Geology Reference
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'suitable' positions) nevertheless also by its nature prevented
the identification of accurate long alignments. Thus his con-
clusion that long alignments did not exist was based on an a
priori assumption, not on independent fieldwork and a large
part of his subsequent campaign against Thom's conclusions
is based on this error…
Drawings A and B on Fig. 5 [of ref. 3] well illustrate how
Ruggles's survey method cannot reveal an accurate long align-
ment even when one exists. Despite the fact that the fore-
sight is the tip of a small island far out to sea, and therefore
can mark a sunset precisely, Ruggles's diagram marks with
horizontal arrows only the minimum and maximum spans
of the horizon indicated by the standing stone itself. Thus a
potentially accurate alignment is arbitrarily reduced to a more
approximate one [ 3 ] .
The missing element here is that erecting a standing stone
can be regarded as an act of communication, an intention to record
or highlight a discovery which the builders have made. The person
on the receiving end has to make the 'a priori assumption' that
communication is intended and can be understood. (In starting to
read this topic, the reader has to assume that those conditions are
met. If you start with calculating the odds that the ink has fallen
randomly on the page in what looks to you like standard English,
you'll never get as far as assessing the content.) Recent history
provides a perfect example of this point, and why statistics alone
can never settle such disputes.
At low tide, the island of Colonsay (see above) is joined to
the uninhabited island of Oronsay by The Strand, a stretch of sand
dotted with pools of salt water and patches of seriously dangerous
quicksand. (Looking at satellite photos of the UK, you can tell if
the tide is out because if so, Colonsay and Oronsay appear as a
single island. The tide is out so often that one might suspect the
same photo-montage is being reprocessed in different ways.) On
the Colonsay side, the road slopes down to the sand and stops; the
corresponding track on Oronsay is hard to see, especially in rain or
mist, so in 1940 a standing stone was erected beside it to mark the
safe route across (Fig. 4.25 ).
The Oronsay shore is relatively featureless, especially in mist,
and from the Colonsay side it occupies an arc of approximately
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