Sacred Number and the Lords of Time: The Stone Age Invention of Science and Religion by Richard Heath

Author:Richard Heath [Heath, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ancient Mysteries
ISBN: 9781620552452
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2014-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

6

THE MEGALITHIC MODEL OF THE EARTH

THE MOST NATURAL approach in studying the Earth as a three dimensional object is as a perfect sphere. This means that an observatory circle, scaled to its parallel of latitude and to the equator, was a ready-made representation of the Earth both as the equator and as the meridian. Viewing the observatory circle as the Earth’s meridian would have enabled the geometry of the circle to give access to the circumferential length of different parallels of latitude by building right triangles relative to the center of the Earth. This method assumes a geocentric idea of latitude rather than one related purely to the stars. Once the length of the equator was known, the geocentric latitude could be calculated through the length of the parallel relative to the equator, measured in the usual way but now revealing itself within geometries that could be constructed within the observatory.

This way of measuring latitude, from estimating the circular length of a parallel of latitude on a spherical Earth, differs little in potential accuracy from measuring astronomical latitude and it had a key advantage for megalithic scientists. Establishing geocentric latitude did not rely on equipment pointing at the sky to measure angles on the horizon. Megalithic scientists could not “take measurements” as we do from a device (such as an instrument pointed at the sky) because they had no notation suitable to abstract measurements except as lengths. There always had to be a metrological means to store data and the large circles of observatories could deliver accurate angular measurements approaching the one minute of arc possible to the naked eye. Measuring latitude within a geometrical circle brought the measurement of the length of a parallel of latitude within the scope of triangular mechanisms, which could reveal angles. The megalithic form of notation for an angle was always the tangent (the drop angle) or the cosine, realized within a right triangle.

The example of Stonehenge in figure 6.1 shows the way in which geocentric latitude would be presented using the circular geometry of a geodetic observatory as well as how the length of the parallel at Stonehenge could be deduced. The radius of the parallel can be directly compared as a ratio to the radius established for the equator itself. One can form a right triangle where the hypotenuse is the equatorial radius and the base the radius of the parallel of latitude. This type of geodetic latitude measurement avoids sighting the north pole and the use of a pole star, which as we’ve previously discussed is a very rare phenomenon (see figure 6.2).

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