STONE ROWS OF THE PRESELI HILLS

Abstract

It has been proven that many of the rhyolite and dolerite bluestones that reside within the Sarsen circle of

Stonehenge originate from the Preseli Hills of Wales (Bevins, Ixer; 2013, 2014). Yet, no evidence can be found

that the rows of stones that are circumjacent to the Preseli Hills have ever been investigated to determine if

any orientations to features within the Hills exists, or, whether they may possess any astronomical

orientation as occurs with Scottish stone rows (Thom, 1967; Fisher, 2013). References to these sites, are few

(Burl, 1993; Williams,1988) and information is somewhat anecdotal. To expand the knowledge base, five

sites, each comprising of a pair of stones, were investigated by means of site visits and 3-dimensional

computerisation in order to envisage any potential orientations, to either the Hills themselves or celestial

events, during the period of the suspected construction of the Mid-Neolithic to early Bronze age time frame.

The resultant investigation determined that not only do the sites have potential orientations toward the

lunar minor and major limits, but concur with the concept of duality as proposed by Sims (2016).