Keeping time at Stonehenge

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3558768
AutoresTimothy Darvill (0000-0002-2887-9622, Bournemouth University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen96
Número386
Páginas319-335
Fecha de publicación2022-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAntiquity (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-598X • E-ISSN: 1745-1744
EditorialAntiquity Publications (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.15184/aqy.2022.5
OpenAlexW4214823776
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas23

Scholars have long seen in the monumental composition of Stonehenge evidence for prehistoric time-reckoning-a Neolithic calendar. Exactly how such a calendar functioned, however, remains unclear. Recent advances in understanding the phasing of Stonehenge highlight the unity of the sarsen settings. Here, the author argues that the numerology of these sarsen elements materialises a perpetual calendar based on a tropical solar year of 365.25 days. The indigenous development of such a calendar in north-western Europe is possible, but an Eastern Mediterranean origin is also considered. The adoption of a solar calendar was associated with the spread of solar cosmologies during the third millennium BC and was used to regularise festivals and ceremonies

Ancient history · Archaeology · Geography · Indigenous · Megalith · Prehistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Architectural Studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies