53.  The large Bush Barrow lozenge of gold.

This nine-megalithic-inch-long artifact obeys the 10-degree rule with exact 80 and 100-degree angles.  It is, therefore, geometric.  So is Stonehenge with its 50-degree axis. 

But no one will deny Stonehenge being astronomical, too, as is the Lozenge. 

This artefact was worn across the chest of the Bush Barrow man when entering Stonehenge in several attempts to activate it by reflecting high-altitude sunlight onto its stones. High altitude modifies the azimuth of the mid-June sun, causing a delay, and that is why Stonehenge is astronomical as well as geometric.  

Furthermore, the lozenge with 36 right-angled triangles scribed around its perimeter relates it to the 36 MY diameter of the sarsen circle, as do the four lozenges with nine rhombi in the centre.  Four times nine also gives 36.

The Bush Barrow is astronomical for being aligned on the southernmost moonset. 

54.   Site IV is a henge with an array of 189 timber posts set at its middle found inside the greater Mount Pleasant Henge to the east of Dorchester in Dorset.  Site IV, excavated by Wainwright in 1970-1971, suggests that something should grow.

Site IV was designed and built by Beaker Folk, who were crawling about all over the place in 2500 BC. The carefully placed posts in the middle of the site prove that the nine-megalithic-inch-long Bush Barrow lozenge of gold - a rhombus - is not geometric as claimed by Johnson on Wikipedia, for it obeys the Stone Age 10-degree rule.

Perhaps more importantly, the moon already obeys the rule in Wiltshire, so in this respect, the lozenge is part astronomical, part 10-degree rule. 

Site IV Consists of five rings, while the two outer rings are egg-shaped. 

The outer Ring A is aligned with the northernmost moonset, while Ring B is aligned with the summer solstice sunset. - So wrote Professor John North in his book "Stonehenge: Neolithic Man and the Cosmos."

Since the rhomboids shown above increase in stages of 10 plus one, it proves a sincere wish for these eggs to grow.

And the following diagram proves this array works equally well when the lozenge is rotated 90 degrees. 

55.  The Bush Barrow lozenge turned through 90 degrees. The rhombi here grow geometrically.  Sizes in Megalithic Yards are...19, 27, 36, 46, and 57.

56.  The small Bush Barrow gold lozenge.

Site IV works equally well for the 1.5 Megalithic Inch Bush Barrow lozenge, seen above. 

The first thing Beaker Folk did when setting out the post positions in the middle of Site IV was to determine the cardinal points north, south, east, and west.

Then, obeying the Stone Age 10-degree rule, the next task was to draw a rhombus that measures 36 Megalithic Yards in the vertical plane. This rhombus is shown in red. 

Like the scribed lines of the lozenge, these rhombi represent growth by increasing in arithmetical steps of 10 Megalithic Yards. 

The Clandon Barrow Lozenge.  This lozenge was found in the Clandon Barrow at the western end of Maiden Castle - an Iron Age fort west of Dorchester. 

Dr Joan Taylor of Liverpool University measured this lozenge and found it to be 15.5 centimetres long.  This converts to 7.5 Megalithic Inches.  The archaeological lack of interest in proving the Megalithic Inch is apparent!

The Clandon Lozenge works equally well at proving a wish for growth.  The steps are... 24, 24+12, 36+13, 49+14, 63+15, and 78.

This lozenge has a small rhombus in each of its four corners. Two of these increase fourfold, while the other pair rise five times, giving 18, thus representing the radius of Stonehenge's sarsen circle. 

57.  The Little Cressingham rectangle was found in a round barrow burial near the Grimes Graves flint mines in Norfolk. 

The rectangle today is housed in Norwich Castle Museum, and despite a failed request to state its size, it is believed to be based on a pair of 3:4:5 Pythagorean triangles, measuring three by four by five Megalithic Inches. The scale for this artefact came from a photo found in Andrew Lawson's book "Chalkland."

As seen above, the Little Cressingham rectangle represents arithmetical growth in steps 6, 7, 8, 9, and maybe even 10.

58.  This is my rendition of an artefact of gold held in the Dorset Museum.

This artefact, which represents the Cosmos - like the Nebra Sky Disc - brings the sun, moon, and stars together to tell us all we need to know. 

59.  A Lunular of gold. (Probably found in Cornwall)

One day in Ireland, many years ago, a man sat down and drew the moon on a sheet of pure gold.  He started by hard-boiling an egg, believe it or not, which he carefully halved with a sharp piece of flint. 

Then, laying one half of this egg down, he drew around it.  Next, he cast several radii from its profile to obtain the moon shape he hoped to produce. He had made a thing of great beauty, but he still wasn't satisfied; he wanted more.

So, this artisan threw two of its radii, not from around the shell but from around the yolk.

In so doing, not only did he perfect the shape of his lunular of gold, but he expressed a need to tap into life itself.

60.  This artwork, found scribed on the side of Shaft 2 of Grimes Grave's flint mines, was lit by the sun at certain times of the day.  This was to convey the message that the sun should marry the moon.

Consisting of lines, no two of which are the same, the artwork on the right tells the sun - do not remain single. The pairs on the left, spaced two megalithic inches apart, suggest marriage. 

Turn this image through 90 degrees and make it the height of an A4 sheet, and it won't be far from the actual size!

At the bottom of another shaft, archaeologists found what they consider an Altar.  This "Altar" suggests flight with the skull of a sea bird placed at its centre.  A pair of deer antlers framing the skull of this bird appear to be kissing!

61. Antler's picks were the chief implements to hack away the chalk and release the flint. When blunt and reaching the end of their useful life, the majority were thrown in a heap to keep the floors clear for other antlers to make the patterns as seen above. These antlers were probably pristine and unused. 

The black dots represent tiny heaps of charcoal that had been brought down from outside- no evidence of fire being found anywhere at the bottom of a shaft.

Carefully placed Red-Deer antler picks found on the gallery floors after removing every useful nodule of Floorstone flint provide us with further evidence of a Neolithic preoccupation with things that come in pairs - as shown in the images above.

Others were placed in threes to represent the family, as seen on the right.

From the out-of-print booklet "The real Grimes Graves prehistoric flint mines" ISBN 978-0-9553012-9-2, T W Flowers 2010.

62.  Borrowston Rig. A geometric egg based on Professor Thom's survey as seen on Page 71 of "Megalithic sites in Britain 1967." Clarendon Press, Oxford.

One wonders how Professor Thom ever managed to find the value of the Megalithic Yard when he ignored the fundamental fact that stone circles were internal devices. 

Here, we see how Thom incorrectly placed his geometry to pass through the centre of the stones.  Not only that, but his scale is too small. - Fortunately, scale-wise, he unwittingly put things right by producing a 50 MY-diameter circle!

My blued-out version shows the correct geometry on which the stone circle of Borrowston Rig is based. Not only is the monument based on a pair of proportional to 3:4:5 Pythagorean triangles, but these triangles prove the Megalithic Inch as one-fortieth of a Megalithic Yard beyond doubt.

Furthermore, Stone Age folks were not as interested in perimeters as Thom seemed to think.

More corrected plans of Thom's are given on the sister site, Aveburydecoded, which you will be taken to later.

63.  SOLVING THE DORSET CURSUS.             

Cutting to the chase, with no pun intended - The Dorset Cursus is a female entity with terminals aligned on the moon.

The Cursus is a six-mile-long ditched and banked track that once had a terminal at each end.

The Thickthorn Terminal, seen above, is at the southern end of the cursus. This terminal is the only one that has escaped the plough.  This terminal is not set at 90 degrees to the cursus but is skewed to point at the northernmost rising moon -- otherwise known as the Major Standstill.  This alignment also aims at the long barrow Handley I, the Wor Barrow. 

The terminal at the northern end of the cursus is on Bokerley Down, its outline easy to see on hot, dry summers.  From Bokerley, the southernmost moonset was seen through a notch in the landscape. 

From these moon-aligned terminals, we can conclude that the whole cursus was devoted to the moon --  A moon entity.

The Thickthorn terminal is easy to find...

Leave Blandford Forum via the A345 to Salisbury and, after some six and a half miles,  turn right at Thickthorn Cross and park up in the layby in Millers Lane – if there is a space for you to do so.

Then, exit the car in brightly coloured ridiculous clothes, or do as I did in 2017 and make yourself clown-like by sporting an umbrella on a bright summer's day!  All this is to keep you safe, for Millers Lane is dead straight, there are no pavements, and cars drive up and down as if everyone is late for work.

Proceed up the hill on foot. Pass hedgerows threaded with barbed wire and continue until you reach a metal gate. Climb the gate and enter the field.  You are now trespassing.  I suppose you could have asked the farmer's permission, but that would let the cat out of the bag of what you are up to, and you might get told No!

Finally, walk to the bottom of the field, passing several round barrows, to arrive at the terminal. 

64. An aerial view, courtesy of  Bing Images 2017.

The Thickthorn terminal is the only terminal left standing. But, sadly, as I write this, I have to report that this one remaining terminal, having survived the hand of man for over 5,000 years, was violated by the plough in 2018. And perhaps, by now, it is already levelled. 

65.  Photo looking northeast from the Thickthorn Down terminal. 

Here, the cursus crosses Gussage Valley on its way to the top of Gussage Down, incorporating the famous long barrow known as Gussage St Michael III. Unfortunately, we cannot walk the cursus from the Thickthorn Down terminal because a thorny hedge bars the way, so this photo was taken through a small gap.  However, we can see how the cursus goes one way, and the terminal points another - That's because the Thickthorn terminal is trained on where the northernmost moon rises out of the massive Wor barrow (Handley 1). 

The Wor barrow was wholly excavated in 1894 by General Pitt Rivers.  It consisted of a primary and a secondary mound. The primary mound held six male skeletons. The secondary mound was built using chalk from an outer ditch. Found In the ditch were the skeletons of a man and boy.  The man had been shot. Note how this moon-aligned barrow held just men.

From a recommended book...A Landscape Revealed. 10,000 Years on a Chalkland Farm by Martin Green.  Remarkably, Pitt Rivers, the excavator, also found a crouched Beaker burial southeast of this barrow.  I would ask: What was so remarkable about it... an early date, perhaps?

Let's take a virtual walk along the cursus to stand alongside the Gussage St Michael III long barrow sitting on the crest of Gussage Down.

66.  Looking northeast from Gussage St Michael III long barrow to Wyke Down.

Here, the cursus crosses the Allan Valley, where several monuments could once be seen on both sides of the cursus. Unfortunately, most are only visible today from the air.  We also note that the cursus passes through a small pond, hence water.

Here, we can see that another terminal crosses the cursus.  This terminal is known as Bottlebush Down, or sometimes Wyke Down. We will walk to this terminal and turn about to see why it falls short of the top of the ridge and what the Dorset Cursus is most famous for.

66.   The winter solstice sun entered the long barrow Gussage St Michael III when viewed from the third terminal on Wyke Down.  Sirius also entered the barrow in 3,450 BC. We also note that the Wyke terminal is not on the highest point of Wyke Down.  Any higher and the long barrow would not shape the skyline but some distant landmass.  

68.  A view south from the Bokerley Down Terminal at the northern end of the Dorset Cursus. 

Again, we see how this terminal points one way, and the cursus goes another. 

This view might not look like much, but a study of the landscape suggests that Gussage St Michael III would be visible and in line with the southernmost moonset were it not for the trees of the Salisbury Plantation. 

The high ridges are called ‘Downs,’ and the valleys between that run from northwest to southeast across Cranborne Chase owe their great beauty to torrents of glacial meltwater that smoothed the Dorset chalkland many thousands of years ago. 

One incredibly long and level ridge took the eye of people living on the Downs some six thousand years ago for the way the most southerly sunset appeared to sink into it. That ridge is known as Gussage Down, and people had watched the sun disappear into it for many years when sitting a little below the top of the Bottlebush Down ridge, almost two miles north of Gussage Down.

From around 4,000 BC, generation after generation had sat and watched the sun sink into Gussage Down and noticed something else. The brightest star, Sirius, sometimes came down in the same place.

This occurred around 3,500 BC and lasted for a couple of hundred years.  People marked this position with braziers that could be seen from miles away at Bokerley Down. So, capturing them inside the long barrow of Gussage St Michael III became the obvious thing to do.

All that was needed was to connect terminals and barrows with a six-mile-long avenue scratched into the chalk.

69. The Dorset Cursus is a love nest. 

Suppose you had been fortunate enough to find yourself standing at the Wyke Down terminal 5,450 years ago in the middle of December.  In that case, you might have seen the Sun and Sirius as they disappeared into the long barrow known as Gussage St Michael III.

If you then kept watch at the Bokerley Down terminal for many years, you might have seen the moon as she entered Gussage St Michael while adjusting her dress, combing her hair, and applying lipstick. 

Then, keeping watch at the Thickthorn Down terminal, again for many years, you would have hoped to see the moon as she left the Wor barrow with child -- a baby sun. 

This was when the moon reached her most northerly point of rising.  All this can still be seen today, of course. But where was her baby to have been born? 

Presumably, and given her rising, the moon carried this child aloft to join existing heavenly bodies.

This image is also employed to show how the northernmost rising moon, i.e., the Major Standstill, exceeds the Wor Barrow by a small amount before turning about and scanning the monument for a second time. The method ensures complete coverage. The same principle applies to Stonehenge and Stanton Drew. 

Bibliography: The Dorset Cursus Complex: A Neolithic Astronomical Observatory?  Penny. A. Journal - Royal Archaeological Institute 130 1973. 

Once more, I find it necessary to repeat the words of Professor Mick Aston of the Time Team. 

 “I’m not proud of the Time Team; it hasn’t worked.  And I’m totally dissatisfied with my time at Bristol University.  Archaeology in Britain is a shambles from top to bottom. The forces of darkness and evil are stalking the land again.”  British Archaeology Magazine, March/April 2012.