<< Feature Articles >> Archaeoastronomy and Megalithic Studies in Mid Wales
Submitted by Andy B on Saturday, 20 January 2007 Page Views: 7084
Neolithic and Bronze AgeCountry: Wales Under the personal guidance of the late Professor Alexander Thom, studies of the archaeoastronomical potentials in Mid Wales prehistoric sites were begun over two decades ago. The resulting photographic data with computer surveys give strong support to Thom's theories on the existence of the Megalithic Calendar and a Lunar Standstill program in prehistoric Britain circa 1800 BCMany photographs and videos have been taken from stone circles and standing stones on days corresponding to dates in the Megalithic Calendar and Lunar Standstill periods. When the Sun or Moon crosses the horizon other megalithic monuments, of similar antiquity, are clearly silhouetted on, or very near, the disc.
Digital surveys of these images, employing time-rewind, demonstrate that sophisticated systems of positional horizon astronomy were practiced in Scotland, Cumbria and Wales circa 2000 to 1600 B.C.
From as early as 4000 B.C. the first British farmers were demonstrating astronomical awareness in the orientations of their ritual monuments. Often these were constructed with the entrances and axes of symmetry aligned on points on the horizon where the rising or setting Sun stood at the extremes of it's travel; Midsummer's Day and Midwinter's Day, (the Click for Glossarysolstices).
Also at this early time, prior to 2000 B.C., close attention was being paid to the movement of the rising and setting points of the Moon at the extreme positions of it's orbit. It has been found that the most favoured orientation of early Neolithic ceremonial sites, (long barrows), is in the direction of the rising Moon when at the Northern Major Lunar Standstill, several degrees further north than the midsummer sunrise.
These short alignments however, (less than hundreds of feet), could only give a loose estimation of the solar and lunar extremes with no more accuracy than plus or minus several days.
To maintain an accurate long-running calendar, the length of the year must be known to better than plus or minus 12 hours. The only way the ancient astronomers could establish a time reference of this reliability was to find the moments of the summer and winter solstices with an accuracy of better than 12 hours. In practical terms this requires the deployment of an alignment over 15 miles in length to render sufficient resolution.
Once the two solstices had been established, the time between could be subdivided into smaller intervals by carefully counting days.
Read more of their research at Megalithic Sites
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