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The Stonehenge Cursus
Re: Stonehenge Cursus .
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Psychostevouk wrote:
tiompan wrote:
Psychostevouk wrote:
There is indeed a kink in the Stonehenge Cursus at the western end, which bulges its overall width to 150m ish at the widest point. The southern bank then heads almost perfectly due west to the far terminus of the cursus at Fargo. Julian Thomas believes that this was the 'original' cursus orientation, and pointed towards Beacon Hill. I don't agree personally, because it's only a very small section of the ditch facing that way, while the rest of it (and the entire northern bank) point a little further north.

I don't think its been decided yet whether Amesbury 42 long barrow at the eastern end came before or after the Cursus, but one is certainly aligned on the other. The Cursus is also aligned on the Cuckoo Stone, which was probably a natural deposit about 1km further east. Its roughly aligned on the equinox sunrise as well. Woodhenge almost certainly came later, but has been aligned on the Cursus/cuckoo stone alignment whether by chance or design.

As for the A303, well not quite; the A303 points a little further south as its magnificent beauty rolls west across the landscape!


P. The wester terminal is quite a bit narrower than the main width which could give the impression of a change . like WKLB and the eastern arm of the Callanish Avenue it has been suggested that there is an equinoctial alignment but both are all rough .The full moon closest to the equinox is a more likely and accurate alignment particularly the WKLB example which occurs on the build date .Sadly the Cursus was built about a century later and couldnt't have been aligned on that particular moon although it may had had an influence


Actually from memory I think the western terminal is a bit wider than the eastern, and it appears a bit narrower than the usual width of the cursus because of the bulge. I've posted a link to an aerial image below (shame its not higher resolution), you can see that the southern ditch (on the right) starts on one orientation before bending slightly left after a couple of hundred metres, creating the bulge I'm talking about. The original orientation does point roughly towards Beacon Hill, but I think Julian Thomas goes a bit far when he says the Cursus is orientated on the hill.


Can't see the link , if is often the case that one ditch is straighter than the other and kinks are very common .Due to the width and general shift it's impossible to say what the orientation is but if you take the centre of each terminal the line stays within the monumnet ,is about 84 degrees and continues to a point that misses the small hill marked Beacon Hill 204 m by nearly a kilometre but that area that it does hit is also called Beacon Hill so quite a target .Interestingly from the centre of the western terminal the wee Beacon Hill (204 m) is the orienation for the equinox but it would mean the line would way out of alignment with 80% of the cursus .


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tiompan
Posted by tiompan
13th January 2010ce
15:04

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Re: Stonehenge Cursus . (Psychostevouk)

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Re: Stonehenge Cursus . (Psychostevouk)

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