NavList:

Been a bit quiet lately ( a blessing perhaps). Bought a larger boat in fall and have been working like a fool getting it documented, ready for spring, etc. Owning two, one in water, one out, has been entertaining, especially this New England winter.....

anyway.....

I have watched with some interest archeological analysis of various sites regarding cultural use of solar/lunar/star positions for laying out temples, monuments, etc.

The case is that many antiquity structures are positoned to precise solar/lunar/star correlations.  Favorites include stonehenge roughly 2950 BC? and others aligned to summer and winter solstice events.

I understand Egyptian monuments and far east temples have notable correlations as well.

Thus is my question:  

Various archeological documentaries and papers take glee in proving these with actual sightings "on camera" and statements.

It dawned on me that I don't have a 5000 year old air or nautical almanac handy, and was curious how the bearing of the sun in a particular geographic position on say the winter solstice might be different then than today. I know we ultimately have multiple sources of minor error over years now.....but had not considerd the collective accumualtion of millenia of little bits of "earth wobble" on the positions.  I have read precession has the zodiac out of phase with actual science something like 36 degrees? The precession cycle I recall from one class or another was somewhere about 25,800 years.  Say Stonehenge was 1/5th of that ago...that's about 7 degrees change. That surely would throw off the sight? OK, if we throw out the clock for the solstice does it still point to the soltice just at a different time?.

This has me wondering just how much I am actually being told is correct vs speculation, or have the corrections been made and oversimplified for public documentary.

 Is there a handyonline calculator that goes that far back?  So I could look at a true satellite shot with bearings vs actual angular position on that date in 2950 BC? Are there any accumulated earthquake/shock events on earth that might make any uniform calculator erronoeous by any signifcant amount?

Knowing this would:

1.  Validate ancient precison based on the current positions.

2.  Verify to me that these are in fact precisely placed as proposed.

You get spoon fed a lot of this stuff, and I have to admit I look with a bit of a cynical eye.......considering some of the other...uh...factoids they throw at me....  (your pet may be an extraterrestrial...etc....)

MC