THE DARTMOOR AVENUES (_continued_)
My inquiries began at Merrivale because there is a circle associated
with the avenues a little to the south of the west end of the longest;
and again nearly, or quite, south of this there is a fine menhir,
possibly used to give a north-south line. There is another menhir given
on the Ordnance map, azimuth N. 70° 30′ E., which, with hills 3° high,
points out roughly the place of sunrise from the circle in May (April
29). Although this stone has been squared and initialed, I think I am
justified in claiming it as an ancient monument. There is still another,
azimuth N. 83° E., giving a line from the circle almost parallel to the
avenue. I hope some local archæologist will examine it, for if ancient
it will tell us whether the N. avenue or the circle was built first, a
point of which it is difficult to overrate the importance, as it will
show the strict relationship between the astronomy of the avenues and
that of the circle, and we can now, I think, deal with the astronomical
use of circles after the results obtained at Stonehenge, Stenness and
the Hurlers as an accepted fact. With the above approximate values the
date comes out 1750 B.C., the declination of the Pleiades being N. 6°
35′.
I now pass on from Merrivale as an example of those avenues the
direction of which lies somewhere in the E.-W. direction. Others which I
have not seen, given by Rowe, are at Assacombe, Drizzlecombe and
Trowlesworthy; to these Mr. Worth adds Harter or Har Tor (or Black Tor).
The avenues which lie nearly N. and S. are more numerous. Rowe gives the
following:--Fernworthy, Challacombe, Trowlesworthy, Stalldon Moor,
Battendon, Hook Lake, and Tristis Rock. Of these I have visited the
first two, as well as one on Shovel Down not named by Rowe, and the next
two I have studied on the 6-inch Ordnance map.
_Fernworthy_ (lat. 50° 38′).--Here are two avenues, one with azimuth N.
15° 45′ E., hills 1° 15′. There is a sighting stone at the N. end. We
appear to be dealing with Arcturus as clock-star 1610 B.C. This is about
the date of the erection of the N. avenue at Merrivale.
The second avenue has its sighting stone built into a wall at the south
end. Looking south along the avenue, the conditions are azimuth S. 8°
42′ W., hills 3° 30′.
Both these avenues are aligned on points within, but _not_ at the centre
of, the circle.
_Challacombe_ (lat. 50° 36′).--This is a case of a triple avenue,
probably the remains of eight rows, in a depression between two hills,
Challacombe Down and Warrington. There is no circle. The azimuth is 23°
37′ N.W. or S.E., according to direction. The northern end has been
destroyed by an old stream work; there is no blocking stone to the south
on either of the remaining avenues, but one large menhir terminates one
row of stones. The others may have been removed. So it is probable that
the alignment was to the north. If so, we are dealing with the setting
of Arcturus, warning the summer solstice sunrise in 1860 B.C. To the S.
the hills are 4° 48′, to the N. 4° 50′.
To this result some importance must be attached, first, because it
brings us into presence of the cult of the solstitial year, secondly,
because it shows us that the system most in vogue in Brittany was
introduced in relation to that year. In Brittany, as I have before
shown, the complicated alignments, there are 11 parallel rows at Le
Ménac (p. 99) (there _were_ 8 parallel rows at Challacombe), were set up
to watch the May and August sunrises, and the solstitial alignments came
afterwards. The Brittany May alignments, therefore, were probably used
long before 1860 B.C., the date we have found for Challacombe, where not
the sunrise but the setting star which gave warning of it was observed.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--The remains of the eight rows of the
Challacombe Avenue. Looking North of East. Terminal Menhir on the
extreme right.]
It is worth while to point out that at Challacombe, as elsewhere, the
priest-astronomers so located their monuments that the nearly
circumpolar stars which were so useful to them should rise over an
horizon of some angular height. In this way the direction-lines would be
available for a longer period of time, for near the north point the
change of azimuth with change in the declination of the star observed is
very rapid.
_Shovel Down_, near Batworthy (lat. 50° 39′ 20″).--A group of five rows
of stones, four double, one single, with two sets of azimuths.
One set gives az. 22° 25°, and 28°. They seem to be associated. I will
call them A, B, and C. A is directed to the circle on Godleigh Common.
Its ends are free. B is a single line of stones to the E. of the triple
circle, about which more presently. It is not marked on the Ordnance
map; its ends are also free. C has its south end blocked, I think in
later times, by a kistvaen. The astronomical direction may be,
therefore, either N.W. or S.E. We find a probable use in the N.W.
quadrant, as at Challacombe, Arcturus setting at daybreak as a warner of
the summer solstice.
The height of hills is 46′; we have then:--
Az. N. Dec. Star. Date.
N. 22° W. 36° 19′ 40″ Arcturus 1210 B.C.
N. 25° W. 35° 23′ 20″ „ 1040 „
N. 28° W. 34° 19′ 30″ „ 850 „
Adjacent to A, B, C, is another avenue, which I will call D. Unlike the
others, its northern end points 2° E. of N. Its southern end is blocked
by a remarkable triple circle, the end of the avenue close to it being
defined by two tall terminal stones. We are justified, then, in thinking
that its orientation was towards the north; the height of the horizon I
measured as 45′. It may have been an attempt to mark the N. point of
the horizon.
The triple circle to which I have referred is not an ordinary circle. I
believe it to be a later added, much embellished, cairn. According to
Ormerod, the diameters are 26, 20, and 3 feet, and there are three small
stones at the centre.
All the above avenues are on the slope of the hill to the north. On the
south slope we find the longest of all, as shown on the Ordnance map
survey of 1885. There is a “long stone” in its centre, and at the
southern end was formerly a cromlech, the “three boys.” Part of this
avenue, and two of the three “boys,” have been taken to build a wall.
The long stone remains, because it is a boundary stone!
The azimuth is 2° 30′ W. of north or E. of south. Looking N. from the
long stone, the height of the horizon is 2° 30′. I think this avenue was
an attempt to mark the S. point.
_Trowlesworthy_ (lat. 50° 27′ 30″).--The remains here are most
interesting. This is the only monument on Dartmoor in which I have so
far traced any attempt to locate the sun’s place at rising either for
the May or solstitial year. But I will deal with the N.-S. avenue first,
as it is this feature which associates it with Fernworthy and
Challacombe.
As at Merrivale, the avenue has a decided “kink” or change of direction.
The facts as gathered from the 6-inch map are as follows:--
Az. Hills. Dec. N. Star. Date.
S. part of Avenue N. 7° E. 2° 52′ 41° 29′ 10″ Arcturus 2130 B.C.
N. „ „ N. 12° E. 2° 52′ 41° 6′ 20″ „ 2080 B.C.
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--The sight-lines at Trowlesworthy, showing high
northern azimuths. From the Ordnance map.]
This date is very nearly that of the use of the S. circle at the
Hurlers, and it is early for Dartmoor; but it is quite possible that
local observations on an associated avenue a little to the west of the
circle which terminates the N.-S. avenue will justify it. This is not
far from parallel to that at Merrivale, but its northern azimuth is
greater, so that if it turns out to have been aligned on the Pleiades
its date will be some time before that of Merrivale, that is, before
1580 B.C. I can say nothing more about it till I have visited it.
The new features to which I have referred are two tumuli which in all
probability represent more recent additions to the original scheme of
observation, as we have found at Stenness, and show that Trowlesworthy
was for long one of the chief centres of worship on Dartmoor. Their
azimuths are S. 64° E. and S. 49° W., dealing, therefore, with the May
year sunrises in November and February and the solstitial sunset in
December. It is probable that, as at the Hurlers, tumuli were used
instead of stones not earlier than 1900 B.C.
_Stalldon Moor_ (lat. 50° 27′ 45″) I have already incidentally referred
to. The azimuth of the stone row as it leaves the circle, _not_ from its
centre as I read the 6-inch map, is N. 3° E.; as the azimuth gradually
increases for a time, we may be dealing with Arcturus, but local
observation is necessary.
The differences between the Cornish and Dartmoor monuments give much
food for thought, and it is to be hoped that they will be carefully
studied by future students of orientation, as so many questions are
suggested. I will refer to some of them.
(1) Are the avenues, chiefly consisting of two rows of stones, a
reflection of the sphinx avenues of Egypt? and, if so, how can the
intensification of them on Dartmoor be explained?
(2) Was there a double worship going on in the avenues and the circles
at the same time? If not, why were the former not aligned on the
circles? On a dead level, of course, if the avenues were aligned on the
centre of the circle towards the rising or setting of the sun or a star,
the procession in the _via sacra_ would block the view of those in the
circle. We have the avenue at Stonehenge undoubtedly aligned on the
centre of the circle, but there the naos was on an eminence, so that the
procession in the avenue was always below the level of the horizon, and
so did not block the view.
(3) Do all the cairns and cists in the avenues represent later
additions, so late, indeed, that they may have been added after the
avenues had ceased to be used for ceremonial purposes? The cairn at
nearly the central point of the S. avenue at Merrivale was certainly not
there as a part of the structure when the avenue was first used as a
_via sacra_ for observing the rising of the Pleiades. I have always held
that these ancient temples, and even their attendant long and chambered
barrows, were for the living and not for the dead, and this view has
been strengthened by what I have observed on Dartmoor.
There was good reason for burials after the sacred nature of the spot
had been established, and they may have taken place at any time since;
the most probable time being after 1000 B.C. up to a date as recent as
archæologists may consider probable.
Mr. Worth, whose long labours on the Dartmoor avenues give such
importance to his opinions, objects to the astronomical use of those
avenues because there are so many of them; he informs me that he knows
of 50; I think this objection may be considered less valid if the
avenues show that they were dedicated to different uses, some practical
and others sacred, at different times of the year. For instance,
Challacombe is not a duplicate of Merrivale; one is solstitial, the
other deals with the May year; and a complete examination of them--I
have only worked on the fringe--may show other differences having the
same bearing.
In favour of the astronomical view it must be borne in mind that the
results obtained in Devon and Cornwall are remarkably similar, and the
dates are roughly the same. Among the whole host of heaven from which
objectors urge it is free for me to select any star I choose, at present
only six stars have been considered, two of which were certainly used,
as in Egypt, as clock-stars as they just dipped below the northern
horizon, and other two afterwards at Athens; and these six stars are
shown by nothing more recondite than an inspection of a precessional
globe to have been precisely the stars, the “morning stars,” wanted by
the priest-astronomers who wished to be prepared for the instant of
sunrise at the critical points of the May or solstitial year.