© 2010 – 2013 Derek Cunningham; Midnight Science, ISSN 2160-0201; Volume 12, Paper