The Avebury Stone #46 henge outward face was a very difficult decipherment.
Avebury Stone #46 Henge Outward Photograph by Andis Kaulins
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Initially, one could perhaps "imagine" several figures in the above photograph, one could perhaps see a shape like a human head profile in the middle of the stone (virtually no other markings). Then there might be a human head or a big cat-like head in the upper half of the stone and a large horse-head at the bottom left with its body right, i.e. a big cat of prey attacking a horse. Probably not likely, but we wanted to mention it. A few other animal figures might be visible toward the middle of the stone -- with their legs at the lower bottom of the stone). Astronomically, however, there was nothing convincing to see.
Indeed, even detailed tracing, which was repeated anew SEVERAL TIMES, gave in each case mostly an unsatisfactory result that looked like paisley patchwork. However, as noted in the previous posting, we are -- by the logic of previous Avebury decipherments -- dealing here with neighboring stars to Cygnus in an area of the sky where, except for the Great Square of Pegasus, there are no modern stellar constellations, precisely because of the lack of "prominent" easily imaginable figures. This decipherment was not going to be easy to see or prove.
Avebury Stone #46 Henge Outward Photograph TRACED
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Avebury Stone #46 Henge Outward Face Black and White Tracing Only
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After many hours of study, a few minor details became apparent that offered points of reference, e.g. the alligator-like head at the top, the small horse head towards the middle and the bird-like figure to its left. Could that combination be found in that approximate form in stars near Cygnus? Using Starry Night Pro astronomy software, we tried various star fields near Cygnus and through trial and error overlaid them directly on our tracing of the henge outward face of Avebury Stone #46. Placement, angle and size had to fit. But did anything fit?
Finally, we found what appears to be the ca. right combination of placement, angle and size, made all the more difficult by the fact that the stone itself
is of course not an exact match for a modern star map, even if the ancients too tried to maintain accuracy in the portrayal of the stars, also as to their relative distances, one from the other. No matter how this star map is overlaid on the stone, some parts are are wider, some thinner, but it proves close enough.
Avebury Stone #46 The Star Field Used for Decipherment of the Henge Outward Face as clipped via the astronomy software Starry Night Pro 3.1 starrynight.com -- click on the graphic for a larger image --
We overlaid that above star map on our black and white tracing of the stone. Check out there the alligator head at the top, the horse head towards the middle and the bird-like figure to its left. Of course, it took us a long time to get the approximate size, angle and placement right, but we did get the stars to fit.
Avebury Stone #46 Stars Overlaid on the Traced Henge Outward Face
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Avebury Stone #46 Henge Outward Face -- Its Decipherment in the Stars
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This was a difficult stone to decipher and we redrew all tracings and decipherment drawings several times, but the result always appears to portray a long toboggan-like family sled apparently carrying people, pets and provisions.
The appearance of the sled would have been more of a surprise if we had not already found a boat that we thought might also be a sled (but unlikely in the summer) as portrayed on the henge inward side of Avebury Stone #10. Go there to take a look.
As we wrote previously at the Ancient World Blog about Avebury Stone #46:
"We see figures in our tracings of the most prominent lines on the henge-outward and henge-inward "faces" of the stone that could be interpreted to be people on sleds in the snow.
Ancient sleds were, depending on the culture, also called toboggan, pulk or ahkio. Especially the latter term ahkio is of possible interest because the stars marked here include the Great Square of Pegasus, known in ancient Sumerian (viz. Babylonian) MUL.APIN texts as ASH.IKU, whereby IKU is viewed as the term for "square" or "field".
A toboggan-like sled might be found on the henge-outward face below the prominent human head profile, i.e. the figure would be sitting in that sled. The henge-inward face might at the front include a solo sledder lying face forward on a sled of the type that we all used for sledding in our younger days.
The sledding explanation is, of course, not essential, and had nothing to do with our identification of the stars that correspond to the markings on the stone."
