340 



NA TURE 



[May 20, 1909 



THE USES AND DATES OF ANCIENT 

 TEMPLES. 



I PROPOSE in the present article to make some 

 very general statements concerning the work 

 so far done on the orientation of ancient temples, and 

 to bring together some of the chief conclusions to 

 which it has led. 



I may begin by stating that the inquiry has Ijfcu 

 carried on at intervals during the last nineteen years 

 — that is, since March, 1890 — when I observed the 

 magnetic bearing of the temple axis of the Parthenon. 

 From 1891 to 1894 the research was almost entirely 

 limited to Egypt. "The Dawn of Astronomy," pub- 

 lished in 1894, gives the result. 



The first definite conclusion arrived at deals with 

 the use of the temples ; why they were built, and for 

 what purpose. It was found that the Egyptians care- 

 fully built their temples so that the rising and the set- 

 ting of certain stars, and of the sun at certain times 

 of the year, could be watched along the temple axis by 

 the priest in the sanctuary. 



It was not until after my first winter in Egypt 

 that I learned that Nissen, of Bonn, had anticipated 

 me in suggesting that this might have been so, and 

 that several references to the practice which I had 

 made out occur in the inscriptions. 



One of the chief difficulties in the Egyptian work 

 arose from the fact that in most cases the date of 

 the foundation of the temples was unknown. There 

 were, however, some notable exceptions where the 

 results of the orientation theory could be compared 

 with records, and in these there was a perfect agree- 

 ment, which also enlightened us on the method em- 

 ployed by the Egyptian astronomer-priests for reducing 

 to a minimum the disadvantageous effects of the 

 change of the places of stars brought about by the 

 precessional movement.' 



The next conclusion dealt with the actual astro- 

 nomical observations made by the ancient Egyptians. 

 They were of three classes : — (i) To determine the 

 time at night. The stars used for this purpose I 

 have called " clock-stars." (2) To observe a star 

 rising or setting " heliacally "—-that is, about an hour 

 before sunrise on the chief festivals. (3) To deter- 

 mine when the sun had reached a certain part of its 

 yearly path at which the festivals occurred. 



For (i), as they had no instruments, they used a 

 star rising near the north point of the horizon, and 

 watched its movement round the pole ; one quarter 

 of its path would, of course, represent six hours, and 

 so on. The stars so used were the brightest ones 

 in the Great Bear and the Dragon. Stars rising near 

 the south point of the horizon were also observed, 

 and, doubtless, for the same purpose. For (2) any 

 bright star rising or setting at the proper time 

 between the north and south points would do ; as a 

 matter of fact, they used Capella, Spica, the Pleiades, 

 Sirius, a Centauri, Canopus, and others. For (3) 

 they commenced with a year beginning in May — the 

 " May year," the first used in Britain, and still deter- 

 mining the quarter-days in Scotland ; later they passed 

 to the "solstitial" year, June 21, the beginning of 

 the Nile rise and the longest day, being the new new 



2 snme temple to different stnrs 

 ]eory tells u*; that the temple of 

 se of the principal star in the 

 r of Draco in 3100 p.c. or both ; 

 s founded in the times of th« 



1 In two instances of the dedication of 

 at widely different epochs, the orientatioi 

 Denderah was built either to observe the 

 Great Bear in 4950 E c. or the principal 

 the inscriptions tell us that the temple 



according to Eudse's " History of 

 and was afterwards restored by Pepi, whose date, 

 ithority, was 3233 H c. 



e-itnration of an old temple bv Usertsen (2433 B.C.). 

 II .still extant. The theory tells us that, as at Den- 

 as undertaken to watch the rise of the principal '^tar 

 n c, the restored temple bavins been originally 

 e of the principal star of the Great Bear in 5200 ox. 



NO. 2064, VOL. 80] 



year's day. This is the origin of our present English 

 year. 



The inquiry thus begun in Egypt was subsequently 

 carried on in Greece by Mr. Penrose with admirable 

 results, because there he was able to deal with 

 temples the foundation dates of which are known 

 within narrow limits. 



The first attempt to apply the orientation theory 

 to British monuments was made by Mr. Penrose anil 

 myself in 1901 at Stonehenge. 



At the first blush there appears to be no resem- 

 blance between the Egyptian and Greek temples and 

 the British stone monuments, but a careful study 

 of both shows that this view is an erroneous one. 



The study of the British monuments from the astro- 

 nomical point of view has enabled us to grasp one 

 object which, in spite of their varied forms and com- 

 plexities, they all had to fulfil. It also enables us to 

 classify them, and this classification not only suggests 

 the order of their evolution, but shows their strict 

 relationship to the Egyptian temples. This was the 

 next advance. The demonstration is as follows. 



The simplest of our ancient British stone monu- 

 ments is represented by what is called a stone-row or 

 avenue ; good examples of these are to be seen at 

 Merrivale ; one is a single line of stones; the other 

 is a compound avenue consisting of two double lines 

 of stones running parallel with each other at some 

 distance apart. The most famous compound avenue 

 in our own country is that of Challacombe, on Dart- 

 moor, which consisted once of eight rows of stones. 

 I am sorry to say only two or three rows now remain. 



Avenues were in some cases built of earth instead 

 of stones; one at Stonehenge can still be studied; it 

 extends towards the north-east from the centre of 

 the temple and naos. 



The next form we have to consider after the avenue is 

 the cromlech or dolmen — that is, the skeleton of an old 

 barrow. Here again we get the gradual elaboration from 

 a single cromlech to compound ones. A good example 

 of the former is that at Trevethy, in Cornwall. In 

 this, which consists of very large stones, the 

 only entrance into the chamber is provided by a small 

 portion cut out at the bottom corner of one of the 

 stones. There is another very good example called the 

 Devil's Den, near Avebury, which is rather more 

 simple than the cromlech at Trevethy. It consists 

 of one big stone supported by three others. 



Another kind of monument called a cove must be 

 regarded as an uncovered cromlech. It consists of 

 three stones occupying three sides of a square, the 

 open side indicating the direction ; the finest example 

 is at Avebury. 



Cromlechs do not always occur singly. At times 

 they are compounded into pairs or triplets, as at 

 Plas Newydd. 



We next find a combination of the avenue and 

 cromlech. In this form the direction of the opening 

 of the cromlech is defined by marking and extending 

 it with a double line of stones. We thus get a creep 

 or alley-way, or all^e, as the French archaeologists call 

 it, and this may be either open or covered — alUc 

 ouvcrtc or alUe coiivcrte ; fougou is the Cornish term 

 for the latter form. 



The best example that I have seen of this combina- 

 tion of avenue and cromlech in Britain is that at Bryn 

 Cell! Ddu. This, like the avenue at Stonehenge, 

 looks out to the norih-east of the horizon ; in fact, 

 it is practically parallel to that avenue. The 

 most perfect example of a barrow containing a 

 cromlech with an alley-way is at Maeshowe, in the 

 Orkneys. The cromlech is in the centre of a still 

 existing mound; it is a very elaborate one, with side 



