Operation Megalithic Lift - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 188

F IG . 7.4 A Bronze Age 'working photograph'? (Ludovic McLellan Mann,
“Ancient Sculpturings”, William Hodge & Co., 1915)
on a slate from a Bronze Age tomb at Portpatrick in Galloway
(Fig. 7.4 ). Could this be a Neolithic astronomer's equivalent of a
'working photograph'? Archie Thom became involved in contro-
versy over the famous 'gold lozenge,' discovered in 1808 in Bush
Barrow, near Stonehenge, which appeared to be marked up with
astronomical observations (Fig. 7.5a ) . He and other archaeoastron-
omers were enraged when the British Museum polished it flat [ 2 ] !
MacKie has drawn attention to the 'Nebra Disc,' a bronze disc
with gold leaf ornament, from Mittelberg in Germany and dated
to approximately 1600 b. c., which he believes to contain similar
information (Fig. 7.5c ). The similarity could arise because the two
sites are on nearly the same latitude, just north of 51° (Fig. 7.5d ).
But when that latitude gives the main solar and lunar alignments
the form of a rectangle, perhaps it also tells us that the culture of
astronomer-priests was pan-European [ 3 ]. One of the kerbstones at
Knowth bears what appears to be a complete 'Thom calendar' for
the year (Fig. 7.5e ) , and elements of the design are found at other
Irish sites.
The February 1979 break in the weather came just in time, for
in the meantime we had been tackling the problem of delivering
the stones to the hilltop. At the start of the project Sighthill was
still completely waste ground, with no vehicle access, and a heli-