It may be remarked that here we have a date for the use of Capella intermediate between those obtained for the “Pipers” and the “Strippie Stones” respectively.
[118] Prehistoric Stone Monuments of the British Isles: Cornwall. W. C. Lukis. P. 1.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE CLOCK-STARS IN EGYPT AND BRITAIN.
I have now finished my astronomical reconnaissance of the British monuments. I trust I have shown how important it is that my holiday task should be followed by a serious inquiry by other workers so that the approximate values with which I have had to content myself for want of time may be replaced by others to which the highest weight can be attached. This means at each circle reversed observations with a six-inch theodolite and determination of azimuths by means of observations of the sun if necessary.
I propose in the present chapter to bring together the general results already obtained in cases where the inquiry has been complete enough to warrant definite conclusions to be drawn.
The first result to be gathered from the observations, and one to which I attach the highest importance, is that the practice, so long employed in Egypt, of determining time at night by the revolution of a star round the pole, was almost universally followed in the British circles. This practice was to watch a first-magnitude star, which I named a “clock-star,”[119] of such a declination that it just dipped below the northern horizon so that it was visible for almost the whole of its path.
Doubtless this same method of determining the flow of time during the night watches was also employed in Babylonia,[120] but there, alas! the temples, or, in other words, the astronomical observatories, have disappeared, so that only the Egyptian practice remains for us to study.