A SICILIAN SOLSTICE MARKER?

The team of researchers with the

hole-in-the-rock. Photograph:

ANSA, www.ancientorigins.net.

A recent story by Rossella Lorenzi, in Seeker.com written on January 5, 2017, and titled "Ancient Stonehenge-Like 'Calendar Rock' Aligns With Winter Solstice" documented a large boulder with a hole carved through it that the people involved have identified as a Solstice Marker.

        "Featuring a 3.2-foot diameter hole, the rock formations marked the beginning of winter some 5,000 years ago. The holed Neolithic rock was discovered on November 30, 2016, on a hill near a prehistoric necropolis six miles from Gela, on the southern coast of Sicily - - - -.

        It appeared clear to me that we were dealing with a deliberate, man-made hole," archaeologist Giuseppe La Spina told Seeker. "However, we needed the necessary empirical evidence to prove the stone was used as a prehistoric calendar to measure the seasons." (Lorenzi 2017)

View of solstice sunrise through

hole-in-the-rock. Photoraph:

Giuseppe La Spina, ttps://tallbloke.files.

wordpress.com/201701/rockhole.jpg

It appears, however, from the photographs and the evidence provided, that this hole is the only feature, the article gives no indication of a sighting point that would prove an alignment. I have always had a problem accepting as a "precision" marker something with only one reference point. If you are viewing the sun through a hole, you can move around until you find the point where it can be seen as fitting perfectly, you have many degrees of freedom in a visual cone of reference. With two reference points, such as a hole and, say, a pointed rock, you can instantly see if they are properly aligned or not, like gun sights.

This discovery marks something to be sure, but I am not convinced it is proven to be a solstice marker. Interesting, and perhaps exciting possibilities, but not proven.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet after a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images were not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this report you should read the original at the site listed below.

REFERENCES:

Lorenzi, Rossella,

2017 Ancient Stonehenge-Like 'Calendar Rock' Aligns With Winter Solstice, January 5, 2017, http://www.seeker.com/ancient-stonehenge-like-calendar-rock-aligned-with-winter-solstice-2180344326.html

SPLIT ROCK SITE, PICKETWIRE CANYONLANDS, COLORADO – A POSSIBLE SOLSTICE/EQUINOX MARKER:

Split Rock site, Picketwire Canyonlands, CO.

Photograph: Peter Faris, 21 June, 1998.

This photo represents a fascinating possibility, not any sort of certainty, but I put it out here for someone to look into if interested. I took the picture on June 21, 1998, the Summer Solstice, about mid-afternoon, at the Split Rock site in the Picketwire Canyonlands, south of La Junta, Colorado. As you can see a finger-like pointer of sunlight is approaching a group of seven (?) engraved vertical lines carved inside the passage of the giant split boulder. Now I was not there at sunrise, or at noon, or sunset, so I cannot speak to how this played out, but it certainly is intriguing from an archaeoastronomical viewpoint. It occurred to me then, as it does now, that the outer lines on the grouping might mark the points reached by the finger of light on the equinoxes, and the midpoint on the solstices. And then there is that interesting spot of light centered on the fifth line from the left. I have not been back to the site and have not done the field research to prove any of this, but I pass it on to whoever is interested to check out. Just please cite me correctly and let me know how it plays out, we can publish it on RockArtBlog.