This diamond-shaped gold plaque was found under a burial mound near the Stonehenge complex. The man buried there has been dubbed 'the King of Stonehenge' due to the exceptional nature of the grave goods including symbols of power and authority. The lozenge dates from 1900-1700 BC and is made from a thin sheet of gold; it was originally mounted on a thin wooden plate and was placed on the man's chest.
The lozenge displays a sophisticated understanding of geometry as well as a high level of technical skill. The design is based on a hexagonal construction, created by repeating hexagons within a series of three concentric circles. The following diagrams illustrate stages in the construction of the design, which would have been worked out using a type of compass and straight edge:
A another gold lozenge, found in burial to the south of Stonehenge in Dorset (the Clandon Barrow), is based on a decagonal rather than a hexagonal construction:
According to the archaeologist Anthony Johnson:
"The construction of Stonehenge reflects the empirical discovery of mathematical truths. Its design embodies the elegant and universal symbolism of numbers and geometry. 4,500 years ago Neolithic surveyors and engineers understood and employed the relationships between squares and circles. They accurately created polygons which included hexagons, pentagons, decagons; the classic 30 sided figure which determined the positions of the Sarsen Circle (a 'triacontagon') is itself a product of these fundamental shapes. The 'horseshoe' form of the central array was derived from the same markers that determined the position of the Sarsen Circle. Beyond the circle, the four 'Station Stones' sit in perfect spatial and geometric relationship with the central group. [...] The Bush Barrow Lozenge is one of a number of objects that provide a further remarkable insight into the sublime dimension of the prehistoric mind. This artefact is a tangible and intimate connection with the creativity of the Early Bronze Age artisans, a mature reflection of the geometric principles developed not by ‘astronomer priests’ but by Neolithic ‘draftsmen-surveyors’ who had used the same elegantly simple methods in the construction of both timber and stone monuments for generations."
http://www.solvingstonehenge.co.uk/page3.html
However, other authors interpret both Stonehenge and the Bush Barrow lozenge as having a precise calendrical/astronomical function. The archaeologist Euan W. Mackie makes a direct connection between the Bush Barrow lozenge and the Nebra Sky Disk, which was produced around 1600 BC:
“the two golden arcs [on opposite sides of the Nebra Disk] each subtend angles of about 82 degrees from the center of the disc […] this could relate to the fact that, in this part of Germany, the difference in azimuth (degrees clockwise from true North) between the Sun on the horizon at midwinter and at midsummer is also 82 degrees. (Mittelberg lies at a latitude of about 51.3 degrees north.) The disc could therefore be a representation of the annual solar sunrise and sunset cycle as seen from near Nebra. […]
A new interpretation of the geometrical pattern on the Bush Barrow lozenge was originally conceived by J.M.D. Ker in 1977 […] Ker and his colleagues found the pair of acute angles of the basic diamond pattern to be 81 degrees. They realized that this was the angle between midsummer and midwinter sunrises (and sunsets of course) on a low horizon at the latitude of Stonehenge (51.17 degrees N) four thousand years ago. […] The long axis of the pattern, when oriented east/west, must point to the equinoctial sunrise or sunset; the two sides of the diamond must then point to those at midwinter and midsummer. In fact the authors claim that all the “Eighth” subdivisions of the solar calendar are clearly shown by lines running from a point on the left (marked by the black diamond here) through the inner points of the zig-zag pattern opposite. […]
Latitude of the find spots
Each of the two metal artifacts just discussed was found in or near a major circular sanctuary at about the same latitude, and each—if interpreted correctly—was designed to be used near that latitude.
When one considers the wide range of latitudes which mainland Europe covers it does seem rather remarkable that the most convincing archaeoastronomical artefact ever found [the Nebra Disk] should have come from about the same latitude as Stonehenge—the most spectacular of the prehistoric circular ‘holy places’—even though it is in eastern Germany and far away across the sea from the Wiltshire site. The centre of Stonehenge is at 51.15 degrees North and the summit of the Mittelberg at 51.28 degrees North. This represents a latitudinal distance apart of only about 11 km and is another remarkable coincidence (in the literal sense of the word) to which attention is only now being drawn. Can there have been some important reason for the establishment of the two sanctuaries at this latitude, which would partly explain the deposition in or near them of two elaborate metal artifacts which, though completely different in form and design, seem to have had similar links with the solar calendar? […]
"The Nebra disc and the Bush Barrow lozenge both seem to be designed to reflect the annual solar cycle at about latitude 51 degrees north, and both have elements in their design which could refer specifically to the solar calendar. The close similarity of the latitudes of their find spots drew attention again to the idea that Stonehenge might have been built where it is for a specific calendrical or astronomical reason, and a fresh look at the Station Stone rectangle—the structure which best reflects this reason—seems to confirm that it is built round a 5:12:13 Pythagorean triangle, is integral with the Aubrey hole circle, and has three kinds of celestial alignment built into its sides. […]
“If a same solar calendar was indeed in use in the early Bronze Age in eastern Germany and in the UK and Ireland, then the entire body of arcane knowledge ... - concerning sky observation, the solar calendar, and exact measuring and geometry—could have been in the possession of priesthoods throughout northern, central, and western Europe in the Neolithic period. Moreover, the evidence from Knowth suggests that this knowledge was fully developed by the end of the fourth millennium BC, and is linked firmly with the emergence and spread of the passage grave building cultures of Iberia and Atlantic Europe.”
https://www.academia.edu/10771931/The_Prehistoric_Solar_Calendar_an_out-of-fashion_idea_re-visited_with_new_evidence
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