February 20, 1908J 



NA TURE 



56g 



other Cornish and Devon monuments, I thought the 

 north-west use was more probable for these avenues 

 and other less imposing ones on Shovel Down with 

 nearly the same direction. 



The more recent inquiries, however, suggest that 

 in this I was wrong. In the first place, the evidence 

 now afforded by Mr. Falcon regarding the .\ssacombe 

 avenue shows that, like those at Merrivalc, the look- 

 out to the rising-place was up hill. Again, as at 

 .Merrivale, oriented to the rising of the Pleiades, the 

 western end has two large monoliths, ending the two 

 lines of stones, and a single sighting stone at the 

 eastern end is placed between the lines. 



Now these are the conditions at Challacombe if we 

 assume a south-east use; the view is up hill, and the 

 directing stone is at the eastern end. 



I next proceed to give a list of the avenues at pre- 

 sent known to me which are roughly parallel with 

 those at Challacombe, and where, possibly, southern 



liths in Britain. The remains at Shap I have not seen, 

 but an avenue nearly a mile long and 70 feet broaj, 

 according to Camden and Stukeley, is certainly out 

 of thi> common. 



What, then, might have been the use of these 

 avenues? If they were erected to indicate the rising 

 place of a southern star, the only important one they 

 could have dealt with was a Centauri, and that be- 

 tween B.C. 3000 and B.C. 4000. I give approximate dates 

 where the measures are sufficient to enable me to 

 do so. 



Cliallacombe D,c. 31° 7' S. ... 3600 E.c. 



Avebury ji° 34' •■■ 35°° 



Borobridge 32° 15' •■■ 340° 



Shap 32° 32' ■■• 3400 



Shovel Down 34' 46' ... 2900 



Crug yr Avan ... 36° 00" ... 2700 



Now if we take 3500 B.C., that is some thousand 

 vears before the time I have suggested to be indicated 



r/in/a. ly Pro/. Thoi/>i: 



Stars were in question ; curiously enough, this condi- ' by the stellar alignments connected with the Cornish 



circles. This raiso. 

 several interesting 

 questions. \V h y 

 liave we circles in 

 Cornwall and 

 practically 

 no avenues ? Why 

 have we avenues 

 Ijr.ictically with- 

 out circles in Brit- 

 tany "i 



W a s there a 

 swarm of avenue 

 builders who pre- 

 ceded the swarm 

 that built circles? 

 In this connec- 

 tion it is worthy 

 of notice that in 

 my " Dawn of 

 Astronomy " I 



made out that 

 there is a series 

 ""'*"■ of Egyptian tem- 



ples oriented to o 

 Centauri, one of them being the Memnonia at Thebes; 

 and long avenues, generally of sphinxes, were asso-. 

 ciated with all these temples, while circles were un- 

 known. 



Another point is connected with the rise of the star 

 and its use as a warner. 



The rise of a Centauri would be preceded shortlv 

 by that of ;S, almost in the same azimuth. 



.•\t the time in question, 3500 h.c, thev would serve- 

 as Warners for the November sunrise, which was long 

 afterwards accepted as the beginning of the year bv 

 the Celts. 



Further, at the dates in question there wen- no 

 first-magnitude stars rising near the north point of the 

 horizon, as Arcturus and Capella did afterwards, by 

 which the lapse of time during the night might be 

 measured. 



The two stars in the Centaur might have been used 

 in this way, but their usefulness would be n:uch re- 

 stricted owing to the short time they would reinain 

 above the horizon. 



It is well to note that while the nearly southerly 

 avenue is accompanied at .\vebury by a Ma}i-year 

 alignment, the second avenue at Shap seems to have 

 been a solstitial one, the sunrise at the Winter solstice 

 being in question. This, however, cannot be con- 

 sidered certain until local observations of the height 

 of the horizon have been made. 



Mr. Goddard (N.atlirr, February 6) has raised objec- 

 tions to my statements concerning the .-\vebury 



tion applies to the Kennet avenue at .\vcbury, and to 

 those at Borobridge and Shap. 

 Challacombe, Dartntoor, lat. 50° 36' N. 



S. 23° 37' E., horizon 4° 4S', dec. 31° 7' S. 

 Avebury, Wiltshire, lat. 51° 30' N. 



S. 32° E., horizon 49', dec. 31^ 34' N. 

 Borobridge, Yorkshire, lat. 54° 6' A'. 



S. 25° E., horizon 1°, dec. 32° 15' S. 

 Shovel Down, Dartmoor, lat. 50' 39' N. 



S. 25° E., horizon 0° 46', dec. 34° 46' S. 



(Other alignments at S. 22° E. and S. 28° E.) 

 Shap, U'eslmorland, tat. 54° 35' N. 



Direction of avenue S. 19° E. , horizon 1° jo', dec. 32' 32' S. 

 Criig yr Avail Avenue, S. ]Vales, lat. 51" 40' iV. 



S. 23° E. and S. 24' E. , sea horizon. 



With regard to this last avenue, the Rev. J. Griffith 

 informs me that the " stone of honour " (" directing 

 stone "), now recumbent, is at the southern end, and 

 that the land rises in that direction ; it would have 

 been on the sky-line as seen from the north end of 

 the avenue. 



It is as well to point out at once that some of the 

 monuments included in the above list are the most 

 remarkable in Britain. Challacombe is the only mul- 

 tiple avenue that I have seen in these islands which 

 approaches those in Brittany. The south-east avenue 

 at .Avebury was, I take it, the most important feature 

 at one time of that elaborate temple; while, again, the 

 stupendous stones which I think are the remains of 

 an avenue at Borobridge are among the largest mono- 



NO. iqQ9, VOL. 77I 



