Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:58:44.053Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Bush Barrow gold lozenge: is it a solar and lunar calendar for Stonehenge?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

A. S. Thom
Affiliation:
The Hill, Dunlop, Kilmarnoc:k KA3 4DH
J. M. D. Ker
Affiliation:
The Hill, Dunlop, Kilmarnoc:k KA3 4DH
T. R. Burrowst
Affiliation:
The Hill, Dunlop, Kilmarnoc:k KA3 4DH

Extract

Papers in ANTIQUITY earlier this year (Kinnes et al. 1988; Shell 6. Robinson 1988) have studied evidence for the original profile-shape of the decorated gold lozenge, from Bush Barrow, in the barrow-field immediately to the south of Stonehenge. They have not addressed the pattern of the markings inscribed on the lozenge, which are here identified with the significant directions of solar and lunar events, the lozenge acting as a long-term record for prehistoric astronomers.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, R.D.K. 1975. Megalithic astronomy – a prehistorian’s comments, Journal for the History of Astronomy 6 (1: 15): 4252.Google Scholar
Clarke, D.V., Cowie, T.G. & Foxon, A.. 1985. Symbols of power at the time of Stonehenge. Edinburgh: HMSO.Google Scholar
Heggie, D.C. (ed.) 1982. Archaeoasfronomy in the Old World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinnes, I.A. et al. 1988. Bush Barrow gold, Antiquity 62: 2439.Google Scholar
Shell, C. & Robinson, P.. 1988. The recent reconstruction of the Bush Barrow lozenge plate, Antiquity 62: 24860.Google Scholar
Thom, A. 1967. Megalithic sites in Britain. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Thom, A. 1971. Megalithic lunar observatories. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Thom, A. & Thom, A.S.. 1978. Megalithic remains in Britain and Brittany. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Thom, A. & Thom, A.S.. 1982. Statistical and philosophical arguments for the astronomical significance of standing stones with a section on the solar calendar, in Heggie 1982:5382.Google Scholar