This is the color tracing result of the photograph of the right side of Avebury Stone #10 together with the corresponding star map, with the underlying star positions clipped via the superb software astronomy program Starry Night Pro, http://astronomy.starrynight.com. Explanatory thick red lines and various label adjustments were drawn and made by Andis Kaulins, who is not affiliated with Starry Night Pro in any way. The star map below is an education regarding the astronomy of Avebury. The region of stars depicted, as predicted, is to the right of the stars on the front side of Avebury Stone #10. The stellar region portrayed is otherwise defined by major astronomical parameters, with the Celestial Meridian building the left border and the Galactic Equator marking the bottom. Click on the image to obtain the larger, original image.
The right side marks the stars extending to the Autumn Equinox and the Celestial Meridian ca. 3000 BC. The stars marked begin at the top with stars today assigned to Boötes, Corona Borealis and Coma Berenices, as well as the North Galactic Pole and the Galactic Meridian. Marked in the middle are stars we assign today to Serpens Caput, Virgo, Libra, and the front stars of Scorpio. Also marked in the middle are the Autumn Equinox, Ecliptic and the Celestial Equator. Marked at the bottom are the middle and back stars of Scorpio, as well as stars of Lupus, Centaurus and Crux, as well as the Ecliptic Meridian and Galactic Equator.
Consider the figures and what they represent. We see the astronomer-priest (some would write "druid") as Boötes at the top wearing a hooded pelt hat (Corona Borealis), with a Peacock-type of bird on his shoulder and a small monkey on his back, the latter marking the North Galactic Pole. Below the astronomer-priest is a male figure whose head marks a portion of the sky with few bright visible stars to which we today do not give much attention (not a constellation), and below the male figure is a female figure as Virgo, though drawn differently than we do today. Some of the drawn aspects could be seen as fertility symbols but we do not go into that here. It's a touchy subject and not necessary for our decipherment work. We do not need the distraction.
The back stars of Scorpio would appear to us to depict a seal in the water catching a fish at the tail, while Lupus is drawn to seemingly represents an osprey (sea eagle) catching the same fish at its head. We presume that this meeting point was meant to represent the cross of the ecliptic and the celestial equator at the Autumn Equinox point in the stars.
The stars of Crux here are in the lower right corner, which corresponds to the lower left corner when the stone is viewed from the front side.
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!
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