Records in Stone
Records in Stone
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USDProfessor Alexander Thom, who died in 1985, was a distinguished engineer. Independently of his 'mainstream' academic career, he developed a deep and active interest in the prehistoric megalithic sites of Britain and Brittany, visiting and surveying many hundreds of them over a period of forty years. Thom's interpretations of the field data have aroused strong interest and some intense controversy. The main areas of debate are: geometry (the methods used to set out the megalithic rings, many of which appear to be non-circular); mensuration (the possible use of 'standard' units of measurement in setting out rings and rows); and astronomy (the connection between structures aligned upon the horizon and the rising and setting positions of the sun, moon or stars).
Product details
February 2003Paperback
9780521531306
540 pages
237 × 191 × 28 mm
0.978kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Foreword
- Part I. Alexander Thom's Life and Work:
- 1. A personal note about my late father, Alexander Thom Archie Thom
- 2. A personal appreciation of Professor Alexander Thom Hans Motz
- 3. The career and publications of Alexander Thom Compiled by Archie Thom
- 4. A catalogue of the Alexander Thom archive held in the National Monuments Record of Scotland Lesley Ferguson
- 5. The metrology and geometry of Megalithic Man Alexander Thom and Archie Thom
- 6. Megalithic landscape Chris Jennings
- Part II. Research Papers: Archaeological Research Inspired by Alexander Thom:
- 7. 'Without sharp north …' Alexander Thom and the great stone circles of Cumbria Aubrey Burl
- 8. Investigating the prehistoric solar calendar Euan MacKie
- 9. The stone alignments of Argyll and Mull: a perspective on the statistical approach in archaeoastronomy Clive Ruggles
- 10. A cluster analysis of astronomical orientations Jon Patrick and Peter Freeman
- 11. Megalithic observatories in Britain: real or imagined? Ray Norris
- 12. The stone rows of northern Scotland Leslie Myatt
- 13. Stones in the landscape of Brittany Pierre-Roland Giot
- 14. The orientation of visibility from the chambered cairns of Eday, Orkney David Fraser
- 15. The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Graham Ritchie
- 16. The geometry of some megalithic rings Ronald Curtis
- 17. Megalithic compound ring geometry Thaddeus Cowan
- 18. The metrology of cup-and-ring carvings Alan Davis
- 19. Megalithic Callanish Margaret Ponting
- 20. The Thom paradigm in the Americas: the case of the cross-circle designs Anthony Aveni
- 21. Light in the temples Ed Krupp
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography.
