Terence Meaden has just completed a session at the UISPP World Congress on Prehistory and Protohistory filled with what I would judge will be seen as pure heresy by the conformist British archaeological community. I stand amazed by the boldness and range of ideas presented. Sadly we couldn't be there but perhaps you were?
Terence writes in the conference abstracts:
STONEHENGE, DROMBEG AND AVEBURY: THE RATIONALITY OF THEIR STONE-CIRCLE DESIGN PLANS WHEN INTERPRETED BY HIEROS GAMOS AND VALIDATED BY PHOTOGRAPHIC SUNRISE EVIDENCE FOR THE EIGHT TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURAL FESTIVAL DATES
Meaden, G. Terence (Oxford University)
Little is known about the intentions of the builders of the stone circles of Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland, and the use to which the stones were put. Yet there are sites where constructive clues can be deduced by analysing stone settings relative to specific sunrises or sunsets. Because the stone circle at Drombeg is accurately explained this way—with photographs that powerfully demonstrate it—the solution strongly supports similar explanations for sites like Stonehenge where the action can be watched by any visitor and verified under clear-sky conditions. The research has taken many years. The key lay in studies conducted at sunrise for particular dates of the year.
Drombeg Stone Circle excels in this reconstructive analysis because the crucial stones are still present, and accurate survey authenticates it. The truths are convincingly demonstrated by photography.
At Drombeg particular standing stones play critical roles at sunrise for the eight festival dates of traditional agricultural communities. Crucial is the positioning of a male-type perimeter stone (bearing an anthropomorphic image) such that its phallic shadow at midsummer sunrise envelops a vulvar engraving on the recumbent stone diametrically opposite. Gradually the shadow moves aside allowing sunshine to reach the female symbol. It is the same for sunrises at Beltane, Lughnasadh and mid-year points (equinoxes) when shadows from other perimeter stones couple similarly, before being immediately followed by penetrating sunlight. For the winter half of the year (including Samhain, the solstice and Imbolc), the target stone for shadow reception is a huge lozenge-shaped megalith. At the equinoxes the drama is enacted between an arguably-male pillar stone and the seemingly-female lozenge stone. Consequently, all eight sunshine-and-shadow events have been photographed at sunrise at Drombeg.
Stonehenge behaves similarly at midsummer sunrise where sunshine initially illuminates the Altar Stone, before the phallic shadow of the Heel Stone intervenes and penetrates the monument to reach the Altar Stone. The enigma of the short round-topped anomalous Stone 11 at Stonehenge is solved too. The surviving stones of Avebury’s southern stone circle act similarly at midsummer, midwinter and Beltane. Avebury’s Cove works likewise with respect to midsummer sunrise.
An explanation in terms of the ancient, widely-loved worldview of the Marriage of the Gods between Sky and Earth seems warranted. This mythology was known classically as the hieros gamos (Sacred Marriage)—a concept known for classical historical times and encountered latterly by anthropologists interviewing tribal communities. The sun-and-shadow display is a dramatic, highly visual effect that still occurs and can be witnessed on the intended days by any visitor to Drombeg and Stonehenge. In the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age numerous spectators standing outside these monuments could witness the spectacle. This is the paramount fundamental meaning for the basic design plan of Stonehenge, and explains much about the meanings underlying the intrinsic design plans of many other monuments—including Avebury, Drombeg, Newgrange and Knowth.
Terence continues: This report also includes a reconstructed 365 day-by-day calendar for early Britain resulting from a study involving sunrise directions that accord with the axial orientations of over 60 Wessex long barrows.
The conference paper abstracts are here
http://www.burgos2014uispp.com/modules.php?name=webstructure&lang=EN&idwebstructure=108
http://www.burgos2014uispp.com/readcontents.php?file=webstructure/abstracts_book.pdf
(1049 pages!)
The rest of the session summaries can be read from Page 574 onwards
We will be featuring more from the conference in the coming days.
With thanks to Terence Meaden (who I hope won't mind my lifting his summaries)
Further details and comment in our forum
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=6234&forum=1&start=0
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