342 



NA TURE 



[May 20, 1909 



merits to the places of the sun at different periods 

 of the year were investigated, another conclusion of 

 first-rate importance was arrived at. 



At first the all-important positions of the sun, 

 as indicated by the alignments, were not the 

 solstices or the equinoxes, but at intermediate 

 points when the sun occupied the declinations 

 16° 20' N. and S. The year was thus defined 

 by the sun's stations in May, August, November, 

 and February. 



This I have called the " May year," a vegetation 

 year. I think it must be acknowledged that one of 

 the most important results of the new method of 

 looking at monuments has been the demonstration of 

 the existence in early times in Britain of a year 

 which began in May or November and ended in 

 November or May; and this, one of the teachings 

 of the monuments touching our early history, will in 

 the future greatly help folklorists and others interested 

 in antiquity and the dawn of the so-called Celtic 

 literature. There is now no doubt, after the researches 

 of the Rev. J. Griffith, that the Welsh Gorsedd circle 

 brings before us, in stone, traditions of a time when 

 the May year was in vogue. 



The reason that we had that year before we had 

 the real astronomical year, which works from the 

 solstices in June and December to the equinoxes in 

 March and September, is that the worship and use 

 of the sun began before the length of the year had 

 been made out, and that the worship was at its 

 highest in Babylonia and Egypt at the time the sun 

 was giving to us the most that it could give — 

 that is to say, the harvests of the fruits of the 

 earth. 



The earliest temple that I know of directed to the 

 May sun is at Memphis, which must date from some 

 4000 years B.C., and it may well be that at that time 

 little was known about the length of the year, because 

 it looks very much as though the Theban cult was 

 established at Thebes as opposed to Memphis some 

 2000 years after the date I have mentioned, simply 

 because the Egyptian astronomers had then found 

 out the length of the year and had begun to use 

 it. 



One reason why they reckoned their year from 

 solstice to solstice, which is what we do now, was 

 probably because at the solstice the sun rises at the 

 same place on the horizon for three days, whereas 

 the determination of the exact position of the sun 

 on May 6 or March 21 is a matter of difficulty as 

 compared with the determination of the solstice. 

 When Mr. Penrose and myself were making observa- 

 tions, we were led to the belief that the present 

 Stonehenge, with its complete sarsen stone circles, is 

 relatively a modern affair, and that there had been at 

 Stonehenge, long before the sarsen circles were 

 erected, an old temple directed to the " May year." 

 I have since found in many cases traces of the 

 " May year " anticipating the solstitial year. The 

 solstitial cult in Britain followed the " May year " 

 cult, just in the same way as in Egypt the solstitial 

 cult at Thebes followed the " May year " cult at 

 Memphis and Heliopolis. 



In relation to the sun's seasonal times, then, we 

 find temple axes, avenues, and circles with outstand- 

 ing stones indicating the direction in which sunrise 

 or sunset was to be looked for at the critical times 

 of the year — that is, the beginning of May, August, 

 November, and February, dealing with the May year, 

 and the longest and shortest days of the solstitial 

 year. 



In connection with these solar alignments, evi- 

 dence is forthcoming that in some cases warning 

 was given of the chief festivals by erecting stones 

 NO. 2064, VOL. 80] 



marking the sun's sunrise place from some twenty, 

 one days before they occurred. It is thus possible 

 that the structure of the Roman calendar with the 21 

 dies ante calendas and the ecclesiastical period of 

 Lent, which was originally of three weeks' duration, 

 may have had their origin in the stone-circle practices. 



The next main conclusion derived from the work 

 has to do with the dates of erection of the various 

 monuments. With regard to these, I limit myself 

 now to Britain. 



The determination of dates is rendered possible by 

 the change of the declination of the sun at the sol- 

 stices and of stars, brought about by astronomical 

 causes into which we need not now enter. This de- 

 clination, indeed, is constantly changing, but we have, 

 thanks to the researches of Stockwell and Dr. Lockyer, 

 tables of the declinations of the solstitial sun and 

 of the principal stars, century by century, as far back 

 as 4000 B.C. It is fortunate that, to determine the de- 

 clination to which the direction of each monument 

 corresponds, very simple observations alone are re- 

 quired. It is as well to recapitulate them here. 

 First, the exact direction of the temple axis or 

 avenue, or of the outstanding stones or barrows, as 

 seen from the circle, in astronomical terminology their 

 azimuth, is obtained by measurements made at the 

 actual monument or on the 25-inch Ordnance map. 

 The angular height of the horizon on this line has 

 next to be measured. With these data and the lati- 

 tude, the declination (that is the distance from 

 the equator) of the body observed along the sight- 

 line indicated can be calculated. The solar group of 

 monuments practically does not help us with regard to 

 dates, for the reason that the change in the position of 

 the sun every succeeding 1000 years is very small, but 

 the change in the position of the stars every 1000 years, 

 or even 300 years in some cases, is considerable, so that 

 in the matter of dates we are thrown back almost 

 entirely upon the stars. Still, there is one solar 

 temple so perfectly arranged at Stonehenge that it 

 has been possible to suggest the date for it within 

 something like 200 years ; the measures of that, quite 

 independently of any view determined from other 

 considerations, gave us about 1680 B.C. for the erection 

 of the solstitial sarsen stones at Stonehenge. 



Observations have been made at a large number 

 of monuments in Britain during the course of the 

 last three or four years, by the help of a great many 

 friends in different regions, who find it a very 

 pleasant occupation for tfieir holidays. Already some- 

 thing like 140 or 150 alignments of avenues or of 

 cromlechs, or of outstanding stones, have been 

 measured, and 113 results have already been tabu- 

 lated. These are as follows : — 



Sun May 



November... 

 Summer solstice ... 

 Winter solstice ... 

 Stars North clock-stars Arcturus 

 ,, ,, Capella 



South clock-star o Centauti 

 Warning stars Pleiades ... 

 ,, ,, Antares ... 



Total 



"3 



It will be seen how overwhelming the evidence is 

 becoming that blind chance had nothing to do with 

 the setting out of the various alignments, how they 

 all fall into a few definite groups, and how the large 

 mass of evidence now accumulated entirely justifies 

 the conclusions derived from those first placed on 

 record. 



With regard to the dates given later on, all 



