Archaeologists Versus Astronomers - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 10

F IG . 1.3 The alignment to Jura from the platform at Kintraw. After Euan
MacKie, “Science and Society in Prehistoric Britain [ 14 ] ”
To an outsider, the hostile reaction to MacKie's thesis was
hard to understand. For example, in The Prehistoric Settlement
of Britain Richard Bradley wrote: “There is also convincing evi-
dence for mathematical and astronomical expertise (Thom 1967).
This evidence has been sorely abused (e.g., MacKie 1977), but
there can be little doubt that a fifth class must now be envisaged:
a priesthood, or its equivalent, whose role cannot be rationalized
in terms of subsistence agriculture… [ 15 ].” Just what the objec-
tion to MacKie's work might be was not explained. The reference
is to Science and Society in Prehistoric Britain , mind you, and