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........................... Stone One ........................Stone Two.................Image (Stone?) Three..
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.Image (Stone?) Four ...........................Image (Stone?) Five
The Solstice aphelion full moonrise right at the crest of the hill centers on the road. This seemed to be beyond chance. So we looked about and, sure enough, there was a standing stone 25' from the curb. [STONE 1]. It was on a long knoll parallel to the road. The stone was roughly seven feet tall, about 12" x 18" at the base but tapering to about 6" square at the top. It was grey, worn and pockmarked with what looked much like buckshot or bullet holes patched with cement (not unlikely up here where hunters shoot at anything that is not a tree). ...
One side appeared to have been cut or shaved off at an angle not parallel to the road. This would prove to have enormous significance later. As we continued to explore, we soon found a second stone across the road [Stone 2] -- exactly 25' from the road, just as the first stone had been on the other side but 175' further up the hill. Pacing off a final 175' we arived at the verytop of the hill, where we found a rock we estimate is 15' x 10' and weighs a few tons. The road itself was 25' wide and the distance between the Solstice pathway stones would then be 75 feet. ...
Additional confirmation came from measuring the first stone precisely, which was done on Monday August 20th with the invaluable assist of author and stone-dowser Mary Leue. Dowsing can detect the presence of spiritual trauma, and hence, human sacrifice. Poltergeist energy has hurled plates, pictures and other objects around houses. Pendulum dowsing is a technique whereby any latent spiritual energy in a stone can be detected, if it is active. [For more on this topic, see our article on the ancient use of poltergeist energy: MEGALITHS & BLOOD.]
Little or no such energy was found around these stones, supporting the idea that they were used for mapping and navigational purposes, not human sacrifice or religious ritual. Mary Leue had been to the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, and she remarked how similar the two sites were. Indeed, independently, I had already taken note of this fact, based upon an illustration in "MYSTERIOUS BRITAIN" by Janet and Colin Bord. That book shows some very similar stones on the Isle of Lewis, which form a parallel avenue aimed at the Summer Solstice sunrise on the Isle, where tradition still recalls that Solstice sightings of the sun were the original purpose of those stones.
With Mary Leue's help, the Maine stone's height was measured. Before measure, I had proposed it should be either 75" (3 x 25" cubits), or 87.5" (3 1/2 cubits). The actual measurement of this stone came in at 87.5" (3 1/2 cubits). Thus, a pair of stones might have totaled 7 cubits. A pair of stones were 36 (3x12) cubits apart, side-by-side. Each of these pairs was, in turn, 84 (7x12) cubits further up the hill from the previous pair. It appears there were at least six pairs of stones, forming an avenue between them pointed at the Solstice Sunset as you look down the hill.
We believe that stone number three, the mate to the second one found, rests upon the doorstep of the new house built on its former lcoation. There is a large stone of the right shape and size used as the first step to the front door. If re-shaped, this would be difficult to prove. Given the large number of stones in local use for steps, foundations and garden decorations, as well as in cemeteries, we felt it would be useful to survey the area for signs some of the missing stones had been re-used, but hopefully not reshaped.
On Friday, August 24th, 2001, we began to investigate the town area, hoping to find either the missing stones, or more signs of the stone culture that had erected them. We were blessed greatly by a resident named Tyler whose keen eye spotted numerous candidate stones and many hitching-post stones. (She was also essential in preventing our arrest as a suspicious vagrant wandering about peering too intently at the foundations of houses!)
With her talkative Senegalese companion Suki, Tyler's curiosity led us down the meandering byways and alleys of this c.350-year old coastal town. In the glimmering dusk, on the back of an old brick building, we found it: identical in every respect with the initial stone discovered on July 6th. It was being used as the first step to a set of quarried stone steps in an old alleyway. We could see quite easily the difference in a quarried stone's marks and sharp corners, versus the old standing stone's very worn and crude shape as it lay next to it. [Image Three]
More importantly, the standing stone was the same length, taper, and girth as the ones still erect by the road. The color and stone type seemed to match too. It even had the rectangular cross-section of the surviving stones.
All this would have been truly enough to identify it, but there was one more telling detail. The first stone we'd originally found had a peculiar shaved side which seemed at first to be a defect in the design, making the downhill face smaller than the uphill one. We determined on July 6th that it aligned with magnetic north, even though it is uncertain where this may have been thousands of years ago when the site was built. (We should also mention that scholars dispute the idea that a magnetic compass was used by the Phoenicians.)
This new stone -- which may be the 4th actual stone located -- is also shaved on the side exactly like the stone out by the road. The two stones could be twins. This is a major discovery and it provides strong confirmation for our idea that some surviving stones can be found in use if we continue to search the area. It would be ideal if we had a test for the stone itself, either for its composition or age, that we could use to fully confirm which re-located stones were standing stones. Meanwhile, we plan to walk the roads to track down the rest of the lost children of the ancient stone-builders who left us this testimony to their need to find their way home--perhaps home to Jerusalem where so many things seem to have begun...
AUGUST 30, 2001 UPDATE:
The layout of standing stones in the original "avenue" pointed at that place where the sun sets on the Summer Solstice. But the exact place on the horizon would have been a small knoll visible from the standing stone hill and now a dead-end road that used to be the extension of the highway, but some 200-300 years ago, back in Colonial times.
We have now walked this route and believe it could be one mile or so in its whole length, which might make it one of the largest (if not the largest) such arrays of standing stones on earth.
On the sunset knoll, it looks as if there is a boulder, but we could not access it close enough to be sure and the overgrowth of vegetation is hindering the view until the leaves fall in autumn. If there is a boulder there, the sight-line to the setting sun on the Solstice would be to it. The boulder there, and the remaining stones, would constitute a total array length of about a mile.
SEPT. 8, 2001 UPDATE:
We have now found a number of additional stones that may also be derived from "fallen" standing stones. One of these [Image Five] was carved into a sign in 1851. If you look closely at the image, you can see a darker discoloration of stone on the back side than the front. It may be due to several thousand years of weathering or simply the result of being half-buried under damp soil. The back is crudely- formed like the standing stones.
In addition to this curious stone, which is easily lengthy enough to match the 9-10' height of an excavated standing stone, we have found two other stones being used as door steps for a newer home on the other side of the original standing-stone hill, several hundred feet to the near side. If sited at this location, these two stones would suggest an array far longer than we thought only days ago -- one that extended down both sides of the hill!
We have now found two standing stones, four possible stones used as steps, one possible stone used as a sign, and eyewitness reports of two known once-standing stones removed about 50 years ago. This implies a total of up to eight or nine stones so far. And there is a lot more ground to cover around town. Stay tuned!
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