Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
- INVITED PAPERS
- CONTRIBUTED PAPERS
- A SURVEY OF THE BARBROOK STONE CIRCLES AND THEIR CLAIMED ASTRONOMICAL ALIGNMENTS
- OBSERVATIONS AT KINTRAW
- DECODING THE CALLANISH COMPLEX - A PROGRESS REPORT
- ASTRONOMY AND STONE ALIGNMENTS IN S.W. IRELAND
- STONE RINGS OF NORTHERN POLAND
- ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION OF NEOLITHIC SITES IN CENTRAL EUROPE
- STONE CIRCLE GEOMETRIES: AN INFORMATION THEORY APPROACH
- INVITED PAPER
- INDEX
ASTRONOMY AND STONE ALIGNMENTS IN S.W. IRELAND
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
- INVITED PAPERS
- CONTRIBUTED PAPERS
- A SURVEY OF THE BARBROOK STONE CIRCLES AND THEIR CLAIMED ASTRONOMICAL ALIGNMENTS
- OBSERVATIONS AT KINTRAW
- DECODING THE CALLANISH COMPLEX - A PROGRESS REPORT
- ASTRONOMY AND STONE ALIGNMENTS IN S.W. IRELAND
- STONE RINGS OF NORTHERN POLAND
- ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION OF NEOLITHIC SITES IN CENTRAL EUROPE
- STONE CIRCLE GEOMETRIES: AN INFORMATION THEORY APPROACH
- INVITED PAPER
- INDEX
Summary
Abstract. The Bronze Age stone alignments of S.W. Ireland were surveyed in detail to provide data with which to test hypotheses concerning their astronomical, metrological and morphological attributes. The astronomical tests are described in this paper. The hypothesis examined was that the centres of the stones of an alignment define a line which is orientated on an event of astronomical significance. The events considered as significant were the lunar standstill positions, the solstices and equinox. The alignments were treated as open-ended structures and their azimuths in both directions were considered. Two tests were carried out. In one, the allowable azimuth error was calculated individually for each site, and in the other, an average value was used. The probability level at which the hypothesis operates was calculated from a version of Bernoulli's Theorem and the results from both tests allow us to accept the hypothesis.
INTRODUCTION
This paper is based on the results of a study carried out in the period 1973 to 1976 in which a detailed survey was made of the stone alignments of S.W. Ireland and hypotheses concerning their astronomical, metrological and morphological attributes were tested (Ni Loingsigh 1976). Only the astronomical results are considered here.
The definition of a stone alignment,as accepted for this work, is three or more standing stones, intervisible and in a straight line. There are two major concentrations of such sites in Ireland, one in the southwest (i.e. counties Cork and Kerry) and the other in Northern Ireland (counties Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh in particular).
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- Archaeoastronomy in the Old World , pp. 205 - 214Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982
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