Pharaoh Wazner and the Map of England A reassessment of the Palermo Stone comparison and Ursa Minor routes in Northumbria
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paper reassesses the proposed cartographic reading of the Palermo Stone image discussed in my July 2024 study. The original illustrations are retained, but the Northumbrian proposal is now expressed as a reproducible operation between sites. Polaris is fixed at the location of Hexham Abbey and Pherkad at northern Thornborough. Included angles from successive Ursa Minor triangles determine further ground stations, with sideways controls giving each new location. The same rule is tested at 3000 BCE and AD 70 without adjusting the anchors to nearby towns or forts. The two constructions occupy broadly similar corridors through the Hornby, Middleham, Catterick and Hunwick landscapes. They offer a way to investigate how a familiar stellar pattern might have helped organise routes and territorial memory. They do not establish an ancient survey practice or date the henges. The Egyptian inscription, the regional geometry and the evidence for distant exchange require separate assessment. Modern editions place the Wazner entry among rulers assigned to the period before the First Dynasty, while recent genetic and tin studies do not establish a British origin for this ruler. The strongest development of the original proposal is a testable Northumbrian route model, whose relationship to the Palermo image remains open.
Author: Vernharðsson, Björn
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology (arts and humanities)
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7224849274