Before the Pyramids: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery

by Christopher Knight

  Even today most people associate the megalithic structures and henges of the British Isles and Brittany with the Celts and their Druidic priesthood. Modern Druids turn out in fanciful garb to celebrate Beltane (May Day) and other pagan celebrations, in the belief that they are touching the ancient wisdom of their ancestors. Unfortunately, the Celts (an 18th-century word adopted from the Roman Celtae) are a central and eastern European tribe that did not emerge until the late Iron Age – thousands of years after Thornborough or Stonehenge were built. These Austrian-Hungarian peoples moved west and north to arrive in the British Isles only relatively shortly before the Romans. Their ‘new’ language still lives on in parts of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, though it died out in their original homelands. The Celts were definitely not the architects of any prehistoric structures in the British Isles or western France.

  It is possible that Celts arriving in Britain did become aware of ancient ideas and assimilate them into their own culture memory, indeed the Druid priests may have been adopted by the Celts, along with their knowledge from indigenous peoples such as the so-called Grooved Ware people or the Beaker Folk. This seems all the more likely because the Druids are not (as far as we can find out) known in the central European Celtic areas.

  The term Druid is an Indo-European construction, with a literal meaning of two parts: ‘oak’ and ‘seeing’. It has been suggested that the ‘oak’ part was a reference to oak-like qualities – old, strong, established, solid; and the ‘seeing’ element meant understand, knowledge, and is related to the Irish word for ‘magic’ and the Welsh for a seer. The overall effect is that these people were the repository of a great knowledge that was associated with magic. Interestingly, the word ‘magic’ exists in ancient cultures from China to Persia where it is associated with the Magi – astronomer-priests that date back 5,000 years. Like the Druids, the Persian Magi wore white robes and were believed to possess great powers by virtue of their knowledge of the Sun, Moon and stars.

  A recent find of many mummified bodies in the Tarim Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region in western China may provide a clue to how the concept of astronomical magic reached that remote country. Thanks to the salty desert sands in which these people were buried, the 4,000-year-old bodies are almost unbelievably well preserved with intact skin, flesh, hair and internal organs. They are believed to have ruled this part of China, yet they are western Europeans with red hair and even the women are over six feet tall. These ancient people are dressed in colourful robes, trousers, boots, stockings, coats and pointed ‘witch’ hats.

  One expert, Elizabeth Barber, professor of archaeology and linguistics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, has said:

  Yet another female … wore a terrifically tall, conical hat, just like those we depict on witches riding their broomsticks at Halloween or on medieval wizards intent on magical spells. And that resemblance, strange to say, may be no accident. Our witches and wizards got their tall, pointy hats from just where we got the words magician and magic, namely, Persia. The Persian or Iranian word Magus (cognate with the English might, mighty) denoted a priest or sage, of the Zoroastrian religion in particular. Magi distinguished themselves with tall hats; they also professed knowledge of astronomy and medicine, of how to control the winds and the weather by potent magic and how to contact the spirit world.1

  Dr Barber suggested the origin of these ancient people by saying:

  The dominant weave (of these people) proved to be normal diagonal twill and the chief decoration was plaid, as in the woollen twill of a Scottish kilt … Many historians have assumed that the idea of plaids was relatively new to Scotland in the seventeenth century. Archaeology tells a different story.

  We congratulate Professor Barber on some stunningly good work. But we cannot help but wonder how many archaeologists specializing in the British Neolithic period have stepped out of their box and caught a plane to China to view these stunning artefacts at first hand? Not too many, we suspect.

  Another expert, Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania, has stated that the old Chinese word for a court magician was mag which is phonetically from the same root as ‘magi’. Furthermore, the Chinese written character for mag is a cross with slightly splayed ends, identical to that used by the medieval Order of the Knights Templar (a subject to which we shall return).

  The world of myth and mystery that has evolved into modern yarns, such as the Harry Potter books and films, contains all kinds of cultural memories of a long lost science. The broomsticks upon which these people ride in the light of the Moon is often shown as an old-fashioned twig brush – but the term is ‘broomstick’, i.e. just a stick about as stout and long as would be used for a broom. The henge and megalithic builders undoubtedly used such sticks to make alignments and to cast shadows in order to calculate time of day, direction, and time of year. These were the primary tools of the magi, and they were still used in the Middle Ages to establish the direction of east when a church was being built.

  The first break of sunlight over the landscape cast a shadow from such a stick. The place where the sun rose was considered to be the east and the shadow, running east–west, cast by the stick formed the line along which the north-facing wall of the church was built (the foundation stone always being placed in the northeast). Of course the sun does not always rise due east, sometimes it rises north of east and sometimes south of east, dependent on the time of year. Even today it is possible to work out the name of an old British church by looking at the shadow of a stick and researching the relevant saint’s day. For example, a church aligned to either solstice will generally have originally been a church of St John.

  One can imagine how simple people would be in awe of those with the ability to predict an eclipse, for example. These astronomer-priests would be considered witches and wizards, who probably flew across the sky to visit the Moon and the stars on their big sticks under cover of darkness. Furthermore, one can also guess that they used their perceived powers to good effect when they wanted the cooperation of the masses – a kind of ‘do as I say or I’ll turn you into a frog at the next full Moon.’

  So, the story of the builders of the henges and megalithic structures looks as though it is far more diverse and complex than most people believe, and a linear pathway from Thornborough to the Druids of Roman times is probably a smaller part of the picture. But it is what people believe, however mistaken, that counts.

  Whatever the Druids of Roman Britain were about, they must have been very well-educated people. According to Roman accounts the people they called Druids were peripatetic priests. Individuals chosen to become Druids studied in specific ‘colleges’ for anything up to 20 years before they could even begin to practise their arts – whatever they may have been. They were also lawgivers, and their decisions and judgements crossed all tribal boundaries. To harm a Druid meant instant death and in arbitration their word was sacrosanct. At the time of the invasion of Britain in AD 43 the Romans knew that they could never have control over the locals until they had destroyed the Druids and assumed their power. Their Legions chased the unfortunate Druids around the country until they had retreated to their last main base at Anglesey. So desperate were the Roman forces (made up largely of mercenaries from places as diverse as Iberia and Judea) that they crossed the treacherous tidal flow of the Menai Straits by swimming in their armour and with their horses.

  The Romans took control of each megalithic site held by the Druids, and then resurfaced what was already a comprehensive road network for the benefit of their chariots. Many people think that the Romans brought straight roads to Britain; they did not – they merely had a large budget for a road improvement scheme.

  Undoubtedly some Druids escaped and the now secretive priesthood popped up now and again throughout British history right up to the 15th century. It has been suggested that Druidic wisdom, beliefs, and even mode of dress, became preserved within a very early Celtic Christian monastic tradition known as Cu
ldee.

  So important did the Druids appear to those gazing back into the mists of time from the 18th century that it must have seemed reasonable to suppose that structures of unknown origin, such as Stonehenge in Wiltshire, had originally been temples and the most likely people to have planned and run them were the Druids – who were, after all, known to have been priests.

  The City of Bath

  At the time John Wood was coming to prominence, an age of romanticism was dawning across Western Europe. Landed aristocrats were beginning to open up wide vistas on their estates, sometimes peopled with deliberately placed hermits, shepherdesses, structural follies and Elysian statuary. The whole concept of the pastoral idyll was gaining ground and the white-robed Druids with their long beards, badges of honour, and golden sickles, fitted the mood of the time extremely well. Julius Caesar had described the Druids as being the most learned men of their culture – the absolute repositories of science, religion and law.

  John Wood could hardly have failed to be influenced by what was happening around him, but he was a trendsetter rather than a follower. Wood had written about Stonehenge and the Stanton Drew stone circle, and he was fascinated in particular with the history of Bath, the origin of which he credited to a king by the name of Bladud. Wood was familiar with what is clearly a mythical tale about Bladud. It tells of a man who was cast out by his fellows in a remote time because he had some horrible skin disease. Together with his pigs, which were similarly afflicted, Bladud wandered far and wide until he found the hot springs of what would one day be Bath. There his pigs bathed and were soon cured of their infirmity. Bladud did likewise and was also healed. He went on to become king of the area and founded a great city on the site of the healing spa.

  Almost certainly Bladud never existed, but the story was popular at the time and John Wood most certainly believed it. During the early part of his career Wood was also mixing with some very powerful, influential and fashionable people, and it is to his association with some of these individuals that we might partly credit his growing fascination with both Druidism and Freemasonry.

  John Wood undertook commissions in and around Bath, and his work was highly regarded. Despite a degree of success, Wood had a dream for Bath and although he had to modify his plans a great deal, the King’s Circus would be his greatest achievement. Wood’s original idea had been to create three magnificent public areas, all in different locations, but each equally wonderful. The first of these would be a ‘Royal Forum’, the second would be a great circus for the exhibition of sports, and the third building, just as magnificent, would be for medicinal and physical exercises and would be called ‘the Imperial Gymnasium’. Exactly where these three structures were intended to be is not known, though in the fullness of time we would come to have a possible clue. In reality the only one that came to full fruition was the Circus, which in the end became a circle of houses rather than a forum for sport.

  No better explanation of Wood’s intentions for Bath are to be found than those expressed by Paul Newman in a book on Bath published in 1986 by the Pevensey Press.2 Newman says of Wood:

  He conceived of a city where houses were not set down in jumbles of isolated units but joined in graceful terraces, crescents and squares, all built of the lovely pale freestone producing an effect that was regular, majestic and harmonious … Certain Bath effects seem almost eerily beautiful; no other English city can show such a rare combination of composure of design and decorative ebullience.

  All of this became possible because Wood believed that the proportions of classical architecture had been divinely inspired – and no doubt he thought the same about Stonehenge and other stone circles. He revelled in order and symmetry, and with his fascination for astronomy he accepted without question the mythical/historical belief that each of Bath’s seven hills represented one or other of the heavenly bodies.

  True, the finished King’s Circus would be far from the edifice he had originally conceived, but it would at least be the ‘right size’ and shape – a theoretical equilateral triangle within a circle of divine proportions. Bearing in mind all that we came to know about Wood, his interests and obsessions, it seemed and still seems highly unlikely that there was anything coincidental about the dimensions of his ultimate masterpiece. This is borne out by the fact that Queen’s Square, an earlier creation of John Wood’s and slightly south of the King’s Circus, had identical dimensions. (A diagonal line taken from corner to corner of Queen’s Square measures 96.6 m, which is the diameter of King’s Circus.) In other words, Queen’s Square too has undeniable megalithic credentials. Queen’s Square cannot be a coincidental copy of Stonehenge simply because it is a square and not a circle. What is more, it was built ‘before’ King’s Circus.

  Another indication that John Wood knew exactly what he was doing has been brought to light in recent years. The British television presenter and architect Dan Cruickshank was not the first to point out that if one looks at the King’s Circus on a map, or on aerial photographs, it is plain that when one extends a line down from the Circus to Queen’s Square, what is achieved when one takes in both the Circus and the Square is a huge ‘key’. More than one commentator, including Cruickshank, has suggested that the geometry and measurements of these two structures, and the road that joins them, offers ‘the’ key to John Wood’s esoteric mind in his plans for Bath.

  Exactly what association John Wood had with modern Druidism is hard to say. In a formal sense modern Druidism came into existence in 1717. The Druids may have been meeting in an unofficial way for some time, but it was on the day of the autumn equinox in 1717 (23 September) that they took their first official steps. This meeting took place at the Apple Tree Tavern in Covent Garden, London, and was attended by many of those who had famously founded the first Grand Lodge of Freemasonry at the Goose and Gridiron in St Paul’s Churchyard, London, three months earlier at the time of the summer solstice – the feast of St John the Baptist.

  Here we have the same people formalizing two arcane but highly influential bodies that both claim to be the repositories of ancient knowledge going back many thousand of years. And they chose astronomically key dates to resurrect themselves.

  As regards Freemasonry, we are confident that they do have such knowledge because Chris has spent over 30 years reconstructing the transmission of these secrets.

  At the time the Druids came into official existence, which had been made possible (like Freemasonry) because of a relaxation of draconian religious laws in England and Wales, John Wood was only 13 years of age. It seems that he came to Druidism as a result of his own interest in megalithic structures such as Stonehenge. He certainly knew William Stukely, who was arguably Britain’s first serious archaeologist. Stukely was a founder member of the Society of Antiquaries, a Freemason and the Grand Master of the Ancient Order of Druids, a position he held for 46 years from 1722. Throughout his life the Reverend Stukely popularized the semi-mythical historical order. Ultimately Stukely did not have very much time for John Wood, or rather Wood’s own conclusions about Stonehenge. However, despite the fact that Stukely is referred to as the ‘father’ of archaeology, John Wood created better and more accurate plans of Stonehenge than either Stukely or any other gentleman historian of the period.

  There is no documentary evidence that John Wood was either a practising Druid or a Freemason, though when one looks at the evidence left by his buildings and their ornamentation there can surely be little doubt that he was deeply influenced by them and, more likely, fully involved in both.

  Above the ground level of the houses around King’s Circus in Bath are friezes carrying carved images. These are an odd collection but many of them are deeply Masonic in origin and would be recognized as such by any modern Freemason. Amongst the carvings are to be found compasses and squares, reaping hooks and stooks of corn, acacia plants, five-pointed stars, equilateral triangles, pyramids, beehives and a host of other Freemasonic icons.

  Did John Wood really leave a ‘key’ w
ithin the buildings of Bath that he had so carefully created, and if so, what was the lock it was meant to open? Could Wood have known about the Megalithic Yard and about megalithic geometry, or were his use of them the result of his surveying of sites like Stonehenge?

  Our minds went back to an earlier book we had co-written. This was Solomon’s Power Brokers published in 2007. Solomon’s Power Brokers was a book about the secrets of Freemasonry and about a mysterious but continuous transmission of knowledge that seems to have survived from truly ancient times but is still evident today. This knowledge, which seems to have been absorbed by and transmitted through Freemasonry, includes aspects of megalithic geometry, and inclines its adherents to an ancient philosophy and resurrection-based rituals that claim to be archaic in origin.

  We called those who possess and transmit this specific knowledge the ‘Star Families’ because included amongst their beliefs and knowledge is a great deal of astronomy and a deep understanding of the role of the planet Venus and its relationships with the Sun. There are times in history when it is clear to see that the Star Families represented a hereditary line, but also other periods when the knowledge was passed on via fraternities and institutions. Freemasonry and Druidism were undoubtedly two of these.

  However, we do not suggest that every Freemason or Druid, either historical or modern, is in possession of the Star Family knowledge. On the contrary, it seems to have been reserved for a very few people at any point in time and it could be that Freemasonry, modern Druidism and the like, together with older institutions such as the Cistercian monastic order and the Knights Templar, have simply offered a conduit through which this deeper and more esoteric material can be transmitted to the chosen few.

  Our Star Family research seemed to lie outside the scope of the present book and we may have disregarded the importance of the City of Bath, or at least put it to one side for another time, had it not been for what came to light subsequently. It was almost by chance that we happened to spot another circle in Bath, not too far to the right of King’s Circus, and when we carefully measured the distance it was immediately megalithic.