536 



NA TURE 



[Ai'KiL 9 1908 



KOTES ON ANCIENT BRITISH 



MONUMENTS.'- 



VIII. — Tiiii AuERDEEN Circles (Coniinued). 



IN my last notes I dealt, amongst other matters, 

 with those circles devoted, as I believe, to tlie 

 observation of clock-stars. It is from these that 

 dates can be derived when we are sure of the star. 

 1 pointed out that we were not sure of the star, 

 wliich might have been either Arcturus or Capella. 



I must confess that although, as I have already said, 

 there is no definite proof that the period of B.C. 600 is 

 to be preferred to B.C. 1600 as the mean time of the set- 

 ting out of the .Aberdeen circles, such considerations 

 as 1 then gave point to the more recent date. 1 may 

 add that the N. circles, if used to determine the time at 

 night, tell the same tale. With little knowledge of the 

 heavens we can understand the importance of an exact 

 alignment to Arcturus or Capella when, in my view, 

 the astronomer-priest took his departure and told the 

 curate left in charge to "keep her at that "; but 

 when the stars were more familiar there would be 

 less need to indicate the rising places of either Arc- 

 turus or Capella, and the four circles with due N. 

 .ilignment indicate probably that there was no longer 

 need for a rising 

 star to be con- ^ 

 sidered ; the posi- 

 tion of the 

 brighter stars in 

 relation to the 

 Pole star in the 

 circumpolar re- 

 gion itself could 

 be used, and then- 

 can be little doubt 

 that it then be- 

 came a question 

 of the nightly 

 voyage of the 

 Great Bear round 

 Polaris. In such 

 observations we 

 have the begin- 

 ning of the em- 

 plovment of the " night dial " used throughout Britain 

 until a century ago, and of the system of observation 

 bv' which the Arabs in the Soudan still tell the time at 

 night to within ten minutes. 



The question of the number of stones in the circles 

 mav also help us. The once existing condition of 

 things at Crichie, fullv illustrated in Anderson's admir- 

 able book on Scotland in pagan times (" Stone Age," 

 p. 105), is worthy of consideration. The circle con- 

 sisted of six stones only ; the meridian is clearly 

 marked, and my observations made from the out- 

 standing stone show that it was quite accurately laid 

 off. This fact and the other that the cist was found 

 in the middle of a north alignment are, in my mind, 

 proofs of relative modernity. One question, then, is, 

 Mav we accept all small circles, such as Crichie and 

 Tuack, as being more modern than those in Corn- 

 wall and even in .Aberdeenshire, where the number of 

 stones in the circle is greater? The many interments 

 in these circles also favour this view. 



. And now a word about the May-year circles ; from 

 these astronomically we can get no date, but we know 

 that in the south they preceded the solstitial circles, 

 and perhaps it is permissible to make the same as- 

 sumption for Aberdeenshire, but in this case we deal 

 with recumbent stones, so again they are dissimilar, 

 and therefore their date is probably not the same as 

 that of those in the south. 



1 Continued from p. 489. 



NO. 2006, VOL, 77] 



So far as my work has gone, we have align- 

 ments to the May year at Berry Brae and Hatton of 

 Ardoyne; the r'eniains of a May-year avenue at 

 Ardlair and another marked on the Ordnance majj 

 near Kirkton of Clatt. The true azimuths of the 

 May sunrise near .\berdecn are approximately : — 



Sea horizon 

 Hills 1° ... 



N. :;7 

 60 



;o E. 



In my reductions 1 have taken the magnetic vari- 

 ation at W. i8°45' provisionally until the recent results 

 obtained by the Admiralty ani Ordnance Survey are 

 known. 



It is remarkable that either the recumbent stones 

 or supporters, or both, have been disturbed in these 

 Mav-vear circles, suggesting a practice acted on by 

 the Egyptian priests in regard to the worship of any 

 other sun- or star-god than the one to which they 

 were specially attached. 



This is an argument in favour of the erection of 

 the Mav-year circles before the solstitial ones at 

 Midmar,' Sunhoney and Stonehead, which have been 

 left intact. 



The most remarkable case of disturbance is at 

 Ardlair, on the N.W. of the circle area. 



This is one of the exceptional cases to which 1 re- 

 ferred in (2), where the only May-year avenue I have 

 measured occurs, hence the circle may once have been 

 a May-year one. \Mth the single exception of Old 

 Bourtree Bush, where the recumbent stone is due E. 

 of the centre of the circle to define the place of the 

 equinoctial sunsets, all the circles I have measured 

 have the recumbent stone in the S.W. quadrant. This 

 general condition has been previously noted by Mr. 

 Coles, and also by Mr. Ritchie, who informs me that 

 in the case of the only variation from this law he 

 has noted, it is known that the recumbent stone, 

 having been moved by the farmer, was 'wrongly re- 

 placed when he was compelled to restore it. 



At Ardlair the recumbent stone is in the S.E. quad- 

 rant, but there are indications that this was not its 

 original position. It is unlike any other recumbent 

 stone I have seen ; I believe its many sharp angles 

 and cracks are due to the action of fire, and the angles 

 and cracks are all the more striking since both sup- 

 porters are rounded and crackless. 



The removal of the stone from its position facing 

 the May sunrise, subjecting it to the action of fire, 

 and placing it between two stones in the circle, so 

 that its length would lie in the direction of that sun- 

 rise, are all suggested as acts of the solstitial priests. 



7"hc mean of all mv measures gives an azimuth 



