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Stonehenge - purpose of the pine post holes?
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Dave1982
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Stonehenge - purpose of the pine post holes?
Oct 25, 2014, 19:48
~ 8000 BC, Pine Post Holes at Stonehenge.

Natural landmarks as fixed points to locate the sunrises at different parts of the year would suffice as an initial development to enable the British nomads to judge when it was time to carry out various functions and visit various gathering ground to obtain the ripe food.

The Pine Post Holes

These are - to date - the first known structures at the Stonehenge site. Although I could not see how these could be used as fixed reference points for the sunrises, they could be used as a fixed observation point for known natural ground points - which would be a natural early development of a very simple season/weather forecaster.

I visited Stonehenge at dawn, midsummer, 2014, and personally observed from the pine post holes that the sun rose over the intersection of the horizons of two low hills. Refer to Figure 7.2 on the previous page. Magnetic compass readings {that may have a high error margin) indicated the spring and autumn sunrises were marked by the brow of a distant hill. The midwinter sunrise was on the horizon of a low hill with no obvious natural marker but at the site of Stonehenge itself - a coincidence, or was a fixed marker first erected here leading eventually to Stonehenge ?

The size of the holes could be an indication that there was regular replacement as each time the post was dug out, and a new one rammed and packed in, the hole size would tend to increase. Eventually a new hole would have to be dug. This would explain the different dates of the holes, although the time intervals seem rather long. However it may be that other holes have yet to be found. Some 16th century North West American native Indians - a stone age culture as per the Neolithic cultures - had posts as ‘totem’ poles that served non-practical ceremonial functions. It may be that originally they had a practical ‘clock’ function too, that enabled a simple prediction of future seasons and weather - useful to a hunter gatherer nomadic culture that followed a regular route as well as vital to a settled farming culture.

For diagrams and photos of this please see section 8 of -
sites.google.com/site/originsofstonehenge/
(copy into the address bar)

All comments welcome.
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