How Astronomy May Help Prove a Later Date for Megaliths
Contents:
1. Introduction. The Exhortation of the Prophet Jeremiah to Erect a Pathway of Standing Stones.
2. The Pathway of Megalithic Monuments Exists!
3. The PROBLEM: Megaliths are too Early!
4. Some Answers to the Problem. Charles Ginenthal
5. The School of Immanuel Velikovsky and its Contribution to our Studies.
6. Velikovsky and a Change in the Length of Year.
7. King Hezekiah and the Sun Going Backward
8. The "Ballarat, Australia, Syndrome" and the Researches of Yair Davidiy
9. Guy Cramer and 20 Minutes for 10 Degrees Backward. DNA Significance.
10. King Hezekiah and a Possible "Ballarat Insight" of Yair Davidiy
11. Megalithic monuments COULD NOT have been erected before 700 BCE!
12. Additional Possibilities
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1. Introduction. The Exhortation of the Prophet Jeremiah to Erect a Pathway of Standing Stones.
See:
Dolmen
http://www.britam.org/Proof/Attributes/roleDolmen.html
The prophet Jeremiah (31:21) in effect exhorts the exiled Israelites from the Ten Tribes who were exiled and moving from one place to another to delineate their pathways of migration. In the future these delineations could be used to prove their Israelite ancestry. They were to erect stone pillars and edifices as well as high piles of stones. This means dolmens and cairns. The Israelites did do as Jeremiah exhorted them to do.
Jeremiah 31:
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he the child I delight in?
As often as I speak against him,
I still remember him.
Therefore I am deeply moved for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,
says the LORD.
21 Set up road markers for yourself,
make yourself signposts;
consider well the highway,
the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
return to these your cities.
"Radak" (Rabbi David Kimchi, 1157-1236) of Narbonne, France:
"SET YOURSELF UP WAYMARKS" (Jeremiah 31): This was directed to the Community of Israel, that in the generation when they would be exiled they should set up waymarks [i.e. "tsionim"] such as PILED-UP STONES OR STONE MONUMENTS. The purpose of these monuments was to mark the paths [of migration for the sake of future recognition]. The meaning was to say that even though you will be exiled, hope is not lost and you are still destined to return to these your cities. "MAKE YOURSELF HIGH HEAPS" [Hebrew: "tamrurim"]. The same message is repeated though the wording is changed since both "tamrurim" [i.e. "high heaps"] and "tsionim" (i.e. "waymarks") connote elevated-height [from the root "tamar"]...
Abarbanel (1437-1508): The prophet therefore spoke concerning the Kingdom of Israel [of the Ten Tribes] SET THEE UP WAYMARKS saying that when you go into Exile make signs by the routes and waymarks like piles of rocks [i.e. cairns] or stone monuments [Hebrew: Matzavah, i.e. dolmen] so that you may set your heart to the route and remember in order that you may return in the way you went in, return to your city.
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2. The Pathway of Megalithic Monuments Exists!
Jeremiah (31:21) refers to dolmens which are large stones set table fashion over others and often covered by large piles of rocks and stone. The dolmens and other related stone monuments form a connecting link between Israel, Britain, West France, and Scandinavia. More dolmens (over 5000!) have been found in Denmark than in any other country. On the other hand the oldest dolmens are believed to be those of Israel. More than 20,000 megalithic monuments of all types (including dolmens) have been found in the Land of Israel. These finds are especially plentiful on the eastern "Jordanian" side of the Land of Israel probably since, for various reasons, those on the west were destroyed by local inhabitants.
The verses quoted above (Jeremiah 31:20-21) in effect links dolmens with Ephraim.
The existence of the dolmens and their forming a connecting link between western areas and the Middle East is universally acknowledged. It cannot be denied. It is there.
It should be noted that megalithic monuments may have existed before the Israelites and have been used by other peoples as well as Israelites. Nevertheless the megalithic monuments (dolmens etc) do show a trail along Israelite pathways of migration from the east to the west. That is what matters.
Israelite Dolmens tend to show a 23 degree incline of the roofing stone.
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3. The PROBLEM: Megaliths are too Early!
The PROBLEM with accepting the Dolmen Pathway as Proof of Israeli Origin is that megaliths are conventionally dated in the range 6000 - 2000 BCE.
This is ridiculous but that is what the bright boys in academia tell us. That is what is accepted.
The Ten Tribes were exiled from the Land of Israel in approximately (conventional dates) 730-720 BCE.
They therefore, according to academia, could not have been responsible for erecting the dolmens etc since the standing stones had already been stood up and arranged long beforehand.
In this case the academics are wrong.
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4. Some Answers to the Problem. Charles Ginenthal
The megalithics are to be dated in the period from 700 BCE down to Roman times and later.
This can be proved from several directions.
We are preparing a work on this subject concerning which a series of preliminary articles may soon be presented.
Meanwhile one source of value is:
CHRONOLOGY OF THE AGE OF STONEHENGE AND THE MEGALITHIC WORLD .
PILLARS OF THE PAST, Volume IV , by Charles Ginenthal (2012?).
http://immanuelvelikovsky.com/Pillars-IV.pdf
Ginenthal claims that most megaliths (at least in western Europe) were erected by pagans after the downfall of the Roman Empire i.e. they are to be dated from Christian times.
In our opinion, Ginenthal may be right in some cases BUT megaliths are also to be dated to shortly after the Israelites reached places they were going to.
Ginenthal is of value in that he debunks conventional dating and shows that megaliths were historically a later development rather than a very early one.
Amongst other issues Ginenthal shows that radiocarbon dating is unreliable as are pottery sequences and other methods of sequencing archaeological findings.
There are also additional points confirming these criticisms.
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5. The School of Immanuel Velikovsky and its Contribution to our Studies.
Charles Ginenthal is an adherent of the School of Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979). Velikovsky tried to prove that the earth had suffered from numerous catastrophes occasioned by celestial events.
These had determined the course of history. Changes that historians and scientists claimed took centuries to effect were the results of immediate occurrences.
Amongst other matters, Velikovsky showed that conventional chronology in many instances is seriously mistaken.
In his Preface Ginenthal tells us:
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Quoted Extracts:
... Prehistorians, archaeologists, as well as historians presently hold that these [Megalithic] monuments and artifacts attributed to them were created/raised during the Late Neolithic and down to the Middle Bronze Ageca. 4000-1500 B.C. If this chronology is correct, it contradicts Immanuel Velikovsky's thesis that global catastrophes occurred after these times. One cannot realistically expect that these great stone monuments in Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Malta, Gozo, Spain, etc., would still be erect and more or less intact after the Earth had experienced global extraterrestrial cataclysms that shook the very foundations of the globe. ...
Furthermore, several critics of Velikovsky have come forth to point out that these megaliths are oriented to specific places in the sky such as the solstices which when retrocalculated indicate that the orientation of the Earth's axis had not changed catastrophically but was then in the same location as today, something impossible had the axis moved as Velikovsky claimed.
...the prehistoric chronology of the megalithic world is built on foundations that not only do not give support to that chronology but are often in contradiction to it and with one another. Rather than having a well-defined, ordered chronology connected to the various forms of acceptable evidence called upon as support, what actually exists is a plethora of unresolved problems, enigmas and contradictions that have little connection with that chronological reality as that reality is seen through the lenses of science and technology.
End Quote.
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In other words, Ginenthal says, the mainstream is wrong, Velikovsky was right.
We agree that the mainstream is wrong and benefit from arguments and evidence proving it to be wrong.
That does not mean that we have to agree with Velikovsky on other issues.
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6. Velikovsky and a Change in the Length of Year.
Velikovsky says that in about 700 BCE there had occurred a change in the length of year from 360 days to the present 365.
See:
Slow-Down Planet?
http://www.britam.org/Year360.html
Many megaliths are oriented to specific places in the sky such as the solstices which when retrocalculated indicate that the orientation of the Earth's axis had not changed catastrophically but was then in the same location as today. If so it means they must have been set in place AFTER the Ten Tribes were exiled.
# THE REFORMING OF THE CALENDAR
# Scholars who investigated the calendars of the Incas of Peru and the Mayas of Yucatan wondered at the calendar of 360 days; so did the scholars who studied the calendars of the Egyptians, Persians, Hindus, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Hebrews, Chinese, Greeks, or Romans. Most of them, while debating the problem in their own field, did not suspect that the same problem turned up in the calendar of every nation of antiquity. #
# In the middle of the eighth century [i.e. ca. 750 BCE] the calendar then in use became obsolete. From the year -747 until the last of the catastrophes on the twenty-third of March, -687, the solar and lunar movements changed repeatedly, necessitating adjustments of the calendar. Reforms undertaken during this time soon became obsolete in their turn, and were replaced by new ones; only after the last catastrophe of -687, when the present world order was established, did the calendar become permanent. #
# All over the world we find that there was at some time the same calendar of 360 days, and that at some later date, about the seventh century before the present era, five days were added at the end of the year, as "days over the year," or "days of nothing."
See:
Immanuel Velikovsky, "Worlds in Collision", p.316, Part Two, CHAPTER VIII
The Bible may also indicates that formerly a year of 360 days was in play: Noah entered the ark on the 17th day of the second month until the seventeenth day of the seventh month i.e. for five months which the Bible describes as 150 days.
Dividing 150 by 5 we get 30. This makes for a month of 30 days. With twelve months in a year this gives us a year of 360 days.
Genesis 7:
11 In the six hundredth year of Noahs life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
i.e. Year of Noah's life: 600; month 2; day 17.
13 On the very same day Noah and Noahs sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noahs wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark.
Genesis 7:
24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.
These 150 days must include the 40 days of constant rain mentioned above.
Genesis 8:
3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
They entered the ark on day 17, month 2. They exited on day 17, month 7 i.e. after 5 months that lasted 150 days.
150 days in 5 months equals 30 days per month. 12 months in a year means a year of 360 days.
It is claimed that the length of the year later changed from 360 days to 365.
Velikovsky says that the change in the length of the year was due to astronomical events over the period 747-687 BCE.
If he is correct, the position of the sun on the annual solstice etc, would have changed when the length of year changed.
Since megaliths are often aligned in accordance with the present solstices etc then they must have been set up after the change took place.
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7. King Hezekiah and the Sun Going Backward
Velikovsky relates the changes in the length of year to the sun going backward by 10 degrees on the sun-dial in the reign of King Hezekiah.
Isaiah 38:
4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 Go and tell Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 7 And this is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing which He has spoken: 8 Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.
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8. The Ballarat [not Bally, but Ballarat] Syndrome and the Researches of Yair Davidiy
I would like to add my own observation to the case of King Hezekiah. There may be something wrong with it. It may be mistaken. It seems too easy to be true. If you see a mistake please let us know. We can take it. Better a minor embarrassment now than discovery of a serious mistake later.
It may also be that numerous people have seen the point below before us and we did not notice it.
Or it could be a case of the Ballarat Syndrome.
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Ballarat. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballarat
Ballarat is a city located on the Yarrowee River and lower western plains of the Great Dividing Range in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately 105 kilometres (65 mi) west-north-west of the state capital, Melbourne. It is the third most populous urban area in the state, with a population of 85,935.
It is one of the most significant Victorian era boomtowns in Australia. Just months after Victoria was granted separation from New South Wales, the Victorian gold rush transformed Ballarat from a small sheep station to a major settlement. Gold was discovered at Poverty Point on 18 August 1851 and news quickly spread of rich alluvial fields where gold could easily be extracted. Within months, approximately 20,000 migrants had rushed the district.
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Gold Nuggets
The two largest nuggets of gold ever discovered came from Ballarat.
One of them was know as the Welcome Nugget. I saw a replica of it as a child on a visit with my father to the Melbourne Museum. I was very impressed.
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Wikipedia tells us:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Nugget
It was found in 1858 at the diggings of Ballarat, Victoria, under rather peculiar circumstances. The proprietors of a "hole" had gone away to lunch, leaving a hired man digging with a pickaxe. Suddenly the pick struck something. The workman dug around it to see what it was, and then he fainted dead away. The owners returned, and seeing the man lying down, thinking he was dead, one of them jumped in, turned him over to see -what was the matter with him, and then he fainted also. Both of them were dragged out and immediate digging was wildly begun for the nugget, which lay partly exposed. The mass was so great that at first they supposed they had come upon a reef of pure gold.
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The Urban Legend and a Ballarat Event.
The item above from Wikipedia is the history.
Now for the Urban Legend and the Moral behind it.
The story goes that Ballarat was a great and populous city in which everybody there was looking for gold. It happened that a man was walking in the main street over which in the course of a day thousands (or tens of thousands) regularly traversed. His foot struck a boulder sticking up out on the pathway. [This was in the time of the horse-and buggy and dirt roads]. Irritated, our friend bent down and proceeded to jerk the impediment out.
And that is how the largest gold nugget ever known came to light.
As we said it is an Urban Legend.
The story is grossly inaccurate, but it has a lesson to teach us:
Sometimes something may be obvious. It looks too good and too convenient to be real. It may already have been seen by numerous others, better than ourselves, and they never reacted to it.
Maybe there is something wrong with it?
Or is it a nugget of gold waiting for us?
In the field of research we come across information or have insights that bring these questions up.
This is a Ballarat Syndrome or Ballarat Event.
All researchers have these at some time or other.
Have we just had one?
See below.
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9. Guy Cramer and 20 Minutes for 10 Degrees Backward
The staircase-type sundial of King Hezekiah went ten degrees backward.
We do not know what exactly is meant by "degrees" but we may assume that, like today, a complete circle measured 360.
We know that a 360 degree circle was used in Ancient Babylon and India. It is agreed that at least some ancient calendars (such as that of the Persians, etc) were based on a year of 360 days and the 360 circle may be based on astronomical needs. It is also mathematically convenient. Guy Cramer points out that a sundial showing 360 days could also tell the onlookers what day of the year it was, if the year had 360 days.
Backup: 360 vs. 365 Days
By Guy Cramer
http://www.watchmanbiblestudy.com/Articles/GuyCramer/360vs365.htm
Why 360 steps? The Hebrew in Isaiah can be translated literally as steps (NIV) but it can also mean degrees (KJV), so if the meaning were 10 degrees then 360 degrees would = 360 steps.
A sundial positioned properly with 360 steps could tell you not only what hour of the day it was but also what day of the year it was (if the year had 360 days).
[Guy Cramer also proposes that the event of King Hezekiah involves a change in the length of year from 360 to 365 days. His explanation concentrates on possibly change in the time the earth takes to rotate on its axis.]
360 degrees in 12 hours = 30 degrees per hour.
10 degrees = 1/3 of an hour i.e. 20 minutes
[i.e. the sun went backwards the distance of 20 minutes].
The earth is orbiting the sun at 29.79 km/s (kilometers per second) ... to make one orbit of the sun (one complete circle) will take 365.2422 days.
If we speed up the orbit of the earth to 30.22379 km/s we would end up with a year that is 360 days long.
If we had a year of 360 days and slowed the orbit of the earth from 30.22379 km/s back to 29.79 km/s then the year would equal our current solar year; 365.2422 days per year.
The difference in speed between 365.2422 days per year and 360 days per year is equal to 20.9688 minutes per day. ... it would take the earth 20.9688 minutes less time per day to travel that same distance in the orbit around the sun.
365.2422 days -20.9688 minutes per day = 360 days.
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The explanation of Guy Cramer makes sense.
We have what we think is an even simpler method to get the same result.
Cramer assumed that the pathway of the earth around the sun remained the same but the speed of earth movement slowed down.
We suggest the speed remained the same but the pathway was widened. The results are the same.
DNA Significance.
Changes in closeness tot he sun however may have on influence on DNA typology. In general DNA is beleived to be sensiticve to solar activity, the more sun the mi\ore registtred changes!
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10. King Hezekiah and a Possible Ballarat Insight of Yair Davidiy
Source: https://www.blinklearning.com/coursePlayer/clases2.php?idclase=40034699&idcurso=734099
Source: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/seasons-causes.html
Assuming the sun-dial had 360 degrees:
In the case of King Hezekiah, the sun went backwards for 10 degrees out of 180 of a 12 hour daylight cycle. There are two such cycles in 24 hours. One we see (daytime) and one (nightime) we do not.
There are 24 hours in a day. The sun went backwards for 10 degrees of a 180 degree semi-circle or 5 degrees of a 360 degree 24 hour circle.
In this case the sun went backwards, i.e. the earth or the sun suddenly jerked out of place so that the day in question would have lasted a little longer than the day before it.
This could have been a one-time event OR it may have presaged a permanent change.
It may have meant that the earth had moved from one line of orbit around the sun to another wider one.
[Whether the earth moves around the sun or the sun around it means the same thing in practical terms. It depends on how you look at it. The sun-centered (heliocentric) explanation is the one used today so we too shall use it in this essay.]
Henceforth the earth would need an additional 5 degrees out of 360 (meaning 5 days) to complete its annual circuit around the sun.
The orbit was lengthened by 5/360 i.e. 1/72 or 5 days per year.
Henceforth the year was to last 365 days instead of 360.
Egyptian-type sun-dial.
Movement of the sun forwards and backwards and its effect on the sundial.
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11. Megalithic monuments COULD NOT have been erected before 700 BCE!
Megaliths are often aligned in accordance with solar and astronomical movements.
These alignments are only valid on the assumption that the length of the solar year is the same today as it was when the monuments were constructed. Immanuel Velikovsky, "World in Collision", 1950, claimed that around 700 BCE as a result of cosmic calamities the calendars of all ancient peoples were changed from a year of 360 days to one of 365 1/4 days as of now. It is immaterial to us as to whether the exlanation of Velikovsky for this phenomen is correct or not. What is important is that if the length of the year did change the Megalithic monuments must have been erected after the change took place, i.e. after 700 BCE.
If there was a change in the earth's axis true and megalithic monuments are indeed astronomically aligned then in most cases they COULD NOT have been erected before 700 BCE!
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12. Additional Possibilities
A change in the length of year from 365 to 360 days probably occurred. The Bible seems to indicate it.
Ancient records seem to confirm it though these have been contested.
On the other hand, the Sages - as far as we know- did not mention it.
Whatever the case astronomical changes did occur and these too help in dating the megaliths.
In addition we have pottery sequences showing that the Stone Age actually overlapped the periods of Bronze and Iron.
We have finds from later eras including that of the Romans in the foundational structures of some of the megaliths.
There are also ecological and logistic factors indicating a later date.
And more.
Additional articles in this series shall explore some of the issues involved.
