Alexander Thom From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation <#mw-head>, search <#p-search> For the Scottish-born military surgeon and politician in Lower Canada, see Alexander Thom (military surgeon) . Long Meg and Her Daughters, the largest example of Alexander Thom's Type B Flattened Circle *Alexander "Sandy" Thom* (26 March 1894 – 7 November 1985) was a Scottish engineer most famous for his theory of the Megalithic yard , categorization of stone circles and his studies of Stonehenge and other archaeological sites.^[1] <#cite_note-Heath2003-0> Contents [hide <#>] * 1 Life and work <#Life_and_work> * 2 BBC Chronicle - Cracking the Stone Age Code <#BBC_Chronicle_-_Cracking_the_Stone_Age_Code> * 3 Later use of his work <#Later_use_of_his_work> * 4 See also <#See_also> * 5 Publications <#Publications> * 6 References <#References> * 7 External links <#External_links> [edit ] Life and work Thom was born in Carradale in 1894. His mother was Lily Stevenson Strang from the family of Robert Louis Stevenson . Her mother (Thom's grandmother) belonged to a large family from Symington , upon whom had been bestowed the land by Robert the Bruce . His father was a clever tenant farmer at /Mains farm/ for Carradale House. His father trained the Church choir while his mother was pianist . Thom spent his early years at Mains farm until moving to /The Hill/ farm at Dunlop , Ayrshire . Instilled with a good work ethic by his father, Thom taught himself industrial engineering and entered college in Glasgow in 1911 where he studied alongside John Logie Baird . In 1912 he attended summer school at Loch Eck where he was trained in surveying and field astronomy by Dr. David Clark and Professor Moncur. In 1913, aged just 19, he assisted in surveying the Canadian Pacific Rail Network. Thom graduated from the Royal College of Science and Technology and the University of Glasgow in 1914, earning a BSc with special distinction in Engineering . He suffered from a heart murmur and was not drafted during the First World War . Instead he went to work in civil engineering of the Forth Bridge and later designed flying boats for the Gosport Aircraft Company. In 1917 he married Jeanie Kirkwood with whom he shared a long and lively marriage. He returned to the University of Glasgow and worked as a lecturer from 1922 to 1939, quickly earning his PhD and DSc degrees. He built his own home called /Thalassa/ in 1922, along with a windmill to power it with electricity . His father died in 1924 and he took over running the farm where he fathered three children, Archibald, Beryl and Alan. Thom helped to develop the Department of Aeronautics at Glasgow University and lectured on statistics , practical field surveying, theodolite design and astronomy . From 1930 to 1935 he was a Carnegie Teaching Fellow .^[2] <#cite_note-1> During the Second World War , Thom moved to Fleet in Hampshire where he was appointed Principal Scientific Officer heading the Royal Aircraft Establishment team that developed the first high speed wind tunnel . He later was a professor and chair of engineering science at Brasenose College , University of Oxford where he became interested in the methods that prehistoric peoples used to build megalithic monuments . Thom became especially interested in the stone circles of the British Isles and France ^[3] <#cite_note-2> and their astronomical associations. In 1955, Alexander Thom published /A statistical examination of megalithic sites in Britain/ in which he first suggested the megalithic yard as a standardised prehistoric measurement. He retired from academia in 1961 to spend the rest of his life devoted to this area of research. The Thom Building , housing the Department of Engineering Science at Oxford, built in the 1960s, is named after Alexander Thom. From around 1933 to 1977 Thom spent most of his weekends and holiday periods hefting theodolites and survey equipment around the countryside with his family member or friends, most notably with his son Archie. From studies measuring and analysing the data created at over five hundred megalithic sites. He also attempted to classify stone circles into different morphological types, Type A, Type B, Type B modified and Type D flattened circles, Type 1 and Type 2 eggs , ovals and true circles . He suggested several were built as astronomical complexes to predict eclipses via nineteen year cycles. Thom went on to identify numerous solar and stellar alignments at stone circles, providing the foundations for the scientific discipline of Archaeoastronomy . He further suggested that prehistoric man in Britain must have used a solar method of keeping calendar. Based on statistical histograms of observed declinations at horizon marks with no convenient star at -22°, +8°, +9° and +22° (except possibly Spica at +9°) between 2100 and 1600 BC, he suggested a year based on of sixteen months ; four with twenty two days, eleven with twenty three days and one with twenty four. Thom's suggested megalithic solar year was divided by midsummer , midwinter and the two equinoxes into four and then subdivided into eight by early versions of the modern Christian festivals of Whitsun , Lammas , Martinmas and Candlemas (see Scottish Quarter Days ). He found little evidence for further subdivision into thirty two, but noted "We do not know how sophisticated prehistoric man's calendar was, but the interesting thing is that he obtained declinations very close to those we have obtained as ideal". Thom explored these topics further in his later books, /Megalithic sites in Britain/ (Oxford , 1967), /Megalithic lunar observatories/ (Oxford, 1971) and /Megalithic Remains in Britain and Brittany/ (Oxford, 1978), the last written with his son Archie after they carried out a detailed survey of the Carnac stones from 1970 to 1974.^[4] <#cite_note-Thom1967-3> Thom's ideas met with resistance from the archaeological community but were welcomed amongst elements of 1960s counter-culture . Along with Gerald Hawkins ' new interpretation of Stonehenge as an astronomical 'computer' (see Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge ), Thom's theories were adopted by numerous believers in the lost wisdom of the ancients and became commonly associated with pseudoscience ,^[/citation needed /] which saddened him greatly. In 1975, his wife, Jeanie died. In 1981 he underwent an eye operation and in 1982 he broke a femur falling on ice . He continued to write papers and undertook interviews and correspondence using a dictaphone with the assistance of audio typist, Hilda Gustin. He moved in with his daughter Beryl in 1983 in Banavie . Registered as blind , he concluded a final book /Stone Rows and Standing Stones/, a 557 page tome published posthumously with the assistance of Aubrey Burl in 1990. Alexander Thom died on November 7, 1985 at Fort William hospital, aged 91. His body was buried near Ayr . His son Alan died in a plane crash in 1945 and Archie died in 1995 from a brain tumour . He is survived by his daughter Beryl Austin and grandchildren. [edit ] BBC Chronicle - Cracking the Stone Age Code The Menhir Brisé suggested by Thom to have been once used for major lunar alignments in BBC Chronicle - Cracking the stone age code In 1970 Thom appeared on a television documentary produced by the BBC /Chronicle/ series, presented by Magnus Magnusson and featuring well known archaeologists, Dr. Euan Mackie , Professor Richard J. C. Atkinson , Dr. A. H. A. Hogg, Professor Stuart Piggott , Dr. Jacquetta Hawkes , Dr. Humphrey Case and Dr. Glyn Daniel . The programme discussed the difference between orthodox archaeology and the radical ideas of Thom. A pinnacle of his career, Thom finally got to publicly deliver his message on national television .^[5] <#cite_note-The_Spectator-4> Despite the heavy criticism, he never vented his frustration on the archaeological profession as he said in the /Chronicle/ program /"I just keep reporting what I find"/. [edit ] Later use of his work In the last decade Thom's proposed length for the Megalithic yard has been extensively reused as such in many controversial books which claim this unit of measurement is a subdivision of the Earth's circumference in an alleged 366-degree geometry . This theory, however, has been met with much skepticism by mainstream science which generally labels it as pseudoscience ^[/citation needed /] . [edit ] See also * Archeoastronomy * Euan Mackie * Robin Heath * Anne Macaulay * Hugh Harleston Jr. [edit ] Publications Archaeoastronomical publications. * Thom, Alexander (1955). "A Statistical Examination of the Megalithic Sites in Britain". /Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General)/. 118 *part III* (3): 275–295. doi :10.2307/2342494 . JSTOR 2342494 . * Thom, Alexander., The egg-shaped standing stone rings of Britain, Archivs internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 14, 291-303, 1961. * Thom, Alexander., The geometry of megalithic man, Mathematical Gazette, 45, 83-93, 1961. * Thom, Alexander., The megalithic unit of length, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, A 125, 243-251, 1962. * Thom, Alexander., The larger unit of megalithic man, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, A 127, 527-533, 1964. * Thom, Alexander., Megaliths and mathermatics, Antiquity, 40, 121-128, 1966. * Thom, Alexander., Megalithic sites in Britain, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1967. * Thom, Alexander., The metrology of cup and ring marks , Systematics, 6, 173-189, 1968. * Thom, Alexander., Megalithic Lunar Observatories, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1970. * Thom, Alexander and Thom, Archibald., The astronomical significance of the large Carnac menhirs, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 2, 147-160, 1971. * Thom, Alexander., The Carnac alignments, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 3, 11-26, 1972. * Thom, Alexander., The uses and alignments at Le Menec , Carnac, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 3, 151-164, 1972. * Thom, Alexander., The Kerlescan cromlechs, Jornal for the History of Astronomy, 4, 169-173, 1973. * Thom, Alexander., A megalithic lunar observatory in Orkney , Journal for the History of Astronomy, 4, 169-173, 1973. * Thom, Alexander., The Kermario alignments, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 5, 30-47, 1974. * Thom, Alexander; Stevenson Thom, Archibald; Strang Thom, Alexander (1974). "Stonehenge". /Journal for the History of Astronomy/ *5*: 71–90. Bibcode 1974JHA.....5...71T . * Thom, Alexander., Further work on Brogar Lunar Observatory, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 6, 100-114, 1975 * Thom, Alexander; Stevenson Thom, Archibald; Strang Thom, A lexander (1975). "Stonehenge as a Possible Lunar Observatory". /Journal for the History of Astronomy/ *6*: 19–30. Bibcode 1975JHA.....6...19T . * Thom, Alexander., Avebury volume 1: A new assessment of the geometry and metrology of the ring, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 7, 183-192, 1976. * Thom, Alexander., Thom, Archibald and Foord, T.R., Avebury volume 2: the West Kennet Avenue, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 7, 193-197, 1976. * Thom, Alexander., Thom, Archibald and Gorrie, J.M., The two megalithic lunar observatories at Carnac, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 7, 11-26, 1976. * Thom, Alexander., Megalithic Astronomy, Journal of Navigation, 30, 1-14, 1977. * Thom, Alexander., A Forth Lunar Foresight for the Brogar Ring, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 8, 54-55, 1977. * Thom, Alexander., A reconsideration of the Lunar Sites in Britain, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 9, 170-179, 1978. * Thom, Alexander., Megalithic remains in Britain and Brittany, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1978. * Thom, Alexander., The standing stones in Argyllshire , Glasgow Archaeological Journal, vi, 5-10, 1979. * Thom, Alexander., A new study of all lunar lines, Journal for the History of Astronomy: Archaeoastronomy, 2, 78-94, 1980. * Thom, Alexander., Astronomical foresights used by Megalithic man, Journal for the History of Astronomy: Archaeoastronomy, 2, 78-94, 1980. * Thom, Alexander, Thom Archibald Stevenson, Burl, Aubrey., /Megalithic rings: plans and data for 229 monuments in Britain/, British Archaeological Reports, 1980, ISBN 978-0-86054-094-6 * Thom, Alexander, Statistical and philosophical arguments for the astronomical significance of standing stones, in D.C. Heggie, Archaeoastronomy in the Old World, Cambridge University Press, 53-82, 1982. * Thom, Alexander, Statistical and philosophical arguments for the astronomical significance of standing stones with a section on the solar calendar, in D.C. Heggie, Archaeoastronomy in the Old World, Cambridge University Press, 53-82, 1982. * Thom, Alexander, Observations of the moon in megalithic times, Archaeoastronomy, 5, 57-66, 1983. * Thom, Alexander, The two major Megalithic observatories in Scotland, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 15, 129-148, 1984. * 1990. Thom, Alexander and Burl, Aubrey /Stone Rows and Standing Stones: Britain, Ireland and Brittany/ B.A.R. 1990, ISBN 978-0-86054-708-2 [edit ] References 1. *^ <#cite_ref-Heath2003_0-0>* Robin Heath (May 2003). /Alexander Thom: Cracking the Stone Age Code/ . Bluestone Press. ISBN 9780952615149 . http://books.google.com/books?id=DmnHGAAACAAJ. Retrieved 28 April 2011. 2. *^ <#cite_ref-1>* Ruggles, Clive (2003). /Records in Stone: Papers in Memory of Alexander Thom/. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53130-6 . 3. *^ <#cite_ref-2>* Hutton, Ronald /The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles/ Blackwell Publishing 1993 ISBN 978-0-631-18946-6 p. 111 [1] 4. *^ <#cite_ref-Thom1967_3-0>* Alexander Thom (1 August 1967). /Megalithic Sites in Britain, pp. 107-/ . Oxford Univ Pr on Demand. ISBN 9780198131489 . http://books.google.com/books?id=UviAAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 4 June 2011. 5. *^ <#cite_ref-The_Spectator_4-0>* /The Spectator, p. 608/ . 1970. http://books.google.com/books?id=oBw-AQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 28 April 2011. [edit ] External links * Thom's publications at the Astrophysics Data System * Biography * "Astronomy before History, by Clive Ruggles and Michael Hoskins, a chapter from the Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy, Michael Hoskin ed., 1999 * Alexander Thom, obituary by D. C. Heggie, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol 28, No 2, p 178-182 * BBC Archive - Chronicle | Cracking the Stone Age Code *Authority control *: PND : 119411814 | LCCN : n81008160 | VIAF : 92319958 Persondata Name Thom, Alexander Alternative names Short description Scottish engineer Date of birth 26 March 1894 Place of birth Date of death 7 November 1985 Place of death Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Thom" Categories : 1894 births | 1985 deaths | Scottish archaeologists | Scottish engineers | Scottish scholars and academics | Alumni of the University of Glasgow | Academics of the University of Glasgow | Academics of the University of Oxford | Engineering academics | Archaeoastronomers | Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Hidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from April 2011 | Articles with unsourced statements from January 2010 Personal tools * Log in / create account Namespaces * Article * Discussion Variants <#> Views * Read * Edit Actions <#> * View history Search Search Navigation * Main page * Contents * Featured content * Current events * Random article * Donate to Wikipedia Interaction * Help * About Wikipedia * Community portal * Recent changes * Contact Wikipedia Toolbox * What links here * Related changes * Upload file * Special pages * Permanent link * Cite this page Print/export * Create a book * Download as PDF * Printable version Languages * Deutsch * Español * Français * This page was last modified on 8 June 2011 at 19:24. * Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. 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