Megalithic Miscellany (including more Callanish)

Working on Callanish again, I find myself wanting another look at more Megalithic monument sites, even if nothing definitive emerges yet.

In Megalithic Remains in Britain and Brittany (page 164), Thom describes the geometry of The Giant’s Stones (OSGB Grid ref HU243805) as part of a circle of radius 28 Megalithic Yards joined to a section of the arc of a circle of radius 250 MY.

Thom: “Using the fact that the flat arc passes exactly 11 MY from the center of the long arc, we calculated carefully the lengths of the two arcs. These were 107.59 and 52.69 MY…”

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1978JHA…..9…54T/0000055.000.html

For this one, for now I just want to point out several things. One is the value 107.59 MY – compare this to the Saturn Orbital Period (SOP) of 10,759.22 days. The other is that to use what has become the standard representation I use for the SOP, 1 / (sqrt 8640) x 10^n = 10758.28707.

107.5828707 Megalithic Yards x 2.721074976 = 292.6442328…

Which is none other than the dreaded (and often mentioned) so-called “Real Mayan Annoyance“.

Ronald Curtis, in a chapter in Records in Stone: Papers in Memory of Alexander Thom, describes Na Dromannan (Callanish X) as a Thom Type A Flattened Ring, with a diameter of 26 Megalithic Yards and a perimeter of 31.86 Megalithic Rods (1 Megalithic Rod = 2.5 Megalithic Yards).

26 MY x 2.72 = 70.72 ft; 31.86 MR x 2.5 = 79.65 Megalithic Yards; 79.65 MY x 2.72 = 216.648 ft.

Naturally, I’m tempted to think that 70.72 ft = 60 Megalithic Yards of 1.177245771 = 70.63474626 ft, but the intent here might have been somewhat different than that.

Previously, we re-confirmed a probable value of 43.29292924 ft for the Major Diameter of the Callanish I Tye A Flattened Ring

“I’m also standing by the values I arrived at for the Callanish I Type A Flattened Ring long ago, which are 43.29292924 ft (Major Diameter), 39.47841760 ft (Pi^2 x 4) (Minor Diameter), and 132.3891319 ft — the “Callanish Number” (Perimeter).”

If for the Callanish X Type A Ring perimeter of “31.86 MR x 2.5 = 79.65 Megalithic Yards; 79.65 MY x 2.72 = 216.648 ft”, we take “216.648” to mean 43.29292924 x 5 = 216.464646 ft, the perimeter will therefore be

(Type A Flattened Ring: Circumference / Perimeter = 3.0591 (Thom) = ~3.057985077 = 1/100 inner sarsen circle circumference of Stonehenge)

216.464646 / 3.057985077 = 70.78669157, which would be 60 Megalithic Feet of 1.179778193 rather than 60 Megalithic Feet of 1.177245771. It’s an almost arbitrary distinction since 72 x 1.177245771 = (1 / 1.179778193) x 10^n, but we do see both possible Megalithic Yard values expressed side-by-side at Stonehenge.

At any rate, 1.179778193 provides a more direct connection to the Lunar Year: 1.179778193 x 60 x 10 = 707.8669157 and 707.8669157 / 2 = 353.9334580 = ~354.

The Minor Diameter then becomes (Thom uses .9114 here while I use 9 / (Pi^2) = .9118906528)

70.78669157 x .9118906528 = 64.54972238

64.54972238 = (1 / sqrt 240) x 10^3. Metrologically then this value would be defined as being in Thom Mid Clyth Quanta (sqrt 60 feet) = experimental Egyptian Sacred Cubits (Remen x Royal Cubit), albeit in inverse form.

In standard Megalithic Feet of 1.177245771, this is 64.54972238 / 1.177245771 = 54.83113554 Megalithic Feet

54.83113554 is simply 1 / (Radian / Pi) x 10^n, or (Pi / Radian) x 10^n which makes it a basic but important expression of circular geometry (like the Taylor-Petrie-Morton Royal Cubit).

I have proposed that Radian / Pi / 10^n = 57.29577951 / Pi / 10 = 1.823781305 is likely the intended value of: the Talmudist Cubit in feet, 1/10 of the (secondary) Greek Cubit in feet (M. Stone, Table 6, 21.85 and 18.23 inches respectively), 1/10 the “Egyptian Common Cubit” in inches and the value of the “Beladi Cubit” in feet (M. Stone, Table 4, 18.24 and 21.88 inches respectively), in accordance with values given by Mark Stone in The Cubit: A History and Measurement Commentary in the Journal of Anthropology.

((R / Pi / 10) = 1.823781305 ft x 12 = 21.88537567 inches = 6.875493541 / Pi = 216 / (Pi^2) / 10.

687.5493541 is still being used successfully to approximate the 686.971 day Mars Orbital Period in my calendar tables.

Thus if this figure actually appears in Callanish X in inverted (reciprocal) form, it’s potentially both a geometry statement, and an astronomy statement.

At any rate, it seems to be an important number that is well represented metrologically.

“Incidentally”, in inverse Hashimi Cubits, the value of 54.83113554 feet is 54.83113554 / (1 / 1.067438159) = 58.52884640, or 1/10 of the oversized Venus Synodic Period based on variant formulas from Mayan codices.

Also, it comes to light during this inquiry that 1.618829140 / 54.83113554 = 29.52390324 / 10^n, the apparent best overall value for the Lunar Month.

In the same work, Curtis describes the Stenness circle as being an oval of 39 by 36 Megalithic Yards

Curtis: “When it is recognized that Stone 11 does not fit any ring, an ellipse having 2a = 39 MY and 2b = 36 MY with a perimeter of 47.1 MR…”

First 47.1 MR x 2.5 = 117.75 Megalithic Yards. It may be fairly safe to assume this means 117.7245771 MY and probably 117.7245771 x 2.720174976 = 320.2314487 ft = 300 Hashimi Cubits of 1.067438159 ft.

Once again, as often, we seem as if to find the Megalithic designers using unit values as building blocks, multiplying or dividing one by another to get some of the numbers they want.

In Remens this is 320.2314487 / 1.216733603 = 263.1894508 = 16.22311470^2 = (5 / Half Venus Cycle B) x 10^n. In Squared Munck Megalithic Yards, it is 320.2314487 / (2.719715671^2) = 43.29292935.

The Major / Minor Diameter ratio is about 39 / 36 = 1.083333333, which may mean 43.29292935 / 40 = 1.082323234.

Curtis also mentions the Mudbeck Ring (North Yorkshire, OSGB Grid Ref NY 954077), a circle whose diameter he gives as 22.53 Megalithic Yards (attributed to Archie Thom), perimeter 28.32 Megalithic Rods.

22.53 x 2.72 = 61.2816 ft

28.32 x 2.5 = 70.8 Megalithic Yards x 2.72 = 192.576

I’d like to suggest the possibility that this means diameter 61.15970155 ft, perimeter 61.15970155 x Pi = 192.1388691 (“incidentally” 10 times the height assumed for the Great Pyramid’s King’s Chamber, i.e. 18 Hashimi Cubits: 18 x 1.067438159 = 19.21388691).

611.5970155 ft is the value given as the basic slope length for the Great Pyramid. It’s an impressive feature since the value in Hashimi cubits is 611.5970155 / 1.067438159 = 57.29577951 x 10 = 10 Radians (I follow after Munck in referring to the Radian as “the Giza Constant”).

The value in the unidentified unit of 1.676727943 ft is 611.5970155 / 1.676727943 = 364.7562612, the Solar (calendar) Year A value, thus we can readily extract both essential geometry and essential astronomy data from it.

In the standard value I use for Megalithic Feet, this is 61.15970155 / 1.177245771 = 51.95151519, the value of the Stonehenge outer sarsen circle in ordinary feet (this is achieved innocently enough at Stonehenge simply by indulging Thom’s value of 48 Megalithic Rods x 2.5 = 120 Megalithic Yards x 2.721074976 = 326.4209971 ft for the outer sarsen circle circumference, and circumference 326.4209971 / 2 Pi = radius 51.95151522 ft).

By the way, the perimeter value of the Great Pyramid in inverse Royal Cubits is, according to my models, 3022.416640 ft / (1 / 1.718873385) = 51.9515152 x 10^n.

I might also point out that

611.5970155 / 2 = 305.7985078, the inner sarsen circle circumference = 360 inverse Megalithic Feet.

(It isn’t necessarily known yet what unit of measure that the figure 51.95151522 represents, but it’s suspected of simply being essentially an oversized Assyrian Cubit of ordinary Assyrian Cubit 1.622311470 ft x 1.000723277 = 1.623484851 ft; 51.95151522 / 1.623484851 = 32).

Curtis also gives, for Achmore Stone Circle (Callanish XXII, Thom H 1/17), a diameter of 49 MY. Whatever this turns out to be, 49 x 2.72 = 133.28 ft, so once again we are at least tempted by the possibility of seeing the square of the Solar Calendar Year — sqrt (133.28 x 10) = 365.0753349 x 10; 365.0200808^2 = 133.2396594 (see also DUNE’s work at GHMB).

Something to consider here is that the perimeter would be approximately 133.28 x Pi = 418.7114689, which would probably “like” to be either 418.8790205 (133.3333333 x Pi^2) or 418.2822014 (sqrt 174960) = 200 Sacred Cubits of 1.216733603 x 1.718873385 = 2.091411007 ft.

Additionally, Curtis gives (Figure 16.8) 34.5 MY for the diameter of the Loch Raoinavat Stone Circle. 34.5 x 2.72 = 93.84 ft. 1 / 93.84 = 1.065643649 / 10^n, so it’s really no great leap to think this value might be measured in inverse Hashimi Cubits (see Egyptian Royal Foot): 1 / 1.067438159 = 93.68224206 / 100.

Readers might recall that .9368224206 has been used very effectively in interpreting Thom’s “.9343” Minor / Major Diameter ratio for the Type D Flattened Ring.

The perimeter then, if this suggestion is correct, would be 93.68224206 x Pi = 294.3114434 ft = 250 standard Megalithic Feet of 1.177245771 ft each. This is 360 / (.6115970155 x 2).

(Intriguingly, we can square 1/10 of this figure to give 29.43114434^2 = 346.4769011 / 4. 346.4769011 is currently an experimental value for the 346.62 day Eclipse Year – it is the A value if the best value, 346.5939367, is the C value).

The experimental formula for this is Venus Orbital Period x 1.541011111 = Eclipse Year. 1.541011111 is 1/2 of the 3.082022222 value thought to be meant by Thom’s “3.0840” Perimeter / Major Diameter ratio for the Type D Flattened Ring.

3.082022222 = ((1 / 1.622311470) / 2) x 10 = 5 / 1.622311470 = (360 / Venus Synodic Period 584.0321290 x 2) x 10^n = etc.

At least some of these sites call for more careful consideration than that, but even the preliminaries have been somewhat illuminating.

–Luke Piwalker