Archaeoastronomy in the British Isles - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 101

Jewelry of Whitby jet was also found in quantity in local
graves. “Kilmartin Glen, at the start of the second millennium
b.c., may be a snapshot of a moment in time - when Britain found
within herself the wherewithal to produce the kind of raw mate-
rials and finished products that had currency in the wider world.
[Dr. Alison] Sheridan goes further - arguing that by around 2100
b.c. the communities of Kilmartin would have attracted interna-
tional attention for their metalwork and for prestige items like
the jet necklace. She happily describes that part of Scotland, at
that time, as 'the epicenter of cool,' as though communities thou-
sands of miles away in the south and east - back in the lands of
the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe - would have suddenly
become aware that smiths and craftsmen working in the British
archipelago were producing items of the highest quality [ 8 ] .”
And, at a time when all the world was 'watching the skies,' for
whatever reason, is it still madness to suggest that with structures
that could be used to make observations “of the highest quality,”
it's probable that they actually did it?
At the time of the Astronomy Project, however, these dra-
matic revelations lay decades in the future. The setting out of the
debate here has been to show that back then, the Sighthill megalith
was not built in a spirit of uncritical hero worship but in recogni-
tion of the creative work of the ancient builders, and of detective
work by the Thoms, MacKie and Roy, into which we looked, to
the best of our abilities, before accepting it.
References
1. MacKie, Dr. E.: Prehistoric astronomy: A case study on academic
tolerance. Lecture, Glasgow University Department of Physics and
Astronomy, and Department of Adult and Continuing Education,
Professor Archie E. Roy, 'A Lad o' Pairts', Day of Celebration, 29 Sep
1989
2. Thom, A.: Megalithic Sites in Britain, op cit
3. MacKie, E.W.: Wise men in antiquity? In: Ruggles, C.L.N., Whittle,
A.W.R. (eds.): Astronomy and Society in Britain During the Period
4000-1500 B.C. BAR British Series 88, pp. 111-152. British Archaeo-
logical Reports, Oxford, England (1981); MacKie, E.W.: The prehistoric