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Stone circles: Megalithic Mathematics or Neolithic Nonsense?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

I. O. Angell
I. O. Angell*
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics & Computer Science, Royal Holloway College, Egham, Surrey
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Extract

To anyone remotely interested in the large number of megalithic stone ‘circles’ that are to be found in Britain, any discussion of their geometry, metrology or astronomy brings one name to mind—Professor Alexander Thom. The professor has spent a lifetime scouring these islands, and has produced surveys for many sites, from which he has evolved a most sophisticated picture of the society of the late Neolithic Age. His best known claim is the discovery of a universal unit of length, the megalithic yard (2·72 ft), which he says was used with extreme accuracy (±0·003 ft) during the whole period of circle construction, approximately 3000 to 1500 BC.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 60 , Issue 413 , October 1976 , pp. 189 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1976

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References

1. Thom, A. Megalithic sites in Britain. Oxford University Press (1967).Google Scholar
2. Thom, A., The geometry of megalithic man, Mathl Gaz. 45, 83–93 (No. 352, May 1961).Google Scholar