Lodge Park Long Barrow is the centre of the Universe!

Okay, I'm exaggerating. I admit it.But there's something really interesting going on. I was encouraged to post this story by reading a press report this morning at this link, describing the discovery of some prehistoric features aligned to the summer solstice sunrise, and of course this coming Sunday is the summer solstice.

Readers of this blog will know that we have identified some solstice alignments that run through the Lodge Park Long Barrow. Firstly, the summer solstice angle that runs from St John the Baptist's church in Cirencester to St John the Baptist church in Great Rissington, through a number of prehistoric sites, almost bang on. This lies along the summer solstice. You will recall the title picture above was taken last year on the summer solstice sunrise rising over the Long Barrow between the bizarre portal of the two oldest oaks within Lodge Park. This line runs at 49° through the Lodge Park Long Barrow. A chance alignment of features is one thing but when they align along the most important astronomical features of the prehistoric worlds, that's another thing.

Then, within Lodge Park itself, there is an alignment of what I can believably say are four prehistoric sites, running from the likely Long Barrow in Sally Coppice, through the main Lodge Park Long Barrow, through a round barrow that's about 80 m away from the Long Barrow, and on to the site of a mound that was removed in the 1741 (according to the Dutton archives). This line runs at 129 degrees through the Lodge Park Long Barrow, which is the angle of sunrise on the winter solstice.

Finally, is the latest discovery, on a 25 degree azimuth that runs from Dabs Barrow up just south of Oranges Farm, through Stoneberry (a known long barrow site), onto the Long Barrow, onto the newly found Bronze Age ditch around the likely round barrow south of Lodge Park, and then on further a couple of hundred yards to a known henge area where there are multiple sites. This line runs at 25 degrees through the Lodge Park Long Barrow.

I'm still working on understanding if there is any significance to the 25°, but it's possible the inverse of that at 205°, and that seems to be pretty close to some of the most southerly moon settings in southern England. I've got more work to do on that. This alignment is more likely to be chance than the previous two I guess, but given it crosses an intersection between two solstice alignments, perhaps it needs some attention. If you layer all this up on a map, and it looks like this, below, with the Lodge Park Long Barrow being the intersection between all three alignments.

I'm showing the images here from a PowerPoint for ease , but I can also show you them exactly fitting this on a GIS system. It may well be that we can dismiss all that as chance, but that's an awful lot of chance. I'm doing some work over the summer to work out exactly how much chance that is.

So finally, a little odd Bronze Age mathematics. The angle of difference between the summer solstice and the winter solstice sun rises is 80 degrees. A number of Bronze Age objects, apparently ceremonial objects, have been found over the years where this specific angle is built in to the design. Here's an example, the "Bush Barrow Lozenge", found not far from Stonehenge, a medallion presumably worn on the chest of a dignitary or priest or chieftain. The angles to the sides are at 80 degrees:

If I fit this image over our solstice lines, you'll see, I think, the possible significance:

So in the meantime, have a happy summer solstice this Sunday. Remember our ancestors probably viewed it as one of the key days of the year. The solstices were important.