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Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge - Quiz
Contributed by: Downes
  • 1. Who described the equinox alignment at Stonehenge in 1966?
A) Durrington Walls
B) C. A. 'Peter' Newham
C) Mike Parker Pearson
D) Alexander Thom
  • 2. What did Newham suggest the postholes near the entrance were used for?
A) Tracking the summer solstice
B) Observing the saros cycle
C) Slaughtering pigs
D) Measuring the megalithic yard
  • 3. What geometric shape do the four station stones create?
A) An octagon
B) A triangle
C) A rectangle
D) A circle
  • 4. What is the latitude of Stonehenge?
A) 45°00′00″N
B) 60°10′44″N
C) 55°10′44″N
D) 51°10′44″N
  • 5. Why is the latitude of Stonehenge considered unusual?
A) It is the exact center of the Earth
B) The sun never sets at this latitude
C) Solar and lunar alignments occur at right angles
D) It prevents the saros cycle from being observed
  • 6. What did Alexander Thom look for when studying stone circles?
A) Landscape features for lunar and solar events
B) Rubbish dumps from the twentieth century
C) Postholes for saros cycles
D) Rectangular station stones
  • 7. What was Peter's Mound, a site Thom considered important?
A) A Neolithic burial chamber
B) A twentieth-century rubbish dump
C) A lunar observation point
D) A solar alignment stone
  • 8. What unit of measurement did Alexander Thom search for?
A) The Stonehenge meter
B) The solar foot
C) The lunar inch
D) The megalithic yard
  • 9. What is the primary evidence for winter solstice visits to Stonehenge?
A) Age of slaughtered pig bones and teeth
B) Written records from prehistoric people
C) The orientation of the station stones
D) The diameter of the Earth
  • 10. Which monuments are specifically noted for a clear solar alignment to the winter solstice sunrise?
A) Newgrange and Maeshowe
B) The Station Stones and the Earthwork
C) Peter's Mound and the Heel Stone
D) Stonehenge and Durrington Walls
  • 11. What did Mike Parker Pearson initially argue in 2005?
A) The site was exclusively for summer solstices
B) The site was only used by pigs
C) The site had no solar alignments
D) There was no evidence of summer visitation
  • 12. What did Mike Parker Pearson later reconsider about prehistoric visitation?
A) People never visited the site at all
B) The site was exclusively a burial ground
C) People only visited during the summer
D) People likely visited for both summer and winter solstices
  • 13. In what year was Gerald Hawkins' work on Stonehenge first published in Nature?
A) 1950
B) 1965
C) 1966
D) 1963
  • 14. What technology did Gerald Hawkins use to analyze the alignments at Stonehenge?
A) Harvard-Smithsonian IBM computer
B) Optical surveying tools
C) A custom mechanical calculator
D) Manual calculations
  • 15. How many significant features of the monument did Hawkins study?
A) 165
B) 11
C) 200
D) 13
  • 16. What astronomical period did Hawkins use for his alignment checks?
A) 500 BC
B) 1000 BC
C) 1500 BC
D) 2000 BC
  • 17. How many solar correlations did Hawkins find to be very precise?
A) Eleven
B) Thirteen
C) Sixteen
D) Zero
  • 18. How many lunar correlations did Hawkins find to be very precise?
A) Ten
B) Fifteen
C) Thirteen
D) Eleven
  • 19. What was the title of the 1965 book written by Hawkins and J.B. White?
A) Stonehenge Decoded
B) Ancient Alignments
C) Moonshine on Stonehenge
D) The Neolithic Computer
  • 20. What term did Hawkins use to describe Stonehenge in his book?
A) Neolithic computer
B) Lunar observatory
C) Burial site
D) Solar temple
  • 21. Who wrote the article 'Moonshine on Stonehenge'?
A) Fred Hoyle
B) Atkinson
C) Gerald Hawkins
D) J.B. White
  • 22. What margin of error did Atkinson claim Hawkins allowed in his alignments?
A) Up to 5 degrees
B) Zero degrees
C) Up to 1 degree
D) Up to 2 degrees
  • 23. What probability did Atkinson assign to the visibility of the alignments?
A) 0.9
B) 0.000001
C) 0.1
D) 0.5
  • 24. What factor casts doubt on the possibility of accurate astronomical observation at Stonehenge?
A) The shifting of the Earth's axis
B) The lack of math skills
C) The growth of local forests
D) The English climate
  • 25. Who first identified the axis of Stonehenge along the midsummer sunrise in 1720?
A) Sir Norman Lockyer
B) William Stukeley
C) Alexander Thom
D) Gerald Hawkins
  • 26. What method did William Stukeley and Edmund Halley use to attempt to date Stonehenge?
A) Studying tree rings
B) Comparing lunar cycles
C) Carbon dating
D) Calculating magnetic variation
  • 27. On which star did H. Broome base his 1864 dating theory for Stonehenge?
A) Betelgeuse
B) Sirius
C) Vega
D) Polaris
  • 28. What modern feature did Sir Norman Lockyer mistakenly use to align his 1680 BC dating theory?
A) An Ordnance Survey trig point
B) A Roman road marker
C) A medieval boundary wall
D) A local lighthouse
  • 29. According to the text, in which direction does the sunset of the winter solstice align at Stonehenge?
A) Southwest
B) Northeast
C) Southeast
D) Northwest
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