Astronomical Gold Coned Hats of Ancient Wizards : The Metonic Cycle - LexiLine Journal 348

Slowly - but very slowly - mainstream archaeology is waking up to the fact that ancient peoples were sophisticated astronomers.

Steve Burdic has sent me the following link

http://snipurl.com/fkta viz.
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/03/17/wwiz17.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/03/17/ixworld.html to an article by Tony Paterson in Berlin titled "Mysterious gold cones 'hats of ancient wizards'"

It presents more evidence of the astronomy of antiquity.

The article refers to the Metonic Cycle, about which I have written at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi203.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi153.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi158.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi75.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi20.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi78.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi105.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi12.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi30a.htm

For some mainstream views on the Metonic Cycle see
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/Metonic_cycle.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonic_cycle
http://www.timeemits.com/wpjchp.htm
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/MetonicCycle.html

The idea that Meton was the first to discover this cycle is quaint and foolish and typical for mainstream archaeology and astronomy.

The fact is that this Metonic Cycle is already clearly visible at current Stonehenge - in the version we all know with ca. 50-ton sarsen stones quarried at Marlborough. There the Metonic Cycle was arguably represented by the 19 Preseli Bluestones, according to my analysis at http://www.megaliths.co.uk/stonehengeplan.htm

[January 2010 update comment: The notion that the bluestones at Stonehenge are "glacial erratics" is absurd. Currently it is alleged that ca. 82 Bluestones have been found, but this is simply not true - as only 16 remain standing at Stonehenge. IN our view 19 represented the Metonic Cycle in the currently visible arrangement . There is another newer theory for an alleged 82 bluestones involving a newly found second circle at Stonehenge, and the new theory is to be published this February, but apparently it will be alleged to involve the 56-year Aubrey hole cycle of eclipses. How many bluestones are there really? No one really knows. Earthmagazine.org writes:

"The bluestones were arranged in a circle inside the sarsen circle. They were also set into a horseshoe arrangement within the sarsen trilithon horseshoe. However, there were many changes in the stone settings prior to the arrangement that we see today, and archaeologists have found traces that indicate that the bluestones may originally have been set in a double circle. Regardless, only 43 of these foreign bluestones have been identified in these smaller stone settings at Stonehenge. Of these, 16 are still standing; the others are either leaning, lying on the ground or traceable only through buried stumps. No one knows how many bluestones might have been there originally."]

It is clear also that the ancient Chinese knew the Metonic Cycle long before Meton
http://www.beijingservice.com/beijinghighlights/chinesecalendar.htm

as did the ancient megalithic peoples of Ireland
http://snipurl.com/fkvb
http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/knowth/calendarstone.html

Why the run-of-the-mill mainstream archaeologists and astronomers are unable to see Metonic astronomy prior to the Greeks is one of the great mysteries of modern scholarship.