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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Stonehenge Axeheads Deciphered as Astronomy by Andis Kaulins

New Stonehenge 3D Laser-Scans of Sarsens and Trilithons
reveal new axeheads. See the English Heritage pdf research report.

My comment is: "If you can not recognize Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, the Drinking Gourd, when it is patently obvious, then who can help you?"

Here are the axehead positions found on Sarsen 5 by 3D laser scanning (English Heritage) together with my obvious interpretation, where I use for comparison an image from the astronomy software program Starry Night Pro to which image I have added text and block or color emphasis of some elements:

STONEHENGE AXEHEADS on SARSEN 5
as URSA MAJOR (the Big Dipper) and URSA MINOR
(The positions of axeheads are according to English Heritage,
but English Heritage has NOTHING to do with my postings,
and I have made my own images to avoid copyright wrangles,
although use of the axehead positions should be "fair use" in research)



Nothing could be clearer than that eight axeheads on the front side of Sarsen 5 at Stonehenge represent the stars of the Big Dipper, i.e. Ursa Major, plus as the largest axe above the others, Ursa Minor, which in the era of Stonehenge construction and use represented the North Celestial Pole --- indeed, even today, the star Polaris at the bottom of the "axe handle" of Ursa Minor, an axe, is the North Pole Star.

What has been written about those axeheads by archaeologists and in the media up to now is ludicrous. I have nothing against pots, but they do not explain Stonehenge, and somehow archaeology should finally realize that. Stonehenge is ASTRONOMY and that is what you should be looking for.

In any case, the reason I found these new axehead laser scans is that I was latching on to my previous postings about ancient seafaring, so I was interested in looking at the recently revealed laser-scanning discovery of more Mediterranean-like two-headed "double axe" Stonehenge axeheads carved on the sarsens and trilithons, as reported at the following websites and blogs:
In the year 2003, I already included in my book Stars Stones and Scholars (pages 119-140 on Wiltshire monuments) the few axehead carvings then already known at Stonehenge, together with cupmarks and other incised lines, and I wrote at page 122 that:
"The Stonehenge Sarsens 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 represent Ursa Major, Leo and Leo Minor, Corvus, Virgo and Coma Berenices, and Boötes."
At that time, in fact, I also specifically wrote that Stonehenge Sarsen 4 shows the stars of LEO MAJOR and LEO MINOR. Here was the image I used in my book Stars Stones and Scholars



More laser-scanned axeheads have been discovered on Sarsen 4, and I show them all together below with Leo Major and Leo Minor, as follows, where the stars of Leo Major and Leo Minor are drawn as the ancients viewed them, with the large lion below and the small lion above:

STONEHENGE SARSEN 4
AXEHEADS PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AND NEWLY DISCOVERED
DECIPHERED (AGAIN) AS STARS OF THE CONSTELLATION LEO
(positions of the axeheads according to English Heritage)


To the right of Leo we have the stars of Cancer, a weak group of stars, usually marked by just four or five stars as follows (photograph from the Wikimedia Commons, CancerCC.jpg: author - Till Credner, derivative work - Bedwyr (talk)



SARSEN 3 shows 3 axeheads as stars for the stars of CANCER
(positions of the axeheads according to English Heritage):



In my book Stars Stones and Scholars, page 125 shows the cupmarks on Trilithons 53 and 54, which I there said represent the back stars of Scorpio, where the "stinger is", based on cupmarks in the stone:


Modern man is today unable to see the simplest things and people with no creative art talent think to be able to judge ancient sculpture and carving. Archaeologists or commentators who emote that round cupmarks or carved figures on the megaliths of Stonehenge or elsewhere are "natural irregularities" are more than wrong. They continue -- for reasons known only to them -- to broadcast an uninformed opinion on their part for which there is no basis in the probative evidence. There is nothing out there that even remotely proves that such completely round cupmarks are "naturally" made in stone. Nonsense. Funny thing, cupmarks are frequent on megaliths and on specific cupmarked rock art, but try finding such perfectly round cupmarks on large rocks elsewhere. The same is true for figures on megaliths.

In any case, laser-scanning has also found new axeheads and a dagger ("the sting" of the Scorpion, as it were) on Trilithon 53 (actually it is "Stone 53" which is a trilithon). Not only do those axeheads show the stars of Scorpio and Sagittarius, but they show all the stars of Scorpio, including those at the front, and not just those at the back:


In trying to figure out what the strange curved double-U signs left and right were as stars, the fact that they mark areas of the sky where there are no stars indicated they had a different function. Well, the solution is as obvious as it is not, unless you think of "the Archer" and the "bow and arrow". Those double-U signs then arguably both mark the FINGERS of the HANDS on the bow, one hand at the front, holding the bow at the normal mid-position and the hand at the back, pulling back the string for the arrow, which must be symbolized by the stinger "SHAULA", a term having "shoot" at its root. It is as ingenious as it is simple.



Sunday, March 25, 2012

Ancient Signs

Ancient Signs: The Alphabet and the Origins of Writing
by Andis Kaulins is now available in 4 versions
(b/w, color, and both of those also as ebooks)
at
http://www.epubli.com/shop/autor/Andis-Kaulins/3682.

In Ancient Signs, the author traces the origins of writing and the alphabet to syllabic writing systems in ancient cultures and shows that these have one common origin.

Ancient Signs
print b/w version black and white inside
B/W inside
200 pages, 90 gram paper
Price: €35.99 (about US $47 on day of posting)
for the B/W print version of Ancient Signs
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet to syllabic writing.
Softcover - print b/w, cover in color

 Ancient Signs
eBook b/w version black and white version
B/W inside
200 pages
Price: €27.99 (about US $37 on day of posting)
for the B/W eBook version of Ancient Signs
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet to syllabic writing. Ancient Signs
  


color print version color inside
COLOR inside
200 pages, 150 gram glossy paper
Price: €149.00 (about US $196 on day of posting)
for the color print version of Ancient Signs
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet to syllabic writing.
Hardcover - print and cover in color Ancient Signs
 


color eBook version color inside
COLOR inside
200 pages
Price: €39.99 (about US $52 on day of posting)
for the color inside eBook version of Ancient Signs
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet to syllabic writing.


Enjoy Reading.



Avebury Stonehenge Old Sarum Cranborne: Walk in the Stone Age

See BBC - Things To Do: Stone Age Walk

Stonehenge Beyond the Henge

Experiencing Stonehenge Beyond the Henge writes:
"Come to Stonehenge with a sense of expectancy and with an understanding of the unique and intriguing history behind the landmark."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

English Heritage welcomes Stonehenge Vistor Centre decision (From Andover Advertiser)

English Heritage welcomes Stonehenge Vistor Centre decision (From Andover Advertiser)
"English Heritage has welcomed yesterday's decision by Wiltshire Council's planning committee to approve plans for a new visitor centre for Stonehenge.

Loraine Knowles, Stonehenge project director for English Heritage, said: 'This is an important step in returning Stonehenge to a more dignified setting and creating facilities more fitting for a world-renowned tourist attraction."

Friday, May 15, 2009

Stonhenge Visual Orientation

Photographs and illustrations of Stonehenge often do not provide precise geographic orientation for the normal viewing reader, who in his mind's eye may then tend to see Stonehenge more as a simple stone circle rather than as a group of differentiable megaliths intentionally positioned by ancient man to serve a specific function.



The graphic above is a scan by Andis Kaulins of a fold-out Stonehenge survey map from the year 1810. One scan was made of each map half and both then pasted together on a PC using graphics software to create one image.

The original survey map is found glued to the inside margin of page 55 of William Long's book, Stonehenge and its Barrows, published in Devizes in 1876 from the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, vol. xvi, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

The map gives the same view from the bottom upwards as the photograph below.



These two graphic images thus provide an excellent frontal view of Stonehenge combined with a matching "aerial" perspective of the larger megalithic site. Stonehenge is thereby viewed along its main axis, which is the Stonehenge Avenue, usually just called the Avenue. Gerald S. Hawkins in his book Stonehenge Decoded (p. 54) writes that the 30 sarsens were spaced uniformly as an outer circle with an average error of less than 4 inches, but "At the northeast, precisely--as might be expected--on the midsummer sunrise line, there was an entrance to this circle, made by spacing two stones (1 and 30) 12 inches farther apart than average". This is quite apparent in the photograph.

The large fallen stone a bit to the left at the top of the avenue is the Slaughter Stone, which is not as famous as the Heel Stone, not pictured here because yours truly, the photographer, like the rising sun, is standing at the location of that Heel Stone looking down the Avenue toward the awaiting Stonehenge sarsens and trilithons.

The survey map has a main caption reading "Ground Plan of Stonehenge" and thereunder the words: "Transfered to Stone, from the Original Copper Plates, by the kind permission of J. Bruce Nichols Esqre".

Stonehenge : Some Basic Facts

Megalithic Site Name:

* Stonehenge

Nation/Country/State:

* United Kingdom, England

District/Region/Parish/County:

* Salisbury, Amesbury

Local Location:

* Salisbury Plain

GPS: 51°10'44" N, 1°49'35" W
Grid: SU 1224 4218
Monument No.: SU 14 SW 4
Unique Identifier: 219434

Directions:

* On the A344 off the A303, 2 miles W of Amesbury & 9 miles N of Salisbury

Site Access:

* English Heritage & National Trust Members admitted free. Adults £5.90. Children £3.00. Concession £4.40. Family (2 adults + 3 children) £14.80. Closed Dec. 24-26 & Jan. 1. Opens daily 9:30 a.m. (9:00 June 1 - Aug. 31). Closes 4:00 p.m. (Oct. 16 - March 15), 6:00 p.m. (March 16 - May 31, Sep. 1 - Oct. 15), 7:00 p.m. (June 1 - Aug. 31).

Administration:

* English Heritage
* The National Trust

Protection Status:

* World Heritage Site