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Uffington White Horse

A theory on the origin of the UWH

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FourWinds F
FourWinds Aug 5, 2007 06:01:57
Replying to Hugh Whiting

Hugh Whiting wrote:
There is no reason at all to compare it with the earliest known paper maps of britain, since it was made 2000 years before them, and, as you have observed, they are not all that good.
So you're saying that the people who made the horse knew the shape of the British Isles better than the people that drew the first maps of it 2000 years later?

The likelyhood that the earlier people circumnavigated the British Isles and knew it better than the Romans did later is quite remote. Ignoring the middle phase of knowledge kinda makes your theory worthless. From the outside one has to ask why you're ignoring it. Does it invalidate your theory? The people who made the white horse would have only had a vague idea about the dimensional proportions of the British Isles, if any.

Also, why isn't Ireland included? If you'd gone around mainland Britain you would definitely know that Ireland existed. Perhaps it is there! Stretch mainland Britain out a bit in this image and sKew things and the front hind leg could be the Antrim coast.

H Hugh Whiting
Hugh Whiting Aug 5, 2007 08:44:40
Replying to FourWinds

i guess if someone lived in wales and understood the passage of trade they'd be aware of the cambrian hills. a long stretch of hills. this low ground one side, that low ground the other. maybe there'd be a few people in that region who could put their local knowledge together into a sense of the whole range.

maybe once every now and again they'd meet up with the people who knew about the mersey, and the penines.
"where does your region go?"
"er, kind of that direction. we've got this long ribble valley, and then turn left at leeds for a couple of weeks' walk. there's this wierd group of guys over there who know where to go then."
"do they need any tin? what do they grow? do they have someone who can cure a bad back or a storyteller?" etc.

then they'd all know a little bit more about the island, and each other.

it isn't a map of the coast. what would that be for? it is a route map, showing major routes and an administrative centre.
how strange to think the people who aligned countless rocks over europe with the movement of stars, and built stonehenge with stones of far-flung origin, didn't know where they were going. over the roman, saxon, norman etc. invasions, there seems to have been at least a tiny bit of loss of technology.

perhaps ireland isn't included because it's not a map of ireland.

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