Research has for the first time statistically proven that the earliest standing stone monuments of Britain were oriented with the Sun and Moon. The study details the use of innovative 2D and 3D technology to test the patterns of alignment.
     Project leader and University of Adelaide Visiting Research Fellow Dr Gail Higginbottom, says: "Nobody before this has ever statistically determined that a single stone circle was constructed with astronomical phenomena in mind - it was all supposition."
     Examining the oldest great stone circles built in Scotland - Callanish, on the Isle of Lewis, and Stenness, Isle of Orkney - the researchers found a great concentration of alignments towards the Sun and Moon at different times of their cycles, and 2000 years later, much simpler monuments were still being built in Scotland that had at least one of the same astronomical alignments found at the great circles.
     The researchers discovered a complex relationship between the alignment of the stones, the surrounding landscape and horizon, and the movements of the Sun and the Moon across that landscape.
     Dr Higginbottom explains that: "This research is finally proof that the ancient Britons connected the Earth to the sky with their earliest standing stones, and that this practice continued in the same way for 2000 years."
     At about half of the sites the northern horizon is relatively higher and closer, and the summer solstice Sun rises out of the highest peak in the north. At the other half it is the exact opposite - higher and closer southern horizon, out of which rises the winter solstice Sun.
     Dr Higginbottom concludes: "These people chose to erect these great stones very precisely within the landscape and in relation to the astronomy they knew. They invested a tremendous amount of effort and work to do so. It tells us about their strong connection with their environment, and how important it must have been to them, for their culture and for their culture's survival."

Edited from EurekaAlert!, ScienceDaily (17 August 2016)