74-770: Ley lines ( / l eɪ ˈ l aɪ n z / ) are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures, prehistoric sites and prominent landmarks . The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognised by ancient societies that deliberately erected structures along them. Since the 1960s, members of the Earth Mysteries movement and other esoteric traditions have commonly believed that such ley lines demarcate " earth energies " and serve as guides for alien spacecraft. Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience . The idea of "leys" as straight tracks across
148-701: A belief in ley lines was taken up by members of the counterculture , where—in the words of the archaeologist Matthew Johnson —they were attributed with "sacred significance or mystical power". Ruggles noted that in this period, ley lines came to be conceived as "lines of power, the paths of some form of spiritual force or energy accessible to our ancient ancestors but now lost to narrow-minded twentieth-century scientific thought". In his 1961 book Skyways and Landmarks , Tony Wedd published his idea that Watkins' leys were both real and served as ancient markers to guide alien spacecraft that were visiting Earth. He came to this conclusion after comparing Watkins' ideas with those of
222-428: A distribution over the sphere. The sample distribution from the standing stones was compared with the theoretical distribution to show that the occurrence of straight lines was no more than average. The archaeologist Richard Atkinson once demonstrated this by taking the positions of telephone booths and pointing out the existence of "telephone box leys". This, he argued, showed that the mere existence of such lines in
296-512: A fact that frustrated him. His critics noted that his ideas relied on drawing lines between sites established at different periods of the past. They also argued that in prehistory, as in the present, it was impractical to travel in a straight line across hilly or mountainous areas of Britain, rendering his leys unlikely as trade routes. Independently of Watkins' ideas, a similar notion—that of Heilige Linien ('holy lines')—was raised in Germany in
370-466: A feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern day use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or features, that have become local or national symbols . In old English the word landmearc (from land + mearc (mark)) was used to describe a boundary marker , an "object set up to mark the boundaries of a kingdom, estate, etc.". Starting from around 1560, this understanding of "landmark"
444-481: A form of pseudoscience . On The Skeptic's Dictionary , the American philosopher and skeptic Robert Todd Carroll noted that none of the statements about magnetic forces underpinning putative ley lines has been scientifically verified. Williamson and Bellamy characterised ley lines as "one of the biggest red herrings in the history of popular thought". One criticism of Watkins' ley line theory states that given
518-427: A genuine contribution to the study of folklore and mythology." Pennick for instance went on to write a range of short books and pamphlets on European folklore. Another prominent ley hunter, Bob Trubshaw, also wrote several books on these subjects and served as a publisher for others. Jeremy Harte, editor of Wessex Earth Mysteries , subsequently produced several books on folklore; his book on British fairy lore later won
592-591: A group of ufologists established the Ley Hunter's Club. Michell's publication was followed by an upsurge in ley hunting as enthusiasts travelled around the British landscape seeking to identify what they believed to be ley lines connecting various historic structures. Parish churches were particularly favoured by the ley hunters, who often worked on the assumption that such churches had almost always been built atop pre-Christian sacred sites. The 1970s and 1980s also saw
666-488: A landmark character. Alfred Watkins Alfred Watkins (27 January 1855 – 15 April 1935) was an English businessman and amateur archaeologist who developed the idea of ley lines . Watkins was born in Hereford to an affluent family which had moved to the town in 1820 to establish several businesses including a flour-mill, a hotel and brewery. Watkins travelled across Herefordshire as an 'out-rider' representing
740-412: A line drawn through virtually anywhere will 'clip' a number of sites". Other statistical significance tests have shown that supposed ley-line alignments are no more significant than random occurrences and/or have been generated by selection effects. The paper by statistician Simon Broadbent is one such example and the discussion after the article involving a large number of other statisticians demonstrates
814-479: A list according to which landscape features could be given values between 1 ⁄ 4 and 1 point, five points or more being required as evidence of a ley. Watkins' work resurfaced in popularised form from the 1960s following the publication of John Michell 's book The View over Atlantis in 1969. Michell merged Watkins' ideas with mystical concepts not present in Watkins' own work. In 2004, John Bruno Hare of
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#1732797259972888-610: A particular subculture of believers. From another, it is a frustrating tale of missed opportunities. The neglect of landscape and sensory experience by mainstream archaeology in the mid twentieth century was indeed a serious omission, which earth mysteries researchers could well have remedied to the lasting benefit of knowledge [...] Misled by a fixed and dogmatic set of ideas, however, they passed this by to focus on an attempted proof of beliefs which were ultimately based on faith alone. Historian Ronald Hutton , 2013 Williamson and Bellamy's book brought two different responses from
962-410: A recognised phenomenon among ancient European societies and that attempts to draw them typically rely on linking together structures that were built in different historical periods. Archaeologists and statisticians have demonstrated that a random distribution of a sufficient number of points on a plane will inevitably create alignments of random points purely by chance. Skeptics have also stressed that
1036-430: A set of points does not prove that the lines are deliberate artefacts, especially since it is known that telephone boxes were not laid out in any such manner or with any such intention. In 2004, John Bruno Hare wrote: Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to
1110-457: A straight line between two points that were otherwise not visible from each other. Paul Devereux succeeded Screeton as the editor of the Ley Hunter . He was more concerned than many other ley hunters with finding objective evidence for the idea that unusual forms of energy could be measured at places where prehistoric communities had erected structures. He was one of the founding members of
1184-443: A wealthy businessman and antiquarian who lived in Hereford . According to his account, he was driving across the hills near Blackwardine , Herefordshire , when he looked across the landscape and observed the way that several features lined up together. He subsequently began drawing lines across his Ordnance Survey maps, developing the view that ancient British people had tended to travel in straight lines, using "mark points" along
1258-455: A wider audience in his 1967 book The Flying Saucer Vision . In this book, Michell promoted the ancient astronaut belief that extraterrestrials had assisted humanity during prehistory, when humans had worshipped these entities as gods, but that the aliens left when humanity became too materialistic and technology-focused. He also argued that humanity's materialism was driving it to self-destruction, but that this could be prevented by re-activating
1332-742: Is a seamark or daymark , a structure usually built intentionally to aid sailors navigating featureless coasts. Natural landmarks can be characteristic features, such as mountains or plateaus . Examples of natural landmarks are Mount Everest in the Himalayas , Table Mountain in South Africa, Mount Ararat in Turkey, Uluru in Australia, Mount Fuji in Japan and the Grand Canyon in
1406-571: Is done in American English as well. In urban studies as well as in geography , a landmark is furthermore defined as an external point of reference that helps orientation in a familiar or unfamiliar environment. Landmarks are often used in verbal route instructions ("Turn left at the big church and then right over the bridge.") Landmarks are usually classified as either natural landmarks or human-made landmarks, both are originally used to support navigation on finding directions. A variant
1480-518: Is unlikely that any tests of evidence would bring about an end to belief in them." During the 1970s and 1980s, a belief in ley lines fed into the modern Pagan community. Research that took place in 2014 for instance found that various modern Druids and other Pagans believed that there were ley lines focusing on the Early Neolithic site of Coldrum Long Barrow in Kent , southeast England. In
1554-1092: The Château Frontenac in Quebec (city) , Place Stanislas in Nancy , the CN Tower in Toronto , the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw , the Atomium in Brussels , Gateway Arch in St Louis , and the Moai in Easter Island . Church spires and mosque minarets are often very tall and visible from many miles around and thus often serve as built landmarks. Also town hall towers and belfries often have
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#17327972599721628-1516: The Colosseum in Rome , Big Ben in London , the Tsūtenkaku in Osaka , the Forbidden City in Beijing , the Great Pyramid in Giza , Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro , Statue of Unity in Narmada , Bratislava Castle in Bratislava , Helsinki Cathedral in Helsinki , the Space Needle in Seattle , the Sydney Opera House in Sydney , the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin ,
1702-606: The Colossus of Rhodes are ancient structures built to lead ships to the port. In modern usage, a landmark includes anything that is easily recognizable, such as a monument , building, or other structure. In American English it is the main term used to designate places that might be of interest to tourists, due to notable physical features or historical significance. Landmarks in the British English sense are often used for casual navigation , such as giving directions. This
1776-522: The Folklore Society 's annual prize. In 2005, Ruggles noted that "for the most part, ley lines represent an unhappy episode now consigned to history". However belief in ley lines persists among various esoteric groups, having become an "enduring feature of some brands of esotericism". As Hutton observed, beliefs in "ancient earth energies have passed so far into the religious experience of the 'New Age' counter-culture of Europe and America that it
1850-556: The Internet Sacred Texts Archive (ISTA) wrote: Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. .. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of
1924-675: The Old English term for a cleared space, with Watkins adopting it for his lines because he found it to be part of the place-names of various settlements that were along the lines he traced. He also observed the recurrence of "cole" and "dod" in English place-names, thus suggesting that the individuals who established these lines were referred to as a "coleman" or " dodman ". He proposed that the Long Man of Wilmington chalk geoglyph in Sussex
1998-415: The ancient Britons as too primitive to have devised such an arrangement , but this is no longer the argument used against the existence of leys. More crucially, there are so many ancient features that finding some in approximate alignment is highly likely (for example, see and discussion after article). (See also ley lines ). Watkins was sensitive to such arguments and argued for caution. He also drew up
2072-875: The ship Endurance . Another accompanied Herbert Ponting and Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole in 1910. Watkins was active in the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom and served as its president when it was held in Hereford in 1907. In 1910 he was awarded the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS). Instituted in 1878, the medal honours any invention, research, publication or other contribution resulting in an important advance in
2146-441: The 1920s. During the 1960s, Watkins' ideas were revived in altered form by British proponents of the countercultural Earth Mysteries movement. In 1961, Tony Wedd put forward the belief that leys were established by prehistoric communities to guide alien spacecraft. This view was promoted to a wider audience in the books of John Michell , particularly his 1969 work The View Over Atlantis . Michell's publications were accompanied by
2220-454: The 1950s, in part due to "a natural weariness with a spent enthusiasm". From the 1940s through to the 1960s, the archaeological establishment blossomed in Britain due to the formation of various university courses on the subject. This helped to professionalise the discipline, and meant that it was no longer an amateur-dominated field of research. It was in the latter decade of this period that
2294-601: The April 1890 edition of the British Journal of Photography and patented his exposure meter. The Watkins Meter Company was active for over 40 years and exported all over the world. The device contributed much to photography's emergence as a mass-market art form. His Watkins Manual of Exposure and Development (1900), ran to eleven editions. On 30 June 1921, Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire and had
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2368-570: The Bronze Age. He argued that this golden age could nevertheless be restored. Another key book produced among the ley hunting community was Mysterious Britain , written by Janet and Colin Bord. Part of the popularity of ley hunting was that individuals without any form of professional training in archaeology could take part and feel that they could rediscover "the magical landscapes of the past". Ley hunting welcomed those who had "a strong interest in
2442-599: The Dragon Project, launched in London in 1977 with the purpose of conducting radioactivity and ultrasonic tests at prehistoric sites, particularly the stone circles created in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age . The Dragon Project continued its research throughout the 1980s, finding that certain prehistoric sites did show higher or lower than average rates of radiation but that others did not and that there
2516-510: The French ufologist Aimé Michel , who argued for the existence of "orthotenies", lines along which alien spacecraft travelled. Wedd suggested that either spacecraft were following the prehistoric landmarks for guidance or that both the leys and the spacecraft were following a "magnetic current" flowing across the Earth. Wedd's ideas were taken up by the writer John Michell , who promoted them to
2590-425: The Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today. Landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation ,
2664-726: The Old Straight Track Club from 1927 to 1935. (Its papers are also in the Hereford City Museum.) Watkins was a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings , an authority on beekeeping and a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society . He was also involved in the preservation of Pembridge Market Hall in Herefordshire. Archaeologists and physical Geographers , in general, do not accept Watkins' ideas on leys. At first they regarded
2738-852: The Straight Track Club. To assist this growing body of enthusiasts who were looking for their own ley lines in the landscape, in 1927, Watkins published The Ley Hunter's Manual . Proponents of Watkins' ideas sent in letters to the archaeologist O. G. S. Crawford , then editor of the Antiquity journal. Crawford filed these letters under a section of his archive titled "Crankeries" and was annoyed that educated people believed such ideas when they were demonstrably incorrect. He refused to publish an advert for The Old Straight Track in Antiquity , at which Watkins became very bitter towards him. Watkins' last book, Archaic Tracks Around Cambridge ,
2812-533: The US city of Seattle a dowsing organisation called the Geo Group plotted what they believed were the ley lines across the city. They stated that their "project made Seattle the first city on Earth to balance and tune its ley-line system". The Seattle Arts Commission contributed $ 5,000 to the project, bringing criticisms from members of the public who regarded it as a waste of money. Ley lines have been characterised as
2886-504: The United States. Trees might also serve as local landmarks, such as jubilee oaks or conifers . Some landmark trees may be named, such as Queen's Oak , Hanging Oak and Centennial Tree . Bases of fallen trees, known in this context as rootstocks , are used as navigational aids on high-resolution maps and in the sport of orienteering . Because most woods have many fallen trees, generally only very large rootstocks are mapped. In
2960-575: The ancient centres which would facilitate renewed contact with the aliens. Michell repeated his beliefs in his 1969 book The View Over Atlantis . Hutton described it as "almost the founding document of the modern earth mysteries movement". Here he interpreted ley lines by reference to the Chinese concept of geomantic energy lines which he transliterated as " lung mei ", i.e., " dragon veins " ( 龙脉 ; 龍脈 ; lóngmài ; lung-mai ). He proposed that an advanced ancient society that had once covered much of
3034-430: The book's reception in 2000, Williamson noted that "archaeologists weren't particularly interested, and ley-line people were hostile". From one perspective, the tale of ley-hunting is one of a classic modern religious movement, arising with an apocalyptic language which appropriated some of the tropes of evangelical Christianity, flourished for a brief time, and then subsided into a set of motifs and assumptions retained by
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3108-488: The coming of an Age of Aquarius in which ancient wisdom would be restored. Michell invented various claims about archaeological evidence to suit his purpose. He viewed archaeologists as antagonists, seeing them as the personification of the modern materialism he was railing against. In the mid-1970s Michell then published a detailed case study of the West Penwith district of Cornwall, laying out what he believed to be
3182-477: The esoteric idea of earth energies running through ley lines has not been scientifically verified, remaining an article of faith for its believers. The idea that ancient sacred sites might have been constructed in alignment with one another was proposed in 1846 by the Reverend Edward Duke, who observed that some prehistoric monuments and medieval churches aligned with each other. In 1909, the idea
3256-472: The evidence that ley lines proponents had amassed in support of their beliefs. As part of their book, they examined the example of the West Penwith district that Michell had set out as a challenge to archaeologists during the previous decade. They highlighted that the British landscape was so highly covered in historic monuments that it was statistically unlikely that any straight line could be drawn across
3330-431: The existence of sophisticated astronomer-priests in British prehistory. In suggesting that prehistoric Britons were far more advanced in mathematics and astronomy than archaeologists had previously accepted, Thom's work was seen as giving additional credibility to the beliefs of ley hunters. Thom lent the idea of leys some support; in 1971 he stated the view that Neolithic British engineers would have been capable of surveying
3404-838: The family businesses and so got to know the area intimately. Watkins was also a respected photographer. He made some cameras himself and manufactured an exposure meter called the Watkins Bee Meter due to its small size and efficiency. An example is in the Museum Resource & Learning Centre in Hereford. Frank Hurley used Bee Meters while he was expedition photographer on the Australian explorer Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition , which departed in 1911 and returned in 1914. Hurley also used Bee Meters on Sir Ernest Shackleton 's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition which set out in 1914. The meters sank with
3478-457: The high density of historic and prehistoric sites in Britain and other parts of Europe, finding straight lines that "connect" sites is trivial and ascribable to coincidence . Johnson stated that "ley lines do not exist". He cited Williamson and Bellamy's work in demonstrating this, noting that their research showed how "the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that
3552-427: The high level of agreement that alignments have no significance compared to the null hypothesis of random locations. A study by David George Kendall used the techniques of shape analysis to examine the triangles formed by standing stones to deduce if these were often arranged in straight lines. The shape of a triangle can be represented as a point on the sphere, and the distribution of all shapes can be thought of as
3626-569: The idea that there was a system of straight lines crossing the landscape dating from Neolithic times. He presented his ideas at a meeting of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford in September 1921, and published his first books Early British Trackways in 1922 and The Old Straight Track in 1925. Thereafter he spent a major part of his life developing his theory. He published a further book on leys and participated in
3700-525: The importance of lines running through the landscape in various communities around the world, proposing these as ethnographic comparisons for what might have occurred in prehistoric Britain. Hutton called the book "an important development", for it was "by far the most well-researched, intelligently written and beautifully produced work yet published on leys". Devereux pursued this approach in a series of further books. Reflecting his move towards archaeology, in 1991, Devereux published an article on sightlines from
3774-438: The increase in publications on the topic of ley lines. One ley lines enthusiast, Philip Heselton , established the Ley Hunter magazine, which was launched in 1965. It was later edited by Paul Screeton , who also wrote the book Quicksilver Heritage , in which he argued that the Neolithic period had seen an idyllic society devoted to spirituality but that this was brought to an end through the introduction of metal technologies in
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#17327972599723848-442: The landscape to guide them. He put forward his idea of ley lines in the 1922 book Early British Trackways and then again, in greater depth, in the 1925 book The Old Straight Track . He proposed the existence of a network of completely straight roads that cut through a range of prehistoric, Roman, and medieval structures. In his view, these straight tracks were ancient trade routes. Watkins had drawn upon earlier research; he cited
3922-417: The landscape was put forward by the English antiquarian Alfred Watkins in the 1920s, particularly in his book The Old Straight Track . He argued that straight lines could be drawn between various historic structures and that these represented trade routes created by ancient British societies. Although he gained a small following, Watkins' ideas were never accepted by the British archaeological establishment,
3996-468: The landscape without passing through several such sites. They also demonstrated that ley hunters had often said that certain markers were Neolithic, and thus roughly contemporary with each other, when often they were of widely different dates, such as being Iron Age or medieval. The overall message of Williamson and Bellamy's book was that the idea of leys, as it was being presented by Earth Mysteries proponents, had no basis in empirical reality. Looking back on
4070-583: The launch of the Ley Hunter magazine and the appearance of a ley hunter community keen to identify ley lines across the British landscape. Ley hunters often combined their search for ley lines with other esoteric practices like dowsing and numerology and with a belief in a forthcoming Age of Aquarius that would transform human society. Although often hostile to archaeologists, some ley hunters attempted to ascertain scientific evidence for their belief in earth energies at prehistoric sites, evidence they could not obtain. Following sustained archaeological criticism,
4144-402: The ley hunter community dissipated in the 1990s, with several of its key proponents abandoning the idea and moving into the study of landscape archaeology and folkloristics . Belief in ley lines nevertheless remains common among some esoteric religious groups, such as forms of modern Paganism , in both Europe and North America. Archaeologists note that there is no evidence that ley lines were
4218-605: The ley hunter community. Some maintained that even if the presence of earth energies running through ley lines could not be demonstrated with empirical evidence and rational argumentation, this did not matter; for them, a belief in ley lines was an act of faith, and in their view archaeologists were too narrow-minded to comprehend this reality. The other approach was to further engage archaeologists by seeking out new data and arguments to bolster their beliefs in ley lines. Hutton noted that this pulled along "a potential fissure between rationalism and mysticism which had always been inherent in
4292-481: The ley lines in the area. He presented this as a challenge to archaeologists, urging them to examine his ideas in detail and stating that he would donate a large sum of money to charity if they could disprove them. Hutton noted that it represented "the finest piece of surveying work" then undertaken by a pseudo-archaeologists in Britain. However Michell had included natural rock outcrops as well as medieval crosses in his list of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. In 1962,
4366-401: The ley lines; some believed that leys only marked a pre-existing energy current, whereas others thought that the leys helped to control and direct this energy. They were nevertheless generally in agreement that the ley lines were laid out between 5000 BCE and 2600 BCE, after the introduction of agriculture but before the introduction of metal in Britain. For many ley hunters, this Neolithic period
4440-644: The leys were of disparate historical origins. Some of Watkins' other ideas, such as his belief that widespread forest clearance took place in prehistory rather than later, would nevertheless later be recognised by archaeologists. Part of archaeologists' objections was their belief that prehistoric Britons would not have been sophisticated enough to produce such accurate measurements across the landscape. British archaeologists were then overwhelmingly committed to ideas of cultural diffusionism , and thus unwelcoming to ideas about ley lines being an independent British development. In 1926, advocates of Watkins' beliefs established
4514-985: The modern sense, landmarks are usually referred to as monuments or prominent distinctive buildings, used as the symbol of a certain area, city, or nation . Some examples are Tokyo Tower in Tokyo , the White House in Washington, D.C. , the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building in New York City , the Eiffel Tower in Paris , Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow , the Lotte World Tower in Seoul ,
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#17327972599724588-428: The movement". In 1989, a book that Devereux had co-written with Nigel Pennick, Lines on the Landscape , was published. It laid aside ideas of leys representing channels for earth energy, noting that this was beyond the realm of scientific verification, and instead focused on trying to build a case for ley lines that archaeologists could engage with. In particular, it drew attention to ethnographically recorded beliefs in
4662-440: The past but feel excluded from the narrow confines of orthodox academia". The ley hunting movement often blended their activities with other esoteric practices, such as numerology and dowsing . The movement had a diverse base, consisting of individuals from different classes and of different political opinions: it contained adherents of both radical left and radical right ideologies. Ley hunters often differed on how they understood
4736-454: The prehistoric site of Silbury Hill , Wiltshire in Antiquity . By the 1990s, British archaeology had become more open to ideas about language and cognition, topics that Earth Mysteries enthusiasts had long been interested in. A prominent example of this was the work of Christopher Tilley , who devised the idea of phenomenology , or using human senses to experience a landscape as a means of trying to ascertain how past societies would have done
4810-429: The same. The Ley Hunter magazine ceased publication in 1999. Its last editor, Danny Sullivan, stated that the idea of leys was "dead". Hutton suggested that some of the enthusiasm formerly directed toward leys was instead directed toward archaeo-astronomy. He also noted that the ley hunting community had "functioned as an indispensable training ground for a small but important group of non-academic scholars who have made
4884-487: The scientific or technological development of photography or imaging in the widest sense. It also carries with it Honorary Fellowship of the society. Over 3,000 photographs, taken from Alfred's original glass negative plates are held by Hereford Library. In photography, Watkins began with a primitive pinhole camera made from a cigar box. He devised an " exposure meter " after exploring the mathematical relations of light, lens size and exposure period. He published findings in
4958-601: The work of the English astronomer Norman Lockyer , who had argued that ancient alignments might be oriented to sunrise and sunset at solstices . His work referred to G. H. Piper's paper presented to the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club in 1882, which noted that: "A line drawn from the Skirrid-fawr mountain northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and southernmost point of Hatterall Hill , Oldcastle , Longtown Castle , and Urishay and Snodhill castles." Watkins referred to these lines as "leys" although had reservations about doing so. The term ley derived from
5032-501: The world had established ley lines across the landscape to harness this lung mei energy. Translating the term " lung mei " as "dragon paths", he reinterpreted tales from English mythology and folklore in which heroes killed dragons so that the dragon-slayers became the villains. Hutton later noted that Michell's ideas "embodied a fervent religious feeling, which though not Christian was heavily influenced by Christian models", adopting an "evangelical and apocalyptic tone" that announced
5106-431: Was a depiction of such an individual with their measuring equipment. His ideas were rejected by most experts on British prehistory at the time, including both the small number of recognised archaeological scholars and local enthusiasts. His critics noted that the straight lines he proposed would have been highly impractical means of crossing hilly or mountainous terrain, and that many of the sites he selected as evidence for
5180-410: Was advanced in Germany. There, Wilhelm Teudt had argued for the presence of linear alignments connecting various sites but suggested that they had a religious and astronomical function. In Germany, the idea was referred to as Heilige Linien ('holy lines'), an idea adopted by some proponents of Nazism . The idea of "leys" as paths traversing the British landscape was developed by Alfred Watkins ,
5254-442: Was no consistent pattern. Professional archaeologists, whose view of the ley hunters was largely negative, took little interest in such research. It was only in the 1980s that professional archaeologists in Britain began to engage with the ley hunting movement. In 1983, Ley Lines in Question , a book written by the archaeologists Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy, was published. In this work, Williamson and Bellamy considered and tackled
5328-466: Was published in 1932. Watkins died on 7 April 1935. The Club survived him, although it became largely inactive at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and formally disbanded in 1948. The archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles noted that after the 1920s, "ley lines soon faded into obscurity". The historian Ronald Hutton similarly noted that there had been a "virtual demise" in the idea by
5402-632: Was replaced by a more general one. A landmark became a "conspicuous object in a landscape". A landmark literally meant a geographic feature used by explorers and others to find their way back or through an area. For example, the Table Mountain near Cape Town , South Africa was used as a landmark to help sailors to navigate around the southern tip of Africa during the Age of Exploration . Artificial structures are also sometimes built to assist sailors in navigation. The Lighthouse of Alexandria and
5476-461: Was seen as a golden age in which Britons lived in harmony with the natural environment. Attitudes to the archaeological establishment varied among ley hunters, with some of the latter wanting to convert archaeologists to their beliefs and others believing that that was an impossible task. Ley hunters nevertheless often took an interest in the work of archaeo-astronomers like Alexander Thom and Euan Mackie , being attracted to their arguments about
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