November 21, 1901] 



NA TURE 



55 



AN ATTEMPT TO ASCERTAIN THE DATE 

 OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION OF 

 STONEHENGE FROM ITS ORIENTATION.^ 



THIS investigation was undertaken in the spring of the 

 present year, as a sequel to analogous work in 

 Egypt and Greece, with a view to determine whether the 

 orientation theory could throw any light upon the date of 

 the foundation of Stonehenge, concerning which authori- 

 ties vary in their estimate by some thousands of years. 

 We beg to lay before the Royal Society the results 

 derived from a careful study of its orientation for the 

 purpose of arriving at the probable date of its foundation 

 astronomically. This is not, indeed, the first attempt to 

 obtain the date of Stonehenge by means of astronomical 

 considerations. In Mr. Godfrey Higgins' work - the author 

 refers to a method of attack connected with precession. 

 This furnished him with the date 4000 B.C. 



More recently, Dr. \V. M. Flinders Petrie,' whose 

 acciuate plan is a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the study of Stonehenge, was 

 led by his measures of the orientation 

 to a date very greatly in the opposite 

 direction, but, owing to an error in 

 his application of the change of 

 obliquity, clearly a mistaken one. 



As the whole of the argument which 

 follows rests upon the assumption of 

 Stonehenge havingbeen a solartemple, 

 a short discussion of the grounds of 

 this view may not be out of place ; and, 

 - again, as the approximate date which 

 we have arrived at is an early one, 

 a few words may be added indicating 

 the presence in Britain at that time of 

 a race of men capable of designing 

 and executing such work. 



As to the first point, Diodorus 

 Siculus (ii. 47) has preserved a state- 

 ment of Hecatffius in which Stone- 

 henge alone can by any probability be 

 referred to. 



" We think that no one will consider 

 it foreign to our subject to say a word 

 respecting the Hyperboreans. 



"Amongst the writers who have 

 occupied themselves with the mytho- 

 logy of the ancients, Hecatsus and 

 some others tell us that opposite the 



land of the Celts [e'l/ tois avrinepav rfji 



ne^TiKqs TuTTois] there exists in the 



Ocean an island not smaller than 



Sicily, and which, situated under the 



constellation of The Bear, is inhabited 



by the Hyperboreans ; so called because 



they live beyond the point from which 



the North wind blows. . . If one 



may believe the same mythology, Latona was born in 



this island, and for that reason the inhabitants honour 



Apollo more than any other deity. A sacred enclosure 



[inja-oti] is dedicated to him in the island, as well as a 



magnificent circular temple adorned | with many rich 



offerings. . . . The Hyperboreans are in general very 



friendly to the Greeks." 



The Hecataeus above referred to was probably Hecatajus 

 of Abdera, in Thrace, fourth century B.C. ; a friend of 

 Alexander the Great. This Hecatscus is said to have 

 written a history of the Hyperboreans : that it was 

 Hecatreus of Miletus, an historian of the sixth century 

 B.C., is less likely. 



As to the second point, although we cannot go so far 



1 liy .Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S., and F. C. Penrose, F.R.S., 

 communicated to the Royal Society on October 19. 



2 "The Celtic Druids." 410. (London, 1827.) 



3 "Stonehenge," &c. 1S80. 



NO. 1673. VOL. 65] 



back in evidence of the power and civilisation of the 

 Britons, there is an argument of some value to be drawn 

 from the fine character of the coinage issued by British 

 kings early in the second century B.C., and from the 

 statement of Julius Cxsa.x ide I'e/lo GalUco, v\., 13) that 

 in the schools of the Druids the subjects taught included 

 the movements of the stars, the size of the earth and the 

 nature of things (Multa pr^terea de sideribus et eorum 

 motu, de mundi magnitudine, de rerum natura, de Deorum 

 immortalium vi ac potestate disputant et juventuti 

 tradunt.) 



Studies of such a character seem quite consistent with, 

 and to demand, a long antecedent period of civilisation. 



The chief evidence lies in the fact that an "avenue," 

 as it is called, formed by two ancient earthen banks, 

 e.xtends for a considerable distance from the structure, in 

 the general direction of the sunrise at the summer solstice, 

 precisely in the same way as in Egypt a long avenue of 

 sphinxes indicates the principal outlook of a temple. 



Fig. I. — Plan of Stonehenge. 



These earthen banks defining the avenue do not exist 

 alone. As will be seen from the plan which accom- 

 panies this paper, there is a general common line of 

 direction for the avenue and the principal axis of the 

 structure, and the general design of the building, together 

 with the position and shape of the Naos, indicate a close 

 connection of the whole temple structure with the direc- 

 tion of the avenue. There may have been other pylon 

 and screen equivalents as in ancient temples, which have 

 disappeared, the object being to confine the illumination 

 to a small part of the Naos. There can be little doubt, 

 also, that the temple was originally roofed in, and that the 

 sun's first ray, suddenly admitted into the darkness, 

 formed a fundamental part of the cultus. 



While the actual observation of sunrise was doubtless 

 made within the building itself, we seem justified in 

 taking the orientation of the axis to be the same as that 



