Abstract
VIII.—ON THE DARTMOOR AVENUES (Continued). MY inquiries began at Merrivale because there is a circle associated with the avenues a little to the south of the west end of the longest; and again nearly, or quite, south of this there is a fine menhir, possibly used to give a north-south line. There is another menhir given on the Ordnance map, azimuth N. 70° 30′ E., which, with hills 3° high, points out roughly the place of sunrise from the circle in May (April 29). Although ithis stone has been squared and initialed, I think I am justified in claiming it as an ancient monument. There is still another, azimuth N. 83° E., giving a line from the circle almost parallel to the avenue. I hope some local achæologist will examine it, for if ancient it will tell us whether the N. avenue or the circle was built first, a point of which it is difficult to overrate the importance, as it will show the strict relationship between the astronomy of the avenues and that of the circle, and we can now, I think, deal with the astronomical use of circles after the results obtained at Stonehenge, Stenness and the Hurlers as an accepted fact. With the above approximate values the date comes out 1750 B.C., the declination of the Pleiades being N. 6° 35′.
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LOCKYER, N. Notes on Stonehenge 1 . Nature 72, 270–272 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072270a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072270a0