Archaeo-Astronomy and Landscapes

Stonehenge is a very good example of an Archeo-Astronomy monument. Still to this day people are unsure what Stonehenge was used for. Theories have been made about the reasons behind the building of the monument and range from it being work of the devil to religious monuments to astronomical calendars. However in 1640 John Aubrey took an academic approach to his theory about Stonehenge. He completed drawings of Stonehenge that could be used to show how Stonehenge could have been used.

However we must also consider the possibilities that some stones may have alignments that occurred by chance. This is a possibility, and one that should not be ignored. There are reasons for this to be wrong however. There is a stone that is laid outside of the stone circle called the Heel stone. When Stonehenge was first built there originally would have been two heel stones. During the summer solstice the sun would rise between the Heel stones and the light would land on the Altar stone. This is an alignment that is not considered as chance. The timing, alignment and the landing of the light on the Altar stone all put together can be considered as something that was all done intentionally. This then begins to raise questions as to some the calculations completed in order for this alignment to occur. Calculations like the Pythagorean Theorem that were not introduced as accepted methods until 569–475 BC were being used by the creators of Stonehenge. This calculation that is still used today was being used by a civilization almost 3000 years before its creation!

Stonehenge links into its landscape in a very special way. The procession path that leads away from the heelstones helps us to see that the alignment of some of the stones may not be chance. Look at the stones alone and the probability of two stones creating an alignemnt by chance are quite high. However when we look at the precesion path it is clear that the path extends for quite a distance causing the probability of the "chance alignment" to decrease a lot. This builds a link between the monument and the landscape. This is important as what may have been considered as scenery now becomes part of this fantastic monument.

We now believe that the Stonehenge may have been used to predict eclipse, solstice, equinox and other events that are considered important to a contemporary religion. During the summer solstice if you position yourself in the henge the sun rises behind the heel stone. This is an event that is celebrated every year and visitors can see this event occuring