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Hi Astronomer
Yes the sun would indeed have blotted out the view of the Pleiades. This in essence, is what this whole thing is about, a change of view from a rise in the morning to the set in the evening and that change was denoted by the loss of vision due to association with the sun. Changes occurred in association with autumn and spring as implied in the writings of Hesiod where he inferred farming practice. He was an agricultural man after all. This really is that simple.
As I noted a few days back, the book Measurements of the Gods [read free at completelynovel.com] has a series of illustrations from Skymap which show what was happening at the period in question.
While I agree that some slight inaccuracies do occur in the astro archaeology sphere due to various factors when we seen something half a degree visual diameter i.e. sun, moon or Pleiades, then there is little doubt involved. Even refraction does not put something that size out of position and when stones or something else obviously placed for such a purpose are near enough to the sighting of such an object we can be pretty sure that the assessment is correct.
On this matter in another section in the book I show the difference between latitudes taken from lat/long values and straight line of sight viewing. This for the equinox line that is involved in the assessment.
The lights in the sky were the only reliable entities in the life of anyone in the olden days so there is no doubt that these were observed extremely closely as ancient texts from various areas but of the same period as that under discussion clearly indicate. Hence, as all observed the same skies what was seen elsewhere was seen here and as the Pleiades were important to others they equally would have been important to the people here.
Harry
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