Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge

Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge - Quiz

1. Who described the equinox alignment at Stonehenge in 1966?

A) C. A. 'Peter' Newham
B) Alexander Thom
C) Mike Parker Pearson
D) Durrington Walls

2. What did Newham suggest the postholes near the entrance were used for?

A) Slaughtering pigs
B) Observing the saros cycle
C) Measuring the megalithic yard
D) Tracking the summer solstice

3. What geometric shape do the four station stones create?

A) A triangle
B) An octagon
C) A circle
D) A rectangle

4. What is the latitude of Stonehenge?

A) 51°10′44″N
B) 55°10′44″N
C) 60°10′44″N
D) 45°00′00″N

5. Why is the latitude of Stonehenge considered unusual?

A) Solar and lunar alignments occur at right angles
B) The sun never sets at this latitude
C) It is the exact center of the Earth
D) It prevents the saros cycle from being observed

6. What did Alexander Thom look for when studying stone circles?

A) Postholes for saros cycles
B) Rubbish dumps from the twentieth century
C) Rectangular station stones
D) Landscape features for lunar and solar events

7. What was Peter's Mound, a site Thom considered important?

A) A Neolithic burial chamber
B) A lunar observation point
C) A twentieth-century rubbish dump
D) A solar alignment stone

8. What unit of measurement did Alexander Thom search for?

A) The lunar inch
B) The Stonehenge meter
C) The solar foot
D) The megalithic yard

9. What is the primary evidence for winter solstice visits to Stonehenge?

A) Written records from prehistoric people
B) The orientation of the station stones
C) The diameter of the Earth
D) Age of slaughtered pig bones and teeth

10. Which monuments are specifically noted for a clear solar alignment to the winter solstice sunrise?

A) Peter's Mound and the Heel Stone
B) Stonehenge and Durrington Walls
C) Newgrange and Maeshowe
D) The Station Stones and the Earthwork

11. What did Mike Parker Pearson initially argue in 2005?

A) There was no evidence of summer visitation
B) The site was exclusively for summer solstices
C) The site was only used by pigs
D) The site had no solar alignments

12. What did Mike Parker Pearson later reconsider about prehistoric visitation?

A) People never visited the site at all
B) People likely visited for both summer and winter solstices
C) People only visited during the summer
D) The site was exclusively a burial ground

13. In what year was Gerald Hawkins' work on Stonehenge first published in Nature?

A) 1966
B) 1950
C) 1965
D) 1963

14. What technology did Gerald Hawkins use to analyze the alignments at Stonehenge?

A) Optical surveying tools
B) Manual calculations
C) A custom mechanical calculator
D) Harvard-Smithsonian IBM computer

15. How many significant features of the monument did Hawkins study?

A) 165
B) 200
C) 11
D) 13

16. What astronomical period did Hawkins use for his alignment checks?

A) 1500 BC
B) 500 BC
C) 2000 BC
D) 1000 BC

17. How many solar correlations did Hawkins find to be very precise?

A) Sixteen
B) Zero
C) Eleven
D) Thirteen

18. How many lunar correlations did Hawkins find to be very precise?

A) Fifteen
B) Eleven
C) Ten
D) Thirteen

19. What was the title of the 1965 book written by Hawkins and J.B. White?

A) The Neolithic Computer
B) Stonehenge Decoded
C) Moonshine on Stonehenge
D) Ancient Alignments

20. What term did Hawkins use to describe Stonehenge in his book?

A) Burial site
B) Neolithic computer
C) Lunar observatory
D) Solar temple

21. Who wrote the article 'Moonshine on Stonehenge'?

A) Gerald Hawkins
B) Atkinson
C) Fred Hoyle
D) J.B. White

22. What margin of error did Atkinson claim Hawkins allowed in his alignments?

A) Up to 2 degrees
B) Zero degrees
C) Up to 1 degree
D) Up to 5 degrees

23. What probability did Atkinson assign to the visibility of the alignments?

A) 0.9
B) 0.000001
C) 0.5
D) 0.1

24. What factor casts doubt on the possibility of accurate astronomical observation at Stonehenge?

A) The lack of math skills
B) The English climate
C) The shifting of the Earth's axis
D) The growth of local forests

25. Who first identified the axis of Stonehenge along the midsummer sunrise in 1720?

A) Alexander Thom
B) Gerald Hawkins
C) William Stukeley
D) Sir Norman Lockyer

26. What method did William Stukeley and Edmund Halley use to attempt to date Stonehenge?

A) Calculating magnetic variation
B) Studying tree rings
C) Comparing lunar cycles
D) Carbon dating

27. On which star did H. Broome base his 1864 dating theory for Stonehenge?

A) Vega
B) Sirius
C) Betelgeuse
D) Polaris

28. What modern feature did Sir Norman Lockyer mistakenly use to align his 1680 BC dating theory?

A) A Roman road marker
B) A medieval boundary wall
C) A local lighthouse
D) An Ordnance Survey trig point

29. According to the text, in which direction does the sunset of the winter solstice align at Stonehenge?

A) Northeast
B) Southwest
C) Southeast
D) Northwest

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