Table of Contents
Megalithic Economics
What are Megaliths?
What type of People built the Megaliths?
Here is a typical Megalithic Structure.
Here is one with a 400 ton Capstone.
What technology did these people have?
They were Specialist Builders Let’s look at some of their Structures.
Carnac France
The Ring of Brodgar
And its Ditch
Bryn Celli Ddu Anglesey
Newgrange Ireland
Maes Howe Outside
Maes Howe Inside
They had Factories Mass producing Stone Axes
Graig Llwyd Llanfairfechan
The Headland they sailed around shipping their Work in Progress.
Gwaenysgor, on the Mouth of the Dee Estuary
The Evidence of Split Site Axe Production
Evidence of Division of Labour
The Evidence for the wide spread trading. The Area Served
They also made Ceramics
A Grooved Ware Pot
Grooved Ware & Symbols
Symbols from Newgrange, Ireland and Skara Brae, Orkney
They lived in civilized houses with Drainage en-suite!
They were Skilled Astronomers
Winter Solstice Sunset Maes Howe
Winter Solstice Sunrise Newgrange
The collimated light beam at Newgrange
Use of Lightbox Slits
Bryn Celli Ddu was built as an observatory!
In 1929 the Mound was put in place to “restore” the Site. To cover the basic aligned structure. After all tombs are supposed to be underground!
The Light Slit and Pillar at Bryn Celli Ddu
The Sun’s declination displayed by Bryn Celli Ddu
The Declination Gauge on the Pillar
The Buried Symbol Stone
A Meaning for the Symbols?
But these People also had a National System of Measurement.
Thom’s Megalithic Yard
The Accuracy of the M Yard.
How did they produce the M Yard?
Making a Megalithic Yard
The Implications of the wide spread Megalithic Yard
How to make a Standard Volume Measure
Why were these Ancient People Interested in Astronomy?.
They were Sophisticated in Everything except Writing
This the heritage of the Grooved Ware People
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This lecture "Megalithic Economics" builds on the previous work,
discussed in "The Megalith Builders" was given on
Wednesday 5th September 2001 at the Pickaquoy Cinama as part of the Orkney Science Festival.
In
this talk Robert discussed how the Grooved Ware People had used division of
labour and specialisation to improve their productivity and their standard
of living.
With the help of Merryn Dinely, Robert demonstrated how the megalithic
yard could be used as the basis for creating standard units of weight
and volume.
This lecture was sponsored by Orcades Viking Ltd.
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Presentation and all content © Robert Lomas
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