Figures in Stone : The Hermetic Megalithic Legacy of the Ancients Reveals an Astronomical Connection of the Megaliths to the Stars of the Heavens

An Illustrated Photograph of Stonehenge


Alice Cunningham Fletcher (Alice C. Fletcher) in her 1902 publication in the American Anthropologist, observed that there is ample evidence that some ancient cultures geographically located their villages according to patterns seen in stars of the heavens. We apply this principle, for example, to the decipherment of the Malta Temples with remarkable results. We suggest that many megaliths and megalithic sites served as hermetic boundary stones and/or served as landmarks sighted (and sited) by astronomy. Included here are also petroglyphs (ancient rock drawing sites) which we have deciphered as being astronomically oriented (e.g. Tanum, Sweden or Peterborough,Canada).

Systematic analysis of standing stones or any megalithic site must include a precise understanding of exactly what one is looking at.

The photograph of Stonehenge at the top of this posting, which we took in the year 2005, was taken from the only precise point at the Heel Stone which shows the precise main axis of Stonehenge, known generally as the Avenue, looking from the northeast to the southwest on Salisbury Plain.

If one looks at the header (the top photograph) to our website at megaliths.net, one sees in the distance between Sarsen 1 and Sarsen 30 what we presume to be two tumps that - like rifle sights - mark this ancient line. Since we do not know when those two tumps were constructed, we can not claim without doubt that these were the ancient markers - but it is without doubt that this IS THE EXACT CORRECT LINE OF SIGHT, about which there has been a great deal of debate over the years by various archaeoastronomers, who always persisted on looking toward the "Heel Stone", whereas of course the "heel" is at the back, is it not? That is why we took this precise photo, to show that the line of sight was the other way around.

We combine that photo with our illustration of the exact corresponding viewing position at Stonehenge (looking from bottom to top). We developed the above visually explanatory image because all of the books and other online websites on Stonehenge that we had seen did not provide a satisfactory explanation of exactly what one is looking at. Indeed, most photos by others are simply artsy-craftsy mood shots of Stonehenge, without any knowledge of what one is photographing: fine for family albums, but not for serious observation.

STONEHENGE AND THE STONEHENGE BARROWS

IN studying Stonehenge, we went beyond previous research also in other ways. For example, in our study of Stonehenge astronomy we provide new analysis of the surrounding Stonehenge Barrows, important astronomical landmarks which have been neglected by other researchers. These barrows served initially as an ancient sky map of the stars - so our discovery. We claim that the Stonehenge Barrows provide supporting evidence that the classic Stonehenge circle is in fact an ancient astronomical clock and eclipse calculator.

LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE PROVIDES ADDITIONAL CLUES

ALL possible available evidence is examined in our research. Even linguistic evidence is useful. For example, the name Stonehenge itself, as noted by William H. Long in his book, Stonehenge and it Barrows, may be a term of Germanic origin as haengende Steine or Steinhang meaning "suspended stones". Locally, Stonehenge was allegedly called nawt by the Welsh, meaning "sanctuary", but we think that nawt originally meant node (Welsh noad) - of the Sun and the Moon, so that Stonehenge was by name "an eclipse calculator". The Irish megalithic site of Knowth may be similarly named as the "knot" or "ankh" of heaven at heaven's center.

STONEHENGE LOCATION NOT CHOSEN BY CHANCE

The location of megalithic sites is of great importance, which few researchers have understood. Gerald S. Hawkins in Stonehenge Decoded (p. 154) is a happy exception as he writes as follows about the unique location of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain:

"Newham and Charriere of France ... commented on the very noteworthy circumstance that the latitude of Stonehenge is practically optimum for sun-moon rectangular alignment.... [I]n the northern hemisphere there is only one latitude for which, at their extreme declinations, the sun and the moon azimuths are separated by 90°. Stonehenge is within a few miles of that latitude."

This confirms that Stonehenge may have been named anciently as the node of solar and lunar rectangular alignments, especially for eclipse prediction.

A strong precedent supporting our hermetic astronomical view of the ancient megalithic world is the 1902 publication in the American Anthropologist of an article by Alice C. Fletcher describing the hermetic astronomical system of the Pawnee in Nebraska, who geographically located their villages according to the stars in the heavens.

This practice reflects something which the ancients called hermetics, retained in modern times in the phrase: "as above, so below".

Our research indicates that the ancients meant that phrase literally, as they used the heaven of stars above as the model for their earthly map on the ground below. We shall suggest that the same basic system as used by the Pawnee was not only used at Stonehenge and throughout Ancient England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but was also used globally by ancient man in prehistoric days, for example, at megalithic sites such as the Malta Temples, each of which, as we have discovered, represents a star group.

The use of the hermetic principle is documented in Pharaonic Egypt as well. John Brock observes that land survey in ancient Egypt dates back to the earliest days of that ancient civilization and that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs "even refer to setting boundary stelae 'like the sky' ". Obviously, this is evidence that the sky was used as a model for land survey. The heaven of stars served as the map model for land survey on earth. That is the hermetic principle.

FIGURES IN STONE AT WAYLAND'S SMITHY, ENGLAND (ANCIENT BRITAIN)

Our photograph and accompanying drawing below show our interpretation of the astronomical significance of the megaliths at Wayland's Smithy in England. Compare the two.

WAYLAND'S SMITHY, ENGLAND

Wayland's Smithy NEW Decipherment in the Year 2008 (below)



The stars represented by Wayland's Smithy are from left to right: Taurus, Auriga, Perseus,
Pleiades, Triangulum, Aries, Pegasus (Great Square - or Circle),
Cassiopeia, Cepheus and Lacerta.

Wayland's Smithy OLD Decipherment (below) in the Year 2002 (below)

Wayland's Smithy was the first megalithic site that we deciphered after finding cupmarks at Balnuaran of Clava, which convinced us that that megalithic sites were astronomical in nature. Since then we have deciphered hundreds of megalithic sites around the world and due to that experience we can see now, six years later, that our initial decipherment of Wayland's Smithy must be revised as above.

When one looks now, the stars of Perseus are clear, but it was not so clear in the pioneering stages. Interesting is also the middle small stone, which originally could have been upright and not flat on its side as now. The bird as Auriga (Capella is the head and the two stars below it are the feet) and Taurus as a fish also become clear as the bird is catching the fish, one above the Milky Way and one below. Cepheus and Cassiopeia appear as separate star groups and Pegasus is marked by the large circle below the hills of Andromeda. The interpretation of Lacerta, the Lizard, remains unchanged, and it is a lizard which was originally pictured at the Uffington White Horse and not a horse, whose dimensions are far different. Wayland's Smithy may be an anglification of Gaelic jiolgan atchimagh viz. jiolgan leaghyr (modern dinosaur, lizard) with jiolgan being rendered as Wayland (older spelling Weland with a long e) and atchimagh as Smithy.

The lessons here are: 1) megalithic interpretations can change and indeed must be changed to fit improved observations and data, and 2) an obvious explanation can be overlooked if one is following a given line of thought too strictly. Our first interpretation was useful to us then, giving us a hermetic benchmark astronomical location in England, but the interpretation is now improved.

TANUM PETROGLYPHS, SWEDEN ARE A GIANT SKY MAP (our decipherment)

TANUM ROCK DRAWING LOCATIONS, SWEDEN

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The rock drawing locations at Tanum, Sweden represent a sky map of the stars

Decipherment or Explanation?

We call our presentation "the decipherment of the megaliths" at our book Stars Stones and Scholars: The Decipherment of the Megaliths (see Science Book Review and Amazon for reviews) because much of our book is a decipherment of the "figures in stone" in megalithic sites. Those figures are the "writing" or "script" of old - it is the writing of sculptors.

Megaliths and Megalithic Sites are a Source of Controversy

The world's megalithic sites are a source of controversial mystery to science. No mainstream discipline has ever engaged in a systematic study of the world's megalithic sites. Quite the contrary, pioneer scholars such as the late Gerald S. Hawkins, who wrote the groundbreaking Stonehenge Decoded, have often been ignored by the establishment. Hawkins himself related the tale of a British government official who simply rejected his findings without reading them by stating that "the ancient Britons couldn't have been as clever as all that". In fact, the megalith builders are still more or less an "unknown" quantity, an uncertainty which leads most archaeologists and most mainstream scholars to avoid megalithic study altogether.

But how can this worldwide heritage be ignored and ancient history be accurately written without accounting for megaliths and megalithic sites? Who erected them, and why? Mainstream science does not know. We claim to have a part of the answer.

Megaliths and Megalithic Sites as Boundaries and Landmarks

There is in fact compelling evidence that many megaliths served as ancient landmarks and boundary stones which were sighted (and sited) by astronomy. Indeed, the much maligned historical so-called Hermetic tradition clearly points to the origins of megalithic sites in land survey. For example, Gnosis.org writes about the Hermetic tradition as follows:

"The name Hermes appears to have originated in the word for "stone heap." Probably since prehistoric times there existed in Crete and in other Greek regions a custom of erecting a herma or hermaion consisting of an upright stone surrounded at its base by a heap of smaller stones. Such monuments were used to serve as boundaries or as landmarks for wayfarers."

This hermetic tradition contradicts the prevailing but unsupportable mainstream view that the original purpose of megalithic sites was to serve as tombs, for which there is little probative evidence. Rather, we know that the ancients often transported huge stones many miles to erect them at a particular location far removed from their origin. Obviously, these sites were not originally tombs, as it would have been far simpler to transport the deceased to the area of rock quarries, rather than vice versa. Obviously, the sites chosen for megaliths had a special significance.

If the original Neolithic megaliths and megalithic sites were boundaries and landmarks, how were the locations selected and surveyed?

One of the cardinal precepts of the Hermetic tradition is "As above, so below". In days before writing and the invention of printed maps, one could not simply go down to the local store and buy travel maps, and yet, people had to be able to get around on land and to navigate by sea. How did they do it? How did they know where they were?

We claim, and all available evidence points in this direction, that the ancients took a "fixed known map" - this was the map of the heaven of stars - and projected that map onto the Earth - as a model for land survey. Anyone having knowledge of the location of the heavenly stars could thus find his or her way around on Earth by means of the megaliths, which served both as boundaries and landmarks, sighted (and sited) by astronomy.

The Hermetic System of the Pawnee in Nebraska (Alice C. Fletcher)

As already noted above, the 1902 American Anthropologist (cached here and here) published an article by Alice C. Fletcher titled Star Cult Among the Pawnee-A Preliminary Report, American Anthropologist, October-December, 1902 Vol.4(4):730-736, which described the hermetic astronomical system of the Pawnee in Nebraska, whose villages and their respective geographical locations were represented by stars in the heavens.

As part of the Anthropology Journal Archive Project, Ralph Bachli of Boston University (Parker Shipton) wrote about that article as follows (we have added emphasis in bold face type):

"Alice Fletcher documents the astrological symbols of an American Indian culture.... She notes the historical diffusion of beliefs and rituals throughout American trade and pilgrimage routes. Fletcher focuses on the Pawnee perception of the stars and its effects on village planning and indigenous mythology.

Up until the late nineteenth century the Pawnee inhabited the Platte River in what is now the Midwestern state of Nebraska.... Fletcher investigates the Skidi Pawnee clan who portray astrological themes in village construction. Skidi comprise five functioning villages, each containing ritual icons for the worship of certain constellations. Each village took on characteristics of certain star systems, and ceremonies were initiated to celebrate the astronomical rhythm of favorite constellations. The geographic location of five Skidi villages in relation to one another corresponded respectively to the constellations to which they were symbolically attached.... Fletcher explains how the earth lodge abodes that the Pawnee build are based on constellation patterns.... The Pawnee transform observation of stellar patterns into village planning, hut construction, and religion. These tribes had an intensive ritual life that took place at shrines dedicated to the night sky over the flatlands."

The Megaliths are a Hermetic System of Land Survey by the Stars

That in a nutshell, corresponds pretty well to the megalithic system we have discovered. As we show e.g. in our book on the megaliths, each temple of Malta has a form which corresponds to a different stellar constellation, and all of the temples of Malta fit into a cohesive astronomical geodetic system. This, we allege, was an ancient survey system globally applied.

For example, Gaelic tradition states that heavenly locations had earthly counterparts, although this knowledge is now submerged in Gaelic myth and is no longer directly accessible. The only way left for us to reconstruct such ancient hermetic systems is to examine the megalithic sites themselves and to research if these sites are systematically located by the stars.

MEGALITHIC SITES ARE ASTRONOMY AND GEODETICS

Megaliths ("giant standing stones", menhirs) and related constructions such as cairns and dolmens (chambers of stone), tumuli and barrows (ancient earthworks) and henges and circles were built by ancient man for purposes of Astronomy and Geodetics.

Stated simply, stars were used to measure the Earth and vice versa. This human achievement dates to the Neolithic Period (Stone Age), long before such technology was thought possible by modern scholars. Indeed, the observational astronomical tradition upon which the megaliths are based is likely to be many thousands of years older than the megaliths themselves.

As discovered by Andis Kaulins, Neolithic megalithic sites are astronomy in a cohesive broadly based geodetic survey system. Megalithic sites marked geographic land borders as triangulated by astronomy, e.g. in Scotland, England and Wales, and Ireland, much as the kudurri (border stones) of Mesopotamia. In modern times, triangulation cornerstones have been put underground. In ancient days, these stones were erected on the surface - and there most of them have remained to this day. We can relate to this quite well by experience, having worked as a student out in the field for a summer for the Nebraska State Surveyor's Office.

MEGALITHIC SITES IN SCOTLAND

All Neolithic sites in Scotland listed in the Ordnance Survey map of Ancient Britain (ISBN 0-319-29028-X) form a planisphere (sky map) of the northern and southern heavens with a center at BALNUARAN of CLAVA, where BAL surely means POLE, while NUARAN surely was an ancient name for the "River of Light" (Heaven) as in Hebrew NEHAR DI NUR and Arabic NAHR. See Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, Dover (ISBN 0-486-21079-0). See my review of that book. The decipherment began at Clava.

MEGALITHIC SITES IN ANCIENT BRITAIN : ENGLAND and WALES

All Neolithic sites in England marked on the Ordnance Survey map of Ancient Britain, including megaliths, quoits, tumuli and barrows form a map projection of the stars of the northern and southern heavens, with the center of the system at the Herefordshire Beacon and Midsummer Hill viz. Wynd's Point. Sites later than the Neolithic period show that the ancients adjusted for precession. The site called The Hurlers in Cornwall is a location at which precession was calculated in Ancient Britain.

MEGALITHIC SITES IN ANCIENT IRELAND

Megaliths and megalithic sites in Ireland were selected and organized by region. The counties of modern Ireland and Northern Ireland - to the degree they approximate ancient regional boundaries - correspond to the stellar constellations of the heavens.

MEGALITHS ARE CARVED WITH FIGURES IN STONE

Standing stones, menhirs, tumuli, barrows, cairns, quoits, dolmens, and selected swallets and caves mark the stars of the heavens in Ancient Britain. Many megaliths are carved with reliefs of interlocking figures (smaller figures drawn within larger figures) which identify the stars to which stones are oriented (this Neolithic artistic style compares in some way to the interlocking style of modern works of artists such as M.C. Escher). Although our decipherment formally "began" at Balnuaran of Clava in Scotland through the cupmarked stones at that site, the megaliths at Wayland's Smithy and the Rollright Stones (Rollrites) e.g. were among the first stones solved, based on the carved (sculpted) shape of the stones themselves as well as through carvings on the stones and holes in the stones marking stars. This paved the way for the decipheremt of many other megaliths and carvings found on ceremonial objects placed in swallets or hewn on the walls of caves.

Tumuli and barrows are arranged in groups to mark certain star clusters, e.g. the Knowlton Rings show Taurus and the Hyades. Winterbourne Stoke shows the stars of the Pleiades. In some cases, the apparently man-worked shape of cave rooms also identifies the stellar constellations or geodetic locations. Various earthworks even plan and record the astronomical and geodetic work, e.g. west of Torquay (Torbay) and east of Lewes, England.

MEGALITHS HAVE CUPMARKS OR INDENTATIONS REPRESENTING STARS

Many standing stones have cupmarks or less formal indentations or holes on them marking the stars or stellar constellations which they represent. Additional markings on some stones identify parameters such as ecliptic, celestial equator, circle of precession, center of heaven (north ecliptic pole, south ecliptic pole), north pole star, south pole star, cord of the fish, Milky Way and solstice and equinox points (e.g. the cursus at Stonehenge marks the line of the equinoxes).

Weathering has of course made it harder to identify holes and figures - but erosive processes also work on the contours of reliefs, holes and cupmarks, so that these in many cases do not disappear entirely, since they weather too and in some cases maintain their general near-original shape. Using modern graphics software and the numerous tools available for microscopic analysis of photographs, most of these sculpted figures, indentations and markings on megaliths, cairns, stones and dolmens can be reconstructed, e.g. by redrawing only the heaviest visible lines or marks on the stones, or adjusting the brightness, color and contrast of pictures. This detective work allows the stars intended by the ancients to be identified in many cases.

MEGALITHS AND SITES ARE INTENTIONALLY SHAPED

Many cairns or quoits are in the shape of the star groups they represent. The shape of many stones shows the appropriate part of the heavens explicitly. Ancient earthworks also served astronomical purposes. Tumuli and barrows mark specific stars or nebulae. A cursus at a site may, e.g., mark the Milky Way or the line of the equinoxes. Earthwork mounds may form the shape of a celestial object, e.g. the Large Magellanic Cloud. The ancients - as shown on Megaliths.net - knew the southern skies and left us evidence carved in figures in stone that they traveled as far as e.g. Africa, where we still find megaliths in the Central African Republic, megaliths now easily explained by geodetic survey and astronomy. That some ancient seafarers knew the southern heavens is recorded in an ancient legend from Sri Lanka, as found In Richard Hinckley Allen's book, Star Names. Quoting from our Ancient World Blog:

"Richard Hinckley Allen in his book, Star Names, Dover Publications, N.Y. 1997, reports of ancient legends that the southern stars were initially created by ancient seafarers to approximate the shape of Northern constellations in similar positions. Allen writes (p. 436) as follows:

"Before the observations of the navigators of the 15th and 16th centuries the singular belief prevailed that the southern heavens contained a constellation near the pole similar to our Bear or Wain; indeed it is said to have been represented on an early map or globe. Manilus wrote:

'The lower Pole resemblance bears
To this Above, and shines with equal stars;
With Bears averse, round which the Draco twines;'

and Al Biruni repeated the Sanskrit legend that at one time in the history of the Creation an attempt was made by Visvamitra to form a southern heavenly home for the body of the dead king, the pious Somadatta; and this work was not abandoned till a southern pole and another Bear had been located in positions corresponding to the northern, this pole passing through the island Lunka, or Vadavamukha (Ceylon). The Anglo-Saxon Manual made distinct mention of this duplicate constellation 'which we can never see.'...

And, quoting from Francisco Lopes of 1552: [our comment: the spelling is original!]

'Abowt the poynt of the Southe or pole Antartike, they sawe a lyttle whyte cloude and foure stars lyke unto a crosse with three other joynynge thereunto, which resemble oure Septentrion, and are judged to bee the signes or tokens of the south exeltree of heaven.'

What is referred to here is not known, for although the figure represented is that of the Southern Cross this constellation always is upright when on the meridian, and, as the observation was made in latitude 14° or 15°, its base star was plainly visible."

MEGALITHIC SITES MARK REGIONAL BORDERS

Megalithic boundaries mark both small and large geographic areas. For example, Counties in Scotland still retain elements of the approximate size, shape, and location of their comparable stellar constellations, located on earth by megaliths. Perthshire in Scotland e.g. retains the name PERSeus in PERTH. Megalithic sites in Perthshire such as Fowlis Wester represent stars in Perseus. The relative size and shape of Perthshire corresponds to the comparable constellation. Other counties are similar, though of course changed somewhat over the millennia. The graphic below shows the author at Fowlis Wester in the year 2001. The lines and dots have been added to the photo (not to the megalith) by the author to show how the stars of Perseus are represented by cupmarks on the stone, which shows the side profile, back and shoulder of a woman who has turned her head toward the viewer. The triangle of three large points to the left below Perseus of course marks the stars of Taurus. The shoulder marks the stars of the Pleiades for the reason that e.g. Plecs means "shoulder" in Indo-European language, e.g. Latvian. This analysis is supported for Fowlis Wester by Manx Gaelic Yn Whing as the name for Perseus, where whing in Manx Gaelic means "span, arm". See ceantar.org.

Andis Kaulins at the Fowlis Wester Megalith

Fowlis Wester Decipherment



MEGALITHIC SITES MARK NATIONAL BORDERS

Megalithic sites also involve geodetic survey by astronomy of regions on a larger scale, showing e.g. that the ancient border between Scotland and England was at Eridanus (Hadrian), represented by the River Tyne (Eri-Danus, with Danus = Tyne, the watershed between Scotland and England) and ending at New Castle ("new earthwork"). The ancients made separate measurements for England (Wales included), Scotland and Ireland, each with its own center of heaven for survey. The Channel Islands are also represented.

On the European continent, each region had their own geodetic survey. In Germany astronomical works of the Magdalenians (later called Franks or Franken), were passed down as the legendary Ring of the Nibelungen, living on the Neckar (Nahr). Tumuli (Hügelgräber), megaliths throughout Germany, and the Felsenmeer between Frankfurt and Heidelberg are clearly ancient astronomical geodetic markers. The Externsteine (Extern Stones) were a center of astronomical activity. The Gollenstein (Gollen Stone) at Blieskastel in Germany near Saarbrücken is the largest megalith in Middle Europe (7.6 meters high of which 6.6 meters are above the ground). As we have discovered, this megalith represents Hydra, the "longest" stellar constellation. Megaliths extend outward from the Gollen Stone and these megaliths surely marked the ancient border to France.

In France, the cave paintings, and the stones at Carnac and elsewhere are ALL astronomical geodetic monuments. Mediterranean islands also have megaliths, such as the stone Sa Perda Pinta from Boeli [pole] near Mamoiada which we find marked a center of heaven for Sardinia in ancient days (so our discovery).

SAVING AND MAINTAINING THE MEGALITHIC SITES

Regrettably, many megalithic sites have been destroyed by people who know no better and such ancient sites can no longer be reconstructed. We advocate that there is a pressing need to photograph (from all sides) and catalogue ALL megalithic stones and sites worldwide.

We hope also that our decipherment of the megaliths raises their value in the eyes of humanity and that they will all then be properly respected and maintained as the masterpieces of art and technology which they once were and still are.