The Pentagon, Pythagoras, Scotland & Triangulations

Angus and Patricia MacDonald, in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Weidenfeld & Nicolson,Great Britian, Rizzoli International, New York, 1991, write:
(p. 48 of the international edition)

"[Groups of stones in Scotland]
point to the existence of a Neolithic people
who had developed a sophisticated mathematics
which was in advance of those of contemporary Mediterranean cultures. They may also have been aware of the properties
of the right-angled triangle many hundreds of years before
Pythagoras propounded his famous theorem."

Triangulations and the Pentagon

This Pentagon shows how the ancients produced
Golden Sections (ratio of 1.618) for surveying - by geometric means.

An Extended Surveyor´s Triangulation

This triangulation was used for
Ancient Geodetic Survey.

The Triangulation at Salisbury Plain

Figure turned to show Salisbury Plain triangulation.