|
Avebury's Equator-Seeking Carved Faces
In the West Kennet Avenue there are many stones carved with faces gazing up into the southern sky, perhaps focussing on the part of the sky where the
meridian meets the celestial equator? I call these stones
"equator-seekers". Here are some examples with the approximate direction of gaze to the south shown by arrows, please click on each thumbnail if you wish to view a larger version:
What are these statues watching for? In the daytime or at night? In the summer, autumn, winter or spring?
We will never know for certain, but I can speculate on some obvious
candidates:
A wide range of celestial objects to the south
This might include the
brighter planets, stars, Milky Way and even meteors. These faces appear
well aligned to the celestial equator where it reaches its highest
position in the south, this is a region full of interest during the
course of a year. It is important to point out though that such large, rough statues might only be said to point to a broad area of
sky, and therefore cannot unambiguously be used as a precision sight to a
particular celestial object. Sadly. There are of course a wide
number of possible astronomical objects sought by the "equator-seekers"
but some particularly obvious candidates would be:
1. The Sun and Moon
The Avebury people clearly
followed the 6 month journey of the sun from solstice to solstice, from
equinox to equinox. They also traced out the phases and path of the
moon. Perhaps this stone was set to watch the culminations of sun and
moon high to the south? It might be seen that the equator-seeker on Stone 36a displays a distinctly "man in the moon" face (visible here), so this stone may be a lunar-gazer.
2. Orion
Early cultures all over the
world venerated Orion, it has even been suggested that the ancient
Egyptians laid out the Giza pyramids in a characteristic crooked linear
pattern to mimic his main three belt stars. Similar impulses can be seen
in the British Neolithic, for instance at Thornborough, Yorkshire,
where our ancestors laid out a giant earth monument embodying three
linked henges. Perhaps our carved monoliths are staring at Orion? It is
hard for me to believe that the Avebury people could have omitted the
stars we call Orion from their mythology, and I can personally testify
that the constellation dominates the Wiltshire winter skyscape high to
the south with breathtaking and awe inspring effect.
I have developed a specific theory linking Orion and Avebury, click here for details
3. Taurus
Neolithic people had an
widespread obsession with bulls and bull imagery. I have personally
discovered that there is a relief of a bull here at Avebury (Stone 50, North-east Quadrant)
and others have suggested that the stones at Stonehenge portray aerial
images of bulls heads. Perhaps our statues here in the West Kennet
Avenue are watching for the Hyades (The V shaped head of what we call
the constellation Taurus the Bull), with fiery Aldebaran marking the
bullseye.
4. Corona Borealis
Burl refers (p168-9) to
Aubrey's 1663 description of a now destroyed horse shoe shaped ring of
stones at Avebury, a shape reminiscent of the constellation we know as
Corona Borealis. Perhaps this indicates the constellation had a
particular importance during the neolithic, and was possibly of interest
to our "equator-seeking" stones.
|
