Stonehenge was NOT a large calendar, scientists say

It is one of many world’s most iconic historic websites and a British cultural icon, nevertheless it appears the talk over how and why Stonehenge was constructed some 5,000 years in the past is much from over.

A brand new paper claims to “debunk” a concept proposed final yr that the Wilshire monument served as a photo voltaic calendar, serving to individuals preserve observe of the times of the yr.

The Italian and Spanish consultants argue that this declare is “completely baseless” and primarily based on “stretched interpretations, numerology and unsupported analogies”.

The British researcher behind the speculation thinks that Stonehenge’s massive sandstone slabs, referred to as sarsens, every represented a single day in a month, making the whole web site one big timekeeping machine.

He reacted to recent criticism of his concept, calling it “a traditional piece of rant with no conclusion” that’s “misinformed” and “picks corners.”

The brand new article was written by Dr. Giulio Magli of the Milan Polytechnic and by Professor Juan Antonio Belmonte of the College of La Laguna in Tenerife.

“Stonehenge is a surprisingly complicated monument, which may solely be understood by making an allowance for its panorama and the chronology of its totally different phases over the centuries,” they are saying.

‘In a current article, the writer proposed that Stonehenge’s sarsen part design was designed to characterize a calendar yr of 365.25 days.

“The aim of this letter is to point out that this concept is with out basis, being primarily based as it’s on various strained interpretations, numerology and unsupported analogies with different cultures.”

The calendar concept was proposed final yr by Professor Timothy Darvill, who thinks Stonehenge would have allowed historic locals to plot a 365.25-day photo voltaic yr calibrated by solstice alignment, taking inspiration from historic Egypt.

Professor Darvill referred to as the newly printed evaluation ‘a traditional piece of rant and not using a conclusion’.

“Their fundamental drawback just isn’t actually with my concepts however reasonably the consensus of Egyptologists that I quote in my unique article,” the British researcher informed MailOnline.

‘It is easy to argue that somebody is mistaken, however what’s their proof? And the way precisely do they interpret the association of the stones at Stonehenge?’

For his examine printed in Antiquity a yr in the past, Professor Darvillanalyzed the quantity and placement of Stonehenge’s massive sandstone slabs, referred to as sarsens.

The Sarsens kind all 15 stones of Stonehenge’s central horseshoe, the posts and lintels of the outer circle, in addition to peripheral stones such because the Heel Stone, Slaughter Stone and Station Stones.

Stonehenge, Professor Darvill stated, was a “easy and chic” perpetual calendar primarily based on a tropical photo voltaic yr of 365.25 days.

The complete web site was the bodily illustration of 1 month (lasting 30 days) and the 30 stones within the sarsen circle every represented sooner or later throughout the month.

Folks at Stonehenge seemingly marked the times of the month every represented by a stone, maybe utilizing a small stone or wood peg, he informed MailOnline on the time.

However the Italian and Spanish duo, each astronomers, wholeheartedly reject this idea by calling it “numerology” (the pseudo-scientific examine of the hidden relationships between numbers and ideas).

Additionally they level out that just about half of the stones within the circle have been misplaced and it’s “attainable that they have been additionally small, thus breaking the magic of the speculation”.

It’s already identified that the whole Stonehenge plan is positioned in relation to the solstices, i.e. the intense limits of the motion of the suns.

English Heritage explains: ‘At Stonehenge on the summer time solstice, the solar rises behind the Heel Stone within the north-east of the horizon and its first rays shine into the guts of Stonehenge.

“Observers at Stonehenge on the winter solstice, standing on the entrance to the enclosure and going through the middle of the stones, can watch the solar set within the southwestern a part of the horizon.”

Professor Darvill thinks that the inhabitants of the well-known henge not solely used to maintain observe of the occasions of the yr, but additionally the times of the month.

“I believe what they did was simply to mark the times represented by the stone,” he informed MailOnline.

“We’ve got some later prehistoric calendars the place they checklist the times and have a gap subsequent to every one to allow them to mark them with a peg.”

“I believe one thing comparable would have occurred at Stonehenge, possibly utilizing a small stone or a wood peg.”

Professor Darvill additionally thinks the calendar may mark the 12 month-to-month cycles of 30 days every which add as much as a yr.

However astronomers countered by calling the machine “unknown” and stating that the 12 months are usually not represented by the monument.

Professor Darvill finally thinks the brand new paper ‘pinches corners with various claims supported solely by the content material of their earlier publications’.

“Additionally they fall into the entice that made many archaeo-astronomers consider that prehistoric individuals labored with a excessive stage of precision,” he informed MailOnline.

“They did not do this. They used observations and poles and bits of string. The theodolite and the compass have been but to be invented.”

Whereas nobody will be sure why Stonehenge was constructed, there has lengthy been a college of thought that served as an historic calendar, however the British skilled pinpointed the way it in all probability labored.

Different theories embody that it was a cult heart for therapeutic, a temple, a spot the place ancestors have been worshiped, or perhaps a cemetery.

MailOnline has reached out to Dr Magli and Professor Belmonte about any theories they might have concerning the function of Stonehenge.

Dr. Magli replied: “We predict the present archaeological/archaeoastronomical interpretation of Stonehenge as a spot symbolically associated to ancestors and the winter solstice is appropriate, so we haven’t any new theories of our personal.”

‘Curiously, Darwill credit us with exaggerating the accuracy of the alignment when it is fairly the alternative; let’s simply say it wasn’t correct sufficient to work as a tuning for the calendar, as he proposed.’

Their new article has been printed in Antiquity journal.