But I'm not talking about our genetic ancestors. but our surveyor ancestors.?ÿ These thoughts came to me recently while reading up on the very old subject of Stonehenge.
As it has been every since someone tripped over a rock at the site, people have been trying to make sense of "what is it?".?ÿ Most scholars agree it's an astronomic calendar.?ÿ An interactive calendar that divides our trip around the sun into 12 periods of 30 days, with an interior "vernier" to adjust for those remaining five days.?ÿ There's even an array of stones that apparently allowed for a leap day every four years.?ÿ I will admit I think it's a fantastic achievement for folks that had to walk everywhere, wear clothing made of the skins of what they ate for dinner...that was probably cooked on the ground.?ÿ Then I got to thinking about the actual act of construction.?ÿ
Before any stones were placed there had to be a plan.?ÿ A plan that most assuredly depended on terrestrial observations of the astronomical geometry...multiple observations...made over a period of years.?ÿ I look at it this way; you're pretty sure you've narrowed down the equinox.?ÿ So the surveyor (and crew) sat around for a week or two poking sticks in the ground and observing the shadows at sunrise.?ÿ This allowed the exact moment to be calculated...only after the fact. ?ÿSo they probably poked a bigger stick in ground, went home to tend to business, and then returned in some 360 days to repeat the process in an attempt to "fine tune" their survey and possibly correct for any error they had found in their sticks.?ÿ Pegging your sticks back then was important.
And I see this through a surveyor's eyes.?ÿ The travel, the cold mornings and the grumbling of the crew all probably made this a difficult task.?ÿ Not to mention what most assuredly happened once or twice...cloud cover on the most important morning of the year..or someone left the sticks back at the office...all the things that can happen to a crew.?ÿ Oh well, there's always next year.
So as scientists and scholars cuss and discuss what they think all of those rocks mean, I tend to think about the folks that actually made their marks and poked their sticks in the ground.?ÿ My hat's off to you guys...whoever you were.?ÿ Good job!?ÿ 😉
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Stonehenge was not originally located where it is now. It was moved at least once. An archeologist found the original site in Wales. Imagine that conversation, honey we need to pack the stones and move.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/antikythera-mechanism-1951845
Antikythera mechanism appears to be real.
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Great post, I have never thought of the interior vernier before, Thanks ?????ÿ
This may be of interest,
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/stonehenge360/
@flga-2-2?ÿ
Of course all of this is subject to interpretation.?ÿ But this one fella hints at what I consider the "vernier":
Thinkin' about this stuff tends to start the brain thumpin?? which to me, is convincing evidence we ain??t alone in the universe nor ever have been. Just ask "Nearly Normal". ?????ÿ
Thinkin' about this stuff tends to start the brain thumpin?? which to me, is convincing evidence we ain??t alone in the universe nor ever have been. Just ask "Nearly Normal". ?????ÿ
I don't believe we're alone in the universe either.?ÿ I do believe we have a great misunderstanding about how much we don't know about how things fit together.?ÿ Possibly a good example might be how an amoeba thinks he knows all about his environment..when in reality he is just simply unable to comprehend exactly where he's at in the big picture.?ÿ
Another thing I think about is how there is a collective tendency to think of our ancient ancestors as mentally inferior to our current selves just because they had yet to develop the tools and technology we now use.?ÿ I'm pretty sure the ancient humans that built Stonehenge were every bit as smart as we are today.?ÿ They did however lack in the tools and technology.?ÿ There's no doubt in my mind that had the tools been available mankind would have been on the moon and beyond a millennium ago.
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We may not be alone in the universe, but we and they are quarantined by the vast separation, measured in millions of years at the speed of light. There will be no interaction.
