Continuing their claim that an advanced megalithic measuring system was known to the ancient Britons before the great civilizations of Greeks and Egyptians, Christopher Knight and Alan Butler go forward with their quest with into ancient religion and its relationship to astronomy in their latest book 'Before the Pyramids' (2009).
“Proof that civilization is thousands of years older than historians believe”
The Megalithic Yard was first suggested by
Alexander Thom as a standard unit of measure used in the construction of stone circles following his extensive surveys of all the major megalithic monuments in the British Isles and Brittany. Thom also noticed the geometry of these megalithic sites nearly all incorporated Pythagorean triangles, 3-4-5 and 5-12-13 for example. Thom's work was derided by most academics at the time and has never been universally accepted. However, his work was further advanced by
Anne Macaulay in
'Megalithic Measures and Rhythms' (2006) who showed how the people of the megalithic period from 4000 to 2000 BC purposefully used Pythagorean geometrical shapes in the designs of their megalithic monuments, confirming the controversial discovery of Alexander Thom. Macaulay further claimed that the original corpus of this mathematical knowledge, actually migrated from the Atlantic seaboard to the Eastern Mediterranean, diffused by the legends of Apollo and the Hyperboreans, to be rediscovered centuries later by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, in the opposite direction of transmission to the conventional view.
The investigation into the Megalithic Yard has been continued in recent years by
Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas in '
Uriel's Machine' (2000). Moving away from their previous books which started with an investigation into the Knights Templar, the origins of Freemasonry and Rosslyn in Scotland in the ground breaking '
The Hiram Key' (1996), turning their attention to the ancient megalithic monuments of Britain. In
Uriel's Machine Knight & Lomas proposed that the Earth was hit by a sequence of comets from 7640 BC to 3150 BC, creating a series of tidal waves that wreaked devastation around the planet. From their study of the megalithic monuments around Britain, and the
Book of Enoch, the author's demonstrated how a civilisation emerged from these catastrophes and constructed an international network of sophisticated astronomical observatories.
Knight & Lomas concluded that
Enoch must have visited Britain some time before 3150 BC to receive instruction on how to construct a megalithic celestial calculator which could be used as an accurate calendar and a comet predictor. In their investigations the author's revealed that these megalithic sites in the British Isles must have been constructed almost 1,000 years before the Great Pyramid in Egypt to measure the long term movements of the planet Venus and provide the people who built them with a time-keeping system accurate to a few seconds over a forty year period.
Uriel's Machine shows how the prehistoric unit of measurement, which Alexander Thom called the Megalithic Yard, was accurate to a fraction of a millimetre and derived from observational astronomy. It was during their investigations for
The Hiram Key that Knight & Lomas first encountered
The Book of Enoch, deemed a non-canonical work and excluded from the Bible by the early church fathers, which the author's found had long been part of the ancient tradition of Freemasonry, and then rediscovered years later among the Dead Sea Scrolls, containing precise details on the building of an '
Uriel's' machine for the reconstruction of a shattered world. They suggest Enoch may have been writing about Newgrange with reference to its quartz wall.
Following
Uriel's Machine the author's parted company, with Robert Lomas continuing his researches into Freemasonry and Christopher Knight working with Alan Butler on further investigations into ancient knowledge. Alan Butler had previously embarked on a quest to discover the true purpose of the
Phaistos Disc, a strange artefact from 2000 BC, discovered in the ruins of the Minoan palace of Phaistos, Crete. Butler spent ten-years researching this ancient object which resulted in the rediscovery of a lost system of geometry and mathematics leading to publication of
'The Bronze Age Computer Disc', (2000) with Knight and Lomas providing the Introduction. Butler went on to write '
The Goddess, the Grail and the Lodge' (2003), revealing the origins of the grail in Goddess religion and its continuance through Christianity down to modern times. It seemed a natural step for Knight and Butler to work together, which culminated in their first book '
Civilization One' (2005).
In
Civilization One Christopher Knight returned to the Megalithic Yard, along with co-author Alan Butler, setting out to prove the premise of Alexander Thom, investigating the source of the megalithic yard and its consequences to later units of weights and measures. Their conclusion was that there must have been an advanced culture in prehistory as evidenced by the megalithic structures of the late Neolithic - early Bronze Age of North Western Europe, which was the precursor to the earliest known civilisations. These megalithic monuments were built using a very precise unit of measurement:
The Megalithic Yard.
Knight and Butler demonstrated how this very precise unit of 82.966656cm, used in the construction of thousands of megalithic structures in Britain and France, was derived from observing the rate of the spin of the Earth. The author's show how this was part of an integrated system, far more advanced than anything used today, forming the basis for both the Imperial and the Metric measurement systems. These ancient astronomer-mathematicians must have understood the dimensions, motions and relationships of the Earth, Moon and Sun.
Included in
Civilization One is a chapter on music and light, highlighting the correspondence between the rotating mass of the Earth and music; megalithic mathematics producing its own musical structure which reminds of Anne Macaulay's claim that the proportions of geometric figures can be found in the layout of many megalithic stone circles and from which sequence a guitar can be tuned. There are seven appendices that include further information on the relationship of earth days and the megalithic year, megalithic music, the
Phaistos Disc, the amazing barley seed, and the connection between megalithic principles and Freemasonry.
On how these ancient people acquired this knowledge, the author's conclude that there must have been an advanced people who taught this science and technology around the planet as seen in the many sites around the world. This theme commenced in
Uriel's Machine, and it's study of the
Book Of Enoch, suggesting an advanced race of unknown origin as the source, echoing the earlier vision of
John Michell;
“A great scientific instrument lies sprawled across the entire surface of the globe. At some period, perhaps it was about 4000 years ago, almost every corner of the world was visited by a group of men who came with a particular task to accomplish. With the help of some remarkable power, by which they could cut and raise enormous blocks of stone, these men erected vast astronomical instruments, circles of erect pillars, pyramids, underground tunnels, cyclopean stone platforms, all linked together by a network of tracks and alignments, whose course from horizon to horizon was marked by stones , mounds and earthworks.” -
The View Over Atlantis (1969).
Advancing this theme further, Knight and Butler's latest book '
Before The Pyramids' (2009) presents a startling series of discoveries about ancient history and containing much scientific data about the Megalithic Yard and how it can be traced back to the pyramids and beyond. Continuing from their earlier work,
Civilization One, the author's present evidence of a prehistoric measuring system that provides evidence of the existence of a lost civilization that existed before the last Ice Age. With their further investigations into ancient religion and its relationship to astronomy, Knight and Butler find a clear correlation between the Thornborough henge complex of North Yorkshire and the later Pyramids of Giza, suggesting that this megalithic measuring system is reflected in both sites as representations of the stars in Orion’s belt.
They claim that the Sphinx and other Egyptian structures prove beyond doubt that the emergence of civilization took place at least a thousand years before orthodox history considered. In a series of revelations Knight and Butler show how: The pyramids were built as a gateway to the heavens and on a precise astronomical model of the constellation Orion; Measurements used at Giza required an exact knowledge of the Earth's dimensions some 2,000 years before they were calculated; The plan of the pyramids in not original but is copied from another sacred site more than a millennium older -
in Britain.
On investigating Alexander Thom's Megalithic Yard, Knight and Butler have arrived at the conclusion that the ancient British were more advanced in astronomy and mathematics than the Egyptians and therefore transmission of this knowledge must have been from the North Western seaboard of Europe as Anne Macaulay suggested.
See also:
Alternative Science & History News
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A number of items from The Staffordshire Hoard are to be exhibited for the first time ever next month (February) at The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, in Stoke-on-Trent. One such piece is an intricate Horse’s head which will go on display, the first time it will have been seen in public for over one thousand years.
