56. Some seem puzzled as to why three rows of stones should enter the Sanctuary when the start of West Kennet Avenue has only two.
Perhaps the above photograph, taken in line with the third row of stones, provides the answer. It's as if Avebury folk were trying to square the circle and show respect to Avebury's roots by aiming the third row at Windmill Hill, seen on the horizon.
This photograph was taken on the 21st of December 2018, on the winter solstice day. This picture looks back at what remains of the West Kennet Avenue of stones leading to Avebury beyond the rise and out of sight.
The van on the left of the picture blocked the road to revellers' vehicles who wished to enjoy the solstice and prevented them from driving to Avebury.
I recall the time I tried parking at the rough and ready layby not far from the van. I was followed down the lane by a police car that drew alongside and aimed a powerful light in my face to make me move on.
There have been many similar occasions when I have had a sour taste left in my mouth.
57. The West Kennet long barrow is aligned east-west with the equinox.
You could say that it's three hundred feet of wasted chalk, considering the burial chamber only occupies a short length at the front of it. But the purpose of this barrow was to catch the rising sun, moon and stars. PS. Look up John North's "Neolithic Man and the Cosmos" to learn the name of this critical group of stars!
This barrow was decommissioned around 2,500 BC when Stonehenge lost its appeal A shot-dead beaker person with an arrow in his back was the last to be interred inside this barrow. His skeleton was complete, unlike the other poor so-and-so's, whose torsos were dismembered so their skulls and mandibles could be distributed to other sites. The portal was then blocked with massive sarsens, which remain in position today.
There are books that will tell you everything you need to know about the West Kennet long barrow, so I could leave you having an enjoyable read while I go off and make a nice cup of tea. For example, Aubrey Burl authored a book, “Prehistoric Avebury”, that tells of disorderly skeletal remains scattered about the chambers of this barrow, with skulls either never placed in the tomb or carried off to some other monument.
But if we want to understand what the monuments were all about, we must find ways they tried to bring the sun, the moon, and the stars together in one place. Furthermore, It is fruitless to research one monument in glorious isolation because it will prove nothing.
58. The West Kennet long barrow is blocked by what looks like a family of three stones. There’s a bulbous female, a male with an angled top, and a small stone to represent their child.
Without these three stones, the portal takes the shape of a satellite dish for sending and receiving signals, and every one of these stones has its best face pointing outwards for some similar purpose.
Massive sarsens formed the chamber walls, but the builders couldn’t help but notice several gaps between them that needed filling. This was achieved with some very tidy brickwork.
This brickwork is so good that the occasional visitor can be forgiven for thinking it the work of archaeologists. But it’s not. The limestone for this brickwork was collected at least 25 miles away at Frome near Bath.
Now, it just so happens that a very instructive long barrow lies between Bath and Frome at Wellow. And that’s where we’re off to find out what these long barrows were about and what people hoped to achieve.
59. The Stoney Littleton Long Barrow sits on a limestone ridge just short of a mile to the south of the village of Wellow. By pointing almost three degrees into the sky - and with the distant horizon of four degrees - this barrow receives winter solstice sunlight of greater intensity than it would on the flat. Moreover, the ridge it is built on falls away on its western side. This drop divides the horizon into two halves, producing one for the sun and another for the moon.
Once again, we refer to online Bing Maps to provide satellite photographs that help prove this barrow to point about 136.5 degrees from the north. We also use Ordinance Survey maps to calculate altitudes and horizon distances concerning the southernmost rising positions of the sun and moon.
60. The portal of the Stony Littleton long barrow 3,500 BC.
This barrow is believed to be aligned on the winter solstice because rays from the rising sun enter its portal and light up its passage and chambers for several days in late December. But this seems to be an oversimplification of the facts.
So, more work is required here. We need archaeologists to bring their LASER equipment and use it to prove the azimuth of Stoney Littleton's passageway.
My best guess (Not guess, Judgement, as my woodwork teacher used to say) is 136.5, which means that the southernmost sun surpasses the passage, or corridor, by around one and a half degrees, like Stonehenge. This also makes me wonder. Is this long barrow as old as the suggested 3,500 BC?
61. A view out of the portal. We cannot claim this barrow to be perfectly aligned on the winter solstice because the sun, as at Stonehenge, is likely to surpass its axis by one or two degrees. This would, of course, be deliberate!
62. A tale of two horizons. There is no doubt that the Stoney Littleton long barrow effectively pushes the sun and moon further apart, as the above diagram shows.
63. This is what it looks like from the top of the barrow. Do you see how the land falls away on the right? This picture shows how the barrow has been positioned to split the horizon into two to push the moon further away.
Furthermore, Sirius, the brightest star, followed the sun's path between 3480 and 3,350 BC. Professor John North "Stonehenge: Neolithic Man and the Cosmos 1996".
So, as well as sunlight and moonlight, Sirius also entered the tomb.
And let us not forget that Sirius entered Gussage St Michael III at the same time as the sun—a long barrow set inside the six-mile-long Dorset Cursus.
The Stoney Littleton long barrow brought the Sun, the moon, and Sirius together in a place where it was hoped that people buried there would hand over their lives or spirits for some greater purpose.
64. Further reading. Regarding alignments on the sun and moon at Stoney Littleton, Terence Meaden has them covered in his book "Stonehenge: The Secret of the Solstice".
Let's return to Avebury to consider the long barrows of East and West Kennet, which, at 330-foot long each, are the longest in Wiltshire and were meant to work as a pair.
First, the East Kennet long barrow, which has never been excavated. Today, it’s covered from end to end in trees, making it almost impossible to work out its exact azimuth.
65. The East Kennet long barrow alignments. Estimated Azimuth 142 degrees: 38 degrees east of south.
The first thing to notice about this barrow is that unlike Stoney Littleton, whose axis appears to give preference to the sun, the axis of the East Kennet long barrow is nearer the moon.
Furthermore, the builders were aware that the southernmost setting moon appears to roll down Milk Hill every 18.61 years and positioned the barrow in an ideal place to capture it. The winter solstice sets alongside Tan Hill every December.
All this makes me think that there must have been a large standing stone in front of the portal of this barrow (if it has a portal) for reflecting this sun and moonlight into its chambers. Alternatively, it might be fitted with side chambers with a chamber at its rear end.
Minor Standstills shown in the above diagram can be ignored.
THE ROLLRIGHT STONES.
1. Photographed from the south across the Swere valley, this view of the King's Men stone circle and the Whispering Knights is seen by few. The King's Men are situated on the far left, while the Whispering Knights are positioned on the far right.
2. The “King's Men” is a circle of Oolitic limestone blocks in their natural state, described by William Stukeley as like worm-eaten wood. Reconstructed into a diameter of around 101 feet some years ago, it bears little resemblance to its original form. One of the oldest surveys, conducted in 1840, reveals it to be egg-shaped, much like Woodhenge near Stonehenge.
3. When Professor Alexander Thom surveyed the King's Men in the 1960s, he typically measured through the centre of the stones, resulting in an incorrect diameter of 38 Megalithic yards. However, when we measured the circle internally in 2014, we found a diameter of 37 Megalithic yards. (The Stone Age measure known as the Megalithic yard equals 0.83 metres, 32.664 inches.)
The stones are situated on the south side of the Jurassic Way, an ancient road which forms the boundary between Warwickshire and Oxfordshire. The earliest mention of the stones is quoted in T. Hearne’s edition of Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle (1724, Vol. 11, 578).
"There are large stones near the village of Oxford, placed by the hands of men as if under a certain connection, but it is unknown at what time, by what nation, or for what purpose they were made to commemorate or mark. But the locals call that place Rollendrych.”
Pessimists often assert that Britain's stone circles are too severely damaged for anyone to uncover the original geometry on which they were based. Too few stones remain standing in their original locations; many lie scattered about as if vandals have attacked them, and well-meaning restorers incorrectly place others. Worse of all, though, is deliberate misdirection practised by archaeologists.
Nevertheless, by initially focusing on the best-preserved circles, we have developed a reliable system that often indicates which stones are most likely to be in their original positions and which have been misplaced or fallen.
Drawing on our experiences with the complexities of timber and stone circles, we will uncover the likely nature of the “King's Men circle” and present it as an egg-shaped structure.
Our method for resolving the underlying geometry of stone circles commences with a transparent printout, which we fold in half to determine, as accurately as possible, a monument's axis of symmetry.
Our folded transparency of Lockyer’s survey shows that the Rollright circle was oval, with its axis aligned between where the northernmost sun and moon set behind the nine-mile-distant Nebsworth Hill, which lies between Ebrington and Ilmington.
5. Lockyer's survey of the Rollright circle held in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. With stones highlighted for clarity.
6. From Lockyer's stone positions, we can now observe that the geometry of the original Rollright circle was founded on a small pair of Pythagorean triangles. Stone Age peoples perceived the geometry of circles, ovals, and eggs as a form of language. This language was created to connect the sun and moon in astronomical intercourse.
7. Winter solstice sunset observed from within the egg.
8. Imagine my surprise while waiting for the winter sunset when I turned and discovered the humanoid Stone 13 reflecting sunlight like a mirror. This stone has never been disturbed and has helped us determine the ring's shape and size. It also illustrates that, despite their rustic form, the Stone Age builders utilised these stones to reflect sunlight into the centre of the oval.
9. The concave shape of the inner face of Stone 13 suggests that every stone in the Rollright Circle was intended to reflect sunlight into the middle of the ring.
10. The poorest face of Stone 13 is outward.
We must also consider whether this stone was intended to depict a mother and child, and if so, this oval of stones, much like the whispering Knights, would symbolise pregnancy.
A few years ago, scientists contemplated what would happen if light were reflected and bounced an infinitesimal number of times between parallel mirrors. The result was the invention of lasers. People from 5,000 years ago also pondered bouncing light between stones, some of which were more reflective than others, to uncover what might ensue.
I'm reminded of a young lady with whom I spoke while discussing Stone 13. I remarked on how the circle was designed to collect light like a laser. Her response was to whirl her forefinger towards the sky as if to take off. "Exactly," I said.