Christian O'Brien
Christian Arthur Edgar "Tim" O'Brien CBE for services to the oil industry.
O'Brien devoted his retirement to researching prehistory, cuneiform, archaeology, astronomy, archaeoastronomy and the history of religion. His hypotheses have not gained acceptance by the scientific community.
Early life, education and career
Born in
Second World War started, and so joined up in the Royal Engineers, eventually becoming a major after service in Italy and Tunisia
.
He returned to work in
On 16 October 1958 he married Barbara Joy Kelly.Post-retirement work
After his retirement in 1970, O'Brien began researching and writing about ancient civilisations, taught himself how to read cuneiform,[2] and published three books on the subject.
O'Brien published several other papers and books. "The Wandlebury-Hatfield Heath Astronomical Complex" described his surveying and discovering what he calls the
Wandlebury Enigma or Line A Loxodrome, a claim which has not gained much acceptance.[3][unreliable source?
]
"The Megalithic Odyssey" presents evidence for an
stone circles and 86 ridge-top cairns were designed and built for complex observational astronomy by a group of itinerant sages with links to Sumer. A review in the journal Archaeostronomy[4] describes the book as "a mishmash of erroneous statements and poorly conceived and unsubstantiated arguments." The reviewer suggests that O'Brien has misapplied statistical methods and that coupled with a dubious interpretation of the archaeology (e.g. assuming that all the cairns, all badly damaged and with only a few over two to three meters high, would have been over 10 meters high whereas similar sites have few cairns over 10 meters, with some of the 'cairns' possibly not prehistoric) "negates any value" it would have had as a claim for prehistoric archaeoastronomy. He further argues that the suggestion that the Sumerians introduced a calendar which made agriculture viable ignored the fact that agriculture had already existed in the area for over a thousand years, saying that "the book is full of statements which only confirm O'Brien's ignorance of our current knowledge of prehistory."[5]
Positions, awards and accolades
- O'Brien was appointed a
- Chairman of the boards, managing director, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, 1967–1971
Books
- O'Brien, C.A.E., 1953, Salztektonik in Südpersien, Stuttgart.
- O'Brien, C.A.E., 1957, Salt Diapirism in South Persia, London and Amsterdam.
- O'Brien, C.A.E., 1960, The Structural Geology of the Boule and Bosche Ranges in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, London.
- O'Brien, C.A.E., 1975, Thaxted.
- O'Brien, C.A.E., 1983, The Megalithic Odyssey, A.C. Wellingborough. ISBN 0-85500-188-7
- O'Brien, C.A.E. & O'Brien B.J., 1985, The Genius of The Few, Wellingborough. ISBN 0-946604-17-7(Revised edition by Dianthus Publishing 1999)
- O'Brien, C.A.E., 1985, The Path of Light, The Deram Beas, India. ISBN 0946604274(Revised edition by Dianthus Publishing 1999)
- O'Brien, C.A.E. & O'Brien B.J., 1999, The Shining Ones, Dianthus Publishing ISBN 0-946604-20-7(Revised edition by Dianthus Publishing, 2001)
- O'Brien, C.A.E. & O'Brien B.J., 2005, Eastern Odyssey – Experiences of a Young Geologist, E & E Plumridge, Cambridge. ISBN 0-9516563-9-2
References
- ^ Geological Survey (U.S.) (1949). Geological Survey bulletin. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Geological Survey; Washington, D.C. pp. 463–. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-385-33479-2p.195
- ^ Price, Simon "The Gog Magog Hills Fortean Times May 2006 Archived 7 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "now called ARCHAEOASTRONOMY: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture". Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
- ^ Barnatt, John, review of Christian O'Brien's "The Megalithic Odyssey" Archaeoastronomy Volume VII(l-4) 1984 pp.142–143
- ^ "Page 17 | Supplement 45262, 31 December 1970 | London Gazette | The Gazette". www.thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
