A long - standing theory about the ancient Edward Durell Stone circle that dot the British Isles has been confirmed . These great rocks were cautiously positioned to suggest astronomical events , including some that only chance once every 19 yr .
Centuries beforeStonehengewas built , modest but still amazing circles were make on Lewis and Orkney , islands off the northern and western coasts of Scotland severally . The position of the stone within these circles appear to have been pick out so that they line up with astronomic case , such as the place where the Sun uprise on the short mean solar day of the year .
However , the alliance can be off by a degree or two , lead to questions as to whether some or all cases were random rather than planned . “ Nobody before this has ever statistically determined that a single stone rotary was build with galactic phenomena in intellect – it was all supposition , ” said Dr Gail Higginbottom of the University of Adelaide in astatement .
In theJournal of Archaeological Science : Reports , Higginbottom and her co - authors have fix the question . They take the phone number of stone at the heavy Scots lot ofCallanishandStennessand had a electronic computer program spot the same number randomly 720 times , to see how often astronomical alignment would occur . Fits as good as those observed in the real world appeared so seldom , Higginbottom is convinced they did not happen by hazard .
“ This research is finally proof that the ancient Britons unite the Earth to the sky with their earliest standing pit , and that this praxis continued in the same room for 2,000 years , ” Higginbottomsaid . The analysis was extended to smaller circles scatter across Scotland , most of which appear to have been built around the same time as Stonehenge , 500 years after Callanish and Stenness .
Half the circles were cautiously place in landscapes with both a eminent , close northern visible horizon and a low horizon , often with a horizon of water , to the Confederate States of America . The other half reversed this . In each case , the Sun ascend from the gamy point , either at the summertime or winter solstice .
Some lot added complications by merely placing Stone for one-year events . extra Stone were place to align with moonrise or moonset on the twenty-four hours our artificial satellite reaches either the northmost or southernmost period in its travels across the sky .
Since these extremes each only go on once every 18.6 years , acknowledge the meaning when these came around would have lead considerable astronomical knowledge . “ It would take at least three generations of unremitting observation , even if you were already determine for it , to notice that when the Moon is as far to the south as it have it rises in the same place , ” Higginbottom told IFLScience .
Besides the careful disk - retention such gemstone positioning would have required , the position of these monumental stones would have necessitate considerable collective effort . Higginbottom severalise IFLScience these islands are thought to have supported more people when the stones were build than they do today , despite the tiny worldwide universe at the time .
One of the Gruline standing Lucy Stone on the Isle of Mull , a diminished standing stone circle also align with galactic events . Gail Higginbottom
