Some news that may have flown under the radar (Kat posted it in Monday’s news briefs), is a new theory about Stonehenge which suggests that the builders may have had relatively advanced knowledge of geometry, and that it may have been a more important factor in design and layout than astronomy:
Stone Age Britons had a sophisticated knowledge of geometry to rival Pythagoras – 2,000 years before the Greek “father of numbers” was born, according to a new study of Stonehenge. Five years of detailed research, carried out by the Oxford University landscape archaeologist Anthony Johnson, claims that Stonehenge was designed and built using advanced geometry.
The discovery has immense implications for understanding the monument – and the people who built it. It also suggests it is more rooted in the study of geometry than early astronomy – as is often speculated. Mr Johnson believes the geometrical knowledge eventually used to plan, pre-fabricate and erect Stonehenge was learnt empirically hundreds of years earlier through the construction of much simpler monuments.
He also argues that this knowledge was regarded as a form of arcane wisdom or magic that conferred a privileged status on the elite who possessed it, as it also featured on gold artefacts found in prehistoric graves.
“For years people have speculated that Stonehenge was built as a complex astronomical observatory. My research suggests that, apart from mid-summer and mid-winter solar alignments, this was not the case,” said Mr Johnson. “It strongly suggests that it was the knowledge of geometry and symmetry which was an important component of the Neolithic belief system.”
“It shows the builders of Stonehenge had a sophisticated yet empirically derived knowledge of Pythagorean geometry 2000 years before Pythagoras,” he said.
Johnson’s research is presented in a newly released book, Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma (available now at Amazon UK, and as a preorder for mid-June from Amazon US). Combined with other recent news, such as the theory that Stonehenge was a “Neolithic Lourdes”, and we may just be seeing a resurgence of interest in the ‘ancient mysteries’, and megalithic building in particular.
