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FourWinds wrote:
tiompan wrote:
The astro bit was done in a hurry and a possibility became a certainty in a few minutes .
Yeah. Some things have a habit of doing that on TV.

tiompan wrote:
Standing stones to notches are dodgy at the best of times but this one didn't "work" anyway .
Not sure the dodgy tag can be applied with a broad brush. Everything is suspect until proven/observed anyway, but once observed it is fact whether intentional or otherwise. Until then they have to be taken as iffy (even if likely from preliminary observation). The intentionality of many alignments will never be established without the presence of a second marker. For me a notch can be a second marker, though. You have three points in a line: the stone, the notch and the sun. When these happen on 'random' dates it can cause a problem, but then you have to look at instances such as Labbamologa church in Cork. Here the original church does not face due east, but points to the sun rise on the Saint's Day. A stone/notch/sun rise alignment could just mark someone's birthday.

I assume someone checked this one out to know that it doesn't work? I'm only repeating my question because you have stated categorically that it's wrong. We both agree that Time Team jumped the gun in declaring it to be so. As you're being so definite I assume you're stating from observed fact.

Thom was an early proponent of the notch idea ,how many of his notches arre now accepted .It is very subjective , horizons are full of notches and dips .There was a recent irish example where a stone circle was "shown " to have all the important alignments indicated from it's centre when the horizon was a typical moorland with little to suggest anyone would notice anything significant in the topography . Single standing stones by their nature are dodgy without any provenace regardless of likely astro alignments .
We don't what was going on and of course alignments , if they had a visual component , could be aligned on anything that was important to the erectors whether astro or calendrical .

The person who was rushed into suggesting it in the first place I know categorically to have said it is wrong .

tiompan wrote:
The person who was rushed into suggesting it in the first place I know categorically to have said it is wrong .
Cool. Thanks.

"Time team started life as an idea that came out a series of four programmes called Time Signs broadcast in 1991. Produced and directed by Time Team series producer Tim Taylor, they were presented by Mick Aston, who had previously discussed the idea of devising a popular archaeology programme with Tony Robinson. So when a pilot Time Team programme was made in October 1992, it was Mick`s suggestion that Tony should present it. The pilot episode was never screened, but the idea was good enough to persuade Channel 4 to comission a four programme series of Time Team, which was filmed in 1993, and broadcast the following year. The rest as they say, is history... or should that be archaeology".


Notches are very interesting phenomena, it would seem. Particularly when they've been enhanced artificially. That would leave a distinct archaeological profile, one would think. I don't think anyone's looked for it yet, but ... When there was a circle or something, with an open featureless horizon, then there may have been wooden or temporary foresights, that have lately been removed. In the pennines there was, until recently, a habit of making drystone standing stone-shaped piles of stone, that could have done the trick perfectly. They could easily have been adapted into wall during inclosure, without leaving a trace. But those notches are long-lived.

I'll start downloading 2009 Time Team in a day or two allegedly. I claim to have found a henge that isn't (mine's rectangular) and the currog programme sounds interesting.