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Megalithic Navigation

Were megaliths used for marine navigation?

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Megalithic Aids to Navigation 2nd Edition

Abstract

There are, along the Western Coasts of Britain and France, a collection of Neolithic structures which the Victorians styled Rude Stone Monuments and which nowadays we tend to style Megalithic.
 
 
Stonehenge, and the lines at Carnac in Brittany are the best known of these; there have been numerous speculations about their origins and purposes; from Druid temples to Egyptian star observatories and worse!
 
 
Alexander Thom, Professor Emeritus of Engineering at Oxford, who died last year (1987), aged 92, spent much time from the 1930’s surveying these Megalithic sites. He was a first class surveyor, the quality of his observation cannot be questioned (nor equalled in practice), he surveyed with his son Alistair widely throughout Britain; his first book, Megalithic sites in Britain in 1967, completely changed the archaeological view of the Neolithic in Britain.

Download Acrobat Reader Download: 88_MegalithicAidsToNavigationEd2.pdf (6.6 Mb Acrobat .pdf)
Written: 1988

 

 

References

Title: The Distribution of roughcut "Cumbrian" and related stone axes of Lake District origin in Northern England
Author(s): Manby, T.G.
Published in: Trans. Cumb. & Westmoreland Antiquary & Archaeological Soc. Vol LXV new series
Year:1965

Title: Site variability & prehistoric economy in Levante
Author(s): Davidson, I. Bailey, C. (Ed)
Published in: Hunter-gatherer economy in prehistory
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Related web link: More about Site variability & prehistoric economy in Levante
Year:1983

Title: The colonisation of Scotland in the second Millenium BC
Author(s): Scott, Sir Lindsay
Published in: PPS. new series Vol XVII
Year:1951

Title: Megalithic Sites in Britain
Author(s): Thom, A.
Published by: Clarendon Press
Related web link: More about Megalithic Sites in Britain
Year:1967

Title: Types of Megalithic Monument of the Irish Sea and North Channel Coastline; a study in distribution.
Author(s): Davies, M.
Published in: Antiquaries Journal XXV
Published by: Cambridge Journals
Related web link: More about Types of Megalithic Monument of the Irish Sea and North Channel Coastline; a study in distribution.
Year:1945

Title: Diffusion and Distribution patterns of the Megalithic Monuments of the Irish Sea and North Channel Coastline
Author(s): Davies, M.
Published in: Antiquaries Journal XXVI
Published by: Cambridge Journals
Related web link: More about Diffusion and Distribution patterns of the Megalithic Monuments of the Irish Sea and North Channel Coastline
Year:1946