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For Ceremonial purposes?
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tiompan
tiompan
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Re: For Ceremonial purposes?
Aug 20, 2013, 10:09
nigelswift wrote:
tiompan wrote:
nigelswift wrote:
But where did the megalithic observer stand and what did he observe?


The observing bit is contentious ,at least for me .
If you stood in the centre of the chamber at Newgrange or centre of the Stonehenge monument ,the passage and stones /avenue are aligned on the rising sun at solstice .If this was intentional on behalf of the builders then someone would have had to observe the events and mark out the orienation before building began . After the building was completed it would be apparent that the alignment "worked " but we can't know if anyone bothered to do so again .Why should they ? Job done , it worked ,maybe that was the point ,orient the monument on the alignment but no need to keep going back to see if it still worked .
Plus it would have been difficult at Newgrange or any other sealed aligned passage grave as the entrance was blocked .


"Why should they ? Job done , it worked ,maybe that was the point ,orient the monument on the alignment but no need to keep going back to see if it still worked ."
But another (more appealing to us?) motivation would be to provide a facility where you could go back and observe/celebrate every year.

Also, the ability to observe the rising sun from the centre of SH in the summer, while possible, could be an unintended consequence of an intention to see the setting sun from the Avenue in the winter. The dressing of the stones facing the Avenue suggests the latter use at some stage but was that original or a later adaptation for a changed need? Please say which, without using map dowsing.


The annual celebration is of course a possibility ,we don't know , although it was unlikely at passage graves until the more recent one at Newgrange .

There is a good argument for the winter solstice alignment at SH ,visually the summer solstice is more impressive but that might not have been the point .
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