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tiompan T
tiompan Aug 19, 2013 21:31:32
Replying to thesweetcheat

thesweetcheat wrote:
tiompan wrote:
thesweetcheat wrote:
A quick glance through Thom suggests more are non-circular (I'm sure someone will have the stats). For example, the central circle at the Hurlers is an oval. So is Boscawen-Un, and Tregeseal is flattened on one side.
The problem with plans ,like maps , is that is not how they may been perceived by the builders .
True enough, especially on uneven ground. But some of the shapes are very clearly not circular, even to the casual visitor. It can't have been beyond the prehistoric builders to know that a circle is easy enough to achieve with rope.
Yet so few appear to have used a rope ,Lough Gur has a possible central post hole and some of the earlier bigger monuments Stonehenge , Brodgar ,Flagstones ,Llandegai etc look like a rope may have been used/needed .

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 19, 2013 21:41:52
Replying to tiompan

tiompan wrote:
Yet so few appear to have used a rope ,Lough Gur has a possible central post hole and some of the earlier bigger monuments Stonehenge , Brodgar ,Flagstones ,Llandegai etc look like a rope may have been used/needed .
That's my point. A circle is easy enough to produce with fairly basic technology, so the fact that many are not circular and did not make use of that technology suggests that creating a true circle was unimportant. Which suggests that either the shape produced was deliberately not circular (for reasons that we may not know, if they don't relate to other extant features or something celestial that can be calculated), or the shape only needed to approximate a circle or at least look like one "by eye".