Stone circles: Megalithic Mathematics or Neolithic Nonsense?
- 1 October 1976
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Mathematical Gazette
- Vol. 60 (413) , 189-193
- https://doi.org/10.2307/3617476
Abstract
To anyone remotely interested in the large number of megalithic stone ‘circles’ that are to be found in Britain, any discussion of their geometry, metrology or astronomy brings one name to mind—Professor Alexander Thom. The professor has spent a lifetime scouring these islands, and has produced surveys for many sites, from which he has evolved a most sophisticated picture of the society of the late Neolithic Age. His best known claim is the discovery of a universal unit of length, the megalithic yard (2·72 ft), which he says was used with extreme accuracy (±0·003 ft) during the whole period of circle construction, approximately 3000 to 1500 BC.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- The Geometry of Megalithic ManThe Mathematical Gazette, 1961