[crabmusket]

That's not necessarily true. I recently read Barnabas Calder's Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency which contains several mentions of the incredible detail architects put into their work- from ancient Greece through mediaeval cathedrals. Details and design which would not have been noticed by any eye but an expert's.

I'll try to look up an exact quote later. But the gist of several passages was that there was an elite or expert community- obviously, or nobody would have been designing buildings like this!

Let's assume for the sake of this discussion that the 7 sites are deliberately aligned by somebody. They would presumably be a powerful elite, and would be doing it to impress other powerful elites.

[Archelaos]

You may perhaps be interested in these two documentaries about the geometric principles that were fundamental to medieval town planning:

"Die Entdeckung der mittelalterlichen Stadtplanung" (2004): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZzEzhIGnwM

"Mittelalterliche Baukunst – Schönheit ist planbar" (2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQcKOkbagDc

Both documentaries are in German, but are well worth watching, even if the automatic English subtitles are sometimes a little inaccurate.

[crabmusket]

Interesting! I've added them to my queue, thanks :)