Telegraph (London), Sept. 15, 2009
They were able to travel between settlements with pinpoint accuracy thanks to a complex network of hilltop monuments.
These covered much of southern England and Wales and included now famous landmarks such as Stonehenge and The Mount.
New research suggests that they were built on a connecting grid of isosceles triangles that ‘point’ to the next site.
Many are 100 miles or more away, but GPS co-ordinates show all are accurate to within 100 metres.
This provided a simple way for ancient Britons to navigate successfully from A to B without the need for maps.
According to historian and writer Tom Brooks, the findings show that Britain’s Stone Age ancestors were “sophisticated engineers” and far from a barbaric race.
Mr Brooks, from Honiton, Devon, studied all known prehistoric sites as part of his research.
He said: “To create these triangles with such accuracy would have required a complex understanding of geometry.
“The sides of some of the triangles are over 100 miles across on each side and yet the distances are accurate to within 100 metres. You cannot do that by chance.
“So advanced, sophisticated and accurate is the geometrical surveying now discovered, that we must review fundamentally the perception of our Stone Age forebears as primitive, or conclude that they received some form of external guidance.
“Is sat-nav as recent as we believe; did they discover it first?”
Mr Brooks analysed 1,500 sites stretching from Norfolk to north Wales. These included standing stones, hilltop forts, stone circles and hill camps.
Each was built within eyeshot of the next.
Using GPS co-ordinates, he plotted a course between the monuments and noted their positions to each other.
He found that they all lie on a vast geometric grid made up of isosceles ‘triangles’. Each triangle has two sides of the same length and ‘point’ to the next settlement.
Thus, anyone standing on the site of Stonehenge in Wiltshire could have navigated their way to Lanyon Quoit in Cornwall without a map.
Mr Brooks believes many of the Stone Age sites were created 5,000 years ago by an expanding population recovering from the trauma of the Ice Age.
Lower ground and valleys would have been reduced to bog and marshes, and people would have naturally sought higher ground to settle.
He said: “After the Ice Age, the territory would have been pretty daunting for everyone. There was an expanding population and people were beginning to explore.
“They would have sought sanctuary on high ground and these positions would also have given clear vantage points across the land with clear visibility untarnished by pollution.
“The triangle navigation system may have been used for trading routes among the expanding population and also been used by workers to create social paths back to their families while they were working on these new sites.”
Mr Brooks now hopes his findings will inspire further research into the navigation methods of ancient Britons.
He said: “Created more than 2,000 years before the Greeks were supposed to have discovered such geometry, it remains one of the world’s biggest civil engineering projects.
“It was a breathtaking and complex undertaking by a people of profound industry and vision. We must revise our thinking of what’s gone before.”
Original article
(Posted on September 18, 2009)
Comments
You can find examples of ancient human ingenuity everywhere on earth, except in areas where blacks lived. It is embarrassing but the only thing their people ever created was a colorful blanket. Be thankful that you were born to a people who’s history you can be proud of.
This doubtless was the work of advanced black African civilizations which mysteriously disappeared around 4,000 BC.
Sir Freddie Hoyle, the Astronomer Royal of England, was quoted as saying that: ” whoever designed and supervised the construction of Stonehenge and other English megaliths and “lays” of the period was a one-man Einstein and Newton rolled into one!!
“…received some form of external guidance.” Britons came from space to enlighten Mankind?
If this theory is true, I’d guess that long before the stone structures, there were wooden monuments that were adjusted repeatedly over centuries. At some point, after a hundred corrections or so, the wizards or fortunetellers or priestesses of Odin’s uncle decided to make the markers permanent. Just as ancient seafarers were able to navigate the ocean without instruments, trusting to patient and careful observations of the night sky passed down through generations, so could landsmen locate themselves and their position relative to other places, with the advantage of being able to mark a spot on the ground for future reference. Technically impressive, but even more noteworthy is the vision of its builders.
Why is this system described as “crude”?????
If the description is accurate,then there is nothing-I repeat,NOTHING-crude about it.
It has no moving parts.
It was built to tolerances that we today would have to work at to match. (Doable,yes,but would we consider it worth doing???)
It uses no external power source,unless you consider a brain a source of power. (I do,but that’s just me.)
The parts still in existence still function as planned,which is one hell of a lot more than you can say for the first computer I bought.
If undisturbed,it will continue to function for as long as it stands.
We should all strive for achievement at this level. This is something that is as perfect as an axe,or a hammer,or any other tool that’s been around for thousands of years,basically unchanged,because it’s basically impossible to improve it. This is engineering at its best.
I’m Irish 100% and I dont even believe this article. Remember what Julius Cesar said about people from Britian. But never anything that negative from any other group of people.
Question for the day, “If they were this great and this advanced then how come they werent more advanced then the Romans and Greeks? How come they didnt have such material when the Romans arrived there?
There is a book called Civilization One that hypothesizes about an advanced neolithic civilization that had knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, and engineering capabilities more extensive than mainstream archeaologists believe possible. They posit that these were the builders of Stonehenge and other ancient monuments. Is it true? I don’t know, but from my perspective, it seems plausible. Interesting read, anyway.
If we are truly a “nation of immigrants” how on earth did we manage such a feat,since it requires complete continuity over thousands of years?
Large pyres for signal fires would have been more practicable at higher elevations. Also, ears could easier detect the direction of a pack of dogs that had taken a scent. Many who hunt at night will climb an elevation to get their visual and auditory bearings.
Or maybe our ancestors liked to be up high so they could see more stars.
“Why is this system described as “crude”?????
Completely plausible given Stonehenge and a myriad of similar permanent stone structures. High points have always been handy in offering unrivalled views over surrounding land and to warn of approaching aliens. Modern ‘sat-navs’ used in vehicles lead many drivers along unsuitable narrow lanes, over cliff faces and along railway tracks, the users being incompetent uncivilised creatures unable to read a road map, use a compass or communicate except by text messaging. Many millennia have elapsed since these structures were raised, then came the labour government, and we certainly didn’t foresee that outcome. These monuments will still be here when labour has turned to dust, always assuming that our immigrant population don’t find them ‘offensive’ to their imported cultural ideals and tear them down. We could use them as rallying points for the next English civil war, or rather England versus the ROTW.
4 — Schoolteacher wrote at 8:52 PM on September 18:
“If this theory is true, I’d guess that long before the stone structures, there were wooden monuments that were adjusted repeatedly over centuries. At some point, after a hundred corrections or so, the wizards or fortunetellers or priestesses of Odin’s uncle decided to make the markers permanent. Just as ancient seafarers were able to navigate the ocean without instruments, trusting to patient and careful observations of the night sky passed down through generations, so could landsmen locate themselves and their position relative to other places, with the advantage of being able to mark a spot on the ground for future reference. Technically impressive, but even more noteworthy is the vision of its builders. “
> You and some other posters here might find the Knight and Lomas book, “Uriel’s Machine,” very interesting. The focus on the prehistoric remains in the British Isles a great deal. Not exactly hard science, but conceivable as a set of possibilities, and there is a lot of useful hard data and ancient history reviewed that makes the reading profitable, whatever your personal conclusion. Presented among other things, is the description of what they call “The Megalithic Yard.” Knight and Lomas demonstrated that the ancient Britons had a system for measuring and used it.
Not entirely surprising. The Polynesians, also Neolithic people, had advanced celestial navigation skills and understanding of winds and currents that enabled them to sail long distances over open sea. They could never have found all those islands merely by being blown off course.
Estimates of the civilizational achievements of post-Roman, pre-Norman England have on average been on the rise over the past several decades. The fabulous treasures described in Beowulf were at one time regarded as extremely fanciful and without foundation in English culture of the time; that all changed when Sutton Hoo was discovered.
Michael White, you should take into account the dates when these monuments were built. The article says that they were perhaps built around 5000 BC. That is several millennia before Julius Caesar ever came into contact with the Britons. Most great civilizations have been fairly short lived unfortunately. Was Greece at the same level as the Greek empire a thousand or two years after the fall of that empire? I would assume that everybody would agree that today’s time is quite different from 3000 BC, so I would imagine that a lot could change in several thousand years. Not only that but the Romans were undoubtedly writing from a biased viewpoint (which doesn’t necessarily mean that they were not correct, however).
The story sounds very convincing to me. Britons of 5000 BC appear to have been significantly advanced in certain areas at least.
I’m sorry. I meant 5,000 years ago or 3000 BC in my previous comment, but my points still stand.
I have no time to provide links but something of the kind was in a book called THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK by Alfred [?] Watkins - about ley lines
The spacemen-came-and-guided-us is pure Erich von Daniken stuff and 99% certainly imaginative nonsense
Lets not confuse the ancient”British” with the present day white population.The people that built stonehenge pre-date
It looks like the Crop Circles.http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4dc8c87a0100f065.html
” Modern ‘sat-navs’ used in vehicles lead many drivers along unsuitable narrow lanes, over cliff faces and along railway tracks, the users being incompetent uncivilised creatures unable to read a road map, use a compass or communicate except by text messaging.”
I use that sometimes and also mapquest. The problem is that they don’t use main streets. They do the shortest distances that led one into winding suburban roads, and dead end roads and endless wandering. Better just get on a main street and drive until you find the cross street.
Add Newgrange in Ireland to that list.
The ancient peoples of Ireland and the British isles were very special indeed.
Not that any of this will stop Afrocentrists from claiming whites were cave dwelling barbarians until they civilized them. Forget the fact that they had yet to invent the wheel, when whites first colonized Africa. Oh how they love their myths
I wonder how many of these were found in Afrika
I think we all have been sold a bill of goods about our barbaric ancestors.I do not think we evolved from chance chemical interaction that over billions of years created man. No evolutionist can ever be put on the spot about the wildly improbable co-incidences.Evolutionist have far more faith than Creationist.( Please… 2 sexes evolving simultaneously…impossible…repeating the impossible thousansds of time for different species…again differently for bird ..amphibians…reptiles..mammals..impossible.
[Eric wrote at 5:38 PM on September 18: You can find examples of ancient human ingenuity everywhere on earth, except in areas where blacks lived]
But blacks are always telling us of the pyramids of Egypt, the learning centers of Timbuktu, and the Great Zimbabwe stone ruins.
