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Trefael..more may and maybe's
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tiompan
tiompan
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Re: Trefael..more may and maybe's
Dec 03, 2010, 22:31
tjj wrote:
tiompan wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:
tiompan wrote:
tjj wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:


It is an interesting stone isn't it? The other take on it is that the cup marks may represent star constellations. Speculation about 'religious' practices is just that - speculation. However,I think it is fairly safe to say ancient peoples marked the turning of the year (solstices/equinoxes) and studied the constellations - which would have been so very much more visible to the naked eye than in general today.

http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/11/2010/standing-stone-cup-marks-may-represent-star-constellations


The interesting and informative aspect is that the abstract rock art of Britain doesn't appear to represent constellations or the night sky at all . We might expect it to and should really be able to squeeze some sort of "possible" representation out of the the huge number of possibilities but none are convincing .


Yes I agree even though it is a tantilising concept. What does bug me though, is if Joe Public comes up with some of these ideas they are sneered at, yet if a 'name' suggests the possibility it is seriously considered it would seem! Or am I wrong there?


I think your'e right . It reminds of me of last years foot ,spiral , and fish iirc being found at Forteviot when it was obviously nothing of the kind but still a really interesting example of rock art , by gilding the lily they spoilt it .Now they don't even mention it . In this case they havn't presented any evidence yet . There are so many problems ,Imentioned a few of them elsewhere so please exscuse the copy ."Looking forward to the drawings .It will be a first if it is as promised .My guess is that it is more likely a case of apophenia .Some problems that come to mind from the limited amount of info . Orion has 7 stars Cassio 5 Sirius and the pole star gives a total of 14 from 70 .Do the remainder fit ? If Sirius is there where is Aldebaran , the belt points to both , Procion and Rigel are also prominent around Orion , are they also missing ? At the time of build of Portal tombs the pole star was Thuban which was quite faint , would it really have been viewed as important enough to mark and is there a relationship between magnitude and size of cup (Frankie Howard )? "They mention a section of the sky when Thuban to Orion are pretty much half of the entire horizon .


Very interesting Tiompan; I am guessing that you may in touch with people like Professor George Nash because of the rock art connection. He much surely know the same facts as you have stated above - why do you think conjecture such as 'constellation map' and 'ritual way-mark' have been made when they are ultimately misleading to anyone who has on one hand a keen interest, possibly his own students, though on the other a limited knowledge of astronomy (the ritual/religious aspect is anyone's guess).

At least I've learnt the meaning of apophenia = the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. Term was coined by K. Conrad in 1958 (Brugger).


The constellation stuff is attributable to nameless "astronomers " TJJ and that is the bigger mistake as it is refutable . If archaeologists accept what they say in relation to the slightly more technical aspect and ignore the obvious i.e. you could find anything among these points/cups plus a history of similar failed attempts then thats their problem .The ritual way marker is just conjecture as you say , you could discuss it forever it's just a matter of opinion but it's not really in the same league as ordered architecture like avenues ,passages and entrances , it is after all a collapsed capstone not a standing stone .In it's original state it would have functioned to a greater extent as an ordering architectural feature .
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