Abstract Title:
Atlantic Trace Settlement Update: Geography, Cartography and Archaeoastronomy
is part of the Illustrated Paper Session:
Student Illustrated Paper Competition Session 2
scheduled on Thursday, 4/19/07 at 15:00 PM.
The preliminary program and schedule of sessions for the 2007 AAG National Meeting in San Francisco, April 17-21, is now available online at http://communicate.aag.org/eseries/aag_org/program/index.cfm?mtgID=52. The full agenda, including plenary sessions and specialty group meetings, can be found in this web-based timetable.
2007 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California Online Program
Author(s):
Noel Ring, Retired university instructor* - Private Consultant
Elaina Hyde, Astronomer - Max Planck Institute of Astrophysics
Ken Goss, Retired General Mgr. - AeroGraphics Corp.
Abstract:
Seventy stars replicated in stone on landscapes in maritime Canada, New England, Great Britain and Ireland form the central pattern of the Atlantic Trace Settlkement, first identified by air photo interpretation in the mid-1970's. Likely the largest maps on earth, the lithic celestial charts are of as yet unknown cultural origin. They are predictably located near Bronze Age copper mines, carbon-dated ca.3000B.P., in western Europe and copper ore outcrops in northeast North America. To date, API and groundtruth field surveys place ATS stellar maps, constructed of large boulders often connected by stone walls, at over 25 sites in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Two wedge-shaped and a kite-shaped feature comprise the repeated ATS pattern, which spans an annual view of the night sky. Native American star lore encompasses portions of the ATS complex, such as the Big Dipper (Plough), Polaris, and major planets along the Line of the Ecliptic, also discerned via API. Nothing in European cosmological cartograsphy or colonial cadastral traditions provides precedence for the ATS pattern. As reported at the 2004 AAG Annual Meeting, land use development continues to endanger ATS sites on both sides of the Atlantic. They merit urgent multi-disciplinary research funding for additional detection, dating, GIS application, and site preservation. The co-authors hope the AAG will support efforts to investigate and preserve these unique cartographic monuments.
Keywords:
TransAtlantic Stone Star Charts
I'm from Missouri. Show me the facts.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why is it "predictable" that these stone star charts are found near ancient copper mines and outcrops?
If I understand the abstract correctly, specific patterns of geometric shapes composed of boulders have been identified by aerial photography. Some but not all of these sites have been field verified on the ground. Some but not all of the field verified sites have cultural evidence like stone walls connecting the boulders together.
ReplyDeleteI am bothered by the fact that there is no mention of scientific controls in this research. Specifically, these sites with boulders in certain configurations - Are these the only boulders at the site? If not, how do the boulders not involved in the pattern potential impact the interpretation of the site as a chart? Are there any other cultural features within or adjacent to these charts? How many of these 25 or so sites have been field verified? What is the basis of the broad claim of an "Atlantic Trace Settlement" when the sample of sites is so small (compared to the thousands of miles of Atlantic coastline)?
I agree with Norman, I would like to see the evidence.
James Gage
www.StoneStructures.org