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Megalithic civilization hypothesis

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The Megalithic civilization hypothesis proposes that megaliths such as the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, and other megalithic structures throughout the World, were built by a common group of people, or civilizations during the Neolithic period. Alexander Thom (1950) has referred to these builders as Megalithic man. The hypothesis bases itself on the accurate measurements found in megalithic metrology (See megalithic geometry), that are observed for virtually all known megaliths discovered. The hypothesis challenges mainstream theories, thus many scientific communities consider research for a megalithic civilization as pseudoscientific.

Controversy[]

Research in support of this hypothesis is often considered pseudoscientific by mainstream scientific and archaeological circles, because it challenges the current and accepted human evolutionary paradigm (See also, Timeline). The hypothesis supposes that Megalithic Man was smarter than what modern science gives credit for (due to the complex mathematics proposed in the placement of blocks), as it contradicts mainstream's timeframe of how humans evolved from hunter/gather types to forming civilization. The dating and precision of Göbekli Tepe is an example of how archaeologists and the mainstream scientific community have no other option, but to reconsider how early man really developed. Modern-day branches of the megalithic civilization hypothesis also challenges when and who the builders were for the Giza Pyramid Complex, proposing that Megalithic Man (Neolithic period) built them before 3500 BCE, rather than the Egyptians themselves.

Megalithic yard[]

The Megalithic Yard (MY) is a unit of measurement of about 2.72 ft,[1][2][3] that some researchers hypothesize was used in the construction of megalithic structures. The proposal was made by Alexander Thom as a result of his surveys of 600 megalithic sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Brittany.[4] Thom also proposed the Megalithic Rod of 2.5 MY.[5] As subunits of these, he further proposed the Megalithic Inch of 2.073 cm, one hundred of which are included in a Megalithic Rod, and forty of which composed a Meglithic Yard. But, Thom’s proposals were initially ignored or regarded as unbelievable by mainstream archaeologists.[6] Thom applied the statistical lumped variance test of J.R. Broadbent[7] on this quantum and found the results significant,[8] yet others challenge his statistical analysis and suggest that Thom's evidence for the supposed megalithic yard could be explained as an average length of a pace unit.[9] Douglas Heggie’s analysis of the MY claims "little evidence for a highly accurate unit" and "little justification for the claim that a highly accurate unit was in use".[10] Thus, Thom’s findings were and are continued to today, considered pseudoscientific by major scientific and archaeological circles. However, there is enough evidence to support megalithic standards that the MY has caught the attention of smaller communities of researchers to continue to make comparative studies.

Megalithic standard[]

Alexander Thom made a comparison of his Megalithic Yard with the Spanish vara, the pre-metric measurement of Iberia, whose length was 2.7425 ft. Thom has suggested that "There must have been a headquarters from which standard rods were sent out but whether this was in these islands or on the Continent (British Isles) the present investigation cannot determine." [11] Many researchers have concluded that there is marginal evidence for a standardized measuring unit, but that it was not as uniform as Thom believed.[8] Yet, many commentators and researchers of the MY unit have found equal, or close to equal measures of units, throughout the World.

Anne Macaulay[12] compared the Megalithic Rod to being equal in length to the Greek fathom of (2.072 m)[13] from studies by Eric Fernie of the Metrological Relief in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.[14] Margaret Ponting has suggested that artefacts such as a marked bone found during excavations at Dail Mòr near Callanish, the Patrickholme bone bead from Lanarkshire and Dalgety bone bead from Fife in Scotland have shown some evidence of being measuring rods based on the Megalithic Yard in Britain.[15] Jay Kappraff has noted similarity between the Megalithic Yard and the ancient Indus short yard of 33 in.[13] A hazel measuring rod recovered from a Bronze Age burial mound in Borum Eshøj, East Jutland by P. V. Glob in 1875 measured 30.9 in. Keith Critchlow suggested this may have shrunk 0.63 in from its original length of one Megalithic Yard over a period of 3000 years.[16]

Archaeologist Euan Mackie noticed similarities between the Megalithic Yard and a unit of measurement extrapolated from a long, marked shell from Mohenjo-daro and ancient measuring rods used in mining in the Austrian Tyrol.[17] Mackie suggested similarities with other measurements such as the ancient Indian gaz and the Sumerian šu-du3-a.[17] Concerning an oak rod, recovered from the Iron Age fortified settlement at Borre Fen, measuring 53.15 in and having marks divided into eight parts of 6.64 in; Mackie referred to five eighths of this rod 33.2 in as "very close to a megalithic yard".[18]

Megalithic system[]

Christopher Knight and Alan Butler further develop the work of Smyth's and Stecchini's "Grand Scheme" in their Civilization One hypothesis, which describes a megalithic system of units. This system is claimed to be the source of all standard units used by the hypothetical Megalithic civilization, and is so named after the Neolithic builders of megaliths. Knight and Butler contend the reconstructed megalithic yard (0.82966m) is a fundamental part of a megalithic system. Although the megalithic yard is the work of Alexander Thom, Knight and Butler make a novel contribution by speculating on how the MY may have been created by using a pendulum calibrated by observing the planet Venus. It also explains the uniformity of the MY across large geographical areas. The accuracy claimed for this procedure is disputed by astronomers.[19][20] Knight and Butler derive measures of volume and mass from the megalithic yard, which is divided into 40 megalithic inches. They claim that a cube with a side of 4 megalithic inches has a volume equal to one imperial pint and weighs one imperial pound when filled with unpolished grain. They also posit ratio relationships with the imperial acre and square rod. Their book states that "The Sun, the Moon and the Earth all conform to a 'grand design' that is also evident in the Megalithic structures that are scattered across the British Isles and western Europe."[20]

Egyptian metrology[]

Commentators on Thom's megalithic yard (MY), John Michell and Euan Mackie, agree that the MY is the diagonal of a rectangle measuring 2 by 1 Egyptian remens.[21][22] John Ivimy and Euan Mackie,[23] have also noted how such a measure could relate to geometrical ideas found historically in two of Egypt’s metrological units; the remen of about 1.2 feet and royal cubit of about 1.72 feet. The remen and royal cubit were used to define land areas in Egypt: "On documentary and other evidence Griffith came to the conclusion that the square on the royal cubit was intended to be twice that on the remen; and Petri identified the remen as a length of 20 digits".[24] A square with side length equal to the diagonal of a square with side length equal to one remen has an area of one square royal cubit, ten thousand (a myriad) of which defined an Egyptian land measure, the setat. [cite mackie] John Ivimy noted that "The ratio MY : Rc is SQRT(5) : SQRT(2) to the nearest millimeter, which makes the MY equal to SQRT(5) remens, or the length of a 2 x 1 remen rectangle."[25]

Knowledge of round Earth[]

Earth’s circumference

Livio C. Stecchini claims in his A History of Measures:

The relation among the units of length can be explained by the ratio 15:16:17:18 among the four fundamental feet and cubits. Before I arrived at this discovery, Decourdemanche and Oxé discovered that the cubes of those units are related according to the conventional specific gravities of oil, water, wheat and barley. [1]

Stecchini implies that the Egyptian measures of length, originating from at least the 3rd millennium BCE, were directly derived from the circumference of the earth with an amazing accuracy. According to "Secrets of the Great Pyramid" (p. 346 [26]), his claim is that the Egyptian measurement was equal to 40,075,000 meters, which compared to the International Spheroid of 40,076,596 meters gives an error of 0.004%. No consideration seems to be made to the question of, on purely technical and procedural grounds, how the early Egyptians, in defining their cubit, could have achieved a degree of accuracy that to our current knowledge can only be achieved with very sophisticated equipment and techniques.

Round Earth

Robin Heath, in his book Sun, Moon & Stonehenge, proposes that megalithic builders were very aware that the Earth is a globe, or at least round, by the inclusion of archaeoastronomy and the standards of measurement proposed by the megalithic yard (MY) for Stonehenge, and the Egyptian Royal Cubit of the Great Pyramid of Giza:

...if the lunar year is represented by 12 MY then 1 ft corresponds precisely to the extra 10.875 days to coincide with the end of the solar or seasonal year. Furthermore, the period between the end of the solar year and 13 lunations - 18.656 days - is represented by another unit of length from antiquity, the 'Royal Cubit' of 20.63" or 1.72 ft.
Hence the equally astonishing revelation that 1 MY = 1 ft + 1 RC. Assuming that the MY was the primary unit, then the derivative foot and cubit appear to have formed a logical and essential part of the astronomical and calendrical researches of our Neolithic ancestors. If, however, the foot preceded the MY in time - and here we must remember that 1/1,000th of a degree of arc around the equatorial circumference of the Earth is just 365.244 ft in length! - then knowledge of the roundness of the Earth must have predated use of the MY…i.e. well before 3,000BC.[27]
Earth’s polar circumference

Alan Butler proposed the concept of “megalithic geometry”, where megalithic measurements are based on a 366-degree circumference (as opposed to 360°)—that of the Earth's polar circumference. The Megalithic degree is the 366th part of it, i.e. 40,008 / 366 = 109.31 km; the Megalithic arcminute is the 60th part of the Megalithic degree, i.e. 109.31 / 60 = 1.82 km; the Megalithic arcsecond is the 6th part of the Megalithic minute, i.e. 1.82 / 6 = 0.3036 km; if this Megalithic arcsecond is in turn divided into 366 equal segments, the length arrived at is 0.8296 m, which is the presumed length of the Megalithic Yard,[20] the supposed ancient standard of measure proposed by professor Alexander Thom in the 1950s.[28] The discovery, of what mainstream researchers call an “apparent coincidence”, is what prompted Butler to propose that Megalith builders could have been cognizant with an Earth-based 366-degree geometry.[20]

References[]

  1. ↑ Thom, Alexander., The megalithic unit of length, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, A 125, 243-251, 1962.
  2. ↑ Alexander Thom (12 March 1964). New Scientist. Reed Business Information. pp. 690–. https://books.google.com/books?id=c2iCzjpnd4EC&pg=PA690. Retrieved 19 April 2011. 
  3. ↑ Barbara Ann Kipfer (2000). Encyclopedic dictionary of archaeology. Springer. pp. 344–. ISBN 978-0-306-46158-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=XneTstDbcC0C&pg=PA344. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  4. ↑ Archibald Stevenson Thom (1995). Walking in all of the squares: a biography of Alexander Thom : engineer, archaeoastronomer, discoverer of a prehistoric calendar, the geometry of stone rings and megalithic measurement. Argyll Pub.. ISBN 978-1-874640-66-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=o0HbAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 19 April 2011. 
  5. ↑ Thom, Alexander., The larger units of length of megalithic man, Journal for the Royal Statistical Society, A 127, 527-533, 1964.
  6. ↑ David George Kendall; F. R. Hodson; Royal Society (Great Britain); British Academy (1974). The Place of astronomy in the ancient world: a joint symposium of the Royal Society and the British Academy. Oxford University Press for the British Academy. https://books.google.com/books?id=FHLvAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 19 April 2011. 
  7. ↑ Broadbent S.R., Quantum hypothesis, Biometrika, 42, 45-57 (1955)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 David H. Kelley; Eugene F. Milone; Anthony F. (FRW) Aveni (28 February 2011). Exploring Ancient Skies: A Survey of Ancient and Cultural Astronomy. Springer. pp. 163–. ISBN 978-1-4419-7623-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=ILBuYcGASxcC&pg=PA163. Retrieved 22 April 2011. 
  9. ↑ Clive Ruggles has said that both classical and Bayesian statistical reassessments of Thom's data "reached the conclusion that the evidence in favour of the MY was at best marginal, and that even if it does exist the uncertainty in our knowledge of its value is of the order of centimetres, far greater than the 1mm precision claimed by Thom. The evidence presented by Thom could be explained by monuments being set out by pacing, with the 'unit' reflecting an average length of pace." (Ruggles, 1999 p.83) However,David Kendall had previously argued that pacing would have created a greater difference in measurements between sites (Hodson, 1974 p.258; Millone, 2011 p.163).
  10. ↑ Heggie, Douglas C. (1981). Megalithic Science: Ancient Mathematics and Astronomy in North-west Europe. Thames and Hudson. p. 58. ISBN 0-500-05036-8.
  11. ↑ A. Thom (1976). Megalithic sites in Britain, p. 43. Clarendon. https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6p-DwEACAAJ. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
  12. ↑ Anne Macaulay; Richard A. Batchelor (July 2006). Megalithic measures and rhythms: sacred knowledge of the ancient Britons, p. 38 (Megalithic yardsticks). Floris. ISBN 978-0-86315-554-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=QqkVAgAACAAJ. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Jay Kappraff (2002). Beyond measure: a guided tour through nature, myth, and number. World Scientific. pp. 237–. ISBN 978-981-02-4702-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=vAfBrK678_kC&pg=PA237. Retrieved 22 April 2011. 
  14. ↑ Society of Antiquaries of London (1981). The Antiquaries journal: being the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London, The Greek Metrological Relief in Oxford by Eric J. Fernie, p. 255. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=JAgpAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  15. ↑ Margaret Ponting (13 February 2003). "Megalithic Callanish". in Clive Ruggles. Records in Stone: Papers in Memory of Alexander Thom. Cambridge University Press. pp. 423–441. ISBN 978-0-521-53130-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=oZ3JGYd1kJoC&pg=PA431. Retrieved 22 April 2011. 
  16. ↑ Keith Critchlow (1979). Time stands still: new light on megalithic science, p. 37. Gordon Fraser. https://books.google.com/books?id=jK3aAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Euan Wallace MacKie (1977). The megalith builders, p. 192. Phaidon. https://books.google.com/books?id=7gOBAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 22 April 2011. 
  18. ↑ John David North (1996). Stonehenge: Neolithic man and the cosmos, p. 302. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-255773-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=TnFnAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  19. ↑ Uriel's Machine – a Commentary on some of the Astronomical Assertions.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Butler, Alan and Christopher Knight. Before the Pyramids. Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery. London: Watkins, 2009. Template:ISBN
  21. ↑ John Michell (1978). City of Revelation: On the Proportion and Symbolic Numbers of the Cosmic Temple. Abacus. ISBN 978-0-349-12321-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=MHfubwAACAAJ. Retrieved 22 April 2011. 
  22. ↑ Euan Wallace MacKie (1977). Science and society in prehistoric Britain. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-70245-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=o3O-QgAACAAJ. Retrieved 26 April 2011. 
  23. ↑ Euan Mackie (1977). Science and Society in Prehistoric Briain, p. 53-57. Paul Elek. 
  24. ↑ A.E.Berriman (1953). Historical Metrology, p. 71. J.M.Dent. 
  25. ↑ John Ivimy (1974). The Sphinx and the Megaliths, p. 132. Turnstone. 
  26. ↑ "untitled1.html". Csus.edu. http://www.csus.edu/indiv/v/vonmeierk/3-03INC.html. Retrieved 2016-01-21. 
  27. ↑ Lunations
  28. ↑ Thom, Alexander. Megalithic Sites in Britain. Oxford : OUP, 1967

Resources[]

Other references in support of early builders
Books
  • cite book|last=Ruggles|first=Clive|title=Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland|year=1999|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-07814-5|page=83
  • cite book|author1=David George Kendall|author2=F. R. Hodson|author3=Royal Society (Great Britain)|author4=British Academy|title=The Place of astronomy in the ancient world: a joint symposium of the Royal Society and the British Academy, Hunting Quanta, p. 258|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHLvAAAAMAAJ%7Caccessdate=22 April 2011|year=1974|publisher=Oxford University Press for the British Academy
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