Cosmology Course Notes

Chapter 2.

Dawning of Time and Ancient Monuments

2.1. Cave Dweller Cosmology

• 35,000 BC, Lascaux caves in France and Altamira caves in Spain
  • Extensive paintings done in water-fat-mineral pigments
  • Pictures of humans, animals, extinct animals, spirits and other strange symbols
  • Paintings probably about hunting; act of forward-looking imagination, anticipating the hunt, fear, and death
• Celestial symbols
  • Circles with rays; sun symbols? or possibly star symbols?
  • 7,000 BC, Abris de las Viñas in Spain, pattern of four groups of seven spots and crescents; lunar phase diagram
  • 7,000 BC, Canchal de Mahoma in Spain, 27 spots changing from crescent to round and back to crescent surrounding some unknown figure (Earth?)

2.2. Megalithic Cosmology

• 3500 BC, proto-Europeans began building large structures of stone -- megaliths
  • Why? No definitive knowledge, just various speculations
  • Structures are rows of stones or circles, some alone on hillsides or in valleys
  • Stonehenge is most widely known, but is not unique among megalithic structures in UK or continental Europe
  • Literally hundreds of stone circles exist in England, Scotland, and Ireland
  • Interesting point is most of these structures have some astronomical significance -- probably horizon astronomy
• Examples from England, Scotland, and Ireland: Ancient Britian
  • 3300 BC, New Grange in Ireland, burial tomb; 70-ft central passage aligned with midwinter sunrise; opening allows midwinter sun to illuminate passage; sun symbols on walls
  • 2000-1500 BC, John Barber measured 30 stone circles in County Cork and County Kerry; small, average about 25-ft diameter; stones graded in height with tallest toward northeast, southwest side large horizontal stone -- recumbent
  • 2500-2000 BC, Aubrey Burl investigated 42 well-preserved stone circles in Scotland; average about 50-ft diameter; stones graded in height with shortest toward northeast; large recumbent stone toward southwest
  • Callanish on Island of Lewis in outer Hebrides off Scotland; aligned on significant moon risings and settings
  • Approximately 100 stone circles in Britain seemed to contain no recognized astronomical significance
• Many stone structures exist around world with astronomical significance
  • Chaco Canyon in New Mexico
  • Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming
  • Carocol at Mayan ruin in Yucatan
  • Nazca plain in Peru
  • Egyptian monuments and temples, Amon-Ra at Karnak

2.3. Stonehenge

• Stonehenge is late Neolithic stone structure located in southern part of Salisbury Plain in south-central Britain
• Surrounding region rich in Neolithic structures and sites
  • 345 burial sites or barrow mounds
  • Woodhenge, few miles north, 6 circles of post holes, no visible structure
  • Durrington Walls, 30 acres surrounded by earth embankment and ditch
• Building periods
  • Stonehenge I: 2800 BC
  • Stonehenge II: 2100 BC
  • Stonehenge III: 2000 - 1500 BC
  • Stonehenge IV: 1100 BC

2.4. Stonehenge I (2800 BC)

• Circular ditch
  • 6-ft deep and 380-ft diameter
  • Surrounds 6-ft embankment (now much less than 6-ft high)
• Aubrey Holes
  • 56 pits, 3-ft wide and 3-ft deep
  • Forms 284-ft diameter circle inside embankment
  • Definitely not graves
• Heel Stone
  • Large upright stone, weighs few tons
  • Located 50-ft outside ditch in middle of avenue leading northeast
  • Possible remains of original pair that stood a foot apart
• Station Stones
  • 4, small pits in middle of small mounds
  • Once contained an upright stone
  • Forms a rectangle
  • Located just inside embankment

2.5. Stonehenge II (2100 BC)

• 80 blue stones
  • Weighing up to 4 tons apiece
  • Set in two circles, well inside Aubrey Holes with entrance into circles
  • Opens northeast toward mid-summer sunrise (summer solstice
• Alter Stone
  • Large blue stone (larger than upright blue stones)
  • Located in approximate center of circle of blue stones
  • Probably from this period
• Blue stones originate in Wales
  • They were probably moved from another nearby site well after being brought from Wales

2.6. Stonehenge III (2000-1500 BC)

• IIIA: Sarsen stone
  • Sandstone blocks, weighing 25 tons
  • Stones from quarry 20 miles northwest
  • Lintel circle and horseshoe, 30 upright stones and 30 lintels
  • Lintels attached with mortise-and-tenon joints
  • Sarsen Circle is 100 ft in diameter
  • Inside Sarsen Circle is Sarsen Trilithon Horseshoe, weighing 45 tons
  • Stones squared and shaped by pounding surfaces with stone hammers, only one in Europe
• IIIB: 20 blue stones
  • Erected in small oval lying inside Sarsen Circle
• IIIC: Horseshoe of blue stones
  • Shaped into an alternating pillar and obelisk form inside Sarsen Circle

2.7. Stonehenge IV (1100 BC)

• Northeast-running avenue extended to about 1.5 miles up to banks of River Avon
• Seems to be last major period of use
• Remaining history is one of destruction and stealing of stones from site up to middle of last century

2.8. What is Stonehenge?

• William Stukeley, 1740, speculated on astronomical significance of site
• Norman Lockyer, 1903, astronomer, notes astronomical alignments
  • Station Stones form rectangle
    • Short sides point in direction of midsummer sunrise/midwinter sunset
    • Long sides mark most southerly rising and northerly setting of Moon (18.6 year period)
  • Babylonians certainly knew of 18.6-year saros-cycle of solar and lunar eclipses after about 1000 BC, if not before
• Gerald Hawkins, 1963
  • Suggested that Stonehenge not only served as device to mark solstices and lunar phenomena, thereby making it a calendar, but also as eclipse predictor
  • 56 Aubrey Holes use to mark "danger periods" when eclipses might occur
  • Suggestion not well received by anthropological community
  • Since Station Stones and Aubrey Holes date from first period of construction, Hawkins argues that original intent of Stonehenge was for calendar purposes and was later endowed with religious and social significance

2.9. Stonehenge Cosmology

• Is there an underlying view of nature of the world (a cosmology) implied by Stonehenge and similar monuments that is in a direct line with development of science as we recognize science today?
• Answer - probably not, depending on what one believes the science of the last 300 years is about. However, there is strong evidence for technological innovation for survival purposes.