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Radials

Code	'Top' circle	'Middle' circle	'Bottom' radials	'Bottom' dots	'Bottom' circle	Facing	Image
N-BC	Lower half circle, dot	no circle, dot, h. radials		2 half circles		horizontal, facing sky but fully obscured by mound
N-Co1C7	Upper 3/4 circle, dot, radials	no circle, dot, f. radials		1 half circle	lower half	horizontal, facing sky, but fully obscured by mound
N-K88a	Full circle, dot	no circle, dot, h. radials		1 half circle		vertical, facing east
K-K15	Upper half circle, dot	no circle, dot, h. radials	1 half circle	2 half circles		vertical, facing east
L-CairnH	Non	no circle, dot, h. radials		1 half circle		vertical, facing south-west, inside chamber
L-CairnX1	half + 3/4 circle, dot, radials	no circle, dot, h. radials	1 half circle	2 half circles		vertical, facing north west, inside chamber
K-K7	no circle, 2 dots	no circle, dot, h. radials		4 half circles		horizontal, facing sky, partly obscured by mound
N-K88b	Full circle, dot	no circle, dot, h. radials		2 half circle		vertical, facing east, partly below ground
N-K6a	Upper half circle, dot	no circle, dot, h. radials		2-3 half circles		vertical, facing south-east, below ground
N-K6b	Full circle, dot	no circle, dot, h. radials		3 half circles		vertical, facing south-east, below ground
D-K88	Non	two conc. circles, f. radials	1 half circle			vertical, facing north-west.
N-RS1	7/8 circle, dot	no circle, dot, h. radials		2-3 half circles		horizontal, facing sky, fully obscured by mound

Some characteristics of the 'radials':

• They can be on top rims (K-K7, N-BC, N-RS1, N-Co1C7),  (half) under ground (N-K6a, N-K6b, N-K88b) or vertical surfaces (others).
• The size of most of them is around 30 by 30 cm. Some are quite big (K-K15 and L-CairnX₁) which are around 100 by 80 cm.
• The latitude of these 'radials' where the code starts with N, D or K are around 53.75° North and a longitude of around 6.5° West. The 'radials' where the code start with L are around 53.75° North and a longitude of around 7.1° West.
• The 'radials' D-K88 and L-CairnH are perhaps on the boundary of being defined as 'radials'.
• I am almost sure that the 'radials' are not a phosphene.
• K-K7 really looks like a 'sundial' (see Waugh [1973]). Some things can be compared with sundials:
• the three dots (at the top of K-K7) could be the positions for the stylus at winter solstice, equinox and summer solstice in an analemmatic sundial! Perhaps the radials depict part of the polyanalemmatic sundial.
• The medieval mass/scratch dials look somewhat comparable.
• Also this migth be comparable: Timekeeping in the Ancient World: Sundials
  "Sundials resembling the kind of which Vitruvius speaks were in use in Egypt from at least 1200 BCE. These were vertical hanging sundials, semicircular in shape with a horizontal gnomon at the top and centre. The shadow would sweep around such a dial more rapidly in the early morning and late afternoon than around midday, but the Egyptians simply divided the dial into 12 15° sectors or 'hours'. This is perhaps the crudest order of gnomon use and provides little of either theoretical or empirical interest for the Greeks."

Feedback gotten

• Desmond Johnston
"Brennan's drawing of interior of stone basin Knowth (page 133)  is also of this kind. Looking at some of my own references there is a similar style pattern on orthostat L1 Cairn T Loughcrew (page 97)  .
As well as radials (often but not always accompanying them), holes or cupmarks punched in a circle could have a similar significance (Derrynablaha, slab 10a). Stone 4 at Knockmany has an interesting pattern with a set of concentric semicircles surmounted by a set of radiating lines each ending in a small circle.
...
I feel that the carved radial patterns are a representation of a 3-dimensional instrument - possibly of wood - used outside and no longer surviving. Perhaps they also existed on a massive scale with a central monument as an observation point and mounds/dolmens etc. acting as the end points of 'invisible' lines radiating from the central point."
• Anne-Marie Moroney
  She sent me interesting copies of pages from the book on Swiss rock-art from around 2700 BCE: Die Schweisz vor Christus, Schnieper, C., Fande N., Mondo Verlag, Switzerland, 1993, ISBN 2881683703. A picture on page 45 has some radials:
"One of the meaning was certainly also to radiate energy, power.
...
In ancient Egypt clothes often had a very pronounced pleating, that radiated."
• Philip David
"Evidence is that megalithic cultures did not view themselves as 'in control' as post-bronze-age ones. Their 'sundials' were macro landscape structures of which they themselves were a part. Radials, IMHO, are just that. They radiate. And they 'represent' the concept of radiating (ie. life-force). No more, no less.
These people worshipped life itself. Obsessively. All motifs are abstract, and are just different ways of expressing (life-force) energy."

• Eilidh Nic Aoidh
  "I'm still wondering whether the radials are not meteor or cometary showers, especially given that they always shower downwards from some sort of circle or arch item, which could represent the originating star or constellation (the showers are actually in cometary trails, so they appear to originate from a certain spot in the sky as the earth passes and repasses through this trail)."
• Your opinion is welcome, please send it to me.

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