Records in stone : papers in memory of Alexander Thom

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Records in stone : papers in memory of Alexander Thom

edited by C.L.N. Ruggles

Cambridge University Press, 1988

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Note

Bibliography: p. [502]-519

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Professor 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).

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.

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