Stonehenge was ancient solar calendar, according to new research
Study sheds new light on Wiltshire monument
Last updated 2nd Mar 2022
New research suggests Stonehenge was once used as solar calendar helping people keep track of the days, weeks and months.
Professor Timothy Darvill, an archaeologist at Bournemouth University, has analysed the numbers and positioning of the famous monument's great sandstone slabs, called sarsens
He identified the solar calendar in the stone circle's layout suggesting they served as a physical representation of the year.
Professor Darvill concluded that the stones are displayed to represent a solar year of 365.25 days
"The proposed calendar works in a very straightforward way. Each of the 30 stones in the sarsen circle represents a day within a month, itself divided into three weeks each of 10 days."
It's thought the people of Stonehenge marked the days of each month using a small stone or a wooden peg.
The winter and summer solstices highlight the layout with the sun framing the same pair of stones every year.
The solstitial alignment helps to calibrate the calendar and any errors would be easily detectable as the sun would be in the wrong place on the solstices.
Although a calendar, with 10-day weeks and extra months, may seem unusual today Profressor Darvill says they were adopted by many cultures during this period:
"Such a solar calendar was developed in the eastern Mediterranean in the centuries after 3000 BC and was adopted in Egypt as the Civil Calendar around 2700 BC and was widely used at the start of the Old Kingdom about 2600 BC," Prof Darvill said.
This raises the possibility that the calendar tracked by Stonehenge may stem from the influence of one of these other cultures.
The paper, Keeping time at Stonehenge, is published in the journal Antiquity.