Picts and pyramids
Harry George (hgeorge@eskimo.com)
Thu, 26 Jan 1995 04:44:58 GMT
Ok, this is pretty flakey, but I was wondering if anyone has considered
this sequence of cultural diffusion:
Aboriginal Britons (non-Indoeuropean pre-Celtic natives of Great Britain)
lived, among other places, in treeless coastlines where they used
slate slabs for building low, bermed huts. These would have been stable
enough to allow casual observation over many years of the play of
sunlight and moonlight across the walls. End result: appreciation for
a) astronomical observation in general, and b) interest in aligning
the front door with the mid winter (solstice) noon day sun. This leads
to
a) Stone circles --> Stonehenge
b) Burial huts aimed at the solstice sun for "rebirth" (and warmth)
These people are continuous with coastal people along the European
Atlantic coast, to Iberia (including present day Basque -- which
might be related to the aboriginal pictish language), All along the
coast, this idea of stone burial mounds for dead leaders is emulated.
When Indoeuropeans arrive in Iberia from the Mediterranean, they pick up
the idea of the mounds for leaders (including the alignment of the door).
They take it back as a curiosity. It takes the Egyptians elite
by storm -- thus the pyramids. The importance of the need for rebirth
via midwinter sun is lost in such warm climates, but the connection
is kept anyway: A bermed stone house with a door aligned to the sun,
for the purpose of rebirth of the improtant dead.
Is this already discounted (e.g., by carbon dating). Is it already
in a FAQ? Or is there enough value to be worth a moment's consideration?
--
Harry George
email: hgeorge@eskimo.com
smail: 22608 90th Ave W / Edmonds WA 98026
quote: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt
the world to himself. Therefore, progress depends
on the unreasonable man." G. B. Shaw
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