Stonehenge Decoded

By Gerald S. Hawkins

Book Overview

This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. Together, the more than one hundred UC Libraries comprise the largest university research library... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880291478
• ISBN13: 9780880291477
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A computer from the Neolithic Age

When an astronomer looks at Stonehenge, he has to find alignments with the moon and the sun. It is all the easier since this civilization that built Stonehenge (Neolithic men around 1900-1500 BC) was based on a « religion » centered on the sun and the moon because these two entities were dictating their rhythms onto man's activities : agriculture first of all, but also their whole planning of all their resources to be able to face the hard season, the winter. But what Hawkins finds is a lot more disquieting. First Stnehenge is on the only latitude where the main alignments with the sun and those with the moon are perpendicular, hence project a rectangle on the ground which is one of the basic forms of the first design of Stonehenge. What's more the 56 Aubrey holes are the exact number of solar years necessary to calculate the moon cycles (19 + 19 + 18), still in the first Stonehenge. All the subsequent phases (two main building phases) will keep these basic alignments, multiply them and emphasize them. Howkins further shows that, well-used, the 56 Aubrey holes are a computing device to predict the moon eclipses. That is amazing. It can't be proved that it was used like that at the time, but the power is in the structure. Difficult to think it's only a coincidence. How could they have come to the number 56 in any other different way (7x8, 14x4, 28x2 are not significant) ? But the book raises a question in my mind that Hawkins never examines. The geographical (51°13 latitude north) position, the long building period (300 to 400 years) over 30 to 40 life expectancy generations or 60 to 80 active life generations, imply that the knowledge of the design was transmitted after having been invented and set : the place needed a vast coordination in space, and the time needed a transmission device. This implies a « common » language among the neolithic men in the whole of Europe, and this implies some kind of a transcribing device to keep and transmit the basic parameters. This means reckoning (this is no problem since even illiterate people can count) and a symbolic writing procedure. We could imagine pure oral transmission, though it sounds eefy for technical and numerical elements. And after all we had believed the Celts had no writing system, till we discovered the Ogham alphabet that was used by the druids in their time, projecting thus the Celts from prehistory into history itself. The designing and the managing of the building of Stonehenge also imply that this neolithic society had an elite both in intelligence and in social position. Priests ? Maybe, but intellectuals for sure. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne

An ancient whiz-wheel

For 3000 years men have pondered this brooding monument to the past and groped to understand the purpose. The Stonehenge object demands this sort of wonder. The humans who looked and wondered encompassed every phase of human history from the stone/early-bronze age until today. They built legends and myths about the builders based upon themselves, their own abilities as societies and their assumptions about the men who preceded them. Those who couldn't conceive of a technology capable of moving 50 ton boulders from many miles away explained what they saw with Gods and magic. Those who lived in the bloody ages of warfare and vain royalties explained what they saw in those terms. Always they assumed the men of the past were at least as ignorant and savage as themselves.The men who built Stonehenge during the centuries between 1750 and 1500 BC might have been bloody. But they were not ignorant. The subsequent centuries of men could never conceive of the purpose of Stonehenge until computers were invented. Stonehenge is, itself, a massive computer. Hawkins, an astronomer at the dawn of the recent computer age, applied an IBM computer and finally solved the mystery of purpose in the huge stones in 1963.The monument required millions of man-hours to build and an understanding of astronomy not repeated for tens of centuries. At least a major part of the Stonehenge purpose involved predicting celestial events on a scale almost as grandiose as Stonehenge itself.Hawkins wrote this book four decades ago. Until his discoveries and publication hundreds of theories surrounded the monument. Today, because of Hawkins, any conflicting new theory on any aspect of Stonehenge has to be weighed against his findings and proven. This is the Hawkins accomplishment. Men finally have a clearer view, not only of the massive stones, but of the complex intellects and shocking accomplishments of stone age and bronze age man. Stonehenge finally demonstrates the intellect of the creators more than the unbelievable technological project of itself those later men could always see. This book is a must read.

Detecting From the Stones

The author is a Professor of Astronomy who chose to investigate Stonehenge. He concluded that Stonehenge was a sophisticated astronomical observatory designed to predict eclipses. The positioning of the stones provides a wealth of information, as does the choice of the site itself. If you can see the alignment, general relationship, and the use of these stones then you will know the reason for the construction. The author, and other astronomers, discovered the 56-year cycle of eclipses by decoding Stonehenge!Stonehenge was constructed from about 1900BC to 1600BC. Appendix B tells how the movement of stones once each year from an initial fixed position will predict accurately every important lunar event for hundreds of years. This computer would need resetting about once every 300 years by advancing the stones by one space. Mankind generally used the cycle of the moon as a unit of timekeeping.The most significant Stonehenge positions line up to point to some unique sun of moon position (Figure 12). Chapter 7 tell how they used an IBM 704 computer in 1961 to plot the Stonehenge positions (120 pairs of points) and calculated where the lines would hit the sky (p.105). Chapter 9 asks if the Aubrey holes can be proved to have been used as a computer? No, but it is the most reasonable solution proposed so far.This entertaining and educational book tells about the author's investigations and conclusions. It is a classic science book for the general reader.

As usual the brilliance is found in the simplicity....

Put away all your wild theories and the inept investigations of amateurs. Hawkins has put the record straight for anyone bold enough to keep an open mind. The case is closed, the mystery of Stonehenge has indeed been decoded.

An Older Book Still Very Fresh...

The author used a computer (in the early 1960's) to calculate high and low rising points for the sun & moon for different eras. He found many precise alignments among the stones for the era of apparent construction. Among other purposes, the ediface shows "that an eclipse of the sun or moon always occurred when the winter moon - that is the full moon nearest the winter solstice - rose over the heel stone."Hawkins presents an excellent overview of the history of Stonehenge lore and then goes into a very detailed account on the development of Stonehenges I, II & III. He seems to have worked out the quarrying / transportation & construction problems quite well. Stonehengers (NOT Druids) left quite a calculator behind.