CHAPTER XXIX_Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered

A SHORT HISTORY OF SUN TEMPLES

_The Original Cult_

I have given detailed evidence showing that the first circle builders in

Britain worshipped the May-year sun, whether they brought it with them

or not. This year was used in Babylon, Egypt, and afterwards in Greece.

In the two former countries May was the harvest month, and thus became

the chief month in the year. The dates were apt to vary with the local

harvest time.

The earliest extant temple aligned to the sun at this festival seems to

have been that of Ptah at Memphis, 5200 B.C. I have already referred to

this temple in relation to the clock-star observations carried on in it.

This approximate date of the building of the temple is obtained by the

evidence afforded (1) by the associated clock-star (see p. 298), and (2)

by the fact that the god Ptah represented the star Capella, since there

is a Ptah temple at Thebes aligned on Capella at a later time, when by

the processional movement it had been carried outside the solar limit.

There was also a similar temple at Annu (Heliopolis, lat. N. 30° 10′),

but it has disappeared. The light of the sun fell along the axis when

the sun had the declination N. 11°, the Gregorian dates being April 18

and August 24.

Another May-year temple was that of Menu at Thebes, Az. N. 72° 30′ W.

(lat. N. 25°; sun’s declination N. 15°; Gregorian date, May 1).

[Illustration: FIG. 63.--Layard’s plan of the Palace of Sennacherib

discovered in the mound of Kouyunjik. The temple axis, XXXVI., XXXIV.,

XXIX., XIX. (XXII. is on a lower level), faces the rising of the May

sun.]

As we have seen (p. 299), Spica had this declination in 3200 B.C., and

the coincidence may have been the reason for the erection, or, more

probably, the restoration, of the temple,[123] especially as γ Draconis

came into play as a new clock-star at the same date.

[Illustration: FIG. 64.--Layard’s plan of the Mound at Nimrood showing

its equinoctial orientation.]

The researches of Mr. Penrose in Greece have provided us with temples

oriented to the May-year sun. I shall return to them afterwards, as they

are later in time than the British monuments.

[Illustration: FIG. 65.--The Temples at Chichen Itza.]

The explorations of Sir H. Layard at Nineveh, lat. 36° N., have shown

that the temple in Sennacherib’s palace, which may have been a

restoration of a much older temple, was also oriented to the May sun.

It is a pity that our present-day archæologists do not more strictly

follow the fine example set by Sir Henry Layard in his explorations of

Kouyunjik. When he had unearthed Sennacherib’s palace (700 B.C.) he was

careful to give the astronomical and magnetic bearings of the buildings

and of the temple which seemed to form the core of them. The bearing is

Az. N. 68° 30′ E., giving the sun’s declination as N. 16°.

I am enabled by the kindness of Mr. John Murray to give copies of the

plans which Sir H. Layard prepared of the excavations both at Kouyunjik

and Nimrood, showing the careful orientation which enables us to claim

Sennacherib’s temple as one consecrated to the May year, while at

Nimrood (Babylon) the equinoctial worship was in vogue as at the

pyramids.

In association with these plans of Layard’s, I give another by Mr.

Maudslay of the as carefully oriented temples at Chichen Itza (N. lat.

20°) explored by him. In these temples, of unknown date and origin, the

azimuths of two show that the May year was worshipped.[124]

_The May-Year Monuments in Britain._

In the first glimpses of the May year in Egypt we have dates from 5000

B.C. It does not follow that it did not reach Great Britain before about

2000 B.C. because monuments made their appearance about that time. It is

clear, also, that with the possibilities of coastwise traffic as we have

found it, it might as easily have reached Ireland by then; 2000 B.C.,

therefore, is a probable date for the May worship to have reached

Britain arguing on general principles; we now come to a detailed summary

of the facts showing that it really reached Britain earlier.

Alignments in British monuments designed to mark the place of the sun’s

rising or setting on the quarter-days of the May year have been found as

follows:--

-------------+----------------------+----------------+----------------

| Position. | May and Aug. | Feb. and Nov.

Monument. +----------+-----------+-------+--------+-------+--------

-------------+----------+-----------+-------+--------+-------+--------

Merry Maidens|50° 3′ 40″| 5° 35′ 25″| * | * | | *

Boscawen-un |50 5 20 | 5 37 0 | * | | * |

Tregaseal |50 7 50 | 5 39 20 | * | | |

Longstone |50 8 10 | 5 38 20 | * | | |

Down Tor |50 30 10 | 3 59 30 | * | | |

Merrivale |50 33 15 | 4 2 30 | * | | |

The Hurlers |50 31 0 | 4 27 20 | | | * |

Stonehenge |51 10 40 | 1 49 30 | * | * | |

Stanton Drew |51 22 0 | 2 34 30 | * | | |

| | | | | | ?

| | | along | | | to

| | | | | | *

Stenness |59 0 10 | 3 13 40| * | * | * |

-------------+----------+-----------+-------+--------+-------+--------

I have already shown that it was the practice in ancient times for the

astronomer-priests not only to watch the clock-stars during the night,

but also other stars which rose or set about an hour before sunrise, to

give warning of its approach on the days of the principal festivals.

Each clock-star, if it rose and set very near the north point, might be

depended on to herald the sunrise on _one_ of the critical days of the

year, but for the others other stars would require to be observed. This

practice was fully employed in Britain.

_May Warnings._--The following table gives the stars I have so far noted

which were used as warners for the May festival.

---------------------+------------+-------------

| |Date or dates

Monument. | Star. | B.C.

| |

---------------------+------------+-------------

Stonehenge |Pleiades (R)| 1950

| |

Merry Maidens |Pleiades (R)| 1930

|Antares (S)| 1310

| |

The Hurlers |Antares (S)| 1720

|Pleiades (R)| 1610

Merrivale |Pleiades (R)| 1610

| „ | 1420

| |

Boscawen-un |Pleiades (R)| 1480

| |

Tregaseal |Pleiades (R)| 1270

| |

Stenness |Pleiades (R)| 1230

| |

Longstone (Tregaseal)|Pleiades (R)| 1030

---------------------+------------+-------------

(R) = rising. (S) = setting.

It is convenient here to give a list of the May warning stars found by

Mr. Penrose in Greece, as it shows that the same stars were observed for

the same purpose.

+-------------------------------+------------+--------+--------+-----

+-------------------------------+------------+--------+--------+-----

| | | | |B.C.

|Hiero of Epidaurus, Asclepieion| „ (R)| +9 15 | „ 28|1275

|Hecatompedon | „ (R)| +9 58 | „ 26|1150

|Older Erechtheum |Antares (S)|-14 31 | „ 29|1070

|Temple of Bacchus |Pleiades (R)|+10 35 | „ 29|1030

|Corinth |Antares (S)|-16 0 | May 6| 770

|Aegina | „ (S)|-16 45 | „ 7| 630

+-------------------------------+------------+--------+--------+-----

The warning stars at Athens were the Pleiades for temples facing the

east, and Antares for temples using the western horizon.

_August warnings._--Sunrise at the August festival was heralded by the

rising of Arcturus, which, as we have seen, was also used as a

clock-star. The alignments and dates given in the Arcturus table

therefore hold good for August. At the Hurlers, where the hill over

which Arcturus was observed fell away abruptly, we find Sirius

supplanting Arcturus as the warning star for August in 1690 B.C.

_November warnings._--So far I have discovered no evidence that any star

was employed to herald the November sun. There may be two reasons for

this. In the first place the November festival “Halloween” took place at

sun_set_ and the sun itself could be watched, no heralding star being

necessary.

Secondly, the atmospheric conditions which prevail in Britain during

November would not be conducive to the making of stellar observations

_at the horizon_, and only risings or settings were observed with regard

to the quarter-days.

_February Warnings._--In the same way that Arcturus served the double

purpose of clock-star and herald for the August sun, so did Capella

serve to warn the February sun in addition to its use at night. The

alignments and dates given in the Capella table will therefore hold good

for its employment at the February quarter-day.

_The Solstitial Year Monuments._

In Egypt generally, the solstitial worship followed that of the May and

equinoctial years. The religion of Thothmes III. and the Rameses was in

greatest vogue 2200-1500 B.C.

We find little trace of it in Greece proper, though Mr. Penrose has

traced it in Calabria and Pompeii, and in some of the islands.

The solstitial cult was born in Egypt; it is a child of the Nile-rise. I

have shown in my _Dawn of Astronomy_ that the long series of temples

connected with the solstice may have commenced about 3000 B.C.; but for

long it was a secondary cult; it was parochial until the twelfth

dynasty, say 2300 B.C. Egypt’s solstitial “golden age” may be given as

1700 B.C., and her influence abroad was very great, so that much travel,

“coastwise” and other, may be anticipated. It is for some centuries

after the first date that the introduction of the solstitial worship

into Britain may be anticipated. It, for instance, is quite probable

that the pioneers of this worship should have reached Stonehenge in 2000

B.C.

The solstitial alignments found by Mr. Penrose in Greece are as

follows:--

+----------------+-----------------+--------+-------+-----

+----------------+-----------------+--------+-------+-----

| | | | |B.C.

|Pompeii (Isis) |β-Geminorum |-16 44 | „ 19| 750

| | | | |

|Metapontum |β-Geminorum |+29° 38′|Dec. 21| 610

|Locri | „ |+29 40 | „ 21| 610

+----------------+-----------------+--------+-------+-----

We find plentiful evidence that the worship of the solstitial sun such

as was carried on in Egypt at Karnak and at other places[125] was

introduced into Britain some time after the May-year worship was

provided for in the monuments.

Although some of the alignments already discovered are in all

probability solstitial, the variation of the sun’s solstitial

declination is so slow and takes place between such narrow limits that a

most careful determination of the actual azimuths and of the angular

heights of the various horizons must be made before any definite

conclusion as to dates can be arrived at. The necessity for this care is

illustrated in the paper on Stonehenge[126] communicated to the Royal

Society by Mr. Penrose and myself in 1891, where, after taking the

greatest precautions, the resulting date was in doubt to the amount of

200 years in either direction.

So far Stonehenge is the only temple at which these observations have

been made, so that for the other alignments contained in the following

list no dates can yet be given.

-----------+---------------+--------------+------------+---------+----

| | | (provi- | |B.C.

-----------+---------------+--------------+------------+---------+----

Stonehenge |Direction of |N.49°34′18″ E.|23°54′30″ N.|Summer(R)|1680

| | | | |

un |menhir | | | |

|Circ. to Blind |N.54 30 0 E.|22 24 12 | „ |

| | | | |

|Circ. to two |N.50 0 0 E.|24 7 0 | „ |

| | | | |

| | | | |

The |N. circ. to |S.50 50 0 E.|24 17 20 S.|Winter(S)|

| | | | |

| | | | |

|Barnstone to |N.41 16 0 E.| -- | „ |

|Circ. to Ward |S.41 0 0 E.| -- |Winter(R)|

|Circ. to Onston|S.36 30 0 W.| -- | „ (S)|

|Circ. to tumuli|N.37 0 0 W.| -- |Summer(S)|

-----------+---------------+--------------+------------+---------+----

(R) = rising. (S) = setting.

I cited an alignment at the Hurlers which marked the rising point of

Betelgeuse. This star warned the summer solstice sunrise at about the

Hurlers’ date. So far, however, I have not yet found any suggestion of

its use elsewhere.

At Shovel Down and Challacombe on Dartmoor there are avenues pointing a

few degrees west of north. The sight-lines along these avenues would

mark the setting-point of Arcturus at the time that that star (setting)

warned the rising of the sun at the summer solstice; but this use cannot

be considered as established, as Arcturus would scarcely set before its

light was drowned in that of the rising sun. The absence of darkness in

high summer in these latitudes and the bad weather in the winter may

both be responsible for so few alignments for the solstices.

_The Equinoctial Year Monuments._

The equinoctial pyramid and Babylonian cult in vogue in Egypt in the

early dynasties (4000 B.C.), with the warning stars Aldebaran (March)

and Vega (September), was represented in Greece at a much later period.

The facts for Greece, according to Mr. Penrose, are as follows:--

+---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+-----

+---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+-----

| | | | |B.C.

| | | | |

|Nike Apteros |Spica (setting)|+6°10′|Mar. 17|1130

|Juno Lacinia (near Croton) |α-Arietis |+7 27 | „ 28|1000

|Paestum (Neptune) |Spica (setting)|+3 5 | „ 22| 535

|Gergenti (Hercules) | „ |+2 30 | „ 30| 470

| | | | |

| | | | |

|Tegea (Minerva) | „ „ |+5 51 | „ 18|1075

|Syracuse (? Minerva) | „ |+4 30 | „ 20| 815

|Athens (dedication unknown)| „ |+4 17 | „ 23| 780

|Rhamnus (Nemesis) | „ „ |+4 5 | „ 22| 747

|Bassæ (Apollo) | „ „ |+3 57 | „ 22| 728

|Ephesus (Diana) | „ „ |+3 57 | „ 25| 715

|Syracuse (Diana) | „ „ |+2 22 | „ 26| 450

|Ephesus (Diana) | „ | -- |Oct. 6| 355

+---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+----

In Britain equinoctial alignments are not wanting, but so few have been

traced that I have reserved them for future inquiry.

[123] See _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 318.

[124] The temple conditions are approximately as follows:--

_PALENQUE._

Azimuths. Decl.

N. 21° 30′ E. 60° 15′ }

N. 18 0 E. 62 36 }Stellar temples. Clock-stars.

S. 27 0 W. 56 17 }

S. 66 0 E. 23 0 Solstice}Solar temples.

S. 73 0 E. 16 0 May }

_CHICHEN ITZA._

Azimuths. Decl.

N. 26° 0′ E. 59° 0′ Stellar temple. Clock-star.

S. 70 0 E. 19 0 (?)

N. 70 0 W. 19 0 (?)

N. 67 0 W. 22 0 Solstitial}Solar temples.

N. 72 30 16 0 May }

[125] _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 78.

[126] _Proc. Roy. Soc._, vol. 69.

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