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The Stonehenge Carvings by Joan Rankin, James Matthews and Lloyd Matthews Wiltshire

Submitted by Lloyd on Wednesday, 28 October 2015  Page Views: 7766

Stonehenge

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Country: England County: Wiltshire Type: Henge

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Stonehenge. - 02 - 'The Dividers' Trilithon 53
Stonehenge. - 02 - 'The Dividers' Trilithon 53 submitted by Lloyd : It has been argued by some scholars that the Sarsen circle at Stonehenge was never completed. Certainly, for a long time one of the surviving sarsens that make up the stone ring around Stonehenge had proven to be an enigma to many archaeologists and historians. It was only when Fernand Neil who spent 30 entire days at Stonehenge studying and measuring the monument for his book entitled The Mysteri... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Lloyd Matthews writes: I built a detailed scale model of Stonehenge which is now on permanent display at the Maryhill Museum of Art, USA (a couple of miles from the Maryhill Stonehenge memorial). The project took 6 years to complete and involved several visits to Stonehenge, where I was able to take photographs and video evidence of each of the remaining stones. It was when I was studying this material I noticed the 'defined shape' on Trilithon 53, and the other proposed carvings that you can read about in our paper.

To build a model of how Stonehenge stands today I also had to include the other distinguishing marks that are on the stones; these included those seen on Trilithons 52 and 59a. Building a model of how Stonehenge originally stood involved thinking how all the various shapes might have looked when first built; this included all the major weathering, crevices etc.

After the model had been completed and on display at Maryhill, I endeavoured to find out what the shapes I had identified meant. The only explanation I was given is they were 'weathering or stone dressing marks', but for the shape on Trilithon 53 common sense told me that this could not be correct.

The Maryhill Museum 'challenged' me to find an answer, and fortunately I met Joan Rankin who had much experience in studying Stonehenge. After two and half years of research we did find some answers and these we have written in our paper.

Unlike other carvings identified at Stonehenge carved into the stone after it was built, these four carvings have been carved 'onto' the stone which means they had to have existed before the Trilithons were erected.

The first 3 carvings are very visible, however we only became aware of the fourth carving on Trilithon 58 as our evidence concluded that there should be one there. When I looked closely at my photographs we do think that this is possible.

Here's a brief summary of the paper:

We show that from Phase I Stonehenge has been used as an observatory and we illustrate how the gaps in the ditch and the four Station Stones were used to determine both equinoxes and solstices, and could divide the year into eight parts.

We suggest that a newly indentified carving on Trilithon 53 proves the Aubrey Holes were a solar and lunar calendar. Three other carvings have also been identified and each one of these four carvings is in alignment to the centre of Stonehenge and a Station Stone.

In conjunction with the solar and lunar calendar the carving on Trilithon 52 marks the end of the lunar year; Trilithon 53 determines when half a solar and lunar year will occur, and the carving on Trilithon 59 and 58 are marking the end of the 32 year solar and 33 year lunar cycles.

Click on each of the images for more details of the proposed carvings.

Stonehenge. - 01 - 'The Eye' Trilithon 52

Stonehenge. - 02 - 'The Dividers' Trilithon 53

Stonehenge. - 03 - 'The Parallels' Trilithon 59

Stonehenge. - 04 - 'The Lost Symbol' Trilithon 58

Close up of the Model Stonehenge 'Ancient and Modern' at Maryhill

Stonehenge. - The Model 'Ancient and Modern' at Maryhill

The full paper can be viewed here:
The Stonehenge Carvings by Joan Rankin, James Matthews and Lloyd Matthews
(93 pages - PDF file - approx 5MB) Copies are also on sale at the Maryhill Museum of Art.

Comments very welcome.

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"The Stonehenge Carvings by Joan Rankin, James Matthews and Lloyd Matthews" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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3D scan of the 'eye' feature by Andy B on Wednesday, 20 April 2016
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Stevehoo writes: I've used your photographs published on the Google drive to produced a 3d scan of the 'eye'.

https://skfb.ly/NsPv

HTH
Steve
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Re: The Stonehenge Carvings by Joan Rankin, James Matthews and Lloyd Matthews by Andy B on Wednesday, 28 October 2015
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I've started a discussion thread for this in our forum here
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=6803&forum=4
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