How could prior researchers have missed examining the possible connection of the strange but to us "familiar" shape of Avebury Stone #42 to the stars of Sagittarius, the equestrian archer of old and the astronomical Chiron?
The fabled early shape of Sagittarius in the stars, according to Richard Hinckley Allen's Star Names was as half-man and half-steed, either originally or later as an archer on horseback, and found later in the Centaur Chiron.
Directly below are four images: the first is the front henge-outward face of Avebury Stone #42, the second image is the astronomical "teapot" asterism of Sagittarius, the third image is the first image traced and labeled, and the fourth is an image of the corresponding stars in sky as carved on the stone:
- Avebury Stone #42 Facing Henge-Outward (we have lightened our original photograph to make the lines and markings more apparent)
- The "Teapot" Asterism of Sagittarius - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Sagittarius-teapot-asterism.jpg, public domain as uploaded to Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Eoghanacht
- Avebury Stone #42 Frontal Face Henge-Outward Traced and Labeled (it is possible that our identified "saddle" is merely the rider's cloak)
- The Corresponding Stars to the Lines and Figures Carved on the Henge-Outward Frontal Face of Avebury Stone #42 (extended "tail" of the horse is carved further on the narrow side of the megalith)
We are pleased here to publish our decipherment of Avebury Stone #42, including the images above, which clearly demonstrate by lines, figures and markings on the carved stone and corresponding stars that:
- the henge-outward ("Milky Way directed") face of Avebury Stone #42 marks a steed and its rider (as the Sagittarius teapot "asterism"),
- the henge-inward face of Avebury Stone #42 marks the neighboring stars above Sagittarius (i.e. inward toward heaven's center), i.e. Aquila,
- the "right side" of Avebury Stone #42 (seen henge-outward) marks stars next to Sagittarius toward Capricorn, including the back end and tail of the Sagittarian steed (marked in stars we today assign to the region of the stars alpha and beta Capricorn), a tail similar in extension to the modern Sagittarian asterism of "the teaspoon" (see http://www.go-astronomy.com/constellations.php?Name=Sagittarius)
- the "left side" of Avebury Stone #42 (seen henge-outward) marks stars next to Sagittarius in the direction of Scorpio, including the portrayal of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy as a chair-type "throne" at the galactic center, whose design reminds of the throne of Minoan Knossos and generally recalls our work on the Phaistos Disk.