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Two Tumps

S1 to Two Tumps, Kerry Hill, Mid-Powys.

W/7.3.1

A superb gun sight type foresight contains the first flash of the Sun on Megalithic Calendar intervals 4 & 6. Sunrise 12th July 1990.

2 minutes later.

W/7.3.2            This is a very refined foresight. Two tumuli, erected in close proximity, like a long distance gun sight, give a very sharp notch which holds the upper limb of the Sun on the first days of Megalithic Calendar Intervals 4 and 6 - one interval before and one interval after the summer solstice. This alignment has been observed reliably operating at six opportunities on different times and three good sets of photographs secured in different years and seasons.

W/7.3.3   It is thought that a refined site like this, indicating the rising point of the Sun one calendar interval before the solstice and one interval after the solstice, was possibly used to calculate the day of the solstice in retrospect. The declination of the notch between these two tumuli is achieved by the upper limb of the Sun on the first day of Calendar Interval 4. Some 6 weeks later the Sun again strikes through the twin tumuli on the morning of the first day of Interval 6. The solstice is the first day of Interval 5. By halving the elapsed time between the two days when the tumuli foresight operates the astronomer can find the precise day when the solstice occurred and calibrate the calendar once more. For more on retrospective solstice calculation see html page Calendar 5.

W/7.3.4  Sunrise 2nd June 2007. On the morning of the 2nd June 2007 a good set of 35mm photographs were secured of the rising sun from stone S1 despite a thick band of haze lying behind the horizon.

The moment when the sun reached the ideal declination for Megalithic Calendar Interval 4 had occurred some 12 hours before this sunrise. This situation demonstrates the maximum error which may occurr. The declination of the sun at sunrise was 4.3 minutes from the required declination for CI no. 4.

When the track of the upper limb, top dead centre, at the required declination 22* 3.6' is calculated we see, again, how perfectly the gap between the tumuli is sited.

W/7.3.5   These two tumuli sit beside the terminus of a major prehistoric route from the Midlands of England into Mid Powys. The ancient ridge way running along Kerry Hill from the east here drops abruptly into the head of the River Ithon watershed and these tumuli, at over 1650 ft, (508m), would present impressive territorial markers to travellers into and throughout Llananno.

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