+---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+----- | | | Decl.| Day. |Year. +---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+----- | | | | |B.C. | |MARCH. | | | | | | | | |Nike Apteros |Spica (setting)|+6°10′|Mar. 17|1130 |Juno Lacinia (near Croton) |α-Arietis |+7 27 | „ 28|1000 |Paestum (Neptune) |Spica (setting)|+3 5 | „ 22| 535 |Gergenti (Hercules) | „ |+2 30 | „ 30| 470 | | | | | | |SEPTEMBER. | | | | | | | | |Rhamnus (Themis) |Spica (rising) |+6° 0′|Sept. 17|1092 |Tegea (Minerva) | „ „ |+5 51 | „ 18|1075 |Syracuse (? Minerva) | „ |+4 30 | „ 20| 815 |Athens (dedication unknown)| „ |+4 17 | „ 23| 780 |Rhamnus (Nemesis) | „ „ |+4 5 | „ 22| 747 |Bassæ (Apollo) | „ „ |+3 57 | „ 22| 728 |Ephesus (Diana) | „ „ |+3 57 | „ 25| 715 |Syracuse (Diana) | „ „ |+2 22 | „ 26| 450 |Ephesus (Diana) | „ | -- |Oct. 6| 355 |(re-orientation) | | | | +---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+---- In Britain equinoctial alignments are not wanting, but so few have been traced that I have reserved them for future inquiry. [123] See _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 318. [124] The temple conditions are approximately as follows:-- _PALENQUE._ Azimuths. Decl. N. 21° 30′ E. 60° 15′ } N. 18 0 E. 62 36 }Stellar temples. Clock-stars. S. 27 0 W. 56 17 } S. 66 0 E. 23 0 Solstice}Solar temples. S. 73 0 E. 16 0 May } _CHICHEN ITZA._ Azimuths. Decl. N. 26° 0′ E. 59° 0′ Stellar temple. Clock-star. S. 70 0 E. 19 0 (?) N. 70 0 W. 19 0 (?) N. 67 0 W. 22 0 Solstitial}Solar temples. N. 72 30 16 0 May } [125] _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 78. [126] _Proc. Roy. Soc._, vol. 69. CHAPTER XXX THE LIFE OF THE ASTRONOMER-PRIESTS The facts contained in the preceding chapters have suggested, at all events, that whatever else went on some four thousand years ago in the British circles there was much astronomical observation and a great deal of preparation for it. In a colony of the astronomer-priests who built and used the ancient temples we had of necessity:--