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THE MEGALITHIC MEASURING SYSTEM
by Alan Butler
What is the Megalithic Measuring System?
It is a way of looking
at the Earth, it’s position in space, orbital characteristics and the length
of it’s day, based on a geocentric view of space. It’s mechanisms infer that
our Megalithic ancestors, and in particular those of Britain, some parts of
France and the Minoans from Crete, had
established a way of ‘fixing’ a ritual year of 366 days in length, and that
they knew how to compensate for the fact that this is at odds with the true
Earth year of 365.2564 days. But the Megalithic measuring system is much more
because its various components also allow time, geometry and linear measurement
to be dealt with using exactly the same number systems in each case.
How did it Work?
The
Calendar
– Earliest observations of the year would have led observers to believe that
it was, indeed, 366 days in length, because any observer is forced to conclude
that there are 366 sunrises in each Earth year. The Megalithic observers would
come to understand that 366 days was not exact, but since they probably
couldn’t deal with split numbers well, it’s unlikely that they would have
worried too much about this fact initially
Geometry
– Ultimately these early observers would have realised that the Sun, Moon and
planets, move within a specific band of stars, which is known today as the Plane
of the Ecliptic. This band of stars doesn’t run around the equator of the
Earth. It would be convenient if it did, but it doesn’t. The reason for this
is the changing angle of the Earth, relative to the Sun. The fact the summer in the Northern Hemisphere is Winter in
the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa, reflects this fact. It’s a consequence
of the way the Earth orbits the Sun, and it means that the Plane of the Ecliptic
runs at an ever changing angle to the equator.
Noticing
that the Sun, Moon and planets all ran within this specific band of stars,
someone took the decision to split the band of stars into sections, the better
to understand how the Sun, Moon and planets were moving. In all probability the
band of stars was originally split into twelve segments – which ultimately
came to us as ‘The Zodiac’. Groups of stars in each segment suggested
creatures, or inanimate objects, and the ‘signs’ of the zodiac were named.
It wouldn’t have been long before it occurred to someone that the zodiac was,
essentially, a great circle.
The
Sun, in particular, could be seen to be passing through the signs of the zodiac,
and it visited them all during the course of the year. Since the year was
considered to be 366 days in length, it followed that the Sun moved 1/366th
of the way through the zodiac each day. The distance of the Sun’s travel each
day therefore inferred a split of 366 units in the great circle.
Ease
of Use – Standing in the
centre of a large plain, it can be observed that the horizon, on all sides of
the observer, also represents a great circle. Observation would be greatly
enhanced if some way of splitting this circle into sections was established..
Logically, if one wanted to reflect the heavenly split, already accepted, there
should be 366 of them.
We
don’t exactly know what technology these people had, but it wasn’t advanced.
Splitting the horizon into 366 equal units for observational purposes would seem
to be a real problem. Maybe it would simply take lots of practice with ropes and
measures. But in fact it is very much easier than splitting the circle into 360
units, which would correspond to modern geometry. There is at least on ingenious
and very simple way of doing it.
We
know that our ancestors practised a lot at creating circles, especially in
Britain, because they’ve left the evidence all across the landscape, in the
form of stone circles During their experiments they were undoubtedly quite ill
at ease to discover that the ratio between the measurement across a circle and
around the same circle did not represent an even number. (For example 3 to 1)
Their fascination with such matters is obvious, because they have left many
stone circles that are not round at all, but flat sided or egg shaped. This may
have been an effort on their part to ‘square the circle’. In other words
they were trying to create a circular shape that had a ratio of diameter to
circumference that could be defined in whole numbers. With a true circle this
isn’t possible because pi comes into the equation.(3.147) However, there are
some circles in which the diameter and the circumference are both of an equal
number of units (or very nearly
so). This doesn’t improve the situation of ratio, but it does help in other
ways. One such is a circle with a circumference of 732 units, which is
incredibly close to having a diameter of 233 units. (732 divided by 233 = Pi).
Since
732 is exactly twice 366, it’s likely the such a circle appeared, merely as a
consequence of the significance of this number to the observers. But however
they came by it, it meant that they could easily split the horizon into
Megalithic degree increments, and without the necessity for ropes. All that’s
needed is three sticks. The procedure is explained later.
Having learned to split
the horizon, observation of the heavens would have been simpler, and much more
exact. And it led to the basis of a linear measuring system which is staggering
in its implications, as we shall see in due course.
What
is important about this procedure is that it led our ancestors to realise that
the real, daily increments, created by the Sun as it travelled through the
zodiac, could become theoretical increments in any circle. In other words they
transferred the magic of the heavens down to the ground. The moment they did so
geometry was born.
The
fact that we presently have 24 hours
in the day gives a strong clue as to how our Megalithic ancestors originally
split the day. In cosmological terms 24 isn’t really very relevant, but half
of 24, ie 12, certainly is. 12 is the number of zodiac signs that were adopted
by the ancients, and that in turn probably originally reflected the more or less
12 full Moon to full Moon cycles experienced in a year. Few experts argue the
point that there were originally 12 hours in the day, or that it was ultimately
altered to 24, in order to have 12 hours during the day and 12 hours for the
night.
Having
noted the Sun’s passage through the year as a means for splitting and
measuring the year, the Megalithic sky watchers could see that, in some ways,
the day was merely a microcosm of the year. As the Earth turns on its axis, so
it appears that all 12 signs of the zodiac cross the Eastern horizon, travel
across the sky and then set in the West. The passage of these zodiac signs
undoubtedly gave rise to the origin of 12 hours in a day. This brings us to a
consideration of ‘the lost element’ in daily time keeping, namely the
Megalithic degree.
If
the zodiac consists of 366 degrees, then the 12 signs of the zodiac must contain
differing numbers of degrees, since 12 will not divide equally into 366. And I
believe that this is the origin of monthly patterns that, up to a point, still
survive. The present legacy of alternate months of 30 and 31 days seems to infer
that this was the way the ancients split the zodiac. So, for example, Aries may
have been considered to be 30 days in length, the next zodiac sign, Taurus, 31
days in length, Gemini 30 days in length, and so on.
If
so, then each hour (the passage of a zodiac sign across the horizon) would be
roughly equivalent to two hours of modern time and each would contain either 30
or 31 Megalithic degrees. Each Megalithic degree of time in a daily sense would
therefore equal 3.93 modern minutes of time. The Megalithic Degree of time is
the only part of the whole system that has disappeared from use altogether.
We
now have an accurate way of measuring the passage of time, both in a yearly and
a daily sense. This would have made astronomical observations much easier, but
it was also important for agriculture, except for the fact that the 366 day year
is not exactly correct. It exceeds the true length of the year by about ¾ of a
day each year. It would soon have become obvious that the seasons were ‘slipping’,
a fact that would have ultimately caused both agricultural and possibly
religious problems. Something had to be done about it.
There
are many possible ways to regulate a year that is not composed of an even number
of days. We presently use one method, which is basically to use a 365 day year,
and to add an extra day every four years. It works very well, but other
compensations have to be made to keep it really accurate.
However,
the 366 day year is easier to regulate. The way the Megalithic people probably
did it was to run a second calendar alongside the first. This calendar had 492
days. Each time 492 days had elapsed, 1 day was removed from the 366 day
calendar. This simple expedient would keep the ritual year of 366 days in tune
with the true Earth year of 365.2564 days for over 3,000 years before any other
compensation would be necessary. This supposition relates to a little clay disc
found in Crete. A full explanation of these matters can be found in ‘The
Bronze Age Computer Disc, written by Alan Butler and published by Foulsham,
Slough, England 1999. However, the validity of the 492 unit regulating system is
not merely derived from ‘The Phaistos Disc’ but is inferred by the movements,
across a full day, of the ½ Megalithic Yard pendulum – see below.
And
so we come to probably the most ingenious application of the Megalithic system
– the adoption of a standard unit of measurement, though it is still far from
clear why our ancestors wanted one. It’s existence was known before my
research began, but proving that it really did exist and how the Megalithic
peoples defined it has been the strangest and yet the most rewarding aspect of
the research. This unit of measurement is called ‘The Megalithic Yard’. It
was rediscovered by the late Professor Alexander Thom, of Oxford University. He
spent decades measuring hundreds of Megalithic structures, extremely accurately.
On the way he made many discoveries, but none more important than the
realisation that the Megalithic builders had, almost invariably, used a
particular linear measurement in the construction of their various structures.
The unit varied very little from site to site, in fact by less than one part in
five hundred. It averages 82.966 centimetres and Professor Thom christened it
‘The Megalithic Yard’.
So
little did this measurement vary from site to site, that many sceptics said (and
still say) that it is a consequence of the mathematics and that it didn’t
really exist at all. In fact recently the sceptics appeared to be running away
with the argument. Professor Thom struggled hard to find a mechanism by which
this linear measurement could have been passed on, from site to site and age to
age, but one detects in his writing a slight sense of disbelief as to his
suggestions on this point. Accurate measuring rods were a possibility, but given
the limited technical capabilities of the cultures concerned, this was less than
convincing. Ropes would have been hopeless, because they would have stretched
with time, and altered in accordance with climatic conditions.
Professor
Thom never discovered the answer to this puzzle, and I only did so almost by
accident. We have already seen the importance of a circle that has a
circumference of 732 units, because it’s diameter will measure very nearly 233
of the same units. (The actual figure is 233.002). This is the first piece of
knowledge necessary to fixing the size of the Megalithic Yard on any site.
First
of all it’s necessary to establish 1 Megalithic degree of the horizon and we
accomplish this as follows:
Take
three long sticks, each with a pointed end. Stand on a flat piece of ground with
a good, unobstructed, view of the Eastern horizon. Push one of the sticks into
the ground and call this stick A.
Now
stand with your back to the stick, facing east. Walk forward 233 steps (by
placing the heel of one foot in front of the toe of the other foot, so that all
units are equal). 233 steps later place the next stick into the ground and call
this stick B. Now turn to the right (to the South) and take four more heel to
toe steps. Now place the third stick into the ground in front of the leading toe.
This is stick C.
Such
is the nature of the geometry undertaken that the gap between sticks B and C,
when observed from stick A, is precisely 1 Megalithic degree of the horizon.
This method evolved as being the most likely in protracted conversations between
myself and Dr Robert Lomas of Bradford University. The above procedure can be
undertaken in no more than a couple of minutes at the most.
Now
sit at stick A and watch the night sky between sticks B and C. What you are
looking for is a bright star, rising just to the north of stick B. A pendulum is
required at this point. It need be no more complicated than a stone tied onto
the end of a piece of string. As the star rises it will also pass in a southerly
direction and here comes the rule: Any pendulum that completes 366 half
gyrations (that is from left extension to right extension or right extension to
left extension) during the time it takes the star to pass between sticks B and
C, will be ½ Megalithic Yard in length. It therefore forms the radius of the
circle, the diameter of which will be 1 Megalithic Yard in length.
Please
Note: Some slight compensation needs to be made in order to make certain that
the procedure above is ‘absolutely accurate.’ These have been discussed by
Professor Archie Roy, Emeritus Professor of Astronomy, Glasgow University. They
involve ‘angling’ sticks B and C, in order to compensate for latitude. The
adjustments are well within the capabilities of our Megalithic ancestors and
easy to handle.
The
variations in the size of the Megalithic Yard from site to site, noticed by
Professor Thom, are strictly in accordance with the slightly differing lengths
of pendulum string achieved. (Pendulums vary slightly according to the latitude
at which they are operated). Thom reported a deviation of 1 part in 500, which
is what would be expected from slightly different pendulum lengths.
We
now have a standard Megalithic Yard, which can be re-checked and re-set at any
given location. In other words it doesn’t need to be passed on in a physical
form, merely the instructions for establishing it. (Actually the pendulum length
is ½ Megalithic Yard. Alexander Thom was undecided as to whether ½ Megalithic
Yard or 1 Megalithic Yard was the true linear measurement used, but to discuss
the point is to argue semantics.)
My
own investigations into the Minoan culture of Crete, a people contemporary with
the later stages of British Megalithic endeavour, proved to be very fruitful.
The Minoans had their own unit of linear measurement. This was rediscovered by
the Canadian, Professor J Walter Graham. It was 30.36 cm in length and Graham
named it. ‘The Minoan Foot’. I had suspected for other reasons that the
Minoans shared the basics of Megalithic mathematics and their use of the Minoan
Foot offered more evidence of this.
The
reason for this lies in the relationship between the Minoan Foot and the
Megalithic Yard. The former seems to be a metric version of the latter, because
1,000 Minoan Feet is almost exactly the same linear distance as 366 Megalithic
Yards. The discrepancy is less that 5cm across over 300 metres. In fact there
may be no discrepancy at all. Although few people deny Professor Graham’s
findings regarding the Minoan Foot, he didn’t have too many examples to work
with, so 30.365 centimetres may be the true length of the Minoan Foot.
It
is very likely therefore that 366 Megalithic Yards, or 1,000 Minoan Feet, had a
particular geometric significance with regard to the Earth. Such a unit would
divide into the Megalithic Degree (polar) 360 times exactly. I therefore called
this linear distance ‘The Megalithic second of arc’. Sixty such units would
equal a distance very close to the modern statute mile. I therefore called this
distance ‘The Megalithic Mile’ and, in a geometric sense, ‘The Megalithic
Minute of arc’. So what do we have now?
The
Megalithic second of arc is composed of 366 Megalithic Yards (at least in polar
measurements of the Earth) 6 Megalithic seconds equals 1 Megalithic minute.
There are 60 Megalithic minutes to the Megalithic degree of arc, and 366
Megalithic degrees to the circumference of the Earth (polar). So now let’s see
how this would work out.
Professor
Thom sets the average Megalithic Yard at 82.966 centimetres. Let’s multiply
this by 366 for Megalithic seconds, then by 6 for Megalithic Minutes. After this
we need to multiply by 60, for Megalithic degrees, and then by 366, to establish
the entire circumference of this giant circle. The result in modern terms is
40,009 kilometres, whilst the accepted polar circumference of the Earth is
around 40,010 kilometres.
This
means that the Megalithic Yard is similar, in some ways, to the metre, which
itself was designed to be a finite and equal subdivision of the size of the
Earth. However, since the Megalithic Yard is set using a pendulum, it is also
inextricably tied to the mass of the Earth, as well as it’s gravitational
characteristics. It is probably the most ‘earthbound’ linear measurement
ever devised by humanity.
The
system outlined above is quite breathtaking in its implications, because it
represents ways of measuring the sky above our heads, the earth below our feet,
and the passage of time in both a daily and a yearly sense. But it does have
potential drawbacks, mainly caused by the fact that the Earth is not a true
sphere.
The
Earth is, in reality, an oblique spheroid, which means it is fatter around the
equator than it is around the poles. This is the reason why pendulums don’t
behave in exactly the same way all over the planet, since the Earth has more
mass nearer to the equator. Actually there is an important ratio here, because
the equatorial circumference of the Earth exceeds the Polar circumference of the
Earth by 1/600th of the Polar circumference.
Whether
or not our Megalithic ancestors realised this fact is somewhat in dispute. But
it remains true that the system contains a method for using trigonometry for
compensating for the fact that polar and equatorial circumferences differ. These
are explained in detail in my book, ‘The Bronze Age Computer Disc’. The
methods employed were undoubtedly the starting point of methods of splitting the
zodiac still used today in astrology. These too are mentioned in the book.
This is an interesting
question. The most likely explanation I can come up with relates to changing
weather patterns, and subsequent altered social patterns, that appeared around
1500 BC. The climate in Europe, and especially in Britain, became much wetter.
People began to move down from upland settlement, into the river valleys.
Coinciding with this period, the Megalithic cultures seemed to abandon their
previous obsession with moving great stones around the landscape.
Underpinning
this may have been changes in religious beliefs and practices, together with a
proliferation of cloudy skies, which made observations less possible, and
eventually less interesting. Meanwhile Minoan Crete, undoubtedly the greatest
flowering of Megalithic style culture, ceased to exist as an independent entity.
It fell to influence from the mainland of Greece, with resulting changes in
religion and social cohesion. A more warlike phase ensued across Europe and
something of a ‘dark age’, which endured for centuries.
The
re-emergence of European knowledge had to wait for the rise of Ancient Greece,
many centuries after the Megalithic Era. Mathematical models known to the Greeks
seem to have come from Egypt, about which we know a great deal.
The
Egyptians, though probably originally of the same stock as the Megalithic
cultures, would have had little use for the very accurate Megalithic calendar.
Egypt doesn’t have ‘seasons’ in the more accepted European sense of the
word. It owed its existence and prosperity to the yearly flooding of the Nile.
This was premeditated each year by the helical rising of the star Sirius, and
owed little to the Sun’s movements within the Zodiac. (Actually it did, but
for observational purposes the Egyptians looked to Sirius and not the Sun to
regulate their calendar.)
For
almost the whole of the Egyptian’s long history the year was considered to be
of 360 days in length, with 5 extra days added as holidays. Not until the
arrival of Alexander the Great did the Egyptians ever bother to compensate for
the extra quarter day each year – it simply wasn’t important to them.
Bearing
this in mind, the Egyptians probably lost the relationship between time and
geometry very early in their culture. The adoption of a 360 degree circle made
mathematical calculations very much easier because the number is much more
divisible by so many other numbers. It was probably also the Egyptians who
doubled the number of hours in a day, from 12 to 24. When this was done, the
last vestige of the Megalithic integrated system disappeared. All of this must
have happened very early, because there is no trace of the Megalithic Yard in
Egypt.
Further
Discoveries.
Some
argument exists regarding the evolution of the Megalithic system, and
particularly with regard to the importance of the Megalithic Yard. Its ingenious
nature should not be underestimated, for it is a linear measurement derived, not
simply from the size of our planet (as the metre is) but is also related to its
mass. However, whether this owes anything to the actual ‘knowledge’ of the
Megalithic observers, or if its discovery was ‘a happy accident’ is
beginning to represent a developing debate within Megalithic mathematical
research. It funds many questions.
For
example:
Did
the proponents of the system know that the Earth was a sphere?
Were
they aware of the true relationship of the Megalithic Yard to the dimensions of
the Earth?
If
the answer to these question is ‘no’, then we are forced to conclude that
the majority of the most interesting connections between the Megalithic
mathematical system and the Earth, existed – but beyond the comprehension of
the people who evolved the system.
We
cannot even be certain that the Megalithic Degree was ever split into the
smaller component parts that I suggest, though I would suggest that there is
evidence to at least suggest that it was. And to those who quite understandably
doubt what amounts to a colossal assertion regarding the capabilities of the
Megalithic mathematicians I would have make a couple of observations of my own.
Would
the relationship between the Megalithic Yard and the Minoan Foot exist if the
meeting point of the two systems (366 Megalithic Yards equals 1000 Minoan Feet)
was not considered to be significant in a global geometrical sense, i.e. The
Megalithic Second of Arc?
Why,
right up until the present day, do we still retain the use of minutes and
seconds of arc and time, when the two systems are not related in a mathematical
sense? According to J F Bloomriche, an expert on celestial navigation, the
retention of this terminology in seafaring circles has led to many hundreds, if
not thousands of deaths over the centuries. The reason for this lies in the fact
that both time and geometry have to be used in Oceanic navigation, and the
retention of the same words, used in both systems, often leads to serious errors.
Is it not logical to assume that time and geometry were originally measured in
exactly the same way? This would certainly explain the same terminology being
retained in each case.
Try
as I may, it seems to be impossible to establish when the words ‘minute’ and
‘second’ were first used. It has to be pointed out that ‘minute’ is
linguistically very similar to the name of ‘Minos’, the legendary King of
Minoan Crete, who is supposed to have been responsible for the building of the
Labyrinth, now commonly equated with the Minoan Palace of Knossos. This may be a
coincidence, but is a consideration worthy of note.
In
Conclusion.
There
are still quite a few people who cannot accept the validity of the Megalithic
Yard, though Professor Thom argued for its existence until his death. If my own
findings validate the life’s work of this most meticulous investigator I am
very gratified. He was a giant in the embryonic world of astroarchaeology. Of
course there is still much to be done, for example to discover whether the
Megalithic Yard is a reality far from the shores of Britain and France, in the
islands of the Mediterranean, the Balkans, or even in Greece. Our Megalithic
ancestors were truly remarkable people and the lessons they have to teach us
about their own accomplishments may cause us to look at our own systems of
measurement and scratch our heads at the present complexity of what was once so
simple.
©Alan
Butler, Yorkshire, England. September 2000.