Experts, who are studying the formation of Britain's Stonehenge, claimed that those who built it had knowledge of Pythagoras' theorem even 2,000 years before he was born.
The newly published Megalith book reinvestigated the geometry of ancient Neolithic structures in England. One of its contributors, Robin Heath, an astrology researcher and expert, said that the rectangle of four Sarsen stones would form a perfect Pythagorean right triangle when split in half.
"People often think of our ancestors as rough cavemen but they were also sophisticated astronomers. They were applying Pythagorean geometry over 2000 years before Pythagoras was born," said contributor and book editor John Martineau, who also authored a number of astrology and history books.
Theories On The Origins Of Stonehenge
Archaeologists are long fascinated as to how the Stonehenge was built, but one of the most popular theories states that aliens provided the technology to build it. Some of the stones weigh up to 50 tons, and to manually carry it would be an impossible human feat.
Experts believe that the Stonehenge was built in several stages and that the stone circles were erected sometime in 2750 BC when there were still no sophisticated machines to move massive stones.
Erich von Däniken's book titled Chariots of the Gods? narrated that ancient monuments like the Stonehenge, the Egyptian pyramids, and Moai heads of Easter Island were built through the knowledge of Godlike beings that were handed down to humans. To this day, there is no sufficient evidence supporting the alien theory.
Then, there is the notion that giants helped humans build the Stonehenge. This is supported by an account found in the copy of the medieval text Brut, which showed an illustration of a giant helping Merlin build the Stonehenge.
A 2012 study by Bruno Fadenza, a researcher at Salford University, reported that ancient people might have used the Stonehenge area as a concert field. He said that sounds created within the stone circles create an illusion similar to entering a cathedral.
Historical Representations
Heath explained that the length of a ruler or rope used to plot the megalithic structures represented the time periods of the Sun and the Moon. His team added that the wooden posts surrounding the stones of Stonehenge might be used to determine lunar phases and eclipses.
Megalith authors said much of the knowledge about these Neolithic structures were lost during the proliferation of Christianity in Britain. Over time, people saw Stonehenge and other megaliths as symbols of barbarism when, in fact, they were highly studied and carefully put together.
"Stonehenge isn't a monument in isolation," said Mike Parker Pearson, co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project. "It is actually one of a pair-one in stone, one in timber. The theory is that Stonehenge is a kind of spirit home to the ancestors."
