Few ancient monuments are shrouded in such mystery as Stonehenge, an eerie prehistoric temple located in southern England that began construction nearly 5,000 years ago. Its builders and constructors left behind no written words to explain its meaning to them, nor do we know what it served all those years ago.
From modern analysis, we have learned that the ancient Britons hauled these megaliths – many weighing more than 20 tons – from quarries somewhere far from the Stonehenge site.
We also know that the structure is aligned with the Sun at the summer and winter solstices. But the meaning of it for the people themselves is largely lost.
Experts were one thing really until now, at least, it puzzled whether Stonehenge was built not only to be aligned with the sun—an impressive feat for a society that hadn’t yet invented the wheel—but also with the moon.
On June 21, 2024, a team of experts hopes to answer exactly that as the great once-in-a-generation lunar stagnation begins.
Its meaning? Professor Michael Parker Pearson, an expert on British later prehistory at University College London, says BBC Science Focus that if Stonehenge is consistent with this event, it would show that its builders “linked together the movements of the sun and moon in a kind of Neolithic grand unified theory.
“With all the stones of Stonehenge transported from a great distance (unique among the 900 stone circles in Britain and Ireland) and with so many people buried at Stonehenge, this would be a monumental attempt to unite people, ancestors, earth and space.”
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What is a major moon stop?
During the Great Lunar Stagnation, which occurs only every 18.6 years, the Moon reaches its most extreme north and south positions in the night sky. Imagine the moon rising and setting much further north and south than usual, creating a wider arc across the night sky.
It might seem similar to how the Sun’s path changes throughout the year, reaching its northernmost and southernmost points at the summer and winter solstices. The word “solstice” actually comes from the Latin words “sol” and “stice” which literally means “the sun stands still”.
However, there is a key difference between stopping on the Moon and stopping on the Sun. The tilt of the Earth relative to the Sun causes the solstices to occur at more or less the same points each year.
In contrast, the Moon’s orbit also has an inclination, but this inclination changes slightly over time. This is why the moon’s most extreme north and south positions shift during 18.6-year cycles, creating this dramatic effect of the great lunar standstill that will occur within the next year or so.
During major lunar stagnation each month, the Moon’s highest point in the sky may be higher than the summer Sun’s peak, and its lowest point may be lower than the winter Sun’s lowest point.
- You can catch the southernmost moonrise of Stonehenge’s main lunar stasis on the English Heritage YouTube channel, where it will be streamed on June 21 at 9:30pm BST (4:30pm EDT in New York, 1:30pm PDT in Los Angeles).
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What does Stonehenge have to do with it?
Stonehenge’s association with the summer and winter solstices is well known and crowds gather each year to commemorate the events at the site. However, its connection to the less-observable lunar cycles is less understood by experts.
Research suggests that burials and cremations took place between 3000 and 2500 BC before large stones were brought to the site.
Many of them clustered in the direction of the southernmost rising position of the moon at great stops, and in this position three wooden posts were set into the bank.
Later, four so-called “station stones” were brought to the site, forming a rectangle in its center.
“The four station stones are aligned with the extreme positions of the Moon and scientists have debated for years whether this was intentional and – if so – how it was achieved and what its purpose might have been,” says Professor Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy. at the University of Leicester.
The station stones themselves were probably used to measure the iconic ‘sarsen circle’, which was added around 500 years after the first burials at the site, English Heritage says.
Therefore, if they are associated with a lunar standstill, it would indicate a more fundamental role of the moon in the architecture of the entire Stonehenge than previously thought.
To find out whether the moon landing was really at the heart of Stonehenge’s conception, academics from the universities of Oxford, Leicester and Bournemouth plan to study the event from now until it ends in 2025.
“Unlike the Sun, observing the extremes of the Moon is not simple, requiring specific timing and weather conditions,” says Dr Amanda Chadburn, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford.
“We want to understand something of what it was like to experience these extreme moonrises and moonsets and witness their visual effects on the stones (light and shadow patterns, for example), consider modern influences such as traffic and trees, and document it all through photography for future study.”
About our experts
Mike Parker Pearson is Professor of British Later Prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UCL). After obtaining a BA in European Archeology from the University of Southampton in 1979, he obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1985. Until 1990 he worked as an Inspector of Antiquities for English Heritage. Since then he has lectured in the Department of Archeology and Prehistory at Sheffield University, where he was awarded a professorship in 2005, which he held until moving to UCL in 2012. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.
Clive Ruggles is Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester. From 2008 to 2018, Ruggles coordinated the IAU’s Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative with UNESCO and continues to advise governments on potential astronomy-related World Heritage nominations. In 2017 he was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s Agnes Mary Clerke Medal for “a lifetime of outstanding work in the overlapping fields of archaeology, astronomy and the history of science”.
Amanda Chadburn is a professional archaeologist and historic environment consultant. She began her professional career in local government and joined English Heritage in 1987, working in a variety of case and policy roles. She has taught Archeology and Heritage Management at the Universities of Bristol, UCL and Oxford and co-supervised PhD students at the Universities of Bristol and Huddersfield.
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