Last time we explored the current major lunar standstill or lunistice which happens once every 18.6 years and lasts for about 2 years. During this time the moon rises and sets in more extreme positions and reaches higher in the sky than the sun in the summer and lower in winter in the northern hemisphere. The cycle peaks in March 2025 but you can observe the phenomenon yourself every month.

Ancient peoples paid close attention to the movements of the sun and moon and found many ways to track their cycles. The simplest is to use features in the landscape, such as hill tops, notches in hills, or gaps between rocks. A good example is Chimney Rock in Colorado where the moon rises between two pillars of rock during major lunar standstills as observed from the Great House built by the Chacoan people over 1,000 years ago.

The ancients also modified the landscape to create observatories and perform rituals, building stone circles and monumental earthworks that are found around the world.

The oldest lunisolar calendar consists of 12 pits that were dug into the ground around 8,000 BCE at Warren Field in Scotland. The pits can be used to track the phases of the moon and align with sunrise at winter solstice. But if you want to track the major lunar standstill you need something a little more sophisticated.

The term ‘lunar standstill’ was first used by Alexander Thom in his 1971 book Megalithic Lunar Observatories. He studied Neolithic stone circles in Europe and found loads which aligned with the maximum and minimum positions of moonrise and moonset along the horizon.

However, these ancient sites aren’t as precisely aligned as they once were and the moon would have appeared lower in the past by about half a degree. This is because the Earth’s tilt has changed over the millennia. But ancient alignments can still be calculated from current observations.

The Earth’s tilt (obliquity) varies between 24.5 and 22.1 degrees as the planet wobbles around its axis. In 8,700 BCE the tilt was at its maximum of 24.5 degrees, and according to Clive Best, had reached 24.3 degrees by 7,000 years ago (5,000 BCE). We’re now tilted at 23.4 degrees and will reach the minimum of 22.1 degrees by 11,800 CE.

In the past lunar standstills would have been even more extreme and so even more noticeable due to the greater obliquity of the Earth. The Moon may also have become circumpolar at lower latitudes. This was suggested by Service and Bradbery in their book The Standing Stones of Europe where they claimed that major lunar standstills became circumpolar at 60N and above and the moon would have appeared to roll along the horizon.

This may have been the case in Shetland at 60N off the coast of Scotland, and possibly at sites in Orkney at 59N, such as the Ring of Brodgar, Stenness, Maeshowe, and Skara Brae during earlier times. But this isn’t the case now. To see a circumpolar moon at major lunar standstill now you would need to be at 62N or above.

One of the best examples of ancient astronomy is Stonehenge in Wiltshire in the UK. The site has a long history and is well known for its alignment with both solstices but it also aligns with the lunar standstill. Post holes were found dating to 8,000 BCE that aligned to sun and moon setting points – these holes are now under the car park. But the main activity at the site began thousands of years later when the original enclosure was created around 3,100 BCE.

This consists of a huge circular bank and ditch containing 56 holes which may have once held timber posts or bluestones. Some of the holes contained cremated ancestral remains that were already old when they were buried, so they were probably brought to Salisbury Plain from elsewhere. These remains were only found in the south-east of the circle aligned with moonrise at the major standstill in the south.

Robin Heath describes how the 56 holes (called Aubrey holes) were used to predict and track eclipses using the nodal cycle of 18.6 years. This would also allow you to track lunar standstills as they relate to the same cycle. It wasn’t completely accurate because 56 is almost 18.6 x 3 which equals 55.8, but it’s pretty close. Close enough for the Neolithic!

This also relates to the Metonic cycle of 19 years which is when the solar and lunar cycles synchronise and the moon phases recur at the same time of year. Again it’s not entirely accurate but over 19 years the moon will have 235 lunations within an error of only 2 hours. Many stone circles have 19 stones allowing for these calculations, such as Casterton in Cumbria, Torhouse in Scotland, and the Merry Maidens in Cornwall, amongst many others.

However, Stonehenge has another way of tracking lunar standstills using 4 stones placed at the edge of the enclosure marking out a rectangle. These are called Station Stones and only 2 remain. The rectangle is at a right angle to the alignment with the solstices and the corners point towards moonrise and moonset during major standstills, like this:

Most people assume that Stonehenge is aligned to sunrise at the summer solstice. But according to Stonehengeology the true alignment occurs shortly after sunrise when the sun is higher in the sky. The stones were placed to capture and reflect sunlight into the centre of the circle as part of a fertility ritual to create “everlasting summer.”

Stonehenge is also aligned to sunset at the winter solstice, not sunrise. This is revealed by the orientation of the Avenue, a ceremonial pathway that approaches the site towards the Heel Stone in the direction of the setting sun. As Stonehengeology points out, if you had tried to watch the midwinter sunrise from the opposite direction the light would have been blocked by a bluestone standing in front of the trilithons.

An incredible diamond-shaped gold lozenge was found in a burial close to Stonehenge, placed on the chest of a man who may have been an astronomer/priest. Although the burial was dated to around 1,900–1,700 BCE, the lozenge could be much older having been passed down through the generations. Maybe it was used in the construction of the site or during rituals and ceremonies.

The lozenge is 7 inches (18cm) across and 5mm thick and engraved with 36 sections around its edge. This is a significant number related to the golden section and the geometry of circles. The angles of the lozenge are 81 degrees and match the angle between the solstices and equinox at 51N, the latitude of Stonehenge. They also match the rising and setting positions of the moon at lunar standstill.

But the lozenge only works at this particular latitude. Similar lozenges have been found that align with other sites at different latitudes. More details on these here.

Stonehenge forms part of a larger complex of sites that are aligned and related to each other, including Durrington Walls, Woodhenge, Avebury, and Glastonbury. Neolithic site complexes are common and another example is found in Ireland in County Meath: the Boyne Valley complex, or Brú na Bóinne.

This complex is dated to around 3,200 BCE and has at least 90 monuments, including passage tombs, burial mounds, standing stones and enclosures. Passage tombs were (and are) portals to the Otherworld where the gods or ancestors live. In Ireland this is the Sidhe or Tuatha De Danann.

Newgrange is the best-known passage tomb in this complex but there are also tombs at Knowth and Dowth that contain important alignments. Newgrange has been extensively renovated over the years and given what Thomas Sheridan describes as a ‘brutalist reimagining’ with its neat chalk wall. No self-respecting fairy would be seen dead in the place.

The Newgrange tomb is surrounded by a circle of 12 stones, although it originally had 36 stones – there’s that number again. The tomb itself is aligned to sunrise at the winter solstice when the sun enters the passage through the lightbox or ‘sun box’ at the entrance. This focuses the light into a narrow beam that travels up the passage into the chamber at the end.

The symbolic meaning of this event is illustrated in the mythology of the site which includes the tale of Dagda, the chief god, who impregnates Boann, goddess of the river Boyne, and hides the pregnancy by making the sun standstill. The winter solstice was when the sun fertilised the dark womb of the inner chamber to seed a rebirth in a fertility ritual and celebration of life.

There’s a similar tale associated with the tomb at Dowth which is aligned to the winter solstice sunset and the major lunar standstill, which is being investigated here. The tomb at Knowth also aligns with both the major and minor lunar standstills. Knowth and the other sites in this complex are filled with incredible art featuring spirals and astronomical symbols. Knowth also has a ‘calendar stone’ which allows you to calculate lunations and the Metonic cycle. Read more here.

You can still watch the lunar standstill at Callanish, or Calanais, on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. This site consists of an egg-shaped circle of stones within a cross of other stones and a burial pit at the centre. It was built between 2,900 and 2,600 BCE and aligns to the summer solstice sunrise and the major lunar standstill.

Callanish is at 58N where there’s just over 5 hours of darkness at midsummer. At major standstill the full moon near the summer solstice only reaches a few degrees above the horizon and can be seen through the stones. The hills on the horizon form the shape of a woman lying down and during standstills the moon is said to ‘walk on the land’ across the Cailleach na Mointeach, the ‘Old Woman of the Moors’.

During this walk the moon disappears briefly where there’s a notch between two hills and then it reappears – or ‘re-gleams’ – and illuminates the centre stones at Callanish. There’s a lake below the notch in the hills and the story goes that the moon bathes in the lake before returning to shine its light into the circle.

This is a similar idea to the mythology of midwinter at Stonehenge and the Boyne Valley where the light impregnates the darkness of the egg-like womb of the earth to give birth to more life. More on that here – plus the distribution of ‘male’ and ‘female’ stones which reinforce the fertility symbolism.

Earthworks complexes have also been used to track the positions of the moon and some of the best examples can be found in the cultures of the Mound Builders in the US. These sites are usually constructed from embankments and ditches and often contain a combination of circle and octagon shapes linked by causeways and other features such as geoglyphs.

The Newark complex in Ohio was built by the Hopewell culture between 100 BCE and 400 CE and it was used for ritual ceremonies, burials and astronomical observation. The site has epic proportions, the true scale of which can only be seen from the air, and it features several large enclosures including the Great Circle, the Octagon, and the Wright Earthworks.

On this map, the Great Circle is at the bottom in the centre, the Wright Earthworks is the square just above this, and the Octagon is at the top left with its own circle. The Great Circle is larger than Stonehenge and has a diameter of 370 meters and is aligned with the minor lunar standstill.

The Octagon is also massive and includes an Observatory Mound and an Observatory Circle. The entire shape of octagon plus circle is aligned with both major and minor lunar standstills allowing the astronomer/priests to track the 18.6-year cycle of the moon. It uses 8 key positions to do this making it twice as precise as Stonehenge:

There’s a lot more that can be said about all these sites and many more that we could look at but this post is already too long. So we’ll save the amazing golden hats of the Bronze Age astronomers until next time…!

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