Avebury Stone #10 Back Side Tracing in Color & Stars & Figures Identified by Andis Kaulins
This is the tracing result for the back side of Avebury Stone #10 in color with the stars identified. A sky map with the corresponding stars marked on a sky map follows in the next posting.
As predicted, the back side of Avebury #10 (viewed henge-outwards) marks stars "above" and opposite the stars marked on the front side of Avebury Stone #10.
The back side marks the Winter Solstice point at Zeta Cygni as a small bird being rescued from the cold by an elder. The back side thus shows the stars of winter. Note that the figures portrayed, a man and a woman and a community elder with distinguished-looking headwear appear to wear winter clothing, including bundled-up type coats, a winter cap and shawl and fingerless mittens of the type once typical for cooler northern regions. That all looks quite amazing for ca. 3000 BC, but than again, what had we imagined? Cold weather required appropriate clothes, also prehistorically. Our bright colors surely make the clothing look more modern than it is.... but we are trying to emphasize that the reader must make some substantial changes in his or her head about the sophistication of the megalith makers, also astronomically.
The bottom large figure which we identify as a boat -- but it could be a sled -- is composed of many smaller figures (which we can not separately color here). Since the bottom figure could be a winter sled, we considered that the figures at the bottom in the boat or behind the sled might be rolling snow into balls for a snowman, but that is still speculative. In any case, if it is a sled, then the man and woman are presumably sitting in the sled as it were.
In any case, the stars of Cepheus and Lyra are marked at the top of the back side of Avebury Stone #10, with Cygnus below. The necks of the three upper figureheads mark the Galactic Equator.
The top of the back side of the stone, which has a whitish color different from the darker lower part of the stone, marks the bright span of the Milky Way.
The bottom of the back side of Avebury Stone #10 marks by the Ecliptic.
The left side of the stone's markings extends to the stars of Andromeda, the Great Square (of Pegasus), and Pisces, including the Circlet of Pisces. The right side extends to the stars of Aquila and Capricorn.
We have a star map of the region of the sky portrayed by Avebury Stone #10 Back Side in the next posting.
Provided that the attribution is retained, the above copyrighted image is published for free non-commercial "fair use" in any lawful publication,
and especially for content-related research, teaching, and educational use in general. Andis Kaulins retains the copyright to this image here in any case. Independent tracing of the original photograph by someone else and further work such as coloring become the copyright of the maker. Have fun! and learn thereby to better understand our ancient human ancestors!