Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered — John Shaqi
Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically ConsideredLockyer, Norman, Sir
History
Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered
Lockyer, Norman, Sir
Druids and Druidism; Great Britain -- Antiquities; Stonehenge (England); Sun worship; Temples
I wish to show next that by studying the orientation of temples erected
to watch the stars and sunrise and sunset at times other than the
solstices or equinoxes, an immense amount of information may be gained
if we endeavour to find the way in which the problem must have been
attacked before the year was thoroughly established, and when it was
still a question of grass- or corn-kings or gods who had to be
propitiated; and we may even be enabled to understand why the particular
divisions of the year were chosen.
In a solstitial temple the sun makes its appearance only once a year,
when it reaches its greatest north or south declination; but in the
temples dealing with lower declinations the sun appears twice, once on
its journey from the summer to the winter solstice, and again on its
return.
The first difficulty of the inquiry in the direction I have indicated
arises from the fact that the products of different countries vary, and
that identical farming operations have to be carried on at different
times in these countries. We must, then, begin with some one country,
and as the record is fullest for Greece I will begin with it.
The first thing we find is that the chief points in the farmer’s year in
Greece are about as far from the fixed points in the astronomical year
as they well can be.
In the Greek information so admirably collated by M. Ruelle in the
article on the calendar in Daremberg and Saglio’s monumental
“Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines,” the earlier
Gregorian dates on which the seasons were reckoned to commence in
ancient Greece were as follows:--
Summer May 6.
Autumn (φθινοπωρον) August 11.
Winter November 10.
Spring February 7.
I may also add from the same source that in the calendars of the Latins
the dates become:--
Summer May 9.
Autumn August 8.
Winter November 9.
Spring February 7.
Now we see at once that these dates are, roughly, half-way between the
solstices and equinoxes.
This, then, at once brings us back to the orientation problem, which was
to fix by means of a temple in the ordinary way dates nearer to these
turning-points in the local farmer’s years than those fixed by the
solstitial and equinoctial temples.
It must be borne in mind that it is not merely a question of stately
piles such as Karnak and the Parthenon in populous centres, but of the
humblest dolmen or stone circle, in scattered agricultural communities,
which was as certainly used for orientation purposes, that is, for
recording the lapse of time at night or return of some season important
to the tiller of the soil. The advent of the season thus determined
could be announced to outlying districts by fire signals at night.
I have already pointed out that any temple, dolmen or cromlech oriented
to a sunrise or sunset at any dates between the solstices will receive
the sunlight twice a year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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