The Drawing above is an accurate scale diagram of Stonehenge to which various circles have been added, signifying the various circular or nearly circular geometries of the site. Although the various stages of Stonehenge can be demonstrated to have slightly different centres, with the centre of the Y holes providing the greatest variance, I have drawn all the "rings" as having a common centre for reasons that will soon become apparent. The centre chosen for the "rings´ is the `phase 3´ axis centre determined by Cleal, Walker and Montague for their English Heritage site survey (shown as green dotted lines).

You will observe that the series of Y holes, in addition to its centre being further to the Northeast, is a poor representation of a circle. The archaeologist Aubrey Burl has suggested that the reason for this inaccuracy was incompetence. I believe there is an alternate reason for their positioning, which may obviate the need for a presumption of stupidity. I have also depicted the rectangle formed by the four Station Stones.

Some might consider it symbolic, some coincidental and others that it is downright uninteresting, that the overwhelming geometry of Stonehenge is circular in appearance. Yet as F C Tyler believed many megalithic sites were concentric in origin and location. Indeed the very name stone circle is evocative of circular symmetry and balance.

So was Stonehenge, as Aubrey Burl reports, an evolutionary dead end or was it the pinnacle of Neolithic geometry?