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tiompan wrote:
moss wrote:
There has been a lot of fascinating discussion about a 'red' moon date at WKLB and of course the orientation of Cotswold long barrows in the region.
The fact that Stanton Drew Cove is now being seen as a possible long barrow, and that the hidden part of it goes some way under the church yard, raises the possibility of another alignment ;) the north-east line that goes through the large centre circle at Stanton Drew(and maybe the timber one) to the NE smaller circle, sure Burl mentioned Lockyer doing something about it.
The other thing of note is that this presumed long barrow is being likened to Stoney Littleton as well, which is aligned towards a ridge (and maybe a notch on the ridge) and the midwinter sunrise; there are in fact many other badly damaged long barrows in the area (Frome Valley).
Jodie Lewis in the Neolithic Monuments of Northern Somerset mentions about 20.
Their orientations are diverse; 6 - SE/NW, 5 - E/W and the rest being various..... my sense of which way is north or south is pretty dire, and alignments, latitudes and longitudes is zilch but I would love to know how they took the first measurement to place a stone and then a funeral monument in a cosmic moment - there is magic in that ;)

edit.. forgot to say what prompted me on that it was the 'edge-alignment' discovered by Dymond, which is a midwinter sunset running from the edge of the cove, the other one mentioned is another edge alignment (southernmost moonset)from the southern small circle catching the edge of the large and NE circles - though I think the first 'circle' may not be a circle after all but something else....

There is not a lot to go on but a rough orietnation of the Cove at S..D would sugegst it is approx 140 degrees which would take it out of the equinox moon type orientations . Lockyer and Thom had mentioned the through the "centre of the circles " type alignmnets and if acceptable as a class they certainly fit the bill . Barrows in the SW do tend to be oriented ,like other regional types to the east or at least facing the sun rise two days of the year .I don't know of any that are outwith that range among the Severn-Cotswold group but would be interested to hear of any .
Thanks for that George, reading Jodie Lewis further she gives the following table for the 'physical' positioning of the long barrows in the Northern Somerset landscape - its a bit boring for those not interested in LBs by the way!

"monuments placed so their long axis runs parallel to a slope" if its just under a ridge, they're called 'false crested'
"monuments placed so their long axis is at right angles to the slope" (EKLB and Stoney Littleton)
"monuments placed on the top of a hill"
"monuments placed on level ground"

So given all these possibilities, apparently the ones that are false crested are 'classic' orientation, falling between north-east and south east with the east emphasised..
whereas the ones facing up and down are the next most common, so it seems everyone built their particular monuments to their own specifications....

SE/NW Beacon batch
Big Tree
Barrow house farm
Fromefield
Stoney Littleton
Old Down

E/W
Devils Bed and Bolster
Orchard leigh
Mountain Ground
Pen Hill

This one for Rhiannon - Fairy's Toot is an original, being S/N.

I don't want to think on how long ago it was when I last visited Nempnett Thrubwell but I certainly can't remember the orientation , despite the damage is there any indication of where the "entarnce " was ?. I don't have a record to hand . If south it would have been facing the sun but if north , and there are others ,it would be one of the anomalous " what 's going on here then "examples .