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 earlyastronomy – 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.The most complex geometrical achievement at Stonehenge is an 87-metre diameter circle of chalk-cut pits which mark the points of a 56-sided polygon, created immediately within themonument's perimeter earthwork.
Mr Johnson
used computer analysis and experimental archaeology to demonstrate that
this outer polygon was laid out using square and circle geometry.He
believes the surveyors started by using a rope to create a circle, then
laid out the four corners of a square on its circumference, before
laying out a second similar square, thus creating an inner octagon.
The
points of the octagon were then utilised as anchors for a surveyor's
rope which was used to "draw" arcs which intersected the circumference
so as to progressively create the sides of a vast polygon.
Indeed, his work has
demonstrated that a 56-sided polygon is the most complex that can
easily be created purely through square and circle geometry using a
single piece of rope.
It is likely that this
basic limitation determined the number of sides of Stonehenge's outer
polygon – and may also have led to the 56-sided polygon concept
becoming important within wider European religious belief. Ancient
Greek classical mythology associatedjust s......
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'Cursus' is older than Stonehenge
Pagans mark end of Stonehenge dig
Uncovering stone circle's secrets
"Bluehenge" discovered
