As Professor Ronald Hutton of the University of Bristol says, “the sky is the one part of the prehistoric landscape which can be reconstructed with real accuracy, and Nicholas Mann’s painstaking research shows how archaeology, astronomy and anthropology can be brought together to produce a plausible hypothesis regarding the nature of one of the world’s greatest prehistoric monuments.”

Nicholas shows that from Avebury the upper three stars of the Southern Cross were setting over Silbury Hill at the time of its construction, 2500-2100 BC.  Due to precession the three stars vanished from sight at the end of this period.  Although this doesn’t tell us why the builders wanted to mark the setting and eventual loss of these stars with the construction of the tallest mound in Britain, there can be no doubt they were looking at these first magnitude stars.

This is not all: throughout the period Avebury was built and in use, the Southern Cross was part of a once every 26,000 year phenomenon where the Milky Way formed a complete circle around the horizon.  Nicholas suggests the quarter-mile diameter white circle of chalk thrown up around Avebury henge was built to mirror the galaxy in the sky above.

Avebury Cosmos: The Neolithic World of Avebury henge, Silbury Hill, West Kennet long barrow, the Sanctuary & the Longstones Cove is a guidebook to all these sites, providing maps, plans and the latest information.

Reviews:

Geoff Ward:

"Mann's latest book, Avebury Cosmos, gives a compelling account of the creation of this extraordinary landscape, underlining the homage that the neolithic monument builders paid to the sun, moon and stars, the cycles of which were marked exactingly by the megaliths, and providing probably the most inspiring and comprehensive investigation of Avebury ever published."

Dorothy L. Abrams:

"Nicholas Mann has given us a fine accounting of this bond with the celestials. He is careful, more careful than I, to avoid ascribing motive or spiritual principles to his analysis of the land and stars. Given the generations upon generations of celebrants at Avebury, he explains that the site is inclusive. It allowed the people to explore their relationship to the Cosmos in myths that made sense to them. Still, he offers the reader sufficient basis to draw some spiritual conclusions from their own experiences with the World Tree, tiered shamanic worlds and the circle. I delight in his observation that Avebury is itself a quartered circle, marked by Cygnus and the Southern Cross on the north-south axis and by the ecliptic crossings of the Sun on the east-west axis against the constellations of Sagittarius and Gemini. I cheer his recognition of the Axis Mundi encircled by the Milky Way as the World Tree. These acknowledgements fit my own cosmos, but Mann leaves room for all of us. The work is scientific. It is footnoted and indexed. Avebury Cosmos is highly recommended for the student of history, the neo pagan seeking to re-create sacred space, or the curious tourist in Avebury who asks "what was this all about anyway?"