In “Abury: A Temple of the British Druids” 1743, Stuckley observes that Overton Hill is part of a ridge known as Hakpen (Hackpen Hill), a place-name he broke into 2 parts; Hack which he claimed had a Semitic root meaning “Snake” and pen deriving from the ancient British word for head. Snakehead Hill? Perhaps supporting the serpent like shape he observed in the avenues leading from Avebury. He went on to associate this “megalithic serpent” as Kneph (The Graeco-Egyption form of the creator god Khnum) the winged-serpent whos image is replicated the world over in ancient culture.
faerygirl
In “Abury: A Temple of the British Druids” 1743, Stuckley observes that Overton Hill is part of a ridge known as Hakpen (Hackpen Hill), a place-name he broke into 2 parts; Hack which he claimed had a Semitic root meaning “Snake” and pen deriving from the ancient British word for head. Snakehead Hill? Perhaps supporting the serpent like shape he observed in the avenues leading from Avebury. He went on to associate this “megalithic serpent” as Kneph (The Graeco-Egyption form of the creator god Khnum) the winged-serpent whos image is replicated the world over in ancient culture.
A study by Murphy and Moore (The Cygnus Enigma using the Sky-globe to observed ancient star alignments) saw that in 3000BC, the ” window” created by the mounds entrace chamber would have aligned to the star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus;
“On the night of the midwinter solstice, Deneb marks the location of the sun from the time the sun sets until the time the sun rises plus or minus the time it takes for Deneb to come out into the darkening sky. So observers at either mound (Fourknocks or Newgrange) could track the position of the sun below the horizon using Deneb as their guide”
If the axial orientation of Newgrange’s entrance corridor were to be extended beond where the sun rises over Roughgrange Hill... it brings you at a distance of 15 kilometers to another passage grave called Fourknocks. According to work by Murphy and Moore (The Cygnus Enigma) the “window” created by the entrance at Fourknocks would have aligned with the star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus.
“On the night of the midwinter solstice, Deneb marks the location of the sun from the time the sun sets until the time the sun rises plus or minus the time it takes for Deneb to come out into the darkening sky. So observers at either mound (Fourknocks or Newgrange) could track the position of the sun below the horizon using Deneb as their guide”
Interestingly, Newgrange itself is also observed to have a layout that resembles cygnus, with Deneb falling into its northern recess, gamma cygni positioned at the centre of the stone-lined chamber and beta cygni (the beakstar) located at the mouth of the passageway.
(Reference “The Cygnus Mystery by Andrew Collins)
A large number of cairns are sited on Stannon Down with four small upright stones to the north-west of the circle that may be part of an orientation through Stannon towards Lauden circle. A several orientations can be seen between circles and other monuments; a line from Stannon circle via Fernacre circle leads to a cairn on the northern side of Brown Willy. A line from Roughtor’s northern summit through Fernacre circle passes through the cairn cemeteries and natural tor on Garrow Hill. There is also a convincing astronomical alignment from Stannon to Rough Tor around May Day and Lammas time when the sun rises through the gap between the two summits of the tor. At the equinoxes the sun rises over the tip of Brown Willy.