Cardinal Alignments and the Golden Section: Principles of Ancient Cosmography and Design

By Leif Sahlqvist

Were the dimensions of the Earth known in northern Europe already before2000 BC? Completely new evidence is disclosed in this book of an accuratelylaid out meridian along which Late Neolithic gallery-graves were systematicallyaligned. This enterprise involved what appears to be accurate measurementsof the polar circumference and the division of distances in the golden section.Remarkably, this layout is repeated several hundred years later with Iron Agemonuments. And in the 12th Century the same meridian is brought intofocus again through conspicuous locations of medieval churches, some ofthem round. Were these round churches connected to the Order of the Temple?And what role did the Cistercian Order play in linking up with an ancienttradition involving King Solomon's Temple and the Middle East as well aswhat seems to have been similarly preserved in illiterate Europe?Although breathtaking in many ways, this is not fiction but a serious academic work,researched over many years and written by Leif Sahlqvist with a Ph. D. in Archaeologyfrom Uppsala University, Sweden, and additional degrees in Modern Languages,Geography, Art and Ancient History. The author's main thesis is the existence of ageometrical and cosmographical tradition in ancient, illiterate Europe, vigorouslypursued into the Middle Ages. The book includes significant chapters on Cistercianarchitecture and cosmography, medieval art and ironwork, the Temple Churches inLondon and Paris, the Bronze Age Nebra Disk from Germany (below) and landscapegeometry around the Devil's Rock in southern Austria.Cardinal alignments - north/south, east/west - and a fourfold division of space isone of two tracks followed from ancient times into the Middle Ages. The goldensection and pentagonal geometry is the other. These fourfold and fivefoldperspectives are traced in the dynamic symmetry of Bronze Age ceremonial axes aswell as in the ground plan design of King Solomon's Temple but also - and notleast - in newly discovered cosmography displayed in ritual landscapes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1419621572
• ISBN13: 9781419621574
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing
• Length: 494 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.2" x 7.0"