Megaliths and Mathematics

Abstract

We are hearing more and more about the mathematical and astronomical aspects of megalithic monuments, a subject that has often been ventilated in the pages of this journal. Now we have a book by G. S. Hawkins andJ. B. White entitled Stonehenge Decoded which is described as 'the account of how computer analys& revealed the stones as a sophisticated astronomical observatmy' ; this will be reviewed by Professor R. J. C. Atkinson in our next issue. Dr Alexander Thom was Professor of Engineering Science in Oxford from 1945 to 1961, and now, living in retirement in Ayrshire, is an Emeritus Fellow of Brasenose. All his life he has been interested in the measurements used by the megalith builders and has written many articles on this subject. Here he summarizes for readers of ANTIQUITY his general views on this whole vexed matter.is becoming apparent that megalithic man

Abstracts of Papers Presented at the Usc Meeting

“…Chula Vista, California Samplings of the better-preserved stone and "post" hole rings in Great Britain indicate a qonsi derable preference for the number of stones or holes to be grouped in sets of 12 and 13, 18 and 19, and 29 and 30. Could these rings be counting devices similar to those suggested by Hawkins (1965) for the Stonehenge and Callanish sites which indicate the number of days, months, and years in important lunar-solar cycles?…”

Megaliths, Types and Its Living Traditions Among the Jaintias of Meghalaya, India

“…Bradley (1998), for instance, discussed early megalith construction in Europe in terms of an emerging belief system which emphasized the power of humans and their domestication of the natural world, an idea that was in opposition to the earlier inseparable and symbiotic ties between the natural and human world. A few other studies (Thom 1966, MacKie 1997 contended that megaliths were monuments used for astronomical observations. In India, however, despite the meanings inherent in them, two independent traditions are seen.…”