In this article M.Guillaume introduces some of the AAK’s work on understanding the Gavrinis chambered cairn. It appeared in the first volume of Etudes et Travaux, May 1977, pages 45-51.
It has been translated from French as best I can, in three parts with links between. It was first re-published on the web between 2010-2012 to honour the fact I was given copies of the magazine when visiting Carnac in 2004.
Whilst my interest was site interpretation using numbers, the notion of a vision quest within Gavrinis as an experienced structure is appealing.
What especially strikes one on entering Gavrinis is the extreme homogeneity of the whole work.
This article first appeared in my Matrix of Creation website in 2012 which was attacked, though an image had been made. Some of this material appeared in my Lords of Time book.
photo For Wikipedia by Mirabella.
Gavrinisand Tables des Marchands are very similar monuments, both in the orientation of their passageways and their identical latitude. Gavrinis is about 3900 metres east of Tables des Marchands but, unlike the latter, has a Breton name based upon the root GVR (gower). Both passageways directly express the difference between the winter solstice sunrise and the lunar maximum moonrise to the South, by designing the passages to allow these luminaries to enter at the exact day of the winter solstice or the most southerly moonrise over many lunar orbits, during the moon’s maximum standstill. Thus both the monuments allow the maximum moon along their passageway whilst the winter solstice sunrisecan only glance into their end chambers.
From Howard Crowhurst’s work on multiple squares, we know that this difference in angle is that between a 3-4-5 triangle and the diagonal of a square which is achieved directly by the diagonal of a seven square rectangle.
Figure 1 The essence of difference between the winter solstice sunrise (as diagonal of 4 by 3 rectangle) and southerly maximum moonrise (as diagonal of a single square), on the horizon, is captured in the diagonal of a seven squares rectangle.
This article explores the use of axe motifs within a form of carved schematic art unique to the megalithic monuments near Carnac, southern Brittany, France. First published in February 2014.
A diagram found on the underside of the capstone
of a chambered dolmen called Kercado (see figure 1) appears to hold
metrological and astronomical meanings. Classified as a type of AXE, local axe
motifs are said to have three distinct forms (a) triangular blades, (b) hafted
axes and (c) the Mane Ruthual type [Twohig, 1981[1]].
Figure 1 Well preserved sculpted-stone axe-head motif in Kercado dolmen
Types b and c are often found in the singular on
the undersides to roof slabs and in the case of form (b), the hafted axe, I
have attributed its display below the roof slab of Table des Marchands at Locmariaquer (inset right) as being used to
represent the north pole between 5000 and 4000 BC, at a time when there was no
star near to the pole itself. The abstract point of the north pole, the
rotational axis of the earth, is shown as a loop attached to the base of the axe
haft, whilst the axe head then represented a chosen circumpolar star, as this
rotates counter-clockwise in the northern sky, at the fixed distance of the
haft from the pole itself. Note how compatible this idea of an axe ploughing
the northern skies is to our own circumpolar constellation, The Plough. Note
also that the eastern horizon moves through the equatorial stars at the same
angular rate as the marker star moves around the north pole.
