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In our case, the linear units would have to be in megalithic inches, which Thom identified as being one 40th of a megalithic yard, equal to 2.07415cm. Taking his lead from the metric system, we first considered a cube with sides of a tenth of a megalithic yard — i.e. four megalithic inches (MI). In metric terms, this turned out to have a capacity a little over half a litre at 571.08 cubic cm. But as he performed this simple sum on a calculator, my colleague Chris Knight thought he recognised the number produced and he quickly converted it into imperial units (the standard measuring system still used in the UK). Something odd was happening because the theoretical megalithic unit of capacity was equal to 1.005 pints — much nearer to one perfect British pint than any pub landlord achieves when pulling a glass of draught ale.

Next we doubled the length of the side of the cube to eight MI and the shock of the first coincidence was compounded because this calculation produced a capacity of one imperial gallon to the same incredible level of accuracy. A doubling again produced a unit equivalent to an obsolete bushel, which was used as a dry weight until recent times. We realised that the gallon would have to fit the same way as the pint because there are eight pints to a gallon and a doubling of the side of a cube will create a capacity eight times larger. But this fact did not detract from the oddity because the imperial system is not known to be based on cubes.

We soon established that the pint and the gallon had had a variety of values before the standardisation of imperial units in the 19th century, so the correspondence with the megalithic cube might not be meaningful. However, we looked at examples of the pint from earlier periods and found only small variations. One that was almost the same as the imperial pint dated from the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) and checking this against the four megalithic inch cube showed that it was even closer than the modern pint. It was almost a perfect match, with a deviation of less than one part in 1,000.

Even closer was the standard pint identified for the Exchequer in 1601. To all intents and purposes this Elizabethan pint and the volume of the megalithic inch are the same.

The pint had turned out to be much older than we imagined.

Civilization One: The World is not As You Thought it Was, by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler, is published by Watkins (£16.99; offer £13.59)

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Spot the star: a Stone Age riddle

Did Britain once have a “national network” of megalithic observatories, with different locations for varying astronomical purposes? One archaeological site at Skara Brae in Orkney may have been a megalithic “university” for training astronomer priests.

Radio-carbon dating has shown that it was occupied between 3215 and 2655BC when it provided a series of linked rooms. Each room had matching stone-built furniture, including dressers, beds, cooking areas and water tubs for washing.

Archaeologists have identified that secrecy, security and plumbing are also apparent at the site. A hidey-hole has been found under the stone dresser and a hole for a locking bar was located on both sides of doors. The house designated by archaeologists as “number seven” was isolated and its door barred, suggesting that it was designed to house an occupant against his will.

The archaeologist Euan Mackie suggested that Skara Brae was a kind of prehistoric college after noticing that skull remains of sheep and cows eaten there did not match the number of carcasses. He concluded that meat had been imported to the island, along with firewood. Because the island had nothing to trade, the only reasonable answer to this puzzle is that the inhabitants were an elite group supported by a community at a distance.