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Title: Stonehenge and other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered
Author: Lockyer, Norman, Sir
Language: English
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Transcriber’s Notes
Text printed in italics has been transcribed _between underscores_,
bold face text =between equal signs=. Small capitals have been
replaced with ALL CAPITALS. Texts ~between tildes~ have been
transcribed from illustrations, and have been included here for the
sake of consistency with the illustrated versions.
More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.
STONEHENGE
LIST OF WORKS BY SIR NORMAN
LOCKYER.
PRIMER OF ASTRONOMY.
ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN ASTRONOMY.
MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTH.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOLAR PHYSICS.
CHEMISTRY OF THE SUN.
THE METEORITIC HYPOTHESIS.
THE SUN’S PLACE IN NATURE.
INORGANIC EVOLUTION.
RECENT AND COMING ECLIPSES.
STARGAZING, PAST AND PRESENT.
(_In conjunction with G. M. Seabroke._)
THE DAWN OF ASTRONOMY.
STONEHENGE AND OTHER BRITISH STONE MONUMENTS.
STUDIES IN SPECTRUM ANALYSIS.
THE SPECTROSCOPE AND ITS APPLICATIONS.
THE RULES OF GOLF.
(_In conjunction with W. Rutherford._)
_In the Press._
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS.
STONEHENGE
AND OTHER
BRITISH STONE MONUMENTS
_Astronomically Considered_
BY
SIR NORMAN LOCKYER, K.C.B., F.R.S.
DIRECTOR OF THE SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY
HON. LL. D., GLASGOW; HON. SC.D., CAMBRIDGE; CORRESPONDENT OF THE
INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES OF ST. PETERSBURG; THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF NATIONAL
INDUSTRY OF FRANCE; THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, GÖTTINGEN; THE
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA; THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY OF
BRUSSELS; SOCIETY OF ITALIAN SPECTROSCOPISTS; THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF
PALERMO; THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GENEVA; OF THE ASTRONOMICAL
SOCIETY OF MEXICO; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF LYNCEI, ROME; AND
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA; HONORARY MEMBER OF
THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCE OF CATANIA; PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF
YORK; LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER; ROYAL CORNWALL
POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION; AND LEHIGH UNIVERSITY
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
1906
_All rights reserved_
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
PREFACE
In continuation of my work on the astronomical uses of the Egyptian
Temples, I have from time to time, when leisure has permitted, given
attention to some of the stone circles and other stone monuments
erected, as I believed, for similar uses in this country. One reason for
doing so was that in consequence of the supineness of successive
Governments, and the neglect and wanton destruction by individuals, the
British monuments are rapidly disappearing.
Although, and indeed because, these inquiries are still incomplete, I
now bring together some of the notes I have collected, as they may
induce other inquirers to go on with the work. Some of the results
already obtained have been communicated to the Royal Society, and others
have appeared in articles published in _Nature_, but only a small
percentage of the monuments available has so far been examined. Further
observations are required in order that the hypothesis set forth in this
book may be rejected or confirmed.
In the observations made at Stonehenge referred to in Chapter VII. I had
the inestimable advantage of the collaboration of the late Mr. Penrose.
Our work there would not have been possible without the sympathetic
assistance of Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart.; Colonel Duncan A. Johnston,
R.E., Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, also was good enough on
several occasions to furnish us with much valuable information which is
referred to in its place. Messrs. Howard Payn and Fowler skilfully and
zealously helped in the observations and computations. To all these I am
glad to take this opportunity of expressing my obligations.
With regard to the other monuments besides Stonehenge, I have to tender
my thanks to the following gentlemen for most valuable local
assistance:--
Brittany--Lieut. de Vaisseau Devoir.
Stenness--Mr. Spence.
Stanton Drew--Professor Lloyd Morgan, Mr. Morrow, and Mr. Dymond.
The Hurlers, and the Merry Maidens--the Right Hon. Viscount Falmouth,
Capt. Henderson, Mr. Horton Bolitho and Mr. Wallis.
Tregaseal--Mr. Horton Bolitho and Mr. Thomas.
The Dartmoor Avenues--Mr. Worth.
The following have helped me in many ways, among them with advice and
criticism:--Principal Rhys, Dr. Wallis Budge, Dr. J. G. Frazer, and Mr.
A. L. Lewis.
The assistance so generously afforded in the case of Stonehenge by
Colonel Johnston, R.E., in furnishing me with accurate azimuths was
continued for the monuments subsequently investigated till his
retirement. To his successor, Colonel R. C. Hellard, R.E., I am already
under deep obligations.
For the use of some of the Illustrations my thanks are due to the Royal
Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Institute of British
Architects, Messrs. Macmillan, and Mr. John Murray.
I have to thank Mr. Rolston, F.R.A.S., one of my staff, for assistance
in the computations involved.
NORMAN LOCKYER.
SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY,
_17th May, 1906_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. THE ASTRONOMICAL DIVISIONS OF THE YEAR 12
III. THE AGRICULTURAL DIVISIONS OF THE YEAR 17
IV. THE VARIOUS NEW-YEAR DAYS 25
V. CONDITIONS AND TRADITIONS AT STONEHENGE 34
VI. GENERAL ARCHITECTURE OF STONEHENGE 55
VII. ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS AT STONEHENGE IN 1901 62
VIII. ARCHÆOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT STONEHENGE, 1901 69
IX. WAS THERE AN EARLIER CIRCLE? 88
X. THE MAY AND JUNE WORSHIPS IN BRITTANY 96
XI. ASTRONOMICAL HINTS FOR ARCHÆOLOGISTS 107
XII. ASTRONOMICAL HINTS FOR ARCHÆOLOGISTS (_Continued_) 118
XIII. STENNESS (Lat. 59° N.) 123
XIV. THE HURLERS (Lat. 50° 31′ N.) 133
XV. THE DARTMOOR AVENUES 145
XVI. THE DARTMOOR AVENUES (_Continued_) 157
XVII. STANTON DREW (Lat. 51° 10′ N.) 166
XVIII. FOLKLORE AND TRADITION 178
XIX. SACRED FIRES 189
XX. SACRED TREES 200
XXI. HOLY WELLS AND STREAMS 213
XXII. WHERE DID THE BRITISH WORSHIP ORIGINATE? 232
XXIII. THE SIMILARITY OF THE SEMITIC AND BRITISH WORSHIPS 252
XXIV. THE MAY YEAR IN SOUTH-WEST CORNWALL 261
XXV. THE MERRY MAIDENS CIRCLE (Lat. 50° 4′ N.) 265
XXVI. THE TREGASEAL CIRCLES 277
XXVII. SOME OTHER CORNISH MONUMENTS 287
XXVIII. THE CLOCK-STARS IN EGYPT AND BRITAIN 294
XXIX. A SHORT HISTORY OF SUN-TEMPLES 304
XXX. THE LIFE OF THE ASTRONOMER-PRIESTS 316
APPENDICES.
I. DETAILS OF THE THEODOLITE OBSERVATIONS AT STONEHENGE 325
II. SUGGESTIONS ON FIELD OBSERVATIONS 329
INDEX 333
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. Present Sun Worship in Japan 4
2. The Celestial Sphere, Conditions at the North Pole 5
3. The Celestial Sphere, Conditions at the Equator 6
4. The Celestial Sphere, Conditions in a Middle Latitude 6
5. The Four Astronomical Divisions of the Year 14
6. The Various Bearings of the Sun Risings and Settings in N.
latitude 51° 14
7. The Astronomical and Vegetation Divisions of the Year 23
8. Original Tooling of the Stones at Stonehenge 44
9. View of Stonehenge from the West 45
10. Copy of Hoare’s Plan of Stonehenge, 1810 46
11. The Leaning Stone in 1901 48
12. The Axis of the Temple of Karnak 56
13. Plan of the Temple of Ramses II. in the Memnonia at Thebes 57
14. One of the remaining Trilithons at Stonehenge 59
15. General Plan of Stonehenge 60
16. The Arrangements for raising the Stone 70
17. The Cradle and Supports 71
18. The Frame used to locate the Finds 73
19. Some of the Flint Implements 77
20. Showing the careful Tooling of the Sarsens 82
21. Face of Rock against which a Stone was made to rest 83
22. The Leaning Stone Upright 85
23. Stonehenge, 1905 86
24. Map of the Stones made by the Ordnance Survey 89
25. Rod placed in the Common Axis of the Circle and Avenue 94
26. Alignments at Le Ménec 99
27. Menhir on Melon Island 100
28. Melon Island, showing Menhir and Cromlech 101
29. Menhirs of St. Dourzal 102
30. Alignment at Lagatjar (photograph) 103
31. Alignments at Lagatjar (plan) 104
32. Menhirs on Solstitial and May Alignments 105
33. Diagram for finding Declination from given Amplitudes or
Azimuths in British Latitudes 113
34. Declinations of Northern Stars from 250 A.D. to 2150 B.C. 115
35. Declinations of Southern Stars from 250 A.D. to 2150 B.C. 116
36. The Conditions of Sunrise at the Summer Solstice in Lat.
59° N. 119
37. The Azimuths of the Sunrise (upper limb) at the Summer
Solstice. Lats. N. 59°-47° 121
38. Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness 124
39. Chief Sight-Lines from the Stones of Stenness 126
40. Variation of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic 100 A.D.-4000 B.C. 130
41. The Sight-Lines at the Hurlers 136
42. The Southern Avenue at Merrivale, looking East 147
43. Avenues, Circle and Stones at Merrivale, with their Azimuths 154
44. Cursus at Stonehenge, nearly parallel to the Merrivale Avenue 155
45. The remains of the Challacombe Avenue 159
46. The Sight-Lines at Trowlesworthy 162
47. The Circles and Avenues at Stanton Drew 169
48. The Carro, Florence 194
49. Cresset-Stone, Lewannick 257
50. First Appearance of May Sun in British Latitudes 263
51. Azimuths of the May Sunrise 264
52. The Merry Maidens 269
53. 25-inch Ordnance Map of Merry Maidens showing Alignments 275
54. The Eastern Circle at Tregaseal 279
55. Photograph of Ordnance Map showing Sight-lines 281
56. Plan of the Mên-an-Tol 283
57. Photograph of the Mên-an-Tol 284
58. The Mên-an-Tol. Front View and Section 285
59. Photograph of the Ordnance Map of Boscawen-un 288
60. Diagram showing Azimuths of Sunrise 1680 B.C. and 1905 A.D. 290
61. Arcturus and Capella as Clock-Stars in Britain 300
62. A Night-Dial 303
63. Layard’s Plan of the Palace of Sennacherib 305
64. Layard’s Plan of the Mound at Nimrood 306
65. The Temples at Chichen Itza 307
STONEHENGE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
In the book I published ten years ago, entitled “The Dawn of Astronomy,”
I gave a pretty full account of the principles and the methods of
observation which enable us to trace the ideas which were in the minds
of the ancient Egyptians when they set out the line of a temple they
proposed to build.
Numerous references to the ceremonial of laying the foundation-stones of
temples exist, and we learn from the works of Chabas, Brugsch,
Dümichen[1] and others, that the foundation of an Egyptian temple was
associated with a series of ceremonies which are repeatedly described
with great minuteness. Amongst these ceremonies, one especially refers
to the fixing of the temple-axis; it is called, technically, “the
stretching of the cord,” and is not only illustrated by inscriptions on
the walls of the temples of Karnak, Denderah and Edfu--to mention the
best-known cases--but is referred to elsewhere.
During the ceremony the king proceeded to the site where the temple was
to be built, accompanied mythically by the goddess Sesheta, who is
styled “the mistress of the laying of the foundation-stone.”
Each was armed with a stake. The two stakes were connected by a cord.
Next the cord was aligned towards the sun on some day of the year, or a
star, as the case might be; when the alignment was perfect the two
stakes were driven into the ground by means of a wooden mallet. One
boundary wall parallel to the main axis of the temple was built along
the line marked out by this stretched cord.
If the moment of the rising or setting of the sun or star were chosen,
as we have every reason to believe was the case, seeing that all the
early observations were made on the horizon, it is obvious that the
light from the body towards which the temple was thus aligned would
penetrate the axis of the temple from one end to the other in the
original direction of the cord.
We learn from Chabas that the Egyptian word which expresses the idea of
founding or laying the foundation-stone of a temple is _Senti_--a word
which still exists in Coptic. But in the old language another word
_Pet-ser_, which no longer remains in Coptic, has been traced. It has
been established that _pet_ means to stretch, and _ser_ means cord, so
that that part of the ceremonial which consisted in stretching a cord in
the direction of a star was considered of so great an importance that it
gave its name to the whole ceremonial.
Dealing with the existing remains of Egyptian temples, it may be said
that the most majestic among them was that of Amen-Rā at Karnak,
dedicated to the Sun-God, and oriented to catch the light of the sun
setting at the summer solstice, the time of the year at which the
all-important rise of the Nile began.
Although the sun is no longer worshipped in Egypt or Britain,
sun-worship has not yet disappeared from the world. Professor Gowland
has recently[2] brought to notice a surviving form of sun-worship in
Japan. I quote his statement:--
“There on the seashore at Fûta-mi-ga-ura (as will be seen in a copy of a
print which I obtained at that ancient place) the orientation of the
shrine of adoration is given by two gigantic rocks which rise from the
sea as natural pillars. The sun as it rises over the mountains of the
distant shore is observed between them, and the customary prayers and
offerings made in that direction (Fig. 1).
“It is, too, specially worthy of note that the point from which the sun
is revered is marked by a structure of the form of a trilithon, but made
of wood, placed immediately behind the altar. This representative of the
trilithon is of very remote date in Japan, and has been in use there
from the earliest times in connection with the observances of the
ancient Shintō cult in which the Sun-Goddess is the chief deity. One of
its important uses, which still survives, was to indicate the direction
of the position of some sacred place or object of veneration, in order
that worshippers might make their prayers and oblations towards the
proper quarter.”
The table of offerings must also be noted.
In the book to which I have referred, I also endeavoured to show that a
knowledge of even elementary astronomy may be of very great assistance
to students of archæology, history, folk-lore and all that learning
which deals with man’s first attempts to grasp the meaning and phenomena
of the universe in which he found himself before any scientific methods
were available to him; before he had any idea of the origins or the
conditionings of the things around him.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Present sun worship in Japan.]
It may be well, however, in the present book to restate the underlying
astronomical principles in the briefest possible manner; and this is the
more easily done because, in the absence of measuring instruments, the
horizon was the only circle which the ancient peoples could employ
effectively, and we need only therefore consider it.
Indeed, whether we regard the Rig-Veda or the Egyptian monuments from an
astronomical point of view, we are struck by the fact that the early
worship and all the early observations related to the horizon. This was
true not only for the sun, but for all the stars which studded the
general expanse of sky.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--The celestial sphere, conditions at the North
Pole. A parallel sphere. _N.P._, North celestial Pole; _N_, position of
observer.]
We have therefore chiefly to consider the relation of the horizon of any
place to the apparent movements of celestial bodies at that place.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--The celestial sphere, conditions at the Equator.
A right sphere. _Q_, standpoint of observer; _PP_, the celestial poles;
_EW_, east and west points.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--The celestial sphere, conditions in a middle
latitude. An oblique sphere. In this woodcut _DD′_ shows the apparent
path of a circumpolar star; _BB′B″_ the path and rising and setting
points of an equatorial star; _CC′C″_ and _AA′A″_, those of stars of mid
declination, one north and the other south; _O_, standpoint of
observer.]
We now know that the earth rotates on its axis, but this idea was of
course quite unknown to these early peoples. Since the earth rotates,
with stars infinitely removed surrounding it on all sides, the apparent
movements of the stars will depend very much upon the position we
happen to occupy on the earth. An observer at the North Pole of the
earth, for instance, would see the stars moving round in circles
parallel to the horizon (Fig. 2). No star could therefore either rise or
set--one half of the heavens would be always visible above his horizon,
and the other half invisible. An observer at the South Pole would of
course see that half of the stars invisible to the observer at the
northern one.
If the observer be on the equator, the movements of the stars will
appear to be as indicated in this diagram (Fig. 3)--that is, all the
stars will rise and set, and each star will be, in turn, twelve hours
above the horizon, and the same time below it. But if we consider the
position of an observer in a middle latitude, say at Stonehenge, we find
that some stars will always be above the horizon, some always
below--that is, they will neither rise nor set. All other stars will
both rise and set, but some of them will be above the horizon for a long
time and below for a short time, whereas others will be a very short
time above the horizon and a long time below it, each star completing a
circle in a day (Fig. 4).
Wherever we are upon the earth we always imagine that we are on the top
of it. The idea held by all the early peoples was that the surface of
the earth near them was an extended plain: they imagined that the land
that they knew and just the surrounding lands were really in the centre
of the extended plain. Plato, for instance, was content to think the
Mediterranean and Greece upon the top of a cube, and Anaximander placed
the same region at the top of a cylinder.
By the use of a terrestrial globe we can best study the conditions of
observation at the poles of the earth, the equator and some place in
middle latitude. The wooden horizon of the globe is parallel to the
horizon of a place at the top of the globe, which horizon we can
represent by a wafer. By inclining the axis of the globe and watching
the movement of the wafer as the globe is turned round, we can get a
very concrete idea of the different relations of the observer’s horizon
to the apparent paths of the stars in different latitudes.
We have next to deal with the astronomical relations of the horizon of
any place, in connection with the observation of the sun and stars at
the times of rising or setting, when of course they are on or near the
horizon; and in order to bring this matter nearer to the ancient
monuments, we will study this question for both Thebes and Stonehenge.
We may take the latitude of Thebes as 25°, Stonehenge as 51°, and we
will begin with Thebes.
To consider an observer on the Nile at Thebes and to adjust things
properly we must rectify a celestial globe to the latitude of 25° N.,
or, in other words, incline the axis of the globe at that angle to the
wooden horizon.
Since all the stars which pass between the North Pole and the horizon
cannot set, all their apparent movements will take place above the
horizon. All the stars between the horizon and the South Pole will never
rise. Hence, stars within the distance of 25° from the North Pole will
never set at Thebes, and those stars within 25° of the South Pole will
never be visible there. At any place the latitude and the elevation of
the pole are the same. It so happens that many of those places with
which archæologists have to do in studying the history of early
peoples--Chaldæa, Egypt, Babylonia, &c.--are in low middle latitudes,
therefore we have to deal with bodies in the skies which do set and
bodies which do not, and the elevation of the pole is neither very great
nor very small. But although in each different latitude the inclination
of the equator to the horizon as well as the elevation of the pole will
vary, there will be a strict relationship between the inclination of the
equator at each place and the elevation of the pole. Except at the poles
themselves the equator will cut the horizon due east and due west;
therefore every celestial body to the north of the celestial equator
which rises and sets will cut the horizon between the east and west
point and the north point; those bodies which do not rise will of course
not cut the horizon at all.
The stars near the equator, and the sun, in such a latitude as that of
Thebes, will appear to rise or set at no very considerable angle from
the vertical; but when we deal with stars very near to the north or
south points of the horizon they will seem to skim along the horizon
instead of rising directly.
* * * * *
We now pass on to Stonehenge. To represent the new condition the axis of
the globe will now require to be inclined 51° to the horizon. The number
of northern stars which do not set and of southern stars which do not
rise will be much greater than at Thebes. The most northern and southern
stars visible will in their movement hug the horizon more closely than
was observed under the Thebes condition.
The sun, both at Thebes and Stonehenge, since it moves among the stars
from 23¹⁄₂° N. to 23¹⁄₂° S. each year, will change its place of rising
and setting at different times of the year.
Now it will at once be obvious that there must be a strict law
connecting the position of a star with its place of rising or setting.
Stars at the same distance from the celestial pole or equator will rise
or set at the same point of the horizon, and if a star does not change
its place in the heavens it will always rise or set in the same place.
The sun as it changes its position each day, in its swing N. and S. of
the equator, will rise and set on any day in the same place as a star
which permanently has the same distance from the equator as that
temporarily occupied by the sun.
Here it will be convenient to introduce one or two technical terms: we
generally define a star’s place by giving, as one ordinate, its distance
in degrees from the equator: this distance is called its _declination_.
Further, we generally define points on the horizon by dividing its whole
circumference into 360°, so that we can have _azimuths_ up to 90° from
the north and south points to the east and west points. We also have
_amplitudes_ from the east and west points towards the north and south
points. We can say, then, that a star of a certain declination, or the
sun when it occupies that declination, will rise or set at such an
azimuth, or at such an amplitude. This will apply to both north and
south declinations.
Then supposing the azimuth to be 39° in the N.E. quadrant, it is written
N. 39° E. For the other quadrants we have N. 39° W., S. 39° E., and S.
39° W., respectively.
The following table gives the amplitudes of rising or setting (north or
south) of celestial bodies having declinations from 0° to 64°, at Thebes
and Stonehenge respectively.
AMPLITUDES AT THEBES AND STONEHENGE.
------------+--------------------
| Amplitude.
Declination.+-------+-----------
|Thebes.|Stonehenge.
------------+-------+-----------
0° | 0° 0′| 0° 0′
1 | 1 7 | 1 36
2 | 2 13 | 3 11
3 | 3 20 | 4 46
4 | 4 26 | 6 22
5 | 5 33 | 7 58
6 | 6 40 | 9 34
7 | 7 47 | 11 10
8 | 8 53 | 12 47
9 | 9 59 | 14 23
10 | 11 6 | 16 1
11 | 12 13 | 17 39
12 | 13 20 | 19 18
13 | 14 27 | 20 57
14 | 15 34 | 22 36
15 | 16 41 | 24 17
16 | 17 49 | 25 58
17 | 18 56 | 27 45
18 | 20 3 | 29 24
19 | 21 10 | 31 10
20 | 22 17 | 32 55
21 | 23 25 | 34 43
22 | 24 33 | 36 32
23 | 25 41 | 38 23
24 | 26 49 | 40 16
25 | 27 58 | 42 11
26 | 29 6 | 44 10
27 | 30 15 | 46 10
28 | 31 23 | 48 15
29 | 32 32 | 50 22
30 | 33 41 | 52 36
31 | 34 51 | 54 55
32 | 36 1 | 57 21
33 | 37 11 | 59 56
34 | 38 21 | 62 42
35 | 39 31 | 65 44
36 | 40 42 | 69 4
37 | 41 53 | 73 0
38 | 43 5 | 78 4
39 | 44 17 | 90 0
40 | 45 30 |
41 | 46 43 |
42 | 47 56 |
43 | 49 10 |
44 | 50 25 |
45 | 51 41 |
46 | 52 57 |
47 | 54 14 |
48 | 55 32 |
49 | 56 51 |
50 | 58 12 |
51 | 59 34 |
52 | 60 58 |
53 | 62 23 |
54 | 63 51 |
55 | 65 21 |
56 | 66 54 |
57 | 68 31 |
58 | 70 12 |
59 | 71 59 |
60 | 73 55 |
61 | 76 1 |
62 | 78 25 |
63 | 81 19 |
64 | 85 42 |
------------+-------+------------
The amplitude is always the complement of the azimuth, so that amplitude
+ azimuth = 90°. Later on I shall give amplitudes for latitudes higher
than that of Stonehenge, so that still more northerly monuments can be
considered.
[1] “Baugeschichte des Dendera-Tempels.” 1877.
[2] “Archæologia,” vol. lviii.
CHAPTER II
THE ASTRONOMICAL DIVISIONS OF THE YEAR
It is next important to deal with the yearly path of the sun, with a
view of studying the relation of the various points of the horizon
occupied by the sun at different times in the year. In the very early
observations that were made in Egypt, Chaldæa and elsewhere, when the
sun was considered to be a god who every morning got into his boat and
floated across space, there was no particular reason for considering the
amplitude at which the boat left, or came to, shore. But a few centuries
showed that this rising or setting of the sun in widely varying
amplitudes at different times of the year at the same place obeyed a
very definite law.
In its northward passage it reaches the highest point at our summer
solstice, and then goes down again till it reaches its greatest southern
declination, as it does in our winter. At both these points the sun
appears to stand still in its north or south movement, and the Latin
word solstice exactly expresses that idea. The change of declination
brought about by these movements will affect the place of the sun’s
rising and setting; this is why the sun sets most to the north in
summer and most to the south in winter. At the equinoxes the sun has
always 0° Decl., so it rises and sets due east and west all over the
world. But at the solstices it has its greatest declination of 23¹⁄₂° N.
or S.; it will rise and set therefore furthest from the east and west
points; how far, will depend upon the latitude of the place, as will
have been gathered from the preceding table (p. 11).
These solstices and their accompaniments are among the striking things
in the natural world. In the winter solstice we have the depth of
winter, in the summer solstice we have the height of summer, while at
the equinoxes we have but transitional changes; in other words, while
the solstices point out for us the conditions of greatest heat and
greatest cold, the equinoxes point out for us those two times of the
year at which the temperature conditions are very nearly equal, although
of course in the one case we are saying good-bye to summer and in the
other to winter.
Did the ancients know anything about these solstices and these
equinoxes? Dealing with the monumental evidence in Egypt alone, the
answer is absolutely overwhelming. Many thousand years ago the Egyptians
were perfectly familiar with the solstices, and therefore with the
yearly path of the sun.
This fundamental division of the sun’s apparent revolution and course
which define our year into four nearly equal parts may be indicated as
in Fig. 5, the highest point reached by the sun in our northern
hemisphere being represented at the top.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--The four Astronomical Divisions of the year.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--The various bearings of the sun risings and
settings in a place with a N. latitude of 51°.]
In order better to consider the problem as it was presented to the early
astronomers who built observatories (temples) to mark these points, we
may deal with the bearings of the points occupied by the sun on the
horizon (either at rising or setting) at the times indicated. These
points are defined, as we have seen, by their “amplitude” or their
distance in degrees from the E. or W. points of the horizon. In the
diagram (Fig. 6) I represent the conditions of our chief British
sun-temple, Stonehenge, in latitude 51° N. approximately.
Taking the astronomical facts regarding the solstices and equinoxes for
the first year (1901) of the present century, we find--
Sun enters Aries, Spring equinox, March 21.
„ „ Gemini, Summer solstice, June 21.
„ „ Libra, Autumn equinox, September 23.
„ „ Sagittarius, Winter solstice, December 23.
These points, then, are approximately ninety-one days apart (91 × 4 =
364).
In Fig. 6 I deal with the “amplitudes” at Stonehenge, that is, the
angular distance along the horizon from the E. and W. points, at which
the sunrise and sunset are seen at the solstices; at the equinoxes they
are seen at the E. and W. points. But as these amplitudes vary with the
latitude and therefore depend upon the place of observation, a more
general treatment is possible if we deal with the declination of the sun
itself, that is, its angular distance from the equator.
The maximum declination depends upon the obliquity of the ecliptic, that
is, the angle between the plane of the ecliptic and that of the equator
at the time of observation. When the Stonehenge Sarsen Stones were
erected this angle was, as I shall show later on, 23° 54′ 30″. Its mean
value for the present year (1906) is 23° 27′ 5″; it is decreasing very
slowly.
It will be obvious from Fig. 6 that in temples built to observe the
solstices or equinoxes, if they were open from end to end, looking in
one direction we should see the sun rising at a solstice or equinox, and
looking in the other we should see the sun setting at the opposite one.
I shall show later on that this statement requires a slight
modification.
But temples so built interfered with the ceremonial, which required that
the light should illuminate a naos--that is, the Sanctuary or Holy of
Holies, only entered by the High Priest, and generally kept dark.
Usually, therefore, two temples were built back to back, with a common
axis, as at Karnak.
And here a very important point comes in; which time of the year and day
of the year are most easy to fix by astronomical observation? As a
matter of fact the summer solstice, the position of the sun on the
longest day, is a point easily fixed. All we have to do is to observe
the sun rising more and more to the north as the summer approaches,
until at the very height of the summer we have the extreme
north-easterly point of the horizon reached, and the sun stands still.
We have the solstice. We can then put a row of stakes up, and so fix the
solstitial line. Of course we find, as mankind has found generally, that
the sun comes back next year to that same solstitial place of rising or
setting. So that when we have once got such an alignment for the rising
of the sun at midsummer, we can determine the length of the year in
days, and therefore the beginning of each year as it comes round.
So much, then, for the chief points in what we may term the astronomical
year, those at which the sun’s declination is greatest and least. We see
that they are approximately ninety-one days apart--say three months.
CHAPTER III
THE AGRICULTURAL DIVISIONS OF THE YEAR
The early peoples have been very much misrepresented, and held to have
been uninstructed, by several writers who have not considered what they
were really driving at. It was absolutely essential for early man,
including the inhabitants of Britain as it was then--townless,
uncivilised--that the people should know something about the proper time
for performing their agricultural operations. We now go into a shop and
for a penny buy an almanack which gives us everything we want to know
about the year, the month and the day, and that is the reason why so few
of us care about astronomy: we can get all we want from astronomy for a
penny or twopence. But these poor people, unless they found out the time
of the year and the month and the day for themselves, or got some one to
tell them--and their priests were the men who knew, and they were
priests because they knew--had absolutely no means of determining when
their various agricultural operations should take place. So that we find
all over the world temples erected in the very first flush of
civilisation.
On this a point comes in of very considerable interest. If we study the
civilisations in Egypt, we find that, so far as we know, one of the
first peoples who used this principle of orientation for agricultural
purposes was some tribe that came down the Nile about 6400 years B.C.
They used the star Canopus, and their determination was that of the
autumnal equinox, which practically was the time when the Nile began to
go down, and when their sowing might begin. There was another race who,
instead of being interested in the sun, and therefore in agriculture, at
the time of the autumnal equinox, were interested in the year about the
time of Easter as well. This race built the Pyramids about four thousand
years B.C. There was an interval of about two or three thousand years
between these races. As we shall see there were others, who at Thebes
started the solstitial worship--that is to say, the worship of the sun
at midsummer--and at Memphis in May, so as to enable them to go on with
their agricultural operations with greater certainty. We must not forget
that first of all the farmers tried to plough and sow by the moon. We
can see how hopeless agriculture must have been under such conditions.
The month, indeed, was the only unit of time employed, even of human
life. We hear of people who lived 1200 years; that means 1200
months--there is no question whatever about that now.
When we study the history of our own country--when we come back from
Egypt to Britain, leaving alone Greece and Rome--we find that in various
times in our country we have had a year, a farmer’s year, beginning in
the month of May; we have had another farmer’s year beginning in the
month of August; we have had another farmer’s year beginning at the
longest day; and it appears that the year beginning at the longest day
was really the last year to be introduced. So that while we have in
Stonehenge a solstitial temple--that is to say, a temple to make
observations of the length of the year by observing the rise of the sun
on the longest day of the year--in other parts of England there were
other temples observing the sun, not on the 21st of June, but early in
May and early in August.
Now, as I have indicated, the priest-astronomers in these temples could
only have won and kept the respect of the agricultural population with
whom alone they were surrounded in early times, and by whom they were
supported, by being useful to them in some way or another. This could
only have been in connection with what we may term generally the
_farming_ operations necessary at different times of the year, whether
in the shape of preparing the ground or gathering the produce. For this
they must have watched the stars.
A very large part of mythology has sprung out of the temple cults,
prayer, sacrifices and thanksgiving connected with these farming
operations in different lands and ages.
I wish to show next that by studying the orientation of temples erected
to watch the stars and sunrise and sunset at times other than the
solstices or equinoxes, an immense amount of information may be gained
if we endeavour to find the way in which the problem must have been
attacked before the year was thoroughly established, and when it was
still a question of grass- or corn-kings or gods who had to be
propitiated; and we may even be enabled to understand why the particular
divisions of the year were chosen.
In a solstitial temple the sun makes its appearance only once a year,
when it reaches its greatest north or south declination; but in the
temples dealing with lower declinations the sun appears twice, once on
its journey from the summer to the winter solstice, and again on its
return.
The first difficulty of the inquiry in the direction I have indicated
arises from the fact that the products of different countries vary, and
that identical farming operations have to be carried on at different
times in these countries. We must, then, begin with some one country,
and as the record is fullest for Greece I will begin with it.
The first thing we find is that the chief points in the farmer’s year in
Greece are about as far from the fixed points in the astronomical year
as they well can be.
In the Greek information so admirably collated by M. Ruelle in the
article on the calendar in Daremberg and Saglio’s monumental
“Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines,” the earlier
Gregorian dates on which the seasons were reckoned to commence in
ancient Greece were as follows:--
Summer May 6.
Autumn (φθινοπωρον) August 11.
Winter November 10.
Spring February 7.
I may also add from the same source that in the calendars of the Latins
the dates become:--
Summer May 9.
Autumn August 8.
Winter November 9.
Spring February 7.
Now we see at once that these dates are, roughly, half-way between the
solstices and equinoxes.
This, then, at once brings us back to the orientation problem, which was
to fix by means of a temple in the ordinary way dates nearer to these
turning-points in the local farmer’s years than those fixed by the
solstitial and equinoctial temples.
It must be borne in mind that it is not merely a question of stately
piles such as Karnak and the Parthenon in populous centres, but of the
humblest dolmen or stone circle, in scattered agricultural communities,
which was as certainly used for orientation purposes, that is, for
recording the lapse of time at night or return of some season important
to the tiller of the soil. The advent of the season thus determined
could be announced to outlying districts by fire signals at night.
I have already pointed out that any temple, dolmen or cromlech oriented
to a sunrise or sunset at any dates between the solstices will receive
the sunlight twice a year.
If the temple is pointed nearly solstitially the two dates at which the
sun appears in it will be near the solstice; similarly, for a temple
pointed nearly equinoctially the dates will be near the equinox; but if
the ancients wished to divide the ninety-one days’ interval between the
solstice and equinox, a convenient method of doing this would be to
observe the sun at the half-time interval, such that the same temple
would serve on both occasions. This could be done by orienting the
temple to the sun’s place on the horizon when it had the declination 16°
20′ on its upward and downward journey, or, in other words, was, _in
days_, half-way between the equinox and solstice. Thus, for the 45 days
( 91 days )
( = ------- )
( 2 )
from March 22, we have in--
March 9
April 30
May 6
---
45
What, then, are the non-equinoctial, non-solstitial days of the year
when the sun has this declination?
They are, in the sun’s journey from the vernal equinox to the summer
solstice and back again,
May 6 and August 8 Sun’s decl. N. 16° 20′.
Similarly, for the journey to the winter solstice and return we have
November 8 and February 4 Sun’s decl. S. 16° 20′.
We get, then, a year symmetrical with the astronomical year, which can
be indicated with it as in Fig. 7; a year roughly halving the intervals
between the chief dates of the astronomical year.
With regard to the dates shown I have already pointed out that farming
operations would not occur at the same time in different lands; that
ploughing and seed time and harvest would vary with crops and latitudes;
and I must now add that when we wish to determine the exact days of the
month we have to struggle with all the difficulties introduced by the
various systems adopted by different ancient nations to bring together
the reckoning of months by the moon and of years by the sun.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--The astronomical and vegetation divisions of the
year.]
In more recent times there is an additional difficulty owing to the
incomplete reconstruction of the calendar by Julius Cæsar, who gave us
the Julian year. Thus, while the spring equinox occurred on March 21 at
the time of the Council of Nice, in 325 A.D., by the year 1751 the
dating of the year on which it took place had slipped back to the 10th.
Hence the Act 24 George II. c. 23, by which September 2, 1752, was
followed by September 14 instead of by the 3rd, thus regaining the
eleven days lost. This change from the so-called “old style” to the “new
style” is responsible for a great deal of confusion.
Another cause of trouble was the forsaking by the Jews of the solar
year, with which they commenced, in favour of the Babylonian lunar year,
which has been continued for the purposes of worship by Christians,
giving us “movable feasts” to such an extent that Easter Day, which once
invariably marked the spring equinox, may vary from March 22 to April
25, and Whit Sunday from May 10 to June 13. It is at once obvious that
no fixed operations of Nature can be indicated by such variable dates as
these.
Hence in what follows I shall only deal with the months involved; these
amply suffice for a general statement, but a discussion as to exact
dates may come later.
To sum up, then, the astronomer-priests had (1) to watch the time at
night by observing a star rising near the north point of the horizon.
This star would act as a warner of sunrise at some time of the year.
(2) To watch for the rising or setting of other stars in various
azimuths warning sunrise at the other critical times of the May or
Solstitial years.
(3) To watch the sunrise and sunset.
(4) To mark all rising or setting places of the warning stars and sun by
sight-lines from the circle.
CHAPTER IV
THE VARIOUS NEW-YEAR DAYS
With regard to the astronomical year it may be stated that each solstice
and equinox has in turn in some country or another, and even in the same
country at different times, been taken as the beginning of the year.
We have, then, to begin with, the following which may be called
_astronomical_ years:--
Solstitial { June December June.
year. { December June December.
Equinoctial { March September March.
year. { September March September.
Next, if we treat the intermediate points we have found in the same way,
we have the following _vegetation_ years:--
Flower { May November May.
year. { November May November.
Harvest { August February August.
year. { February August February.
It will have been gathered from Fig. 7 that the temples or cromlechs
erected to watch the first sunrise of the May-November-May year could
also perform the same office for the August-February-August year; and in
a stone circle the priests, by looking along the axis almost in an
opposite direction, could note the sunsets marking the completion of the
half of the sun’s yearly round in November and February.
Now to those who know anything of the important contributions of Grimm,
Rhŷs, Frazer, and many others we might name, to our knowledge of the
mythology, worships, and customs in the Mediterranean basin and western
Europe, an inspection of the first columns in the above tables will show
that here we have a common meeting-ground for temple orientation,
vegetation and customs depending on it, religious festivals, and
mythology. From the Egyptian times at least to our own a generic sun-god
has been specifically commemorated in each of the named months. Generic
customs with specific differences are as easily traced in the same
months; while generic vegetation with specific representatives proper to
the season of the year has been so carefully regarded that even
December, though without May flowers or August harvests, not to be
outdone, brings forward its offering in the shape of the berries of the
mistletoe and holly.
About the mistletoe there is this difficulty. Innumerable traditions
associate it with worship and the oak tree. Undoubtedly the year in
question was the solstitial year, so that so far as this goes the
association is justified. But as a rule the mistletoe does not grow on
oaks. This point has been frequently inquired into, especially by Dr.
Henry Ball (_Journal of Botany_, vol. ii. p. 361, 1864) in relation to
the growth of the plant in Herefordshire, and by a writer in the
_Quarterly Review_ (vol. cxiv.), who spoke of the mistletoe “deserting
the oak” in modern times and stated, “it is now so rarely found on that
tree as to have led to the suggestion that we must look for the
mistletoe of the Druids, not in the _Viscum album_ of our own trees and
orchards, but in the _Loranthus Europaeus_ which is frequently found on
oaks in the south of Europe.”
On this point I consulted two eminent botanical friends, Mr. Murray, of
the British Museum, and Prof. Farmer, from whom I have learned that the
distribution of _V. album_ is in Europe universal except north of Norway
and north of Russia; in India in the temperate Himalayas from Kashmir to
Nepaul, altitude 3000 to 7000 feet.
The _Viscum aureum_, otherwise called _Loranthus Europaeus_, is a near
relation of the familiar mistletoe, and in Italy grows on the oak almost
exclusively. There are fifty species of Loranthus in the Indian flora,
but _L. Europaeus_ does not occur.
In the _Viscum aureum_ we have the “golden bough,” the oak-borne _Aurum
frondens_ and _Ramus aureus_ of Virgil; and it can easily be imagined
that when the Druids reached our shores from a country which had
supplied them with the _Viscum aureum_, this would be replaced by the
_V. album_ growing chiefly on apple trees and not on oaks; indeed, Mr.
Davies, in his “Celtic Researches,” tells us that the apple was the next
sacred tree to the oak, and that apple orchards were planted in the
vicinity of the sacred groves. The transplanting of the mistletoe from
the apple to the oak tree before the mystic ceremonies began was not
beyond the resources of priestcraft.
It must not be forgotten that these ceremonies took place at both
solstices--once in June, when the oak was in full leaf, and again in
December, when the parasitic plant was better visible in the light of
the young moon. Mr. Frazer, in his “Golden Bough” (iii. p. 328), points
out that at the summer solstice not only was mistletoe gathered, but
many other “magic plants, whose evanescent virtue can be secured at this
mystic season alone.”
It is the ripening of the berries at the winter solstice which secured
for the mistletoe the paramount importance the ceremonials connected
with it possessed at that time, when the rest of the vegetable world was
dormant.
With regard especially to the particular time of the year chosen for
sun-worship and the worship of the gods and solar heroes connected with
the years to which I have referred, I may add that the vague year in
Egyptian chronology makes it a very difficult matter to determine the
exact Gregorian dates for the ancient Egyptian festivals, but,
fortunately, there is another way of getting at them. Mr. Roland
Mitchell, when compiling his valuable “Egyptian Calendar” (Luzac and
Co., 1900), found that the Koptic calendar really presents to us the old
Egyptian year, “which has been in use for thousands of years, and has
survived all the revolutions.”
Of the many festivals included in the calendar, the great Tanta fair,
which is also a Mohammedan feast. “is the most important of all held in
Egypt. Religion, commerce, and pleasure offer combined attractions.” As
many as 600,000 or 700,000 often attend this great fair, “no doubt the
survival of one of the ancient Egyptian national festivals.”
It is held so as to end on a Friday, and in 1901 the Friday was August
9!
This naturally suggests that we should look for a feast in the early
part of May. We find the Festival of Al-Khidr, or Elias in the middle of
the wheat harvest in Lower Egypt; of this we read:--
“Al-Khidr is a mysterious personage, who, according to learned opinion,
was a just man, or saint, the Visīr of Dhu’l-Karnên (who was a great
conqueror, contemporary with Ibrahīm--Abraham--and identified in other
legends with Alexander the Great, St. George, &c.). Al-Khidr, it is
believed, still lives, and will live until the Day of Judgment. He is
clad in green garments, whence probably the name. He is commonly
identified with Elias (Elijah), and this confusion seems due to a
confusion or similarity of some of the attributes that tradition assigns
to both.”
“The ‘Festival of El-Khidr and of Elias,’ falling generally on May 6,
marks the two-fold division of the year, in the Turkish and Armenian
calendars, into the Rūz Kāsim and the Rūz Khidr (of 179-80 and 185-6
days respectively).”
This last paragraph is important, as it points to ancient sun-worship,
Helios being read for Elias; and 179 days from May 6 bring us to
November 1. So we find that the modern Turks and Armenians have the old
May-November year as well as the ancient Egyptians who celebrated it in
the Temple of Menu at Thebes.
The traces of the Ptah worship are not so obvious. Finally, it may be
stated that the second Tanta fair occurs at the spring equinox, so that
the pyramid worship can still be traced in the modern Egyptian
calendar. The proof that this was an exotic[3] is established, I think,
by the fact that no important agricultural operations occur at this
period in Egypt, while in May we have the harvest, in August and
November sowing, going on.
A cursory examination of Prof. Rhŷs’ book containing the Hibbert
Lectures of 1886, in the light of these years, used as clues, suggests
that in Ireland the sequence was May-November (Fomori and Fir Bolg),
August-February (Lug and the Tuatha Dé Danann), and, lastly,
June-December (Cúchulainn). Should this be confirmed we see that the
farmers’ years were the first to be established, and it is interesting
to note that the agricultural rent year in many parts of Ireland still
runs from May to November. It is well also to bear in mind, if it be
established that the solstitial year did really arrive last, that the
facts recorded by Mr. Frazer in his “Golden Bough” indicate that the
custom of lighting fires on hills has been in historic times most
prevalent at the summer solstice; evidently maps showing the
geographical distribution of the May, June, and August fires would be of
great value.
Some customs of the May and August years are common to the solstitial
and equinoctial years. Each was ushered in by fires on hills and the
like; flowers in May and the fruits of the earth in August are
associated with them; there are also special customs in the case of
November. In western Europe, however, it does not seem that such
traditions exist over such a large area as that over which the remnants
of the solstitial practices have been traced.
I have pointed out that both the May and August years began when the sun
had the same declination (16° N. or thereabouts); once, on its ascent
from March to the summer solstice in June, again in its decline from the
solstice to September. Hence it may be more difficult in this case to
disentangle and follow the mythology, but the two years stand out here
and there. With regard to August, Mr. Penrose’s orientation data for the
Panathenæa fix the 19th day (Gregorian) for the festival in the
Hecatompedon; similar celebrations were not peculiar to western Europe
and Greece, as a comparison of dates of worship will show.
Hecatompedon April 28 and August 16.
Older Erechtheum April 29 „ August 13.
Temple of Diana, Ephesus April 29 „ August 13.
„ Min, Thebes May 1 „ August 12.
„ Ptah, Memphis April 18 „ August 24.
„ „ Annu April 18 „ August 24.
„ Solar Disc, Tell el-Amarna April 18 „ August 24.
In the above table I have given both the dates on which the sunlight (at
rising or setting) entered the temple, but we do not know for certain,
except in the case of the Hecatompedon, on which of the two days the
temples were used; it is likely they were all used on both days, and
that the variation from the dates proper to the sun’s declination of N.
16° indicates that they were very accurately oriented to fit the local
vegetation conditions in the most important and extensive temple fields
in the world.
This is the more probable because the Jews also, after they had left
Egypt, established their feast of Pentecost fifty days after Easter =
May 10, on which day loaves made of newly harvested corn formed the
chief offering.
With regard to the equinoctial year, the most complete account of the
temple arrangements is to be found in Josephus touching that at
Jerusalem. The temple had to be so erected that at the spring equinox
the sunrise light should fall on, and be reflected to, the worshippers
by the sardonyx stones on the high priest’s garment. At this festival
the first barley was laid upon the altar.
But this worship was in full swing in Egypt for thousands of years
before we hear of it in connection with the Jews. It has left its
temples at Ephesus, Athens, and other places, and with the opening of
this year as well as of the solstitial one the custom of lighting fires
is associated, not only on hills, but also in churches.
Here the sequence of cult cannot be mistaken. We begin with Isis and the
young Sun-god Horus at the Pyramids, and we end with “Lady Day,” a
British legal date; while St. Peter’s at Rome is as truly oriented to
the equinox as the Pyramids themselves, so that we have a distinct
change of cult with no change of orientation.
If such considerations as these help us to connect Egyptian with British
worships we may hope that they will be no less useful when we go further
afield. I gather from a study of Mr. Maudslay’s admirable plans of
Palenque and Chichén-Itzá that the solstitial and farmers’ years’
worships were provided for there. How did these worships and associated
temples with naos and sphinxes[4] get from Egypt to Yucatan? The more we
know of ancient travel the more we are convinced that it was coastwise,
that is, from one point of visible land to the next. Are the cults as
old as differences in the coast-lines which would most easily explain
their wide distribution?
[3] In Babylonia the spring equinox was the critical time of the year
because the Tigris and Euphrates then began to rise.
[4] See _Dawn of Astronomy_, Plate facing p. 182, for the lines of
sphinxes at Karnak.
CHAPTER V
CONDITIONS AND TRADITIONS AT STONEHENGE
After Mr. Penrose, by his admirable observations in Greece, had shown
that the orientation theory accounted as satisfactorily for the
directions in which the chief temples in Greece had been built as I had
shown it did for some in Egypt, it seemed important to apply the same
methods of inquiry with all available accuracy to some example, at all
events, of the various stone circles in Britain which have so far
escaped destruction. Many attempts had been previously made to secure
data, but the instruments and methods employed did not seem to be
sufficient.
Much time has, indeed, been lost in the investigation of a great many of
these circles, for the reason that in many cases the relations of the
monuments to the chief points of the horizon have not been considered;
and when they were, the observations were made only with reference to
the magnetic north, which is different at different places, and besides
is always varying; few indeed have tried to get at the astronomical
conditions of the problem.
The first, I think, was Mr. Jonathan Otley, who in 1849 showed the
“Orientation” of the Keswick Circle “according to the solar meridian,”
giving true solar bearings throughout the year.
I wrote a good deal in _Nature_[5] on sun and star temples in 1891, and
Mr. Lewis the next year expressed the opinion that the British Stone
Monuments, or some of them, were sun and star temples.
Mr. Magnus Spence of Deerness in Orkney published a pamphlet, “Standing
Stones and Maeshowe of Stenness,[6]” in 1894; it is a reprint of an
article in the _Scottish Review_, Oct. 1893. Mr. Cursiter, F.S.A., of
Kirkwall, in a letter to me dated 15 March 1894, a letter suggested by
my _Dawn of Astronomy_ which appeared in that year and in which the
articles which had appeared in _Nature_ in 1891 had been expanded, drew
my attention to the pamphlet; the observations had no pretension to
scientific accuracy, and although some of the sight-lines were
incorrectly shown in an accompanying map, May year and solstitial
alignments were indicated.
* * * * *
So far as I know, there has never been a complete inquiry into the stone
circles in Britain, but Mr. Lewis, who has paid great attention to these
matters, has dealt in a general manner with them (_Archaeological
Journal_, vol. xlix. p. 136), and has further described (_Journal_
Anthropological Institute, n.s., iii., 1900) the observations made by
him of stone circles in various parts of Scotland. From an examination
of the latter he concludes that they may be divided into different
types, each of which has its centre in a different locality. The types
are--(1) the Western Scottish type, consisting of a rather irregular
single ring or sometimes of two concentric rings; (2) the Inverness
type, consisting of a more regular ring of better-shaped stones,
surrounding a tumulus with a retaining wall, containing a built-up
chamber and passage leading to it, or a kist without a passage; (3) the
Aberdeen type, consisting of a similar ring with the addition of a
so-called “altar-stone” and usually having traces of a tumulus and kist
in the middle. In addition to these three types of circles, there are in
Britain generally what Mr. Lewis calls sun and star circles, with their
alignments of stones, and apparently proportioned measurements. He has
shown that there is a great preponderance of outlying stones and
hill-tops lying between the circles and the N.E. quarter of the horizon.
From what has been stated in Chapter III with regard to the nightly
observations of stars it will be gathered that these may have been used
for this purpose.
The following list gives some of the bearings of outlying stones and
other circles from the centres of the named circles:--
Roll-rich, Oxon.--Kingstone N. 27° E.
Stripple Stones, Cornwall--Bastion on bank N. 26 E.
Long Meg, Cumberland--Small circle N. 27 E.
The Hurlers, Cornwall--Two outlying circles N. 13-16 E.
Trippet Stones--Leaze circle N. 11 E.
If these alignments mean anything they must of course refer to the
rising of _stars_, as the position on the horizon is outside the sun’s
path.
The many circles in Cornwall have been dealt with by Mr. Lukis in a
volume published by the Society of Antiquaries in 1895.[7] A carefully
prepared list of circles will be found in Mr. Windle’s recently
published work entitled “Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England.”
It may be useful here to state, with regard to megalithic remains
generally, that they may be classed as follows; some details will be
discussed later on.
(_a_) Circles. These may be single, double, or multiple, and either
concentric or not.
(_b_) Menhirs, large single stones, used to mark sight-lines from
circles.
(_c_) Alignments, _i.e._, lines of stones in single, double, or in many
parallel lines. If these alignments are short they are termed avenues.
(_d_) Holed-stones, doubtless used for observing sight-lines, sometimes
_over_ a circle.
(_e_) Coves. A term applied by Dr. Stukeley and others to what they
considered shrines formed by three upright stones, thus leaving one side
open. I take them to be partially protected observing places. There are
well-marked examples at Avebury, Stanton Drew and Kit’s Coity House.
(_f_) Cromlechs. This term generally means a grouping of upright stones;
it is applied to irregular circles in Brittany. It also applies to a
stone or stones raised on the summits of three or more pillar stones
forming the end and sides of an irregular vault generally open at one
end (“Dolmens of Ireland,” Borlase, p. 429). The top stone is called in
S.W. England a “quoit.” Cromlechs in most cases have been covered by
barrows or cairns.
(_g_) Dolmens, from Dol Men, a table stone. These consist of stones,
resting on two or more upright stones forming a more or less complete
chamber, some of which are of great length. I note the following
subdivisions: “Dolmen à galerie” having an entrance way of sufficient
height, and “Galgal,” similar but smaller. In the “Dolmen à l’allée
couverte” there is a covered passage way to the centre. It is a more
elaborate cove. For the relation between cromlechs and dolmens, see
Borlase (_loc. cit._ and p. 424 _et seq._).
With regard to dolmens, I give the following quotation from Mr. Penrose
(_Nature_, vol. lxiv., September 12, 1901):--
“Near Locmariaquer in the estuary named Rivière d’Auray, there is an
island named Gavr’ Inis, or Goat Island, which contains a good specimen
of the kind of dolmen which has been named ‘Galgal.’
“At the entrance our attention is at once arrested by the profusion of
tracery which covers the walls. From the entrance to the wall facing us
the distance is between 50 and 60 feet. The square chamber to which the
gallery leads is composed of two huge slabs, the sides of the room and
gallery being composed of upright stones, about a dozen on each side.
The mystic lines and hieroglyphics similar to those above mentioned
appear to have a decorative character.
“An interesting feature of Gavr’ Inis is its remarkable resemblance to
the New Grange tumulus at Meath. In construction there is again a
strong resemblance to Mæs-Howe, in the island of Orkney. There is also
some resemblance in smaller details.”
While we generally have circles in Britain without, or with small,
alignments; in Brittany we have alignments without circles, some of them
being on an enormous scale;[8] thus at Menec (the place of stones) we
have eleven lines of menhirs, terminating towards the west in a
cromlech, and, notwithstanding that great numbers have been converted to
other uses, 1169 menhirs still remain, some reaching as much as 18 feet
in height.
The alignments of Kermario (the place of the dead) contain 989 menhirs
in ten lines. Those of Kerlescant (the place of burning), which
beginning with eleven rows are afterwards increased to thirteen, contain
altogether 579 stones and thirty-nine in the cromlech, with some
additional stones. The adoration paid these stones yielded very slowly
to Christianity. In the church history of Brittany the _Cultus Lapidum_
was denounced in 658 A.D.
Many of the fallen menhirs in these alignments have been restored to
their upright position by the French Government. Some of them may have
been overturned in compliance with the decree of 658 A.D. above referred
to. Several of the loftier menhirs are surmounted by crosses of stone or
iron.
Both circles and alignments are associated with holidays and the
lighting of fires on certain days of the year. This custom has remained
more general in Brittany than in Britain. At Mount St. Michael, near
Carnac, the custom still prevails of lighting a large bonfire on its
summit at the time of the summer solstice; others, kindled on prominent
eminences for a distance of twenty or thirty miles round, reply to it.
These fires are locally called “Tan Heol,” and also by a later use, Tan
St. Jean. In Scotland there was a similar custom in the first week in
May under the name of Bel Tan, or Baal’s Fire; the synonym for summer
used by Sir Walter Scott in the “Lady of the Lake”:--
Ours is no sapling chance-sown by the fountain,
Blooming at Beltane in winter to fade.
At Kerlescant the winter solstice is celebrated by a holiday, whilst
Menec greets the summer solstice, and Kermario the equinoxes, with
festivals. Concerning these fires and the associated customs Mr.
Frazer’s “Golden Bough” is a perfect mine of information and should be
consulted. It may simply be said here that the May and November, and
June and December fires seem to be the most ancient. It is stated that
the Balder bale fires on Mayday Eve were recognised by the primitive
race, and I shall prove this in the sequel when British customs are
referred to. On the introduction of Christianity the various customs
were either transferred to or reorganised in association with church
festivals; but as some of these, such as Easter, are movable feasts, it
is difficult to follow the dates.
Regarding both circles and alignments in the light of the orientation
theory, we may consider simple circles with a central stone as a
collection of sight-lines from the central stone to one or more of the
outer ones, or the interval between any two; indicating the place of the
rise or setting of either the sun or a star on some particular day of
the year, which day, in the case of the sun, will be a new year’s day.
Alignments, on the other hand, will play the same part as the
sight-lines in the circles.
Sometimes the sight-line may be indicated by a menhir outside, and even
at a considerable distance from, the circle; later on tumuli replaced
menhirs.
The dolmens have, I am convinced, been in many cases not graves
originally, but darkened observing places whence to observe along a
sight-line; this would be best done by means of an _allée couverte_, the
predecessor of the darkened naos at Stonehenge, shielded by its covered
trilithons.
In order to obtain some measurements to test the orientation theory in
Britain, I found that Stonehenge is the ancient monument in this country
which lends itself to accurate theodolite work better than any other.
Mr. Spence’s excellent work on astronomical lines at Stenness, where the
stones, till some years ago at all events, have been more respected than
further south, suggested a beginning there, but the distance from London
made it impossible.
Avebury and Stanton Drew are well known to a great many archæologists;
there are also other very wonderful stone circles near Keswick and in
other parts of England; but unfortunately it is very much more difficult
to get astronomical data from these ancient monuments than it is in the
case of Stonehenge, one reason being that Stonehenge itself lies high,
and the horizon round it in all directions is pretty nearly the same
height, so that the important question of the heights of the hills along
the sight-line--a matter which is fundamental from an astronomical point
of view, although it has been neglected, so far as I can make out, by
most who have made observations on these ancient monuments--is quite a
simple one at Stonehenge. Hence it was much easier to determine a date
there than by working at any of the other ancient remains to which I
have referred.
In orientation generally--such orientation as has been dealt with by Mr.
Penrose and myself in Egypt and in Greece--the question frequently was a
change in direction in the axis of a temple, or the laying down of the
axis of a temple, by means of observations of stars. Unfortunately for
us as archæologists, not as astronomers, the changes of position of the
stars, owing to certain causes, chiefly the precessional movement, are
very considerable; so that if a temple pointed to a star in one year, in
two or three hundred years it would no longer point to the same star,
but to another.
These star observations were requisite in order to warn the priests
about an hour before sunrise so that they might prepare for the morning
sacrifice which always took place at the first appearance of the sun.
Hence the morning star to be visible in the dawn must be a bright one,
and the further north or south of the sun’s rising place it rose, the
more easily it would be seen. Some stars so chosen rose not far from
the north point of the horizon. The alignments with small azimuths
referred to in the British circles (p. 36) I believe to be connected
with the Egyptian and Greek practice.
Acting on a very old tradition, some people from Salisbury and other
surrounding places go to observe the sunrise on the longest day of the
year at Stonehenge. We therefore are perfectly justified in assuming
that it was a solar temple used for observation in the height of
midsummer. But at dawn in midsummer in these latitudes the sky is so
bright that it is not easy to see stars even if we get up in the morning
to look for them; stars, therefore, were not in question, so that some
other principle had to be adopted, and that was to point the temple
directly to the position on the horizon at which the sun rose on that
particular day of the year, and no other.
Now, if there were no change in the position of the sun, that, of
course, would go on for ever and ever; but, fortunately for
archæologists, there is a slight change in the position of the sun, as
there is in the case of a star, but for a different reason; the planes
of the ecliptic and of the equator undergo a slight change in the angle
included between them. So far as we know, that angle has been gradually
getting less for many thousands of years, so that, in the case of
Stonehenge, if we wish to determine the date, having no stars to help
us, the only thing that we can hope to get any information from is the
very slow change of this angle; that, therefore, was the special point
which Mr. Penrose and I were anxious to study at Stonehenge, for the
reason that we seemed in a position to do it there more conveniently
than anywhere else in Britain.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--The original tooling of the stone protected from
the action of the weather.]
But while the astronomical conditions are better at Stonehenge than
elsewhere, the ruined state of the monument makes accurate measurements
very difficult.
Great age and the action of weather are responsible for much havoc, so
that very many of the stones are now recumbent, as will be gathered from
an article by Mr. Lewis, who described the condition of the monument in
1901, in _Man_.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--View of Stonehenge from the west. A, stone which
fell in 1900; _BB_, stones which fell in 1797. (Reproduced from an
article on the fallen stones by Mr. Lewis in _Man_.)]
Professor Gowland in his excavations at Stonehenge, to which I shall
refer in the sequel, found the original tooled surface near the bottom
of one of the large sarsens which had been protected from the action of
the weather by having been buried in the ground. It enables us to
imagine the appearance of the monument as it left the hands of the
builders (Fig. 8).
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Copy of Hoare’s plan of 1810, showing the
unbroken Vallum and its relation with the Avenue.]
But the real destructive agent has been man himself; savages could not
have played more havoc with the monument than the English who have
visited it at different times for different purposes. It is said the
fall of one great stone was caused in 1620 by some excavations, but this
has been doubted; the fall of another in 1797 was caused by gipsies
digging a hole in which to shelter, and boil their kettle; many of the
stones have been used for building walls and bridges; masses weighing
from 56 lb. downwards have been broken off by hammers or cracked off as
a result of fires lighted by excursionists.
It appears that the temenos wall or vallum, which is shown complete in
Hoare’s plan of 1810, is now broken down in many places by vehicles
indiscriminately driven over it. Indeed, its original importance has now
become so obliterated that many do not notice it as part of the
structure--that, in fact, it bears the same relation to the interior
stone circle as the nave of St. Paul’s does to the Lady Chapel (Fig.
10).
It is within the knowledge of all interested in archæology that not long
ago Sir Edmund Antrobus, the owner of Stonehenge, advised by the famous
Wiltshire local society, the Society for the Protection of Ancient
Buildings, and the Society of Antiquaries, enclosed the monument in
order to preserve it from further wanton destruction, and--a first step
in the way of restoration--with the skilled assistance of Prof. Gowland
and Messrs. Carruthers, Detmar Blow and Stallybrass, set upright the
most important menhir, which threatened to fall or else break off at one
of the cracks. This menhir, the so-called “leaning stone,” once formed
one of the uprights of the trilithon the fall of the other member of
which is stated by Mr. Lewis to have occurred before 1574. The latter,
broken in two pieces, and the supported impost, now lie prostrate
across the altar stone.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--The Leaning Stone in 1901.]
This piece of work was carried out with consummate skill and care, and
most important conclusions, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter,
were derived from the minute inquiry into the conditions revealed in the
excavations which were necessary for the proper conduct of the work.
Let us hope that we have heard the last of the work of devastators, and
even that, before long, some of the other larger stones, now inclined or
prostrate, may be set upright.
Since Sir Edmund Antrobus, the present owner, has acted on the advice of
the societies I have named to enclose the monument, with a view to guard
it from destruction and desecration, he has been assailed on all sides.
It is not a little surprising that the “unclimbable wire fence”
recommended by the societies in question (the Bishop of Bristol being
the president of the Wiltshire society at the time) is by some regarded
as a suggestion that the property is not national, the fact being that
the nation has not bought the property, and that it has been private
property for centuries, and treated in the way we have seen.
Let us hope also that before long the gaps in the vallum may be filled
up. These, as I have already stated, take away from the meaning of an
important part of one of the most imposing monuments of the world. In
the meantime, it is comforting to know that, thanks to what Sir Edmund
Antrobus has done, no more stones will be stolen, or broken by
sledge-hammers; that fires; that excavations such as were apparently the
prime cause of the disastrous fall of one of the majestic trilithons in
1797; that litter, broken bottles and the like, with which too many
British sightseers mark their progress, besides much indecent
desecration, are things of the past.
If Stonehenge had been built in Italy, or France, or Germany, it would
have been in charge of the State long ago.
* * * * *
I now pass from the monument itself to a reference to some of the
traditions and historical statements concerning it.
Those who are interested in these matters should thank the Wiltshire
Archæological and Natural History Society, which is to be warmly
congratulated on its persistent and admirable efforts to do all in its
power to enable the whole nation to learn about the venerable monuments
of antiquity which it has practically taken under its scientific charge.
It has published two most important volumes[9] dealing specially with
Stonehenge, including both its traditions and history.
With regard to Mr. Long’s memoir, it may be stated that it includes
important extracts from notices of Stonehenge from the time of Henry of
Huntingdon (twelfth century) to Hoare (1812), and that all extant
information is given touching on the questions by whom the stones were
erected, whence they came, and what was the object of the structure.
From Mr. Harrison’s more recently published bibliography, no reference
to Stonehenge by any ancient author, no letter to the _Times_ for the
last twenty years dealing with any question touching the monuments,
seems to be omitted.
It is very sad to read, both in Mr. Long’s volume and the bibliography,
of the devastation which has been allowed to go on for so many years and
of the various forms it has taken.
* * * * *
As almost the whole of the notes which follow deal with the assumption
of Stonehenge having been a solar temple, a short reference to the
earliest statements concerning this view is desirable; and, again, as
the approximate date arrived at by Mr. Penrose and myself in 1901 is an
early one, a few words may be added indicating the presence in Britain
at that time of a race of men capable of designing and executing such
work. I quote from the paper communicated by Mr. Penrose and myself to
the Royal Society:--
“As to the first point, Diodorus Siculus (ii., 47, ed. Didot, p. 116)
has preserved a statement of Hecatæus in which Stonehenge alone can by
any probability be referred to.
“‘We think that no one will consider it foreign to our subject to say a
word respecting the Hyperboreans.
“‘Amongst the writers who have occupied themselves with the mythology of
the ancients, Hecatæus and some others tell us that opposite the land of
the Celts [ἑν τοις ἁντιπεραν της Κελτικης τοποις] there exists in the
Ocean an island not smaller than Sicily, and which, situated under the
constellation of The Bear, is inhabited by the Hyperboreans; so called
because they live beyond the point from which the North wind blows....
If one may believe the same mythology, Latona was born in this island,
and for that reason the inhabitants honour Apollo more than any other
deity. A sacred enclosure [νησον] is dedicated to him in the island, as
well as a magnificent circular temple adorned with many rich
offerings.... The Hyperboreans are in general very friendly to the
Greeks.’”
“The Hecatæus above referred to was probably Hecatæus of Abdera, in
Thrace, fourth century B.C.; a friend of Alexander the Great. This
Hecatæus is said to have written a history of the Hyperboreans: that it
was Hecatæus of Miletus, an historian of the sixth century B.C., is less
likely.
“As to the second point, although we cannot go so far back in evidence
of the power and civilisation of the Britons, there is an argument of
some value to be drawn from the fine character of the coinage issued by
British kings early in the second century B.C., and from the statement
of Julius Cæsar (‘De Bello Gallico,’ vi., c. 14) that in the schools of
the Druids the subjects taught included the movements of the stars, the
size of the earth, and the nature of things (multa præterea de sideribus
et eorum motu, de mundi magnitudine, de rerum natura, de deorum
immortalium vi ac potestate disputant et juventuti tradunt).
“Studies of such a character seem quite consistent with, and to demand,
a long antecedent period of civilisation.”
Henry of Huntingdon is the first English writer to refer to Stonehenge,
which he calls Stanenges. Geoffrey of Monmouth (1138) and Giraldus
Cambrensis come next.
In 1771, Dr. John Smith, in a work entitled “Choir Gawr, the Grand
Orrery of the Ancient Druids, called Stonehenge, Astronomically
Explained, and proved to be a Temple for Observing the Motions of the
Heavenly Bodies,” wrote as follows:--
“From many and repeated visits, I conceived it to be an astronomical
temple; and from what I could recollect to have read of it, no author
had as yet investigated its uses. Without an instrument or any
assistance whatever, but White’s ‘Ephemeris,’ I began my survey. I
suspected the stone called _The Friar’s Heel_ to be the index that would
disclose the uses of this structure; nor was I deceived. This stone
stands in a right line with the centre of the temple, pointing to the
north-east. I first drew a circle round the vallum of the ditch and
divided it into 360 equal parts; and then a right line through the body
of the temple to the Friar’s Heel; at the intersection of these lines I
reckoned the sun’s greatest amplitude at the summer solstice, in this
latitude, to be about 60 degrees, and fixed the eastern points
accordingly. Pursuing this plan, I soon discovered the uses of all the
detached stones, as well as those that formed the body of the temple.”
With regard to this “Choir Gawr,” translated Chorea Gigantum, Leland’s
opinion is quoted (Long, p. 51) that we should read Choir vawr, the
equivalent of which is Chorea nobilis or magna.[10]
In spite of Inigo Jones’s (1600) dictum that Stonehenge was of Roman
origin, Stukeley came to the conclusion in 1723 that the Druids were
responsible for its building; and Halley, who visited it in
1720--probably with Stukeley--concluded from the weathering of the
stones that it was at least 3000 years old; if he only had taken his
theodolite with him, how much his interest in the monument would have
been increased!
[5] See especially _Nature_, July 2, 1891 p. 201.
[6] Gardner, Paisley and London.
[7] “The Prehistoric Stone Monuments of the British Isles--Cornwall.”
[8] “The French Stonehenge: An Account of the Principal Megalithic
Remains in the Morbihan Archipelago.” By T. Cato Worsfold, F. R. Hist.
S., F.R.S.I. (London: Bemrose and Sons, Ltd.)
[9] _The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine_:
“Stonehenge and its Barrows.” By William Long, M.A., F.S.A. 1876. _The
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine_: “Stonehenge
Bibliography Number.” By W. Jerome Harrison. 1902.
[10] Mr. Morien Morgan informs me that Cor y Gawres is correct, and
means Choir of the Giantess Cariadwen, the Welsh Neith, Nyth (Nydd).
CHAPTER VI
GENERAL ARCHITECTURE OF STONEHENGE
Although I have before hinted that the astronomical use of the Egyptian
temples and British circles was the same, there is at first sight a vast
difference in the general plan of structure.
This has chiefly depended upon the fact that the riches and population
of ancient Egypt were so great that that people could afford to build a
temple to a particular star, or to the sun’s position on any particular
day of the year. The temple axis along the line pointing to the
celestial body involved, then became the chief feature, and tens of
years were spent in lengthening, constricting and embellishing it.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--The axis of the Temple of Karnak, looking
south-east, from outside the north-west pylon (from a photograph by the
author).]
From one end of an Egyptian temple to the other we find the axis marked
out by narrow apertures in the various pylons, and many walls with doors
crossing the axis. There are seventeen or eighteen of these apertures in
the solar temple of Amen-Rā at Karnak, limiting the light which falls
into the Holy of Holies or Sanctuary. This construction gives one a very
definite impression that every part of the temple was built to subserve
a special object, viz., to limit the sunlight which fell on its front
into a narrow beam, and to carry it to the other extremity of the
temple--into the sanctuary, where the high priest performed his
functions. The sanctuary was always blocked. There is no case in which
the beam of light can pass absolutely through a temple (Figs. 12 and
13).
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Plan of the Temple of Ramses II. in the
Memnonia at Thebes (from Lepsius), showing the pylon at the open end,
the various doors along the axis, the sanctuary at the closed end, and
the temple at right angles.]
In Britain the case was different, there was neither skill nor workers
sufficient to erect such stately piles, and as a consequence one
structure had to do the work of several and it had to be done in the
most economical way. Hence the circle with the observer at the centre
and practically a temple axis in every direction among which could be
chosen the chief directions required, each alignment being defined by
stones, more or less distant, or openings in the circle itself.
Now for some particulars with regard to those parts of Stonehenge which
lend themselves to the inquiry.
The main architecture of Stonehenge consisted of an external circle of
about 100 feet in diameter, composed of thirty large upright stones,
named sarsens, connected by continuous lintels. The upright stones
formerly stood 14 feet above the surface of the ground. They have nobs
or tenons on the top which fit into mortice holes in the lintels. Within
this peristyle there was originally an inner structure of ten still
larger upright stones, arranged in the shape of a horseshoe, formed by
five isolated trilithons which rose progressively from N.E. to S.W., the
loftiest stones being 25 feet above the ground. About one-half of these
uprights have fallen, and a still greater number of the imposts which
they originally carried.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--One of the remaining Trilithons.]
There is also another circle of smaller upright stones, respecting which
the only point requiring notice now is that none of them would have
interrupted the line of the axis of the avenue. The circular temple was
also surrounded by the earthen bank, shown in Fig. 15, of about 300
feet in diameter, interrupted towards the north-east by receiving into
itself the banks forming the avenue before mentioned, which is about 50
feet across. Within this avenue, no doubt an old _via sacra_, and
looking north-east from the centre of the temple, at about 250 feet
distance and considerably to the right hand of the axis, stands an
isolated stone, which from a mediæval legend has been named the Friar’s
Heel.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--General plan; the outer circle, naos and avenue
of Stonehenge.
_F.H._ = Friar’s Heel.]
The axis passes very nearly centrally through an intercolumniation (so
to call it) between two uprights of the external circle and between the
uprights of the westernmost trilithon as it originally stood. Of this
trilithon the southernmost upright with the lintel stone fell in 1620,
but the companion survived as the leaning stone which formed a
conspicuous and picturesque object for many years, but happily now
restored to its original more dignified and safer condition of
vertically. The inclination of this stone, however, took place in the
direction of the axis of the avenue, and as the distance between it and
its original companion is known both by the analogy of the two perfect
trilithons and by the measure of the mortice holes on the lintel they
formerly supported, we obtain by bisection the distance, 11 inches, from
its edge, of a point in the continuation of the central axis of the
avenue and temple.
The banks which form the avenue have suffered much degradation. It
appears from Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s account that at the beginning of
the last century they were distinguishable for a much greater distance
than at present, but they are still discernible, especially on the
northern side, for more than 1300 feet from the centre of the temple,
and particularly the line of the bottom of the ditch from which the
earth was taken to form the bank, and which runs parallel to it.
CHAPTER VII
ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS AT STONEHENGE IN 1901[11]
An investigation was undertaken by Mr. Penrose and myself in the spring
of 1901, as a sequel to analogous work in Egypt and Greece, with a view
to determine whether the orientation theory could throw any light upon
the date of the foundation of Stonehenge, concerning which authorities
vary in their estimates by some thousands of years. Ours was not the
first attempt to obtain the date of Stonehenge by means of astronomical
considerations. In Mr. Godfrey Higgins’ work[12] he refers to a method
of attack connected with precession. This furnished him with the date
4000 B.C.
More recently, Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie,[13] whose plan of the stones
is a valuable contribution to the study of Stonehenge, was led by his
measures of the orientation to a date very greatly in the opposite
direction, but, owing to an error in his application of the change of
obliquity, clearly a mistaken one.
The chief astronomical evidence in favour of the solar temple theory
lies in the fact that the “avenue,” as it is called, formed by two
ancient earthen banks, extends for a considerable distance from the
structure, in the general direction of the sunrise at the summer
solstice, precisely in the same way as in Egypt a long avenue of
sphinxes indicates the principal outlook of a temple.
These earthen banks defining the avenue do not exist alone. As will be
seen from the sketch plan (Fig. 15), there is a general common line of
direction for the avenue and the principal axis of the structure; and
the general design of the building, together with the position and shape
of the naos, indicates a close connection of the whole temple structure
with the direction of the avenue. There may have been other pylon and
screen equivalents as in other ancient temples, which have disappeared,
the object being to confine the illumination to a small part of the
naos. There can be little doubt, also, that the temple was originally
roofed in, and that the sun’s first ray, suddenly shining into the
darkness, formed a fundamental part of the cultus.
With regard to the question of the roof, however, the above suggestion,
I now find, is not new, the view having been held by no less an
authority than Dr. Thurnham, who apparently was led to it by the
representations of the Scandinavian temples as covered and enclosed
structures.
Since the actual observation of sunrise was doubtless made within the
sanctuary itself, we seem justified in taking the orientation of the
axis to be the same as that of the avenue, and since in the present
state of the S.W. trilithon the direction of the avenue can probably be
determined with greater accuracy than that of the temple axis itself,
the estimate of date must be based upon the orientation of the avenue.
Further evidence will be given, however, to show that the direction of
the axis of the temple, so far as it can now be determined, is
sufficiently accordant with the direction of the avenue.
The orientation of this avenue may be examined upon the same principles
that have been found successful in the case of Greek and Egyptian
temples--that is, on the assumption that Stonehenge was a solar temple,
and that the greatest function took place at sunrise on the longest day
of the year. This not only had a religious motive; it had also the
economic value of marking officially and distinctly that time of the
year and the beginning of an annual period.
It is, indeed, possible that the present structure may have had other
capabilities, such as being connected with the May year, the equinoxes
or the winter solstice; but it is with its uses at the summer solstice
alone that we now deal.
There is a difference in treatment between the observations required for
Stonehenge and those which are available for Greek or Egyptian solar
temples. In the case of the latter, the effect of the precession of the
equinoxes upon the stars, which as warning clock stars were almost
invariably connected with those temples, offers the best measure of the
dates of foundation; but in Britain, owing to the brightness of the dawn
at the summer solstice, such a star could not have been employed, so
that we can rely only on the secular change of the obliquity as
affecting the azimuth of the point of sunrise. This requires the
measurements to be taken with very great precision, and as the azimuth
of the place of sunrise varies with the latitude, and as a datum point
on the horizon in a known position was also required, Colonel Johnston,
R.E., the Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, was asked for and
obligingly supplied the following particulars:
{ Lat. 51° 10′ 42″
Centre of stone circle, Stonehenge { Long. W. 1 49 99
{ Lat. 51° 3′ 52″
Centre of spire, Salisbury Cathedral { Long. 1 47 45
The real point was to determine the direction of the so-called avenue.
Measurements taken from the line of the bottom of the ditch assisted
materially those taken from the crown of the bank itself. With this help
and by using the southern bank and ditch whenever it admitted of
recognition, a fair estimate of the central line could be arrived at. To
verify this, two pegs were placed at points 140 feet apart along the
line near the commencement of the avenue, and four others at distances
averaging 100 feet apart nearer the further recognisable extremity, and
their directions were measured with the theodolite, independently by two
observers, the reference point being Salisbury Spire, of which the exact
bearing had been communicated by Colonel Johnston.
This bearing was also measured locally by observations of the Sun and of
Polaris, the mean of which differed by less than 20″ from the Ordnance
value. The resulting observations gave for the axis of the avenue
nearest the commencement an azimuth of 49° 38′ 48″, and for that of the
more distant part 49° 32′ 54″. The mean of these two lines drawn from
the central interval of the great trilithon, already referred to, passes
between two of the sarsens of the exterior circle, which have an opening
of about 4 feet, within a few inches of their middle point, the
deviation being northwards. This may be considered to prove the close
coincidence of the original axis of the temple with the direction of the
avenue.
This value of the azimuth, the mean of which is 49° 35′ 51″, is
confirmed by the information, also supplied from the Ordnance Survey,
that from the centre of the temple, the bearing to the N.E. of the
principal bench mark on a hill, about 8 miles distant, the bench mark
being very near a well-known ancient fortified British encampment named
Silbury or Sidbury, is 49° 34′ 18″; and that the same line continued
through Stonehenge, to the south-west, strikes another ancient
fortification, namely, Grovely Castle, about 6 miles distant, and at
practically the same azimuth, viz., 49° 35′ 51″. For the above reasons
49° 34′ 18″ has been adopted for the azimuth of the avenue.
The summer solstice sunrise in 1901 was also watched for by Mr. Howard
Payn on five successive mornings, viz., June 21 to 25, and was
successfully observed on the last occasion. As soon as the Sun’s limb
was sufficiently above the horizon for its bisection to be well
measured, it was found to be 8′ 40″ northwards of the peak of the
Friar’s Heel, which was used as the reference point; the altitude of the
horizon being 35′ 48″. The azimuth of this peak from the point of
observation had been previously ascertained to be 50° 39′ 5″, giving for
that of the Sun when measured, 50° 30′ 25″; by calculation that of the
Sun, with the limb 2′ above the horizon, should be 50° 30′ 54″. This
observation was therefore completely in accordance with the results
which had been obtained otherwise.
The time which would elapse between geometrical sunrise, that is, with
the upper limb tangential with the horizon, and that which is here
supposed, would be about 17 seconds, and the difference of azimuth would
be 3′ 15″.
The remaining point was to find what value should be given to the Sun’s
declination when it appeared showing itself 2′ above the horizon, the
azimuth being 49° 34′ 18″.
The data obtained for the determination of the required epoch were as
follows:--
(1.) The elevation of the local horizon at the sunrise point seen by a
man standing between the uprights of the great trilithon (a distance of
about 8000 feet) is about 35′ 30″, and 2′ additional for Sun’s upper
limb makes 37′ 30″.
(2.) -Refraction + parallax, 27′ 20″.
(3.) Sun’s semi-diameter, allowance being made for greater eccentricity
than at present, 15′ 45″.
(4.) Sun’s azimuth, 49° 34′ 18″, and N. latitude, 51° 10′ 42″.
From the above data the Sun’s declination works out 23° 54′ 30″ N., and
by Stockwell’s tables of the obliquity, which are based upon modern
determinations of the elements of the solar system,[14] the date is
found to be 1680 B.C.
It is to be understood that on account of the slight uncertainty as to
the original line of observation and the very slow rate of change in
the obliquity of the ecliptic, the date thus derived may possibly be in
error by 200 years more or less; this gives us a date of construction
lying between say 1900 and 1500 B.C.
In this investigation the so-called Friar’s Heel was used only as a
convenient point for reference and verification in measurement, and no
theory was formed as to its purpose. It is placed at some distance, as
before mentioned, to the south of the axis of the avenue, so that at the
date arrived at for the erection of the temple the Sun must have
completely risen before it was vertically over the summit of the stone.
It may be remarked, further, that more than 500 years must yet elapse
before such a coincidence can take place at the beginning of sunrise.
In an Appendix certain details of the observations are given.
In the next chapter I propose to show that an independent archæological
inquiry carried out, in a most complete and admirable way, just after
Mr. Penrose and myself had obtained our conclusion, entirely
corroborates the date at which we had arrived.
[11] This chapter and the end of the previous one are mainly based on
the paper communicated by Mr. Penrose and myself to the Royal Society
(see _Proceedings_, _Royal Society_, vol. 69, p. 137 _et seq._).
[12] _The Celtic Druids_. 4to. London. 1827.
[13] _Stonehenge, &c._ 1880.
[14] _Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge_, vol. xviii. No. 232,
table 9. Washington. 1873. For curve, see page 130.
CHAPTER VIII
ARCHÆOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT STONEHENGE, 1901
Soon after Mr. Penrose and myself had made our astronomical survey of
Stonehenge in 1901, some archæological results of the highest importance
were obtained by Professor Gowland. The operations which secured them
were designed and carried out in order to re-erect the leaning stone
which threatened to fall, a piece of work recommended to Sir Edmund
Antrobus by the Society of Antiquaries of London and other learned
bodies, and conducted at his desire and expense.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--The arrangements for raising the stone, looking
north-east.]
They were necessarily on a large scale, for the great monolith, “the
leaning stone,” is the largest in England, the Rudston monolith
excepted. It stood behind the altar stone, over which it leant at an
angle of 65 degrees, resting at one point against a small stone of
syenite. Half-way up it had a fracture one-third across it; the weight
of stone above this fracture was a dangerous strain on it, so that both
powerful machinery and great care and precautions had to be used.
Professor Gowland was charged by the Society of Antiquaries with the
conduct of the excavations necessary in the work. The engineering
operations were planned by Mr. Carruthers, and Mr. Detmar Blow was
responsible for the local superintendence. Mr. Blow thus describes the
arrangements (_Journal_ Institute of British Architects, 3rd series,
ix., January, 1902):--
“A strong cradle of 12-inch square baulks of timber was bolted round the
stone, with packing and felt, to prevent any marking of the stone. To
the cradle were fixed two 1-inch steel eyebolts to receive the blocks
for two six-folds of 6-inch ropes. These were secured and wound on to
two strong winches fifty feet away, with four men at each winch. When
the ropes were thoroughly tight, the first excavation was made as the
stone was raised on its west side.”
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--The cradle and supports, looking west.]
The method employed by Professor Gowland in the excavation should be a
model for all future work of the kind.
Above each space to be excavated was placed a frame of wood, bearing on
its long sides the letters A to H, and on its short sides the letters R
M L, each letter being on a line one foot distant from the next. By this
means the area to be excavated was divided into squares each having the
dimension of a square foot. A long rod divided into 6-inch spaces,
numbered from 1 to 16, was also provided for indicating the depth from
the datum line of anything found. In this way a letter on the long sides
of the frame, together with one on the short sides, and a number on the
vertical rod, indicated the position of any object found in any part of
the excavation.
Excavations were necessary because to secure the stone for the future
the whole of the adjacent soil had to be removed down to the rock level,
so that it could be replaced by concrete.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--The frame used to locate the finds.]
All results were registered by Professor Gowland in relation to a datum
line 337·4 feet above sea level. The material was removed in buckets,
and carefully sifted through a series of sieves 1-inch, ¹⁄₂-inch,
¹⁄₄-inch, and ¹⁄₈-inch mesh, in order that the smallest object might
not be overlooked.
From the exhaustive account of his work given by Professor Gowland to
the Society of Antiquaries (_Archaeologia_, lviii.), I gather three
results of the highest importance from the point of view I am
considering. These were, first, the finding of an enormous number of
implements; secondly, the disposition and relative quantities of the
chippings of the sarsen and blue stones; and thirdly, the discovery of
the method by which the stones were originally erected.
I will take the implements first. This, in a condensed form, is what
Professor Gowland says about them:--
More than a hundred flint implements were found, and the greater number
occurred in the stratum of chalk rubble which either directly overlaid
or was on a level with the bed rock. They may all be arranged generally
in the following classes:--
_Class I._--Axes roughly chipped and of rude forms, but having
well-defined, more or less sharp cutting edges.
_Class II._--Hammerstones, with more or less well-chipped, sharp curved
edges. Most may be correctly termed hammer-axes. They are chipped to an
edge at one end, but at the other are broad and thick, and in many
examples terminated there by a more or less flat surface. In some the
natural coating of the flint is left untouched at the thick end.
_Class III._--Hammerstones, more or less rounded. Some specimens appear
to have once had distinct working edges, but they are now much blunted
and battered by use.
In addition to the above flint implements were found about thirty
hammerstones, consisting of large pebbles or small boulders of the hard
quartzite variety of sarsen. Some have been roughly broken into
convenient forms for holding in the hand, whilst a few have been rudely
trimmed into more regular shapes. They vary in weight from about a pound
up to six and a half pounds. To these we have to add mauls, a more
remarkable kind of hammerstone than those just enumerated. They are
ponderous boulders of the quartzite variety of sarsen with their
broadest sides more or less flat. Their weights range from about 40 lb.
to 64 lb.
How came these flints and stones where they were found? Prof. Gowland
gives an answer which everybody will accept. The implements must be
regarded as the discarded tools of the builders of Stonehenge, dumped
down into the holes as they became unfit for use, and, in fact, used to
pack the monoliths as they were erected. We read:--“Dealing with the
cavity occupied by No. 55 before its fall, the mauls were found wedged
in below the front of its base to act together with the large blocks of
sarsen as supports” (p. 54). Nearly all bear evidence of extremely rough
usage, their edges being jagged and broken, just as we should expect to
find after such rough employment. We evidently have to deal with
builders doing their work in the Stone and not in the Bronze age. But
was the age Palæolithic or Neolithic?
Prof. Gowland writes:--
“Perhaps the most striking features of the flint implements is their
extreme rudeness, and that there is not a single ground or polished
specimen among them. This, at first sight and without due consideration,
might be taken to indicate an extremely remote age. But in this
connection it must be borne in mind that in the building of such a
stupendous structure as Stonehenge, the tools required must have been
numbered by thousands. The work, too, was of the roughest character, and
for such only rude tools were required. The highly finished and polished
implements which we are accustomed to consider, and rightly so, as
characteristic of Neolithic man, would find no place in such work. They
required too much labour and time for their manufacture, and, when made,
could not have been more effective than the hammer-axes and hammerstones
found in the excavations, which could be so easily fashioned by merely
rudely shaping the natural flints, with which the district abounds, by a
few well directed blows of a sarsen pebble.”
On this ground Prof. Gowland is of opinion that, notwithstanding their
rudeness, they may be legitimately ascribed to the Neolithic age, and,
it may be, near its termination, that is, before the Bronze age, the
commencement of which has been placed at 1400 B.C. by Sir John Evans for
Britain, though he is inclined to think that estimate too low, and 2000
B.C. by Montelius for Italy.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Some of the Flint Implements.]
Prof. Gowland guardedly writes:--
“The occurrence of stone tools does not alone prove with absolute
certainty that Stonehenge belongs to the Neolithic age, although it
affords a strong presumption in favour of that view. But, and this is
important, had bronze been in general or even moderately extensive use
when the stones were set up, it is in the highest degree probable that
some implement of that metal would have been lost within the area of the
excavations, and if so lost, it would certainly have been found together
with the stone tools. Further, the employment of deer’s horn picks for
the extensive excavations made in the chalk around the base of the
monoliths also tends to support the view that bronze implements cannot
have been in common use. If they had it would seem not unreasonable to
assume that they would have been employed, as they would have been so
much more effective for such work than the picks of deer’s horn.
“Again, the chippings of the stones of Stonehenge in two of the Bronze
age barrows[15] in its neighbourhood show that it is of earlier date
than they.”
And finally:--
“In my opinion, the date when copper or bronze was first known in
Britain is a very remote one, as no country in the world presented
greater facilities for their discovery. The beginning of their
application to practical uses should, I think, be placed at least as far
back as 1800 B.C., and that date I am inclined to give, until further
evidence is forthcoming, as the approximate date of the erection of
Stonehenge.”
Now the date arrived at by Mr. Penrose and myself on astronomical
grounds was about 1700 B.C. It is not a little remarkable that
independent astronomical and archæological inquiries conducted in the
same year should have come so nearly to the same conclusion. If a
general agreement be arrived at regarding it, we have a firm basis for
the study of other similar ancient monuments in this country.
I have previously in this book referred to the fact that the trilithons
of the naos and the stones of the outer circle are all built up of
so-called “sarsen” stones. To describe their geological character, I
cannot do better than quote, from Mr. Cunnington’s “Geology of
Stonehenge,”[16] their origin according to Prestwich.
“Among the _Lower Tertiaries_ (the Eocene of Sir Charles Lyell) are
certain sands and mottled clays, named by Mr. Prestwich the Woolwich and
Reading beds, from their being largely developed at these places, and
from these he proves the sarsens to have been derived; although they are
seldom found _in situ_, owing to the destruction of the stratum to which
they belonged. They are large _masses of sand concreted together_ by a
siliceous cement, and when the looser portions of the stratum were
washed away, the blocks of sandy rocks were left scattered over the
surface of the ground.
“At Standen, near Hungerford, large masses of sarsen are found,
consisting almost _entirely_ of flints, formed into conglomerate with
the sand. Flints are also common in some of the large stones forming the
ancient temple of Avebury.
“The abundance of these remains, especially in some of the valleys of
North Wilts, is very remarkable. Few persons who have not seen them can
form an adequate idea of the extraordinary scene presented to the eye
of the spectator, who standing on the brow of one of the hills near
Clatford, sees stretching for miles before him, countless numbers of
these enormous stones, occupying the middle of the valley, and winding
like a mighty stream towards the south.”
These stones, then, may be regarded as closely associated with the local
geology.
The exact nature of the stones, called “blue stones,” can best be
gathered from a valuable “Note” by Prof. Judd which accompanies Prof.
Gowland’s paper. These blue stones are entirely unconnected with the
local geology; they must, therefore, represent boulders of the Glacial
drift, or they must have been brought by man, from distant localities.
Prof. Judd inclines to the first opinion.
The distinction between these two kinds of stone are well shown by Prof.
Gowland:--
“The large monoliths of the outer circle, and the trilithons of the
horse-shoe are all sarsens. [See general plan, Fig. 15.] These sarsens
in their composition are sandstones, consisting of quartz-sand, either
fine or coarse, occasionally mixed with pebbles and angular bits of
flint, all more or less firmly cemented together with silica. They are
the relics of the concretionary masses which had become consolidated in
the sandstone beds that once overlaid the chalk of the district, and had
resisted the destructive agencies by which the softer parts of the beds
were removed in geological times. They range in structure from a
granular rock resembling loaf sugar in internal appearance to one of
great compactness similar to and sometimes passing into quartzite.
“The monoliths and trilithons all consist of the granular rock. The
examples of the compact quartzite variety, of which many were found in
the excavations, were almost without exception either hammerstones that
had been used in shaping and dressing the monoliths, or fragments which
had been broken from off them in these operations.
“The small monoliths, the so-called ‘blue stones,’ which form the inner
circle and the inner horse-shoe, are, with the undermentioned
exceptions, all of diabase more or less porphyritic. Two are porphyrite
(formerly known as felstone or hornstone). Two are argillaceous
sandstone.
“Mr. William Cunnington, in his valuable paper, ‘Stonehenge Notes,’
records the discovery of two stumps of ‘blue stones’ now covered by the
turf. One of these lies in the inner horseshoe between Nos. 61 and 62,
and 9 feet distant from the latter. It is diabase. The other is in the
inner circle between Nos. 32 and 33, 10 feet from the former, and
consists of a soft calcareous altered tuff, afterwards designated for
the sake of brevity fissile rock.
“The altar stone is of micaceous sandstone.”
I now come to the second point, to which I shall return in the next
chapter.
In studying the material obtained from the excavations, it was found in
almost every case that the number of chippings and fragments of blue
stone largely exceeded that of the sarsens; more than this, diabase
(blue stone) and sarsen were found together in the layer overlying the
solid chalk (p. 15). Chippings of diabase were the most abundant, but
there were few large pieces of it. Sarsen, on the other hand, occurred
most abundantly in lumps (p. 20); very few small chips of sarsen were
found (p. 42). Hence Prof. Gowland is of opinion that the sarsen blocks
were roughly hewn where they were found (p. 40); the local tooling,
executed with the small quartzite hammers and mauls, would produce not
chips but dust.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Showing the careful tooling of the Sarsens.]
Finally, I reach the third point of importance from the present
standpoint; the excavations produced clear evidence touching the mode of
erection. Prof. Gowland’s memoir deals only with the leaning stone, but
I take it for granted that the same method was employed throughout: the
method was this.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Face of rock against which a stone was made to
rest.]
(1) The ground in the site a stone was to occupy was removed, the chalk
rock being cut into in such a manner as to leave a ledge, on which the
base of the stone was to rest, _and a perpendicular face rising from it,
against which as a buttress_ one side would bear when set up. From the
bottom of this hole an inclined plane was cut to the surface down which
the monolith which had already been dressed was slid until its base
rested on the ledge.
(2) It was then gradually raised into a vertical position by means first
of levers and afterwards of ropes. The levers would be long trunks of
trees, to one end of which a number of ropes was attached (this method
is still employed in Japan); so that the weights and pulling force of
many men might be exerted on them. The stronger ropes were probably of
hide or hair, but others of straw, or of withes of hazel or willow, may
have been in use for minor purposes.
(3) As the stone was raised, it was packed up with logs of timber and
probably also with blocks of stone placed beneath it.
(4) After its upper end had reached a certain elevation, ropes were
attached to it, and it was then hauled by numerous men into a vertical
position, _so that its back rested against the perpendicular face of the
chalk which had been prepared for it_. During this part of the
operation, struts of timber would probably be placed against its sides
to guard against slip, a precaution taken when the leaning stone was
raised and until the foundation was properly set.
As regards the raising of the lintels, and imposts, and the placing of
them on the tops of the uprights, there would be even less difficulty
than in the erection of the uprights themselves.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--The leaning stone upright before the struts
were removed.]
It could be easily effected by the simple method practised in Japan for
placing heavy blocks of stone in position. The stone, when lying on the
ground, would be raised a little at one end by means of long wooden
levers. A packing of logs would then be placed under the end so raised,
the other extremity of the stone would be similarly raised and packed,
and the raising and packing at alternate ends would be continued until
the block had gradually reached the height of the uprights. It would
then be simply pushed forward by levers until it rested upon them.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Stonehenge, 1905.]
It is not often that an engineering operation has been made so
subservient to the interests of science as the one we have dealt with in
this chapter. It is satisfactory to know not only that much new
knowledge has been acquired by Professor Gowland and his coadjutors, but
that the famous leaning stone has now been set upright in such fashion
that it will remain upright for hundreds of years. May the other leaning
stones soon receive the same treatment.
[15] Sir Richard Colt Hoare, _Ancient History of South Wiltshire_, p.
127. (London, 1812); W. Stukeley, _Stonehenge_, p. 46. (London, 1740).
[16] _Wilts Archaeological and Natural History Magazine_, xxi. pp.
141-149.
CHAPTER IX
WAS THERE AN EARLIER CIRCLE?
When we come to examine Stonehenge carefully in relation to the
orientation theory, it soon becomes clear that its outer circle of
upright stones with lintels, and the inner naos, built of trilithons,
oriented in the line of the “avenue” and the summer solstice sunrise,
are not the only things to be considered. These stones, all composed of
sarsen, which, be it remarked, have been trimmed and tooled, are not
alone in question. We have:--
(1) An interior circle broken in many places, and other stones near the
naos, composed of stones, “blue stones,” which, as we have seen, are of
an entirely different origin and composition.
(2) Two smaller _untrimmed_ sarsen stones lying near the vallum, _not_
at the same distance from it, the line joining them passing nearly, but
not quite, through the centre of the sarsen circle. The amplitude of the
line joining them is approximately 26° S. of E. and 26° N. of W. Of
these stones, the stump of the N.W. one is situated 22 feet from the top
of the vallum according to the Ordnance plan. The S.E. stone has fallen,
but according to careful observations and measurements by Mr. Penrose,
when erect its centre was 14 feet from the top of the vallum. The centre
of the line joining the stones is therefore about 4 feet to the S.E. of
the axis of the present circles, which, it may be stated, passes 3 feet
to the N.W. of the N.W. edge of the Friar’s Heel (see Fig. 24).
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Map of the Stones made by the Ordnance
Survey.[17] A, N.W. stone; B, S.E. stone; C, Friar’s Heel; D, Slaughter
stone.]
There are besides these two large _untrimmed_ sarsen stones, one
standing some distance outside the vallum, one recumbent lying on the
vallum; both nearly, but not quite, in the sunrise line as viewed from
the centre of the sarsen circle. These are termed the “Friar’s Heel” and
“Slaughter Stone” respectively.
I will deal with (1) first, and begin by another quotation from Mr.
Cunnington, who displayed great acumen in dealing with the smaller
stones not sarsens.
“The most important consideration connected with the smaller stones, and
one which in its archæological bearing has been too much overlooked, is
the fact of their having been brought from a great distance. I expressed
an opinion on this subject in a lecture delivered at Devizes more than
eighteen years ago, and I have been increasingly impressed with it
since. I believe that these stones would not have been brought from such
a distance to a spot where an abundance of building stones equally
suitable in every respect already existed, unless some special or
religious value had been attached to them. This goes far to prove that
Stonehenge was _originally a temple_, and neither a monument raised to
the memory of the dead, nor an astronomical calendar or almanac.
“It has been suggested that they were Danams, or the offerings of
successive votaries. Would there in such case have been such uniformity
of design, or would they have been all alike of foreign materials? I
would make one remark about the small impost of a trilithon of syenite,
now lying prostrate within the circle. One writer has followed another
in taking it for granted that there must have been a second,
corresponding with it, on the opposite side. Of this there is neither
proof nor record, not a trace of one having been seen by any person who
has written on the subject. This small impost, not being of sarsen, but
syenite, must have belonged to the original old circle; _it may even
have suggested to the builders of the present Stonehenge the idea of the
large imposts, and trilithons with their tenons and mortices_.”
In Prof. Gowland’s examination of the contents of the holes necessarily
dug in his operations, it was found over and over again, indeed almost
universally, that the quantity of blue stone chippings was much greater
than that from the sarsen stones. While the sarsen stones had only been
worked or tooled on their surface, the blue stones had been hewed and
trimmed in extraordinary fashion; indeed it is stated by Prof. Judd that
they had been reduced to half their original dimensions in this process,
the chippings almost equalling the volume of the stones themselves.
It seems, then, that when the sarsen stones were set up, the sarsen and
blue stones were treated very differently. This being so, the following
quotation from Prof. Judd’s “Note” is interesting (_Archaeologia_,
lviii., p. 81):--
“I may repeat my conviction that if the prevalent beliefs and traditions
concerning Stonehenge were true, and the “bluestone” circles were
transported from some distant locality, either as trophies of war or as
the sacred treasures of a wandering tribe, it is quite inconceivable
that they should have been hewed and chipped, as we now know them to
have been, and reduced in some cases to half their dimensions, _after
having been carried with enormous difficulty over land and water, and
over hills and valleys_. On the other hand, in the glacial drift, which
once probably thinly covered the district, the glacial deposits dying
out very gradually as we proceed southwards, we have a source from which
such stones might probably have been derived. It is quite a well-known
peculiarity of the glacial drift to exhibit considerable assemblages of
stones of a particular character at certain spots, each of these
assemblages having probably been derived from the same source.
“I would therefore suggest as probable that when the early inhabitants
of this island commenced the erection of Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain was
sprinkled over thickly with the great white masses of the sarsen-stones
(‘grey wethers’), and much more sparingly with darker coloured boulders
(the so-called ‘blue-stones’), the last relics of the glacial drift,
which have been nearly denuded away. From these two kinds of materials
the stones suitable for the contemplated temple were selected. It is
even possible that the abundance and association of these two kinds of
materials so strikingly contrasted in colour and appearance, at a
particular spot, may not only have decided the site, but to some extent
have suggested the architectural features of the noble structure of
Stonehenge.”
If we grant everything that Prof. Judd states, the question remains--why
did the same men in the same place at the same time treat the sarsen and
blue stones so differently?
I shall show subsequently that there is a definite answer to the
question on one assumption.
I next come to (2). The important point about these stones is that with
the amplitude 26°, at Stonehenge, a line from the centre of the circle
over the N.W. stone would mark the sunset place in the first week in
May, and a line over the S.E. stone would similarly deal with the
November sunrise. We are thus brought in presence of the May-November
year.
Another point about these stones is that they are not at the same
distance from the centre of the sarsen stone circle, which itself is
concentric with the temenos mound; this is why they lie at different
distances from the mound. Further, a line drawn from the point of the
Friar’s Heel over the now recumbent Slaughter Stone with the amplitude
determined by Mr. Penrose and myself for the summer solstice sunrise in
1680 B.C. cuts the line joining the stones at the middle point,
suggesting that the four untrimmed sarsen stones provided alignments
both for the May and June years at about that date.
Nor is this all; the so-called tumuli within the vallum (Fig. 10) may
have been observation mounds, for the lines passing from the northern
tumulus over the N.W. stone and from the southern tumulus over the S.E.
one are parallel to the avenue, and therefore represent the solstitial
orientation.
So much, then, for the stones. We see that, dealing only with the
untrimmed sarsens that remain, the places of the May sunset and June and
November sunrises were marked from the same central point.
Statements have been made that there was the stump of another stone
near the vallum to the S.W., in the line of the Friar’s Heel and
Slaughter Stone, produced backwards, at the same distance from the old
centre as the N.W. and S.E. stones. This stone was _not_ found in an
exploration by Sir Edmund Antrobus, Mr. Penrose and Mr. Howard Payn by
means of a sword and an auger. But the question will not be settled
until surface digging is permitted, as a “road” about which there is a
present contention passes near the spot.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--The rod on the recumbent stone is placed in and
along the common axis of the present circle and avenue. It is seen that
the Friar’s Heel, the top of which is shown in the distance, would hide
the sunrise place if the axis were a little further to the S.E.]
But even this is not the only evidence we have for the May worship in
early times. There is an old tradition of the slaughter of Britons by
the Saxons at Stonehenge, known as “The Treachery of the Long Knives”;
according to some accounts, 460 British chieftains were killed while
attending a banquet and conference. Now at what time of the year did
this take place? Was it at the summer solstice on June 21? I have
gathered from Guest’s “Mabinogion,” vol. ii. p. 433, and Davies’s
“Mythology of the British Druids,” p. 333, that _the banquet took place
on May eve_ “_Meinvethydd_.” Is it likely that this date would have been
chosen in a solar temple dedicated exclusively to the solstice?
Now the theory to which my work and thought have led me is that the
megalithic structures at Stonehenge--the worked sarsens with their
mortices and lintels, and above all the trilithons of the magnificent
naos--represent a re-dedication and a reconstruction, on a more imposing
plan and scale, of a much older temple, which was originally used for
worship in connection with the May year.
[17] Plans and photographs of Stonehenge, &c., by Colonel Sir Henry
James, R.E., F.R.S., Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, 1867.
CHAPTER X
THE MAY AND JUNE WORSHIPS IN BRITTANY
I purpose next to inquire whether in the wonderful series of Megalithic
remains in Brittany, remains more extensive than any in Britain, any
light is thrown on the suggestion I have made that the May Worship
preceded the Solstitial Worship at Stonehenge.
It has long been known that the stones which compose the prehistoric
remains in Brittany are generally similar in size and shape to those at
Stonehenge, but, as I have already stated, in one respect there is a
vast difference. Instead of a few, arranged in circles as at Stonehenge,
we have an enormous multitude of the so-called menhirs arranged in many
parallel lines for great distances. Some of these are unhewn like the
Friar’s Heel, some have as certainly been trimmed.
The literature which has been devoted to them is very considerable, but
the authors of it, for the most part, have taken little or no pains to
master the few elementary astronomical principles which are necessary to
regard the monuments from the point of view of orientation.
It is consoling to know that this cannot be said of the last published
contribution to our knowledge of this region, which we owe to Monsieur
F. Gaillard, a member of the Paris Anthropological Society and of the
Polymathic Society of Morbihan at Plouharnel.[18]
M. Gaillard is a firm believer in the orientation theory, and accepts
the view that a very considerable number of the alignments are
solstitial. But although he gives the correct azimuths for the
solstitial points and also figures showing the values of the obliquity
of the ecliptic as far as 2200 B.C., his observations are not
sufficiently precise to enable a final conclusion to be drawn, and his
method of fixing the alignments and the selection of the index menhir
are difficult to gather from his memoir and the small plans which
accompany it, which, alas! deal with compass bearings only.
All the same, those interested in such researches owe a debt of
gratitude to M. Gaillard for his laborious efforts to increase our
knowledge, and will sympathise with him at the manner in which his
conclusions were treated by the Paris anthropologists. One of them,
apparently thinking that the place of sun rising is affected by the
precession of the equinoxes, used this convincing argument:--“Si, à
l’origine les alignements étaient orientés, comme le pense M. Gaillard,
ils ne le pourraient plus être aujourd’hui; au contraire, s’ils le sont
actuellement, on peut affirmer qu’ils ne l’étaient pas alors!”
M. Gaillard is not only convinced of the solstitial orientation of the
avenues, but finds the same result in the case of the dolmens.
I cannot find any reference in the text to any orientations dealing with
the farmers’ years, that is with amplitudes of about 25° N. and S. of
the E. and W. points; but in the diagrams on pp. 78 and 127 I find both
avenue and dolmen alignments, which within the limits of accuracy
apparently employed may perhaps with justice be referred to them; but
observations of greater accuracy must be made, and details of the
heights of the horizon at the various points given, before anything
certain can be said about them.
I append a reproduction of one of M. Gaillard’s plans, which will give
an idea of his use of the index menhir. It shows the alignments at Le
Ménec, lat. 47¹⁄₂° (Fig. 26). The line A--Soleil runs across the stone
alignments and is fixed from A by the menhir B, but there does not seem
any good reason for selecting B except that it appears to fall in the
line of the solstitial azimuth according to M. Gaillard. But if we take
this azimuth as N. 54° E., then we find the alignments to have an
azimuth roughly of N. 66° E., which gives us the amplitude of 24° N.
marking the place of sunrise at the beginning of the May and November
years, and the alignments may have dealt principally with those times of
the year.
I esteem it a most fortunate thing that while I have been casting about
as to the best way of getting more accurate data, Lieutenant Devoir, of
the French Navy and therefore fully equipped with all the astronomical
knowledge necessary; who resides at Brest and has been studying the
prehistoric monuments in his neighbourhood for many years, has been good
enough to give me the results of his work in that region, in which the
problems seem to be simpler than further south; for while in the
vicinity of Carnac the menhirs were erected in groups numbering five or
six thousand, near Brest, lat. 48¹⁄₂°, they are much more restricted in
number. I am much indebted to him for permission to use and publish his
results.
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Alignments at Le Ménec.]
Lieutenant Devoir, by his many well-planned and approximately accurate
observations, has put the solstitial orientation beyond question, and,
further, has made important observations which prove that the May and
August sunrises were also provided for in the systems of alignments. I
give the following extracts from his letter:--
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Menhir (A) on Melon Island.]
“It is about twelve years ago that I remarked in the west part of the
Department of Morbihan (near Lorient) the parallelism of the lines
marked out by monuments of all sorts, and frequently oriented to the
N.E., or rather between N. 50° E. and N. 55° E. I had ascertained,
moreover, the existence of lines perpendicular to the first named, the
right angle being very well measured.
“The plans, which refer to the cantons of Ploudalmézeau and of St. Renan
(district of Brest) and of Crozon (district of Chateaulin), have been
made on a plane-table; the orientations are exact to one or two degrees.
“In the cantons of Ploudalmézeau and of St. Renan, the monuments are
generally simple; seven menhirs are visible of enormous dimensions,
remarkable by the polish of their surface and the regularity of their
section. The roughnesses hardly ever reach a centimetre; the sections
are more often ovals, sometimes rectangles with the angles rounded or
terminated by semicircles. In the canton of Crozon the monuments are, on
the contrary, complex; we find a cromlech with an avenue leading to it
of a length of 800 metres, another of 300 metres. Unfortunately, the
rocks employed (sandstone and schist from Plungastel and Crozon) have
resisted less well than the granulite from the north part of the
Department. The monuments are for the most part in a very bad condition;
the whole must, nevertheless, formerly have been comparable with that of
Carnac-Leomariaquer.
[Illustration: FIG. 28.--Melon Island, showing Menhir (A) and Cromlech
(B and C).]
“For the two regions, granitic and schistose, the results of the
observations are identical.
“The monuments lie along lines oriented S. 54° W. → N. 54° E. (54° =
azimuth at the solstices for L = 48° 30′ and _i_ = 23° 30′) and N. 54°
W. → S. 54° E. Some of them determine lines perpendicular to the
meridian.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Menhirs of St. Dourzal, D, E, F.]
“One menhir (A), 6m. 90 in height and 9m. 20 in circumference, erected
in the small island of Melon (canton of Ploudalmézeau, latitude 48° 29′
05″) a few metres from a tumulus surrounded by the ruins of a cromlech
(B and C), has the section such that the faces, parallel and remarkably
plane, are oriented N. 54° E. (Figs. 27 and 28).
“At 1300 metres in the same azimuth there is a line of three large
menhirs (D, E, F), of which one (E) is overthrown. The direction of the
line passes exactly by the menhir A. Prolonged towards the N.E. it
meets at 3k. 700m. an overturned block of 2m. 50 in height, which is
without doubt a menhir; towards the S.W. it passes a little to the south
some lines of the island of Molène.... (Fig. 29).
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Alignment at Lagatjar, G G′.]
“There exists in the neighbourhood other groups, forming also lines of
the same orientation and that of the winter solstice. It is advisable to
remark that orientations well determined for the solstices are much less
so for the equinoxes, which is natural, the rising amplitude varying
very rapidly at this time of year.
“The same general dispositions are to be found in the complex monuments
of the peninsula of Crozon. I take for example the alignments of
Lagatjar. Two parallel lines of menhirs, G G′ H H′, are oriented to S.
54° E. and cut perpendicularly by a third line, I I′. There existed less
than fifty years ago a menhir at K, 6 metres high, which is to-day
broken and overturned. This megalith, known in the country by the name
of ‘pierre du Conseil’ (a bronze axe was found underneath it) gives with
a dolmen situated near Camaret the direction of the sunrise on June 21
(Fig. 31).
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Alignments at Lagatjar, showing the pierre du
Conseil and the direction of the dolmen. From the pierre du Conseil the
dolmen marks the sunrise place at the summer solstice, and the avenue G
G′ H H′ the sunset place on the same day.]
“I have just spoken of the lines perpendicular to the solstitial one;
there exists more especially in the complex monuments another
particularity which merits attention. Between two monuments, M and N, on
a solstitial line, sometimes other menhirs are noticed, the line joining
them being inclined 12° to the solstitial line, always towards the east”
(Fig. 32).
I must call particular attention to this important observation of
Lieutenant Devoir, for it gives us the amplitude 24° N., the direction
of sunrise at the beginning of the May and August years. It shows,
moreover, that, as at Le Ménec according to M. Gaillard, the solstitial
and May-August directions were both provided for at the monuments in
the neighbourhood of Brest so carefully studied by Lieutenant Devoir.
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--Menhirs, M N on N.E.-S.W. solstitial alignment.
Menhirs 1, 2, on May-August years alignment, sunrise May-August, sunset
November-February.]
Lieutenant Devoir points out the wonderful regularity of form and the
fine polish of many of the menhirs. It will have been gathered from his
account that those most carefully trimmed and tooled belong to the
solstitial alignments. The one at Kerloas (11 metres high) heads the
list in point of size; others in the island of Melon (7 metres), at
Kergadion (8 metres and 10 metres), Kerenneur, Kervaon and Kermabion
follow suit. He considers them to have been erected at the time of the
highest civilisation of the Megalithic peoples. He also states that
these regularly formed menhirs do not exist at Carnac, or in the region
of Pont l’Abbé, so rich in other remains which certainly refer chiefly
to the May-November year. It seems, then, that in these localities the
May-August worship first chiefly predominated, and that the index
menhirs of M. Gaillard which indicate the solstice and which do not form
part of the alignments were erected subsequently.
Finally, then, the appeal to Brittany is entirely in favour of the
May-November year worship having preceded the solstitial one.
I have already stated the evidence at Stonehenge that the sunrise at the
beginning of the May and August years was observed in an earlier temple
which existed before the present structure existed. Were this so we have
another point common to the British and Breton monuments. I therefore
think that I may justly claim the Brittany evidence as entirely in
favour of the suggestion put forward in Chap. IX with regard to
Stonehenge.
[18] “L’Astronomie Préhistorique.” Published in “Les Sciences
Populaires, revue mensuelle internationale,” and issued separately by
the administration des “Sciences populaires,” 15 Rue Lebrun, Paris.
CHAPTER XI
ASTRONOMICAL HINTS FOR ARCHÆOLOGISTS
The foregoing chapters will have shown that in dealing with the ancient
monuments from an astronomical point of view, we have to consider
chiefly the direction of the sight-lines, whether they are marked as in
Brittany by long rows of stones--alignments; as at Stonehenge by an
avenue; as in some of our British circles, by two or more circles the
direction being indicated from the central stone of one to the central
stone of the other, or finally by a single standing stone or barrow.
It is important then that before we proceed further in our inquiries we
should consider how a meaning is got out of these directions, and I
propose to devote this chapter to this question, so that the full use of
the “azimuths” already referred to and others which are to follow may be
fully understood.
There is another matter, at which I hinted on pp. 36 and 42. We have to
inquire whether there are any stones or barrows marking the direction of
the rising or setting of _stars_, as well as those which deal with the
rising and setting of the _sun_ at different times of the year, which we
have already found at Stonehenge and in Brittany. To face this question
we have to consider the stellar as well as solar conditions of
observations, and as the former are the simpler I will begin with them,
especially as now there is no question whatever that the rising and
setting of stars were provided for.
In continuation of my work in Egypt in 1891, and Mr. Penrose’s in Greece
in 1892, I have recently endeavoured to see whether there are any traces
in Britain of star observations, including those connected with the
worship of the sun at certain times of the year. We both discovered that
stars, far out of the sun’s course, especially in Egypt, were observed
in the dawn as heralds of sunrise--“warning-stars”--so that the priests
might have time to prepare the sunrise sacrifice. To do this properly
the star should rise while the sun is still about 10° below the horizon.
There is also reason to believe that stars rising not far from the north
point were also used as clock-stars to enable the time to be estimated
during the night in the same way as the time during the day could be
estimated by the position of the sun.
I stated (_Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 319) that Spica was the star the
heliacal rising of which heralded the sun on May-day 3200 B.C. in the
temple of Menu at Thebes. Sirius was associated with the summer solstice
at about the same time.
Mr. Penrose found this May-day worship continued at Athens on
foundations built in 1495 B.C. and 2020 B.C., on which the Hecatompedon
and older Erechtheum respectively were subsequently built, the warning
star being now no longer Spica, but the cluster of the Pleiades rising,
or Antares setting, in the dawn.
It is generally known that Stonehenge is associated with the solstitial
year, and I have suggested that it was originally connected with the
May year; but the probable date of its re-dedication, 1680 B.C., was
determined by Mr. Penrose and myself by the change of obliquity.
Now if Stonehenge or any other British stone circle could be proved to
have used observations of warning stars, the determination of the date
when such observations were made would be enormously facilitated. Mr.
Penrose and myself were content to think that our date might be within
200 years of the truth, whereas if we could use the rapid movement of
stars in declination brought about by the precession of the equinoxes,
instead of the slow change of the sun’s declination brought about by the
change of the value of the obliquity, a possible error of 200 years
would be reduced to one of 10 years.
In spite of this enormous advantage, no one so far as I know has yet
made any inquiry to connect star observations with any of the British
circles.
I have recently obtained clear evidence that some circles in different
parts of Britain were used for night work and also in relation to the
May year, which we know was general over the whole of Europe in early
times, and which still determines the quarter-days in Scotland.
If the Egyptian and Greek practice were continued here, we should expect
then to find some indications of the star observations utilised at the
temple of Min and at the Hecatompedon for the beginning, or the other
chief months, of the May year.
I have found them, and I will now show the method employed.
To begin with, if we assume that the astronomer-priests here did
attempt such observations, what is the most likely way in which they
would have gone to work?
The easiest way for the astronomer-priests to conduct such observations
in a stone circle would be to erect a stone or barrow indicating the
direction of the place on the horizon at which the star would rise as
seen from the centre of the circle. If the dawn the star was to herald
occurred in the summer, the stone or barrow itself might be visible if
not too far away, but there was a reason why they should not be too
close; in a solemn ceremonial the less seen of the machinery the better.
Doubtless such stones and barrows would be rendered obvious in the dark
by a light placed on or near them. Cups which could hold oil or grease
are known in connection with such stones, and a light thus fed would
suffice in the open if there were no wind; but in windy weather a
cromlech or some similar shelter must have been provided for it.
Now if these standing stones or barrows were ever erected and still
remain, accurate plans--not the slovenly plans with which Ferguson and
too many others have provided us, giving us either no indication of the
north or any other point, or else a rough compass bearing without taking
the trouble to state the variation at the time and place--will help us.
I have already pointed out that much time has been lost in the
investigation of our stone circles, for the reason that in many cases
the exact relations of the monuments to the chief points of the horizon,
and therefore to the place of sunrise at different times of the year,
have not been considered; and when they were, the observations were
made only with reference to the magnetic north, which is different at
different places, and besides is always varying; few indeed have tried
to get at the real astronomical conditions of the problem. The first, I
think, was Mr. Jonathan Otley, who in 1849 showed the “orientation” of
the Keswick circle “according to the solar meridian,” giving true solar
bearings throughout the year.
In my opinion the most accurate plans conceivable, in the absence of a
long and minute local inquiry, are the 25-inch maps of the Ordnance
Survey, on which, I have it on the authority of Colonel Johnston the
distinguished Director, each stone may be taken to be shown with a limit
of error of 6 feet. With a large circular protractor azimuths can be
read to one minute of arc, and in critical cases the true azimuth of the
side lines, which are not necessarily meridians as latitudes are not
marked, can be found on inquiry at the Ordnance Office, Southampton.
Having then true azimuths, the next question concerns the declinations
of the stars which may have been observed.
The work of Stockwell in America, Danckworth in Germany,[19] and Dr. W.
J. S. Lockyer in England, has provided us with tables of the changing
declinations of stars throughout past time, or enough of it for our
purpose.
An accurate determination on the 25-inch map of either the _azimuth_
(angular distance from the N. or S. points) or _amplitude_ (angular
distance from the E. or W. points) of the stone or barrow as seen from
the centre of the stone circle will enable us to determine the
declination of the star at the time when it was observed.
I give a diagram which enables this determination to be made with the
greatest ease for any monuments between Land’s End and John o’ Groats,
whether the direction is recorded by amplitude or azimuth; the
declination is read at the side from the value of either indicated, say,
by a dot, at the proper latitude.
This, of course, only gives us a first approximation. The angular height
of the point on the horizon to which the alignment or sight-line is
directed by the stone or barrow from the centre of the circle must be
most accurately determined, otherwise the declinations may be one or two
degrees out.
In the absence of measurements it is convenient to assume, in the first
instance, that the horizon is half a degree high, as with this elevation
refraction is compensated, as the following table will show:
Elevation of actual Bessel’s
horizon. refraction. Combined effect.
0°0′0″ 34′54″ -34′54″
0°10′ 32′49″ -22′49″
20′ 30′52″ -10′52″
30′ 29′3·5″ +0′56·5″
40′ 27′22·7″ +12′37·3″
50′ 25′49·8″ +24′10·2″
1°0′ 24′24·6″ +35′35·4″
In the absence of theodolite observations the actual elevation of the
horizon can be roughly found by a study of the contour lines on the
1-inch map. The following heights will agree with the previous
assumption of hills ¹⁄₂° high:
Distance 1 mile Height = 46 feet
„ 2 miles „ = 92 „
„ 4 „ „ = 184 „
„ 8 „ „ = 368 „
„ 10 „ „ = 460 „
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Diagram for finding declination from given
amplitudes or azimuths in British latitudes.
~Curves represent (from top) Lat. 49°, 51°, 53°, 55°, 57° and 59°.~]
I also give other diagrams showing the changing declinations of the
brightest stars, those which would naturally be observed, between the
years 150 A.D. and 2150 B.C. These have been plotted from the
calculations of the authorities I have named.
Fig. 34 deals with the Northern stars. The stars are numbered as
follows:--
Number. Name of star.
1 β Ursae Minoris.
2 α Ursae Minoris (Polaris).
3 α Draconis.
4 α Ursae Majoris (Dubhe).
5 γ Ursae Majoris.
6 η Ursae Majoris (Benetnasch).
7 γ Draconis.
8 β Cassiopeiae.
9 α Cassiopeiae.
10 α Persei.
11 α Aurigae (Capella).
12 α Cygni.
13 α Lyrae (Vega).
14 α Coronae.
15 α Geminorum (Castor).
16 β Geminorum (Pollux).
17 α Boötes (Arcturus).
18 β Leonis.
19 α Leonis (Regulus).
20 α Andromedae.
21 η Tauri (Alcyone).
22 α Tauri (Aldebaran).
23 α Canis Minoris (Procyon).
24 α Aquilae.
25 α Orionis (Betelgeuse).
26 α Virginis (Spica).
On Fig. 35, dealing with the Southern stars, the names are given along
the curves.
* * * * *
Now supposing that we have our plans; that we have determined the
azimuth of the sight lines; and have found the declination of the star
observed; we may find more than one star occupying that declination at
various dates.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--Declinations of Northern Stars from 250 A.D. to
2150 B.C.]
Which of these stars, then, must we consider?
Obviously those most conveniently situated for enabling the time to be
estimated during the night, or those which could have been used as
warning stars.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--Declinations of Southern Stars from 250 A.D. to
2150 B.C.
α Ceti, α Aquarii, β Orionis, α Capricorni, α Canis Majoris, α Scorpii,
α Columbæ, α Pisces Austr., η Argûs, α Centauri, α Argûs, α Crucis, α
Gruis, and α Eridani.]
The warning stars can be conveniently picked up by using a precessional
globe. From it we gather that about 1900, 1400 and 800 B.C. they were as
follows for the critical times of the May year, _i.e._ May, August,
November, February:--
1900 B.C. 1400 B.C. 800 B.C.
May Castor rising Pleiades rising Pleiades rising
N. 41° E. N. 77° E. N. 71° E.
Antares setting Antares setting
S. 75° W. S. 72° W.
August Arcturus Arcturus rising Sirius rising
circumpolar. N. 17° E. S. 63° E.
With hill 3′ high:--
Rising.
Date 2170 B.C. N. 11°15′ E.
„ 2090 B.C. N. 14°18′ E.
„ 1900 B.C. N. 18°44′ E.
November Betelgeuse setting
N. 87° W.
February Capella rising Capella rising Capella rising
N. 36° E. N. 28° E. N. 21° E.
For the solstices, that is, June and December, the following stars might
be used as warners:--
1900 B.C. 1400 B.C. 800 B.C.
Summer Solstice Betelgeuse rising Betelgeuse γ Geminorum
N. 87° E. rising N. 90° E. rising
Arcturus setting Arcturus setting N. 68° E.
with hill 3′ high (late) N. 16° W. (“Alhena”
N. 18° W. α Serpentis mag. 1·9.)
setting N. 53° W.
Winter Solstice Sheat rising (early) Castor α Capricorni
N. 72° E. setting N. 37° W. rising
Markab rising (late) Pollux S. 66° E.
S. 89° E. setting N. 42° W.
It is obvious that a star used all the year round for night work will
warn the sunrise at some one of the yearly festivals.
When the stars having the same declinations are considered from this
point of view, the star actually used, and _therefore the date of its
use_, may generally be gathered. I shall show subsequently that some of
the stars in the above lists were actually observed in British as well
as in Grecian temples.
[19] Dr. O. Danckworth, _Vierteljahrschrift der Astronomischen
Gesellschaft_, 16. Jahrgang 1881, p. 9. Dr. Stockwell’s results have
been communicated to me by letter. Some, but not all, of Dr. Lockyer’s
calculations appeared in _The Dawn of Astronomy_.
CHAPTER XII
ASTRONOMICAL HINTS FOR ARCHÆOLOGISTS--_Continued._
I next come to the sun observations.
First we must consider the astronomical differences between the rising
of a star and of the sun, by which we generally mean that small part of
the sun’s limb first visible.
It is frequently imagined that for determining the exact place of
sunrise or sunset in connection with these ancient monuments we have to
deal with the sun’s centre, as we should do with the sun half risen. As
a matter of fact, we must consider that part of the sun’s limb which
first makes its appearance above the horizon; the first glimpse of the
upper limb of the sun is in question, say, when the visible limb is 2′
high; and we must carefully take the height of the hills over which it
rises into account.
The accompanying diagram will at once show the difference between the
rising conditions we have now to consider. It deals with the summer
solstice, as being the most precise case, in Lat. 59° N.
At this time the position of the sun, _that is of the sun’s centre_, as
given in the “Nautical Almanac,” is represented by the double circle on
the sea horizon.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--The Conditions of “Sunrise” at the Summer
Solstice in Lat. 59° N.
~Vertical axis from bottom: Altitudes SEA HORIZON, HILL ¹⁄₂° HIGH, HILL
1° HIGH, HILL 1¹⁄₂° HIGH.~
~Horizontal axis from left: Azimuths N 37°-42° E.~]
The azimuth of this position is N. 39° 16′ E. This is the equivalent of
the declination of a star, but it will be seen that the real azimuths we
want are very different. The dotted circles represent the actual
position of the sun with regard to the horizon, the continuous circles
the apparent positions caused by the lifting-up effect of refraction. We
have the positions in azimuth of the apparent sun as it appears on a sea
horizon, and when the horizon is formed by hills up to 1¹⁄₂° in vertical
height.
To make this quite clear I give a table which has been computed by Mr.
Rolston, of the Solar Physics Observatory, showing azimuths with hills
up to 1¹⁄₂° high for lat. 59° N., and 51° N. nearly the latitude of
Stonehenge, of the sun’s upper limb for the summer solstice:--
Lat. 59° Lat. 51°
SUMMER Rising N-E or Rising N-E or
SOLSTICE. Setting N-W. Setting N-W.
° ′ ° ′
Sun’s centre; uncorrected 39 16 50 40
{sea horizon 37 1 49 20
Sun’s upper limb; corrected{hill ¹⁄₂° high 38 34 50 16
for semi-diameter and { „ 1° „ 40 8 51 12
refraction { „ 1¹⁄₂° „ 41 30 52 4
WINTER Rising S-E or Rising S-E or
SOLSTICE. Setting S-W. Setting S-W.
° ′ ° ′
Sun’s centre; uncorrected 39 16 50 40
{sea horizon 41 24 52 0
Sun’s upper limb; corrected{hill ¹⁄₂° high 39 54 51 4
for semi-diameter and { „ 1° „ 38 23 50 8
refraction { „ 1¹⁄₂° „ 36 54 49 14
The first important thing we learn from the table is that although at
both solstices the azimuths of the rising and setting of the sun’s
centre are the same, these azimuths of the upper limb at the summer and
winter solstices differ in a high northern latitude by some 5°. The
difference arises, of course, from the fact that the limb is some 16′
from the sun’s centre, so that considering the sun’s centre as a star
with fixed declination, at rising the limb appears before the centre,
and at setting it lags behind it.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--The Azimuths of the Sunrise (upper limb) at the
Summer Solstice.
The values given in the table have been plotted, and the effect of the
height of hills on the azimuth is shown. The range of latitude given
enables the diagram to be used in connection with the solstitial
alignments at Carnak, Le Ménac, and other monuments in Brittany.
~Vertical axis from bottom: LAT. 47-59.~
~Horizontal axis from left: AZIMUTHS 37-56.~
~Curves from left: SEA HORIZON, HILLS ¹⁄₂°, 1°, 1¹⁄₂°~]
It will also be seen that at sunrise hills increase the azimuth from N.,
and refraction reduces it; while at setting, hills reduce the azimuth
from S. and refraction increases it.
This diagram and table should fully explain the variation of azimuth at
sunrise caused by the fact that from our present point of view we do not
deal with the sun as a star.
To make the foregoing applicable for monuments in all latitudes between
Brittany and the Orkneys, I give still another diagram, Fig. 37, also
prepared for me by Mr. Rolston which will enable any archæologist to
determine approximately, _for the present time_, the azimuth of sunrise
at the summer solstice, without waiting for the 21st of June in any year
actually to observe it.
As before stated, I have dealt with the solstice in this chapter because
it affords us the most precise case. I hope to be able to deal with the
May year sun in the same way later on.
CHAPTER XIII
STENNESS (Lat. 59° N.).
I wrote a good deal in _Nature_[20] on sun and star temples in 1891, and
Mr. Lewis the next year expressed the opinion that the British stone
monuments, or some of them, were sun and star temples.
Mr. Magnus Spence, of Deerness, in Orkney, published a pamphlet,
“Standing Stones and Maeshowe of Stenness,”[21] in 1894; it is a reprint
of an article in the _Scottish Review_, October, 1893, showing that the
stones were set up for solar worship. Mr. Cursiter, F.S.A., of Kirkwall,
in a letter to me dated March 15, 1894, a letter suggested by my “Dawn
of Astronomy,” which appeared in that year, and in which the articles
which had been published in _Nature_ in 1891 had been expanded, directed
my attention to the pamphlet.
I began the consideration of the Stenness circles and alignments in
1901, but other pressing calls on my time then caused me to break off
the inquiry. Quite recently it occurred to me that a complete study of
the Stenness circles might throw light on the question of an earlier
Stonehenge, so I have gone over the old papers, plotting the results on
the Ordnance map.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--Maeshowe, in the foreground, and the Stones of
Stenness. From “Notice of Runic Inscriptions,” by James Farrer, M.P.
(1862).]
Now that the inquiry is as complete as I can make it without spending
some time in Orkney with a theodolite, I will begin my reference to
other circles besides Stonehenge by stating the conclusions at which I
have arrived with regard to the stones of Stenness.
In the first place I may state that although many of the alignments to
which Mr. Spence refers in his pamphlet on Maeshowe prove to be very
different from those he supposed and drew on the map which accompanies
his paper, the main point of his contention is amply confirmed.
I give a copy of the Ordnance map showing the true orientation of these
and of other sight-lines I have made out.
The alignments on which Mr. Spence chiefly depended were two, one
running from the stone circle past the entrance of Maeshowe to the place
of sunrise at Hallowe’en (November 1), another from the same circle by
the Barnhouse standing stone to the mid-winter sunrise at the solstice.
Although the map gives these sight-lines, I shall show that they had not
the use Mr. Spence attributes to them; but still observations of the sun
were provided for on the days in question, and the circles and
outstanding stones were undoubtedly set up to guide astronomical
observations relating to the different times of the year. Of course, as
I have shown elsewhere, such astronomical observations were always
associated with religious celebrations of one kind or another, as the
astronomer and the priest were one.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--Copy of Ordnance Map showing chief sight-lines
from the stones of Stenness.]
I shall not refer to all the sight-lines indicated, but deal only with
those which I have without local knowledge been able to test and justify
by means of the 25-inch Ordnance map.
Not only does calculation prove the worship of the May and June years,
but I think the facts now before us really go to show that in Orkney the
May year was the first established, and that the solstitial (June) year
came afterwards, and this was one of the chief questions I had in view.
I will begin with the May year. I have already shown, p. 22, that the
half-way time between an equinox and a solstice is when the sun’s centre
has a declination approximately 16° 20′ N. or S. In Orkney, with the
latitude of 59°, assuming a sea horizon, the approximate amplitude of
sunrise or sunset is 33° 6′, the corresponding azimuth being 56° 54′.
Now the most interesting and best defined line near this azimuth on the
Ordnance map is the one stretching S.E. from the centre of the Stenness
circle to the Barnstone, with an azimuth of 57° 15′. The line contains
between the two points I have named another stone, the Watchstone, 18¹⁄₂
feet high, in the precise alignment; and from the statements made and
measures given it is to be inferred that a still more famous and
perforated stone, the “Stone of Odin,” demolished seventy years since,
was also in the same line within the extremities named.
If we may accept this we learn something about perforated stones, and
can understand most of the folk lore associated with them, and few have
more connected with them than the one at Stenness. I suggest that the
perforation, which was in this case 5 feet from the ground, was used by
the astronomer-priest to view the sunrise in November over the Barnhouse
stone in one direction, and the sunset in May over the circle in the
other. I hope to be able to return to this question subsequently.
There is another echo of this fundamental line; that joining the Ring of
Bookan and the Stones of Via has the same azimuth and doubtless served
the same purpose for the May year.
But this line, giving us the May sunset and November sunrise, _not_ the
December solstitial sunrise as Mr. Spence shows it, is not the only
orientation connected with the May year at the stones of Stenness. The
November sunset is provided for by a sight-line from the circle to a
stone across the Loch of Stenness with an azimuth of S. 53° 30′ W.
To apply the table, given on p. 120, to the solstitial risings and
settings at Stenness, and the sight-lines which I have plotted on the
map, it will be seen that the table shows us that the lines marked
S. 41° 0′ E.
N. 41° 16′ E. S. 36° 30′ W.
are solstitial lines; to get exact agreement with the table the heights
of the hills must be found and allowed for.
I have roughly determined this height from the 1-inch map in the case of
the Barnstone-Maeshowe alignment. On the N.E. horizon are the Burrien
Hills, four miles away, 600 feet high at the sunrise place, gradually
ascending to the E., vertical angle = 1° 36′ 30″. The near alignment is
on and over the centre of Maeshowe. Colonel Johnston, the
Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, has informed me that the true
azimuth of this bearing is N. 41° 16′ E., and in all probability it
represents the place of sunrise as seen from the Barnstone when Maeshowe
was erected. What is most required in Orkney now is that some one with a
good 6-inch theodolite should observe the sun’s place of rising and the
angular height of the hills at the next summer solstice in order to
determine the date of the erection of Maeshowe. Mr. Spence and others
made an attempt to determine this value with a sextant in 1899, but not
from the Barnstone.
In the absence of this observation we may use the diagram given on p.
121. With the height of hill previously given the sun should rise
according to calculation at about the azimuth N. 41° 50′ E.
The difference between the new and old azimuth then, on the assumption
that az. N. 41° 16′ E. really represents an observation over Maeshowe,
gives us the difference of date.
Treating these figures then as we have done in the case of Stonehenge in
Chapter VII, the result is as follows. The Barnhouse-Maeshowe line was
established about 700 B.C., when the obliquity had a value of 23° 48′
according to Stockwell’s tables. (Fig. 40.)
I confess the late date does not surprise me. The masonry of Maeshowe
differs widely from that of other similar structures in that the sides
of the gallery and chamber, instead of being composed of upright stones,
are built in regular courses.
I do not believe that the Maeshowe structure was built to observe a
winter sunrise twenty days from the solstice, nor can I think it was set
up at midsummer by someone who had only dealt with a high sun and a sea
horizon, and imagined that the sunrise and sunset points were exactly
opposite to each other. It was a priest’s house, and the alignment of
the passage to the Barnstone was for the exchange of signals, probably
by lights in Maeshowe itself.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--Variation of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic, 100
A.D.-4000 B.C. (Stockwell’s Values.)
~Horizontal axis: Years. From left: AD 0-BC 4000.~
~Vertical axis: Obliquity. From bottom: 23.40-24.10.~]
The Ordnance maps give no indication of stones, &c., by which the
direction of the midsummer setting or the midwinter rising and setting
might have been indicated from either the Maeshowe or the Barnstone.
To sum up the solar alignments from the circle.
We have the May sunrise marked by the top of Burrien Hill, from 600 to
700 feet high, Az. 59° 30′.
We have the November sunset marked by a standing stone on the other side
of the Loch of Stenness, Az. 53° 30′.
June rising, Line from Barnstone over Maeshowe tumulus.
December rising, tumulus (Az. 41°) on Ward Hill.
December setting, tumulus Onston 36° 30′.
It is not a little remarkable that the summer solstice rising and the
winter solstice rising and setting seem to have been provided for at the
Stenness circle by alignment on the centres of tumuli, two of them,
across the Loch, one the Onston tumulus to the S.W. (Az. 36° 30′), the
other tumulus being on Ward Hill to the S.E., Az. 41° (rough
measurement).
If the Maeshowe tumulus was a structure erected at the time I have
suggested to use the Barnstone for the summer solstice rising; then
these two other tumuli, to deal with the winter solstice at Stenness
circle, may have been built at the same time. All these provided for a
new cult.
There are also tumuli near the line (which cannot be exactly determined
because the heights of the hills are unknown) of the summer solstice
setting; none was required for the sunrise at this date, as the line
passes over the highest point of Hindera fiold, a natural tumulus more
than 500 feet high, and on that account a triangulation station.
Another argument in favour of the tumuli being additions to the original
design is that the place of the _November_ setting from the Stenness
circle is marked, _not_ by a tumulus, but by a standing stone. As this
stone, near Deepdale, and the tumulus at Onston are only about 1200
yards apart, the suggestion may be made that under certain unknown
conditions and possibly in later times tumuli in some cases replaced
stones as collimation marks.
With regard to the clock-star, it is to be feared that the stones in the
N.E. quadrant as viewed from the circle which might have given us a clue
have been removed. As the latitude of Stenness is N. 59°, some star with
a less declination than N. 31° would have been chosen, assuming that the
sky-line towards the N. point is not very high.
[20] See especially _Nature_, July 2, 1891, p. 201.
[21] Gardner: Paisley and London.
CHAPTER XIV
THE HURLERS (Lat. 50° 31′ N.)
The sight-lines to which I have drawn attention in relation to the
stones of Stenness had to do with the places of sunrise and sunset in
the May and Solstitial years. I now pass to another group of circles in
which we deal chiefly with the places of star-rise and star-set, some of
the stars being used as warners for sunrise at the critical times of the
two years in question.
Following the clue given me in the case of the Egyptian temples, such as
Luxor, by successive small changes of the axis necessitated by the
change in a star’s place due to precession, I began this stellar branch
of the inquiry by looking out for this peculiarity in an examination of
many maps and plans of circles.
I very soon came across two examples in which the sight-line had been
changed in the Egyptian manner. The first is the three circles of the
Hurlers, some 5 miles to the north of Liskeard, a plan of which is given
in “Prehistoric Stone Monuments of the British Isles: Cornwall,” by W.
C. Lukis, Rector of Wath, Yorkshire, published by the Society of
Antiquaries, who were so good as to furnish me with a copy, and also
some _unfolded_ plans on which sight-lines could be accurately drawn and
their azimuths determined. I am anxious to express my obligations to the
council and officers of the society for the help thus afforded me.
The three circles are thus referred to by Lukis in the valuable
monograph which I have already mentioned.
“On the moor, about a mile to the south of the singular pile of granite
slabs, which rest upon and overlap each other, and is vulgarly called
the Cheesewring, there are three large circles of granite stones placed
in a nearly straight line in a north-north-east, and south-south-west
direction, of which the middle one is the largest, being 135 feet in
diameter, the north 110 feet, and the south 105 feet.
“The north Circle is 98 feet, and the south 82 feet from the central
one. If a line be drawn uniting the centres of the extreme Circles, the
centre of the middle ring is found to be 12 feet 6 inches to the west of
it.
“These Circles have been greatly injured. The largest consists of 9
erect and 5 prostrate stones; the north Circle has 6 erect and 6
prostrate, and a fragment of a seventh; and the south has 3 erect and 8
prostrate. In Dr. Borlase’s time they were in a slightly better
condition. A pen-and-ink sketch made by him, which is extant in one of
Dr. Stukeley’s volumes of original drawings, represents the middle
Circle as consisting of 7 erect and 10 prostrate stones; the north of 10
erect and 6 prostrate; and the south of 3 erect and 9 prostrate. The
stone to the east of that marked C in the plan of the middle Circle is
the highest, and is 5 feet 8 inches out of the ground, and appears to
have been wantonly mutilated recently. Two of the prostrate stones of
the north Circle are 6 feet 6 inches in length.
“About 17 feet south from the centre of the middle Circle there is a
prostrate stone 4 feet long and 15 inches wide at one end. It may
possibly have been of larger dimensions formerly, and been erected on
the spot where it now lies, but as Dr. Borlase has omitted it in his
sketch it is probably a displaced stone of the ring.
“If we allow, as before, an average interval of 12 feet between the
stones, there will have been about 28 pillars in the north, 26 in the
south, and 33 in the middle Circle.
“At a distance of 409 feet westwards from K in the middle Circle there
are 2 stones, 7 feet apart, both inclined northwards. One is 4 feet 11
inches in height out of the ground, and overhangs its base 2 feet 7
inches; the other is 5 feet 4 inches high, and overhangs 18 inches.”
I now pass from a general description of the circles to the azimuths of
the sight-lines already referred to, so far as they can be determined
from the published Ordnance maps.
To investigate them as completely as possible without local observations
in the first instance, I begged Colonel Johnston, R.E., C.B., the
Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, to send me the 25-inch maps of
the site giving the exact azimuth of the side lines. This he obligingly
did, and I have to express my great indebtedness to him.
In Fig. 41 I show the sight-lines from the south and north Circles as
determined by the stones and barrows marked on the map. The sight-lines
on Arcturus are from the centres of the three circles in succession. I
shall point out later the significance of the fact that the November
alignments are from the south, the solstitial ones from the north
Circle.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--The Sight-lines at the Hurlers.]
Of the various sight-lines found, those to which I wish to direct
attention in the first instance, and which led me to the others, are
approximately, reading the azimuths to the nearest degree,
Lat. 50° 31′ N. Az.
S. circle to central circle N. 12° E.
Central to N. circle N. 15° E.
N. circle to tumulus N. 19° E.
In a preliminary inquiry in anticipation of the necessary local
observations with a theodolite, I assumed hills half a degree high, for
the reason given on p. 112. We have the following declinations
approximately:--
Dec. N. 38¹⁄₂°
„ 38°
„ 37°
Here, then, we have declinations to work on, but declinations of what
star? To endeavour to answer this question I studied the declinations of
the three brightest stars in the northern heavens, having approximately
the declinations in question some time or other during the period 0 to
2500 B.C.
Vega is ruled out as its declination was too high. The remaining stars
Capella and Arcturus may have been observed so far as the declinations
go. For time limits we have:--
Dec. N. Capella. Arcturus.
38¹⁄₂° 500 B.C. 1600 B.C.
36° 1050 „ 1150 „
Now there is no question as to which of these two stars we have to deal
with, for the northern circle is evidently less ancient than the
others, for some of the stones are squared and the others are less
irregular than those in the S. circle.
This being so, the approximate dates of the use of the three circles at
the Hurlers can be derived. They are, with the above assumption:--
B.C.
Southern circle aligning Arcturus over centre of central circle 1600
Central „ „ „ N. circle 1500
Northern „ „ „ tumulus 1300
The next step was to obtain, by means of a large circular protractor,
more accurate readings of the Ordnance Map. This I could do, but the all
important question of the angular height of the horizon remained. As it
was impossible for me to leave London when the significance of the
alignments was made out, I appealed to the authorities of the Royal
Cornwall Polytechnic Society for aid in obtaining the necessary angles,
and as a result, Captain J. S. Henderson, of Falmouth, an accomplished
surveyor, volunteered his aid and shortly sent me the angular heights
along some of the alignments, the means of eight readings obtained with
a 6-inch theodolite, both verniers and reversed telescopes being
employed. Other students of science besides myself will, I am sure, feel
their indebtedness for such opportune help.
The combination of the large protractor and theodolite work gives the
following final values. The difference between them and the provisional
ones given above speaks volumes as to the necessity of a local study of
the height of the horizon, a point I believe invariably neglected by
archæologists.
FINAL VALUES.
_Arcturus from S. circle to central circle._
Az. N. 11° 15′ E. Hills, 3° 23′ 52″ high.
_Dec._ = 41° 38′ DATE, 2170 B.C.
_Arcturus from central circle to N. circle._
Az. N. 14° 18′ E. Same hills.
_Dec._ = 41° 9′ DATE, 2090 B.C.
_Arcturus from N. circle to Barrow._
Az. N. 18° 14′ E. Same hills.
_Dec._ = 40° 6′ DATE, 1900 B.C.
Now before this evidence of star worship, so important if it can be
depended on, could be accepted, it was necessary to make a special
inquiry as to the existence of similar star observations in other
places. Many have been found of which more in the sequel.
The next point which arose was that Arcturus used as a clock-star (p.
108) would serve as a warner for August. This necessitated another
inquiry into the chief festivals in Cornwall: among these the August
(Harvest) festival is one.
Another point to consider was whether there was any evidence of a local
August festival. It happens that the Hurlers are in the parish of St.
Cleer, and some of the other Arcturus sight-lines are in that of St.
Just. Now, a local festival in old days was often associated with the
local Saint. As most of the Cornish Saints are common to Cornwall and
Brittany, I looked up the Calendar of the _Annuaire_ of the _Institut de
France_, and found that the days dedicated to SS. Justin and Claire are
the 9th and 12th of August. It seems, then, that at the Hurlers it was
really a question of a clock-star also used as a warning star for the
August festival. I think we have at last, then, run to earth the origin
of some of the northerly alignments referred to on pages 36 and 43.
It will have been noted that the last sight-line on Arcturus was marked
by a barrow. Captain Henderson inspected it and found it much ruined by
explorers, remains of a chamber inside being visible.
In a subsequent visit, in which Captain Henderson was accompanied by Mr.
Horton Bolitho, my wife and myself, we not only visited this barrow, but
found that the whole hill had been honeycombed to such an extent by
mining operations that it was very difficult to discriminate between
“investigated” barrows and other heaps and holes, unless the barrow
showed the remains of a chamber.
Our examination was not limited to barrows. Captain Henderson had spent
a long bleak day in examining and measuring the stones marked on the
Ordnance Map, to which I had called his special attention. We went over
part of the ground with him, and came to the conclusion that the whole
question of the Cornish treatment of “ancient stones” would have to be
gone into--an inquiry which Mr. Bolitho is now carrying on.
It must be remembered that any stone or barrow used in the sight-lines
we are now considering must have been put up nearly 4,000 years ago, so
long ago, in fact, that many of the chief barrows have been reduced to
the skeletons of their former selves, the enclosed stone chamber, built
of mighty stones, alone remaining.
Cromlechs and standing stones then formed important points in the
landscape long before ecclesiastical divisions were thought of, or any
attempt was made to indicate the boundaries of private property.
We should expect then to find these ancient monuments freely made use of
to mark what we now term “parish boundaries.” This is so. Four parishes
have thus used one of the larger cromlechs, and it is more than probable
that something beside the denunciation of the _cultus lapidum_, which we
have seen at work in Brittany (p. 39), has been responsible for the many
stone crosses in Cornwall. Of some of them near circles I have gathered
the astronomical use, while now they “mark the bounds,” as do some of
the stone rows in Dartmoor.
I believe that in later times this practice of the Church was followed
by those among whom the land was distributed, and this has gone on till
at last there are many ancient stones trimmed on one side and bearing
initials and so having a modern appearance. The astronomer, and even the
archæologist, may regret this practice, but as the habit in Cornwall
appears to be for anybody to use the nearest uncrossed and uninitialled
stone for a wall or a pigsty, Mr. Bolitho’s inquiry may show that in
some cases, at all events, it has been a blessing in disguise, for the
stones are still there.
In the case of a long chambered barrow, the top of which nearly touches
the horizon, as seen from a circle near it, there is less danger of
being misled.
In my notes on the stones of Stenness (Chapter XIII) I pointed out that
the chambered Cairns at Onston and Maeshowe suggested that such
structures were later variants of the more ancient standing stones. Some
barrows at the Hurlers lend further confirmation of this view. I will
deal with them first. Of one the data are Az. from N. Circle S. 72° 49′
W., height of horizon 12′ (Capt. Henderson). The resulting declination
is S. 11° 5′, the declination of Antares 1720 B.C. But why should
Antares be thus singled out? The table on page 117 shows the reason. At
the date involved the setting of Antares in the dawn was the warner of
the sunrise on May morning, the greatest day in all the year.
Is there any precedent for this use of Antares?
I have already pointed out (p. 108) that Mr. Penrose found the warning
stars for May morning at the dates of foundation of the Hecatompedon,
and the older Erechtheum, to be the group of the Pleiades rising and
_Antares_ setting. As the foundations of the Hecatompedon were built
only some few years after the stones of the central circle of the
Hurlers were used, we ought to find traces of the observations of the
same May-morning stars.
We have, then, now a third term in the astronomical use of stars to
herald the sunrise on May morning.
Temple of Min Thebes 3200 B.C. Spica.
Temple at the Hurlers Liskeard 1720 „ Antares.
Older Erechtheum Athens 1070 „ „
The next barrow to be referred to--it is shown to be a long one on the
Ordnance Map--is situated near the top of Caradon Hill, and is visible
on the sky-line from the circles. Data: Az. from N. Circle S. 65° E.,
height of horizon 1° 38′ (Henderson). This corresponds almost exactly
with the azimuth of the rise of the sun’s upper limb with declination S.
16° 20′ on the two critical dates in November and February of the
May-year (Halloween and Candlemas, see p. 23), so I am inclined to
consider it more than a mere coincidence that the azimuths coincide so
closely. It, however, may be urged that there are other barrows on
Caradon Hill, but judging from the Ordnance Map they seem to be of the
round variety used for burials, perhaps a thousand years after the
circles were in use, and in my opinion by a different race of men; but
this matter must not detain us now, I hope to return to it later.
Still one more barrow and a stone, uncrossed and uninitialled, in the
same sight-line, data: Az. from N. circle S. 59° 35′ E. Height of
horizon 1° 38′ 23″ (Henderson), resulting declination S. 19° 50′. This
was the declination of Sirius 1690 B.C. Why Sirius? The table on p. 117
gives us the answer. Sirius replaced Arcturus as a warning star for the
August festival, and we have seen that the last use of Arcturus was
connected with the sight-line to the barrow about 1900 B.C.
I pass now from barrows to stones. There is one about which there can be
no question. It is a famous Cross, a “Longstone” at which all travellers
stop on their way from St. Cleer to the Hurlers. It occupies nearly the
same position on the S.W. horizon as does the long tumulus on Caradon
Hill in the S.E. quadrant. From the _South_ Circle, and this is
important, its Azimuth, S. 64° W., is nearly the same; it marked, and
still marks, the sunset point on the critical days of the May year in
November and February.
There is another stone marked on the Ordnance Map Az. N. 88° E. from the
N. circle. It has been removed, so I may fairly assume that it was
really an ancient stone. Captain Henderson’s value for the height of the
horizon is 11′ 31″. The table on p. 117 will show that in this direction
we have to deal with Betelgeuse as a warner for the summer solstice. The
resulting date is 1730 B.C.
It would appear that possibly this is not the only stone dealing with
(later) solstitial alignments. Lukis gives two stones on the west side
of the circles which on the Ordnance Map are classed as boundary stones:
they lie on a boundary beyond all question, but also beyond all question
they are as ancient as the stones of the circles themselves. From the N.
circle they are almost but not quite in a line, and the azimuth of the
south stone is S. 49° W. This is a solstitial azimuth. I think,
therefore, that we may accept this as another evidence of the worship of
the setting sun at the winter solstice, _from the N. circle_, and in
this we have still further evidence that to the worship of the May year
in the south circle was added later one dealing with the solstitial year
which was chiefly carried on in the N. circle.
CHAPTER XV
THE DARTMOOR AVENUES
In Chapter XI. I referred to the very numerous alignments of stones in
Brittany, and I was allowed by Lieutenant Devoir, of the French Navy, to
give some of his theodolite observations of the directions along which
the stones had been set up.
The conclusion was that we were really dealing with monuments connected
with the worship of the sun of the May year, a year which the recent
evidence has shown to have been the first used after the length of the
year had been determined; thus replacing the lunar unit of time which
was in vogue previously, and the use of which is brought home to us by
the reputed ages of Methuselah and other biblical personages, who knew
no other measurer of time than the moon.
There was also evidence to the effect that in later times solstitial
alignments had been added, so that the idea that we were dealing with
astronomically oriented rows of stones was greatly strengthened, not to
say established.
So long as the Brittany alignments were things of mystery, their origin,
as well as that of the more or less similar monuments in Britain, was
variously explained; they were models in stone of armies in battle
array, or they represented funeral processions, to mention only two
suggestions. I should add that Mr. H. Worth, who has devoted much time
to their study, considers that some sepulchral interest attaches to
them, though he thinks it may be argued that that was secondary, even as
are interments in cathedrals and churches. About burials associated with
them, of course, there is no question, for the kistvaens and cairns are
there; but my observations suggest that they were added long after the
avenues were built, because some cairns _block_ avenues. Perhaps a
careful study of the modes of burial adopted may throw light on this
point.
The equivalents of the Brittany alignments are not common in Britain;
they exist in the greatest number on Dartmoor, whither I went recently
to study them. The conditions on high Dartmoor are peculiar; dense
blinding mists are common, and, moreover, sometimes come on almost
without warning. From its conformation the land is full of streams.
There are stones everywhere. What I found, therefore, as had others
before me, was that as a consequence of the conditions to which I have
referred, directions had been indicated by rows of stones for quite
other than ceremonial purposes. Here, then, was another possible origin.
It was a matter of great importance to discriminate most carefully
between these alignments, and to endeavour to sort them out. My special
inquiry, of course, was to see if they, like their apparent equivalents
in Brittany, could have had an astronomical origin. The first thing to
do, then, was to see which might have been erected for worship or which
for practical purposes.
In doing this there is no difficulty in dealing with extremes. Thus one
notable line of large flat stones has been claimed by Messrs. R. N.
Worth and R. Burnard as a portion of the Great Fosseway (Rowe’s
_Perambulation_, third edition, p. 63); it has been traced for eighteen
miles from beyond Hameldon nearly to Tavistock, the stones being about 2
feet thick and the road 10 feet wide.
[Illustration: _Photo. by Lady Lockyer._
FIG. 42.--The Southern Avenue at Merrivale, looking East.]
There are two notable avenues of upright stones at Merrivale; they are
in close connection with a circle, and could have had no practical use.
These stones, then, we may claim as representing the opposite extreme of
the Fosseway and as suggesting an astronomical, as opposed to a
practical, use; the adjacent circle, of course greatly strengthens this
view.
It is between these extremes that difficulties may arise, but the
verdict can, in a great many cases at all events, be settled without any
very great hesitation, especially where practical or astronomical
uselessness can be established. But even here care is necessary, as I
shall show.
The stones now in question, originally upright, are variously called
avenues, rows, alignments or parallelithons. Their study dates from
1827, when Rowe and Colonel Hamilton Smith examined those at Merrivale
(Rowe, _op. cit._, p. 31). Their number has increased with every careful
study of any part of the moor, and doubtless many are still
unmapped.[22] The late Mr. R. N. Worth, of Plymouth, and his son, Mr. H.
Worth, have given great attention to these monuments, and the former
communicated a paper on them to the Devonshire Association for the
Advancement of Science in 1892 (_Trans._, xxv. pp. 387-417).
A word of caution must be said before I proceed. We must not take for
granted that the stone-rows are now as they left the hands of the
builders. The disastrous carelessness of the Government in the matter of
our national antiquities is, I am locally informed, admirably imitated
by the Devonshire County and other lesser councils, and, indeed, by
anybody who has a road to mend or a wall to build. On this account, any
of the rows may once have been much longer and with an obvious practical
use; and those which now appear to be far removed from circles may once
have been used for sacred processions at shrines which have disappeared.
Again, the rows of stones we are now considering must not be confounded
with the “track lines” or “boundary banks” which are so numerous on
Dartmoor, and are represented in Wiltshire according to Sir R. C. Hoare;
these serve for bounds and pathways, and for connecting and enclosing
fields or houses.
Dealing, then, with stone rows or avenues, which may be single, double,
or multiple; any which are very long and crooked, following several
directions, are certainly not astronomical; and it is easy to see in
some cases that they might have been useful guides at night or in mist
in difficult country with streams to cross. This possible utility must
not be judged wholly by the present conformation of the ground or the
present beds of streams.
For multiple avenues it is hard to find practical uses such as the
above, and we know how such avenues were used in Brittany for sun
worship. Mr. Baring Gould considers there were eight rows in an avenue
on Challacombe Down 528 feet long; of these only three rows remain, the
others being represented by single stones here and there (Rowe, p. 33).
I shall have something to say about this avenue further on.
Although, as I have said, long rows bending in various directions are
not likely to have had an astronomical origin, it must not be assumed
that all astronomical avenues must be _exactly_ straight. This, of
course, would be true for level ground, but if the avenue has to pass
over ridges and furrows, the varying height of the horizon must be
reckoned with, and therefore the azimuth of the avenue at any point
along it.
I think it possible that in the Stalldon Moor row we have the mixture of
religious and practical intention at which I have before hinted. Both
Mr. Lukis and Mr. Hansford Worth have studied this monument, which is
two miles and a quarter long. There is a circle at the south end about
60 feet in diameter, while at its northern end there is a cairn.
Where the line starts from the circle the direction of the row is
parallel to many sight-lines in Cornwall, and Arcturus would rise in the
azimuth indicated. But this direction is afterwards given up for one
which leads towards an important collection of hut circles, and it
crosses the Erme, no doubt at the most convenient spot. More to the
north it crosses another stream and the bog of Red Lake. All this is
surely practical enough, although the way indicated might have been
followed by the priests of the hut circles to the stone circle to
prepare the morning sacrifice and go through the ritual.
But there is still another method of discrimination. If any of these
avenues were used at all for purposes of worship, their azimuths should
agree with those already found in connection with circles in other parts
of Britain, for we need not postulate a special race with a special cult
limited to Dartmoor; and in my inquiries what I have to do is to
consider the general question of orientation wherever traces of it can
be found. The more the evidences coincide the better it is for the
argument, while variations afford valuable tests.
Now, speaking very generally (I have not yet compared all my numerous
notes), in Cornwall the chief alignments from the circles there are with
azimuths N. 10°-20° E. watching the rise of the clock-star, N. 64°-68°
E. watching the rise of the May sun, N. 75°-82° E. watching the rise of
the Pleiades. The variation in the azimuths is largely due to the
different heights of the horizon towards which the sight-lines are
directed.
The conclusion I have come to is that these alignments, depending upon
circles and menhirs in Cornwall, are all well represented on Dartmoor
associated with the avenues; and further, so far as I have learned at
present, in the case of the avenues connected with circles, there are
not many alignments I have not met with in connection with circles in
Cornwall and elsewhere.
This is not only a _prima facie_ argument in favour of the astronomical
use underlying the structures, but it is against the burial theory, for
certainly there must have been burials in Cornwall.
In order, therefore, to proceed with the utmost caution, I limit myself
in the first instance to the above azimuths, and will begin by applying
a test which should be a rigid one.
If the avenues on Dartmoor had to deal with the same practices and cults
as did the circles in Cornwall, they ought to prove themselves to have
been in use at _about_ the same time, and from this point of view the
investigation of the avenues becomes of very great importance, because
of the destruction of circles and menhirs which has been going on, and
is still going on, on Dartmoor. We have circles without menhirs and
menhirs without circles, so that the azimuths of the avenues alone
remain to give us any chance of dating the monuments if they were used
in connection with star worship. The case is far different in Cornwall,
where both circles and menhirs have in many cases been spared.
On Dartmoor, where in some cases the menhirs still remain, they have
been annexed as crosses and perhaps as boundary stones, and squared and
initialed; hence the Ordnance surveyors have been misled, and they are
not shown as ancient stones on the map. In some cases the azimuth of the
stones suggests that this has been the sequence of events.
It will be seen from the above that I have not tackled a question full
of pitfalls without due caution, and this care was all the more
necessary as the avenues have for long been the meeting ground of the
friends and foes of what Rowe calls “Druidical speculations”; even yet
the war rages, and my writing and Lieut. Devoir’s observing touching the
similar but grander avenues of Brittany have so far been all in vain;
chiefly, I think, because no discrimination has been considered possible
between different uses of avenues, and because the statements made by
archæologists as to their direction have been quite useless to anybody
in consequence of their vagueness, and last of all because the recent
work on the Brittany remains is little known.
I began my acquaintance with the Dartmoor monuments by visiting
Merrivale, and the result of my inquiries there left absolutely no doubt
whatever on my mind. I was armed, thanks to the kindness of Colonel
Johnston, the Director of the Ordnance Survey, with the 25-inch map,
while Mr. Hansford Worth had been so good as to send me one showing his
special survey.
The Merrivale avenues (lat. 50° 33′ 15″) are composed of two double
rows, roughly with the azimuth N. 82° E.; the northern row is shorter
than the other. Rowe, in his original description (1830), makes the
northern 1143 feet long; they are not quite parallel, and the southern
row has a distinct “kink” or change of direction in it at about the
centre. The stones are mostly 2 or 3 feet high, and in each row they are
about 3 feet apart; the distance between the rows is about 80 feet.
I have before pointed out (p. 149) that an avenue directed to the rising
place of a star, if it is erected over undulating ground, cannot be
straight. I may now mention another apparent paradox. If two avenues are
directed to the rising place of the same star _at different times_, they
cannot be parallel. It is not a little curious that absence of
parallelism has been used against avenues having had an astronomical
use!
Both the Ordnance surveyors and Mr. Worth have shown the want of
parallelism of the two avenues, and Mr. Worth has noted the kink in the
southern one. The height of the horizon, as determined from my measures,
is 3° 18′. The results of these inquiries, assuming the Pleiades to have
been observed warning May morning, are as follows:--
Azimuth. Authority. N. Declination. Date B.C.
° ° ′ ″
N. 83·15 E. Worth 6 47 47 1710
82·30 Worth 7 16 20 1630
82·10 Ordnance 7 32 0 1580
80·40 Worth 8 26 0 1420
80·30 Ordnance 8 30 0 1400
To simplify matters we may deal with the Ordnance values and neglect the
small change of direction in the southern avenue. We have, then, the two
dates 1580 B.C. and 1420 B.C. for the two avenues. The argument for the
Pleiades is strengthened by the fact that at Athens the Hecatompedon was
oriented to these stars in 1495 B.C. according to Mr. Penrose’s
determination of the azimuth.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--Plan, from the Ordnance Map, showing the
avenues, circle and stones at Merrivale, with their azimuths.]
Now this is not the first time I have referred to avenues in these
notes. The azimuth of one at Stonehenge was used to fix the date at
which sun worship went on there. That avenue, unlike the Dartmoor ones,
was built of earth, and it is not alone. There is another nearly two
miles long called the Cursus. So far, I have found no solstitial worship
on Dartmoor, so there are no avenues parallel to the one at Stonehenge
leading N.E. from the temple. But how about the other? _It is roughly
parallel to the avenues at Merrivale, and I think, therefore, was, like
them, used as a processional road, a via sacra, to watch the rising of
the Pleiades._
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Reprint of Ordnance Map showing that the Cursus
at Stonehenge is nearly parallel to the Merrivale Avenue. The azimuth is
82° and not 84° as shown in the figure.]
I said roughly parallel; its azimuth is about the same (N. 82° E.
roughly); but the horizon is only about 1° high; it was therefore in use
before those at Merrivale; the exact date of use must wait for
theodolite values of the height of the horizon, but in the meantime we
can see from the above estimates that the declination of the Pleiades
was about N. 5° 28′ 30″ and the date of use 1950 B.C., that is some 300
years before the solstitial restoration.
Mr. Worth’s survey gives another line of stones. It is undoubtedly, I
think, an ancient line, although it is not shown in the Ordnance map, a
clear indication of the difficulty of discriminating these avenues on
land cumbered with stones in all directions. Its azimuth is N. 24° 25′
E., and the height of the horizon 5° 10′. This gives us Arcturus at the
date 1860 B.C., showing that, as at the Hurlers, Arcturus was used as a
clock-star. Hence a possible _astronomical_ use is evident, while this
row, like the others, could have been of no _practical_ use to anybody.
It is interesting to note that this single row of stones is older than
the double ones; this seems natural.
It is worth while to say a word as to the different treatment of the
ends of the south avenue now that it seems probable that it was used to
watch the rising of the Pleiades. At the east end there is what
archæologists term a “blocking stone”; these observations suggest that
it was really a _sighting_ stone. At the west end such a stone is
absent, but the final stones in the avenue are longer than the rest.
This may help us in the true direction of the sight-lines in other
avenues; and, indeed, I shall show in the sequel that this consideration
affords a criterion which, in the cases I have come across, is entirely
in harmony with others.
[22] On June 15, 1905, that excellent guide of the Chagford part of the
moor, Mr. S. Perrott, showed me an avenue (Azimuth N. 20° E. true) near
Hurston Ridge which is not given in the 1-inch map.
CHAPTER XVI
THE DARTMOOR AVENUES (_continued_)
My inquiries began at Merrivale because there is a circle associated
with the avenues a little to the south of the west end of the longest;
and again nearly, or quite, south of this there is a fine menhir,
possibly used to give a north-south line. There is another menhir given
on the Ordnance map, azimuth N. 70° 30′ E., which, with hills 3° high,
points out roughly the place of sunrise from the circle in May (April
29). Although this stone has been squared and initialed, I think I am
justified in claiming it as an ancient monument. There is still another,
azimuth N. 83° E., giving a line from the circle almost parallel to the
avenue. I hope some local archæologist will examine it, for if ancient
it will tell us whether the N. avenue or the circle was built first, a
point of which it is difficult to overrate the importance, as it will
show the strict relationship between the astronomy of the avenues and
that of the circle, and we can now, I think, deal with the astronomical
use of circles after the results obtained at Stonehenge, Stenness and
the Hurlers as an accepted fact. With the above approximate values the
date comes out 1750 B.C., the declination of the Pleiades being N. 6°
35′.
I now pass on from Merrivale as an example of those avenues the
direction of which lies somewhere in the E.-W. direction. Others which I
have not seen, given by Rowe, are at Assacombe, Drizzlecombe and
Trowlesworthy; to these Mr. Worth adds Harter or Har Tor (or Black Tor).
The avenues which lie nearly N. and S. are more numerous. Rowe gives the
following:--Fernworthy, Challacombe, Trowlesworthy, Stalldon Moor,
Battendon, Hook Lake, and Tristis Rock. Of these I have visited the
first two, as well as one on Shovel Down not named by Rowe, and the next
two I have studied on the 6-inch Ordnance map.
_Fernworthy_ (lat. 50° 38′).--Here are two avenues, one with azimuth N.
15° 45′ E., hills 1° 15′. There is a sighting stone at the N. end. We
appear to be dealing with Arcturus as clock-star 1610 B.C. This is about
the date of the erection of the N. avenue at Merrivale.
The second avenue has its sighting stone built into a wall at the south
end. Looking south along the avenue, the conditions are azimuth S. 8°
42′ W., hills 3° 30′.
Both these avenues are aligned on points within, but _not_ at the centre
of, the circle.
_Challacombe_ (lat. 50° 36′).--This is a case of a triple avenue,
probably the remains of eight rows, in a depression between two hills,
Challacombe Down and Warrington. There is no circle. The azimuth is 23°
37′ N.W. or S.E., according to direction. The northern end has been
destroyed by an old stream work; there is no blocking stone to the south
on either of the remaining avenues, but one large menhir terminates one
row of stones. The others may have been removed. So it is probable that
the alignment was to the north. If so, we are dealing with the setting
of Arcturus, warning the summer solstice sunrise in 1860 B.C. To the S.
the hills are 4° 48′, to the N. 4° 50′.
To this result some importance must be attached, first, because it
brings us into presence of the cult of the solstitial year, secondly,
because it shows us that the system most in vogue in Brittany was
introduced in relation to that year. In Brittany, as I have before
shown, the complicated alignments, there are 11 parallel rows at Le
Ménac (p. 99) (there _were_ 8 parallel rows at Challacombe), were set up
to watch the May and August sunrises, and the solstitial alignments came
afterwards. The Brittany May alignments, therefore, were probably used
long before 1860 B.C., the date we have found for Challacombe, where not
the sunrise but the setting star which gave warning of it was observed.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--The remains of the eight rows of the
Challacombe Avenue. Looking North of East. Terminal Menhir on the
extreme right.]
It is worth while to point out that at Challacombe, as elsewhere, the
priest-astronomers so located their monuments that the nearly
circumpolar stars which were so useful to them should rise over an
horizon of some angular height. In this way the direction-lines would be
available for a longer period of time, for near the north point the
change of azimuth with change in the declination of the star observed is
very rapid.
_Shovel Down_, near Batworthy (lat. 50° 39′ 20″).--A group of five rows
of stones, four double, one single, with two sets of azimuths.
One set gives az. 22° 25°, and 28°. They seem to be associated. I will
call them A, B, and C. A is directed to the circle on Godleigh Common.
Its ends are free. B is a single line of stones to the E. of the triple
circle, about which more presently. It is not marked on the Ordnance
map; its ends are also free. C has its south end blocked, I think in
later times, by a kistvaen. The astronomical direction may be,
therefore, either N.W. or S.E. We find a probable use in the N.W.
quadrant, as at Challacombe, Arcturus setting at daybreak as a warner of
the summer solstice.
The height of hills is 46′; we have then:--
Az. N. Dec. Star. Date.
N. 22° W. 36° 19′ 40″ Arcturus 1210 B.C.
N. 25° W. 35° 23′ 20″ „ 1040 „
N. 28° W. 34° 19′ 30″ „ 850 „
Adjacent to A, B, C, is another avenue, which I will call D. Unlike the
others, its northern end points 2° E. of N. Its southern end is blocked
by a remarkable triple circle, the end of the avenue close to it being
defined by two tall terminal stones. We are justified, then, in thinking
that its orientation was towards the north; the height of the horizon I
measured as 45′. It may have been an attempt to mark the N. point of
the horizon.
The triple circle to which I have referred is not an ordinary circle. I
believe it to be a later added, much embellished, cairn. According to
Ormerod, the diameters are 26, 20, and 3 feet, and there are three small
stones at the centre.
All the above avenues are on the slope of the hill to the north. On the
south slope we find the longest of all, as shown on the Ordnance map
survey of 1885. There is a “long stone” in its centre, and at the
southern end was formerly a cromlech, the “three boys.” Part of this
avenue, and two of the three “boys,” have been taken to build a wall.
The long stone remains, because it is a boundary stone!
The azimuth is 2° 30′ W. of north or E. of south. Looking N. from the
long stone, the height of the horizon is 2° 30′. I think this avenue was
an attempt to mark the S. point.
_Trowlesworthy_ (lat. 50° 27′ 30″).--The remains here are most
interesting. This is the only monument on Dartmoor in which I have so
far traced any attempt to locate the sun’s place at rising either for
the May or solstitial year. But I will deal with the N.-S. avenue first,
as it is this feature which associates it with Fernworthy and
Challacombe.
As at Merrivale, the avenue has a decided “kink” or change of direction.
The facts as gathered from the 6-inch map are as follows:--
Az. Hills. Dec. N. Star. Date.
S. part of Avenue N. 7° E. 2° 52′ 41° 29′ 10″ Arcturus 2130 B.C.
N. „ „ N. 12° E. 2° 52′ 41° 6′ 20″ „ 2080 B.C.
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--The sight-lines at Trowlesworthy, showing high
northern azimuths. From the Ordnance map.]
This date is very nearly that of the use of the S. circle at the
Hurlers, and it is early for Dartmoor; but it is quite possible that
local observations on an associated avenue a little to the west of the
circle which terminates the N.-S. avenue will justify it. This is not
far from parallel to that at Merrivale, but its northern azimuth is
greater, so that if it turns out to have been aligned on the Pleiades
its date will be some time before that of Merrivale, that is, before
1580 B.C. I can say nothing more about it till I have visited it.
The new features to which I have referred are two tumuli which in all
probability represent more recent additions to the original scheme of
observation, as we have found at Stenness, and show that Trowlesworthy
was for long one of the chief centres of worship on Dartmoor. Their
azimuths are S. 64° E. and S. 49° W., dealing, therefore, with the May
year sunrises in November and February and the solstitial sunset in
December. It is probable that, as at the Hurlers, tumuli were used
instead of stones not earlier than 1900 B.C.
_Stalldon Moor_ (lat. 50° 27′ 45″) I have already incidentally referred
to. The azimuth of the stone row as it leaves the circle, _not_ from its
centre as I read the 6-inch map, is N. 3° E.; as the azimuth gradually
increases for a time, we may be dealing with Arcturus, but local
observation is necessary.
The differences between the Cornish and Dartmoor monuments give much
food for thought, and it is to be hoped that they will be carefully
studied by future students of orientation, as so many questions are
suggested. I will refer to some of them.
(1) Are the avenues, chiefly consisting of two rows of stones, a
reflection of the sphinx avenues of Egypt? and, if so, how can the
intensification of them on Dartmoor be explained?
(2) Was there a double worship going on in the avenues and the circles
at the same time? If not, why were the former not aligned on the
circles? On a dead level, of course, if the avenues were aligned on the
centre of the circle towards the rising or setting of the sun or a star,
the procession in the _via sacra_ would block the view of those in the
circle. We have the avenue at Stonehenge undoubtedly aligned on the
centre of the circle, but there the naos was on an eminence, so that the
procession in the avenue was always below the level of the horizon, and
so did not block the view.
(3) Do all the cairns and cists in the avenues represent later
additions, so late, indeed, that they may have been added after the
avenues had ceased to be used for ceremonial purposes? The cairn at
nearly the central point of the S. avenue at Merrivale was certainly not
there as a part of the structure when the avenue was first used as a
_via sacra_ for observing the rising of the Pleiades. I have always held
that these ancient temples, and even their attendant long and chambered
barrows, were for the living and not for the dead, and this view has
been strengthened by what I have observed on Dartmoor.
There was good reason for burials after the sacred nature of the spot
had been established, and they may have taken place at any time since;
the most probable time being after 1000 B.C. up to a date as recent as
archæologists may consider probable.
Mr. Worth, whose long labours on the Dartmoor avenues give such
importance to his opinions, objects to the astronomical use of those
avenues because there are so many of them; he informs me that he knows
of 50; I think this objection may be considered less valid if the
avenues show that they were dedicated to different uses, some practical
and others sacred, at different times of the year. For instance,
Challacombe is not a duplicate of Merrivale; one is solstitial, the
other deals with the May year; and a complete examination of them--I
have only worked on the fringe--may show other differences having the
same bearing.
In favour of the astronomical view it must be borne in mind that the
results obtained in Devon and Cornwall are remarkably similar, and the
dates are roughly the same. Among the whole host of heaven from which
objectors urge it is free for me to select any star I choose, at present
only six stars have been considered, two of which were certainly used,
as in Egypt, as clock-stars as they just dipped below the northern
horizon, and other two afterwards at Athens; and these six stars are
shown by nothing more recondite than an inspection of a precessional
globe to have been precisely the stars, the “morning stars,” wanted by
the priest-astronomers who wished to be prepared for the instant of
sunrise at the critical points of the May or solstitial year.
CHAPTER XVII
STANTON DREW (Lat. 51° 10′ N.)
Other circles to which I have given some attention are at Stanton Drew
in Somerset. I regret to say that I have not as yet had an opportunity
of visiting them. But a cursory inspection on the Ordnance map of the
possible sight-lines from circle to circle, for there are three,
suggested at once that we were dealing with the same problem as that
worked out, if somewhat differently, at the Hurlers.
The three circles, two avenues leading from two of the circles towards
the river, and some outstanding stones were most carefully surveyed by
Mr. C. E. Dymond some years ago. He was good enough to send me copies of
his plans and levelling sections. I have not had the advantage of
perusing his memoir, but I have studied the monuments as well as I could
by means of the 25-inch Ordnance map. This, combined with an azimuth
which Colonel Johnston, the Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, was
kind enough to send me, should give me bearings within a degree.
I will begin by giving a short account of the stones which remain,
abridged from the convenient pamphlet prepared for the British
Association meeting at Bristol in 1898 by Prof. Lloyd Morgan.
The circles at Stanton Drew, though far less imposing than those of
Avebury and Stonehenge, are thought to be more ancient than are the
latter, for the rough-hewn uprights and plinths of Stonehenge bear the
marks of a higher and presumably later stage of mechanical development.
Taken as a group, the Somersetshire circles are in some respects more
complex than their better known rivals in Wiltshire. There are three
circles, from two of which “avenues” proceed for a short distance in a
more or less easterly direction; there is a shattered but large
dolmen--if we may so regard the set of stones called “the cove”; and
there are outlying stones--the “quoit,” and those in Middle Ham--which
bear such relations to the circles as to suggest that they too formed
parts of some general scheme of construction.
From the photograph of the Ordnance map (Fig. 47) it will be seen, as
pointed out by Prof. Lloyd Morgan,
(1) That the centre of the great circle, that of the S.W. circle, and
that of the quoit, are nearly in the same straight line.
(2) That the cove, the centre of the great circle, and that of the N.E.
circle, are nearly in the same straight line.
The quoit, which generally means the covering stone of a
cromlech--“Hautville’s Quoit,” as it is named on the Ordnance map--looms
large in Stanton Drew tradition; it is locally as much respected as the
circles themselves. It is pointed to most unmistakably by the fact that
a line from it to the S.W. circle passes nearly through the centre of
the great circle.
If the observation line, then, meant anything astronomically, it can
only have had to do with the rising of a star far to the north, in a
position far more northerly than the sun ever reaches.
The “quoit,” lying in an orchard by the roadside, has nothing very
impressive about its appearance--a recumbent mass of greyish sandstone;
but it seems to be a brick in the Stanton Drew building. By some
regarded as a sarsen block from Wiltshire, it is, in Prof. Lloyd
Morgan’s opinion, more probably derived from the Old Red Sandstone of
Mendip. In any case it is not, geologically speaking, _in situ_; nor has
it reached its present position by natural agency.
With regard to two of the megalithic circles, at first sight the
constituent stones seem irregularly dotted about the field; but as we
approach them the unevenly spaced stones group themselves.
The material of which the greater number of the rude blocks is composed
is peculiar and worthy of careful examination. It is a much altered rock
consisting, in most of the stones, of an extremely hard siliceous
breccia with angular fragments embedded in a red or deep brown matrix,
and with numerous cavities which give it a rough slaggy appearance. Many
of these hollows are coated internally with a jasper-like material, the
central cavity being lined with gleaming quartz-crystals.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.--The Circles and Avenues at Stanton Drew.
Photograph of 25-inch Ordnance map, shewing approximate azimuths of
sight-lines.]
The majority of the stones were probably brought from Harptree Ridge on
Mendip, distant some six miles. Weathered blocks of Triassic breccia,
showing various stages of silicification, there lie on the surface; and
there probably lay the weathered monoliths which have been transported
to Stanton Drew. It is important to note that they were erected
unhewn and untouched by the tool. A few stones are of other
material--sandstone, like the “quoit,” or oolite from Dundry.
In the great circle, of the visible stones some retain their erect
position, others are recumbent, several are partially covered by
accumulation of grass-grown soil. Others are completely buried, their
position being revealed in dry seasons by the withering of the grass
above them.
To the east of this circle a short avenue leads out, there being three
visible stones and one buried block on the one hand, and two visible
stones on the other. But one’s attention is apt to be diverted from
these to the very large and massive megaliths of the small N.E. circle.
This is composed of eight weathered masses, one of which (if indeed it
do not represent more than one), Prof. Lloyd Morgan tells us, is
recumbent and shattered. From this circle, all the stones of which are
of the siliceous breccia, a short avenue of small stones also opens out
eastwards.
The third or S.W. circle lies at some little distance from the others.
The average size of the stones is smaller than in either of the other
circles, and not all are composed of the same material.
“The Cove,” which has been variously regarded as a dolmen, a druidical
chair of state, and a shelter for sacrificial fire, is close to the
church.
The dimensions and numbers of the stones are as follow:
Great circle, diameter 368 feet, 30 stones.
N.E. „ „ 97 „ 8 „
S.W. „ „ 145 „ 12 „
As I was not able to visit Stanton Drew when the significance of the
northerly alignments struck me, I made an appeal to Prof. Lloyd Morgan,
of whose pamphlet I have so largely made use, to obtain some theodolite
observations. As a result such observations have been made by himself
and Mr. Morrow, from whom I have recently received a report with full
permission to make use of it in this place.
The monuments are not easy to measure, as the centres of the circles are
not readily determined, as so many of the stones are either absent,
recumbent or buried.
In my rough reading of the Ordnance map given in Fig. 47, I thought I
might be guided by taking centres, such that the avenues would be
aligned on them as at Stonehenge. I had not then seen the Dartmoor
avenues, which in some cases are not aligned on the centres. In this it
is possible that I was wrong, as both Mr. Dymond’s and Mr. Morrow’s
observations suggest that the avenues are really of the Dartmoor
pattern. Mr. Morrow writes: “The centres of the circles are (to a
certain small extent) a matter of choice, a difference of a few minutes
may easily occur. In dealing with the avenues a larger discrepancy may
occur. I have taken what, in my opinion, was the best centre line of
each avenue and thus determined its azimuth. But I believe that
originally the southern line of stones forming each avenue was directed
towards the centre of the corresponding circle, and that the avenue was
then completed by the erection of a parallel line of stones. A
difference of a few degrees may thus be accounted for in the azimuth
supposed to have been originally marked out.”
About Mr. Morrow’s azimuths there can be no question. He writes:
“The instruments used were, first, a 6″ theodolite, and second, a 6″
transit theodolite. The final results were obtained with the latter. It
cannot be reversed when measuring elevations. I tested it very carefully
for the adjustments of (_a_) line of collimation at right angles to the
horizontal axis, (_b_) horizontal axis perpendicular to vertical axis,
and (_c_) line of collimation and spirit level parallel to each other.
The instrument was in first-rate order, the error in elevation, for
example, being within that corresponding to a slope of 1 in 40,000; that
is well within the limit of 20″ to which vertical angles can be read.
“The meridian was obtained by two different methods applied several
times, the results agreeing very closely. Readings of azimuths and
altitude of sun were taken between three and four hours after noon,
corrected for semi-diameter, &c., and the true bearing obtained with the
aid of the latitude and the declination given in Nautical Almanac
(corrected for time).
“With regard to the elevations of the horizon, the existence of trees on
or just below the sky-line renders readings to the nearest minute
uncertain. In all cases I have tried to give the most probable value,
supposing the trees to be absent. In some places the heights will have
altered slightly during recent years owing to the construction of
railways.
“The values given are the means of observations. They are not corrected
for height of instrument above ground, which might increase the angles
by about 5 mins. Trees on the sky-line appear to make a difference of
some 35 mins.”
The azimuths as found by Mr. Morrow and myself are as under:
Height of horizon
(excluding trees).
Morrow. Lockyer. Morrow.
[23]From centre of great circle
to Hauteville’s quoit N. 17° 59′ E. 17° 2° 23′
From centre of great circle
to N.E. circle 53° 0′ 51° 1° 5′
From centre of great circle
along great circle avenue 68° 43′ 65° 0° 38′
From centre of N.E. circle
along N.E. circle avenue S. 83° 52′ E. 79° 1° 40′
From centre of S.W. circle
to centre of great circle N. 19° 51′ E. 20° 1° 44′
The azimuths to which I first direct attention are these:
Az.
Great circle to quoit N. 17° E.
S.W. circle to great circle N. 20° E.
These azimuths indicate that at Stanton Drew as at the Hurlers and
elsewhere we are dealing with Arcturus as a clock-star. The facts are:
Az. N. Decln. Height Star. Date.
of hills.
N. 17° E. 38° 59′ 0″ 2° 23′ Arcturus 1690
20° 37° 26′ 50″ 1° 44′ „ 1410
One of the greatest differences between Mr. Morrow’s local observation
and my reading of the 25-inch Ordnance map occurs in the case of the
direction of the avenue from the great circle. It may be suggested that
the use of this avenue was to observe the May and August sunrises of the
May year. If we take the sun’s declination at 16° 20′ N., see p. 22, the
azimuth should be about N. 64° E.; this is 1° from my value and 5° from
that given by Mr. Morrow, but it must not be forgotten that the choice
of a day in May and August slightly differing from the normal date might
easily produce such a variation.
It seems probable that the great circle was one of the first erected,
and the fact that, like Stonehenge, it had an avenue, but that, unlike
Stonehenge, the avenue was directed towards the May and not the June
(solstitial) sunrise further, I think, suggests that the May worship was
considered the most important and was the first provided for.
There is reason for supposing that the great circle was at all events
built before the S.W. one. The great circle is situated at a lower level
than the S.W. one. The angular elevation of the hills over which
Arcturus rose would appear, therefore, to be higher from the great than
from the S.W. circle. Arcturus has been reducing its declination for
centuries in consequence of the precessional movement. It would
therefore rise gradually in a greater azimuth, that is, nearer the east.
An observer in the centre of the great circle, to follow this more
easterly rising over the quoit, would have to change his position
gradually to the westward. But there was another way. The original
direction could be nearly maintained if the observation were made at a
higher level near the original line, as then the relative elevation of
the rising-place would be reduced.
This is what possibly was done, and this indeed may be the _vera causa_
of the building of the S.W. circle.
This view of the possible function of the “quoit” is, of course,
strengthened by the fact that we find traces of high northerly alignment
in other stone circles. I have already shown that there are such
alignments in Cornwall.
The “quoit” is nearly on a level with the great circle, while the hills
rise behind it. It has been suggested that it would have been more
useful on the top of the hill, but this suggestion cannot be accepted
for a moment if it were used in the way I have indicated. On a dark
night it would have been invisible, and it also would have prevented the
observation of star-rise if it were truly aligned. Being comparatively
near the circle it could easily have been illuminated at the critical
time, and thus have anticipated the bright line micrometer of more
modern times.
So far I have found no obvious use for the avenue attached to the N.E.
circle. The conditions are:
Az. Height of Dec.
Hills.
Morrow. Lockyer. Morrow. Morrow. Lockyer.
S. 83° 52′ E. S. 79° E. 1° 40′ 3° 52′ 30″ S. 5° 49′ 30″ S.
With regard to this N.E. circle, in relation to the large circle, the
data are as follows:
Az. Height of Dec. N.
Hills.
Morrow. Lockyer. Morrow. Morrow. Lockyer.
N. 53° E. N. 51° E. 1° 5′ 22° 43′ 50″ 23° 48′ 46″
As Mr. Morrow states, the choice of centre of the circle may alter the
azimuth obtained by as much as “a few degrees,” but the value obtained
from the Ordnance map is, definitely, N. 51° E., and with the height of
hills determined by Mr. Morrow this would suggest that the N.E. circle
was really erected to provide the alignment, from the centre of the
great circle, or from the Cove, to the summer solstitial sun, about the
year 870 B.C., Stockwell’s values for the obliquity being taken. This
result is the more striking as it gives a date for the substitution of
the June for the May worship at Stanton Drew, which is in full
accordance with that obtained for the similar change at Stenness.
There is other evidence, to which I attach importance, as it deals with
a method and policy found in many temple fields in Egypt, that of
blocking the alignment of an older star- or sun-cult, which the
astronomer-priests replaced by their own. The stones of the avenue of
the solstitial N.E. circle I expect once blocked the May sunrise line
from the great circle; judging from the Ordnance map, and remembering
the number of stones that have disappeared, this is probable if not
certain.
If this were so, then the N.E. circle was the last to be erected, and
this suggestion is strengthened by Mr. Lewis’s statement that it is the
most perfect of the three.
Prof. Lloyd Morgan concludes his interesting account of which I have
made so much use with the following remarks:
“In what order the circles were constructed we do not know. Whether the
small N.E. circle with its more massive megaliths preceded or succeeded
the great circle with its more numerous but, on the average, less
massive stones, is a matter of mere conjecture. They may have been
contemporaneous: but it is more likely that so large a work took a long
time in execution; nor does the unity of plan of the final product
preclude a gradual process of development. Finally as to the purpose of
the erection, and its hidden astronomical, mythological, or social
meaning (if it have one), we are once more at the mercy of more or less
plausible conjecture. There stand the circles in a quiet Somersetshire
valley, silent memorials of a race concerning whose modes of life, of
labour, and of thought we can but speculate.”
It is to be hoped that before the monument has disappeared like so many
of its fellows, some student with more knowledge and time to devote to
the inquiry than myself will endeavour to answer more of the questions
raised by it.
[23] With regard to these values Mr. Morrow writes: “At present
Hauteville’s quoit is not visible from the centre of great circle. If
the stone were erect, however, and any intervening trees and walls
removed, the top of the stone would no doubt be within view. The
Hauteville quoit line is thus rather a difficult one to obtain with
accuracy, but the azimuth given should be correct to the nearest
minute.”
CHAPTER XVIII
FOLKLORE AND TRADITION
We have so far considered the circles at Stonehenge, Stenness, the
Hurlers and Stanton Drew, and the avenues in Brittany and on Dartmoor.
Before I refer to my later work in the south-west of England or attempt
to present a summary of the results of the inquiry, I think it will be
convenient to turn for a time to another branch of it, for that there is
another closely connected series of facts to be considered in relation
to the monuments folklore and tradition abundantly prove.
So far in this book I have dealt chiefly with stones--as I hold,
associated with, or themselves composing, sanctuaries. We have become
acquainted with circles, menhirs, dolmens, altars, viæ sacræ, various
structures built up of stones. Barrows and earthern banks represented
them later.
The view which I have been led to bring forward so far is that these
structures had in one way or another to do with the worship of the sun
and stars; that they had for the most part an astronomical use in
connection with religious ceremonials.
The next question which concerns us in an attempt to get at the bottom
of the matter is to see whether there are any concomitant phenomena,
and, if there be any, to classify them and study the combined results.
Tradition and folklore, which give dim references to the ancient uses of
the stones, show in most unmistakable fashion that the stones were not
alone; associated with them almost universally were many practices
referred to on p. 26, such as the lighting of fires, passing through
them, and dancing round them; in the neighbourhood of the stones and
associated with the fire practices were also sacred trees and sacred
wells or streams.
Folklore and tradition not only thus may help us, but I think they will
be helped by such a general survey, brief though it must be. So far as
my reading has gone each special tradition has been considered by
itself; there has been no general inquiry having for its object the
study of the possible origin and _connection_ of many of the ancient
practices and ideas which have so dimly come down to us in many cases
and which we can only completely reconstruct by piecing together the
information derived from various sources.
I now propose to refer to all these matters with the view of seeing
whether there be any relation between practices apparently disconnected
in so many cases if we follow the literature in which they are
chronicled. We must not blame the literature, since the facts which
remain to be recorded now here, now there, are but a small fraction of
those that have been forgotten. Fortunately, the practices forgotten in
one locality have been remembered in another, so that it is possible the
picture can be restored more completely than one might have thought at
first.
It will be seen at once that from the point of view with which we are
at present concerned, one of the chief relations we must look for is
that of time, seeing that my chief affirmation with regard to the stone
monuments is that they were used for ceremonial purposes at certain
seasons, those seasons being based first upon the agricultural, and
later upon the astronomical divisions of the year, to which I drew
attention in Chapter III. In Chapter IV., when referring to the
agricultural and astronomical new years’ days, I indicated a possible
relation between the temple worship and the floral celebrations of that
time, and later on (p. 40), in connection with the monuments in
Brittany, I pointed out the coincidence of fire customs at the same time
of the year.
But in a matter of this kind it will not do to depend upon isolated
cases; the general trend of all the facts available along several lines
of inquiry must be found and studied, first separately and then _inter
se_, if any final conclusion is to be reached.
This is what I now propose to do in a very summary manner. It is not my
task to arrange the facts of folklore and tradition, but simply to cull
from the available sources precise statements which bear upon the
questions before us. These statements, I think, may be accepted as
trustworthy, and all the more so as many of the various recorders have
had no idea either of the existence of a May year at all or of the
connection between the different classes of the phenomena which ought to
exist if my theory of their common origin in connection with ancient
worship and the monuments is anywhere near the truth.
This question of time relations is surrounded by difficulties.
I gave in Fig. 7 the Gregorian dates of the beginning of the quarters
of the May year, if nothing but the sun’s declination of 16° 20′ N. or
S., four times in its yearly path, be considered. These were:--
May Greek Roman
Year. Calendar. Calendar.
End of Winter } Feb. 4 Feb. 7 Feb. 7
Beginning of Spring }
„ Summer May 6 May 6 May 9
End of Summer } Aug. 8 Aug. 11 Aug. 8
Beginning of Autumn }
„ Winter Nov. 8 Nov. 10 Nov. 9
In the table I also give, for comparison, the dates in the Greek and
Roman calendars (p. 20).
There is no question that on or about the above days festivals were
anciently celebrated in these islands; possibly not all at all holy
places, but some at one and some at another; this, perhaps, may help to
explain the variation in the local traditions and even some of the
groupings of orientations.
The earliest information on this point comes from Ireland.
Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel in the tenth century, states, according to
Vallancey, that “in his time four great fires were lighted up on the
four great festivals of the Druids, viz., in February, May, August and
November.”[24]
I am not aware of any such general statement as early as this in
relation to the four festivals of the May year in Great Britain, but in
spite of its absence the fact is undoubted that festivals were held, and
many various forms of celebration used, during those months.
From the introduction of Christianity attempts of different kinds were
made to destroy this ancient time system and to abolish the so-called
“pagan” worships and practices connected with it. Efforts were made to
change the date and so obliterate gradually the old traditions; another
way, and this turned out to be the more efficacious, was to change the
venue of the festival, so to speak, in favour of some Christian
celebration or saint’s day. The old festivals took no account of
week-days, so it was ruled that the festivals were to take place on the
first day of the week; later on some of them were ruled to begin on the
first day of the month.
When Easter became a movable feast, the efforts of the priests were
greatly facilitated, and indeed it would seem as if this result of such
a change was not absent from the minds of those who favoured it.
The change of style was, as I have before stated, a fruitful source of
confusion, and this was still further complicated by another difficulty.
Piers[25] tells us that consequent upon the change “the Roman Catholics
light their fires by the new style, as the correction originated from a
pope; and for that very same reason the Protestants adhere to the old.”
I will refer to each of the festivals and their changes of date.
_February 4._
Before the movable Easter the February festival had been transformed
into Ash Wednesday (February 4). The eve of the festival was Shrove
Tuesday, and it is quite possible that the ashes used by the priests on
Wednesday were connected with the bonfires of the previous night.
It would seem that initially the festival, with its accompanying
bonfire, was transferred to the first Sunday in Lent, February 8.
I quote the following from Hazlitt[26]:--
“Durandus, in his ‘Rationale,’ tells us, Lent was counted to begin on
that which is now the first Sunday in Lent, and to end on Easter Eve;
which time, saith he, containing forty-two days, if you take out of them
the six Sundays (on which it was counted not lawful at any time of the
year to fast), then there will remain only thirty-six days: and,
therefore, that the number of days which Christ fasted might be
perfected, Pope Gregory added to Lent four days of the week
before-going, viz., that which we now call Ash Wednesday, and the three
days following it. So that we see the first observation of Lent began
from a superstitious, unwarrantable, and indeed profane, conceit of
imitating Our Saviour’s miraculous abstinence. Lent is so called from
the time of the year wherein it is observed: Lent in the Saxon language
signifying Spring.”
Whether this be the origin of the lenten fast or not it is certain that
the connection thus established between an old pagan feast and a new
Christian one is very ingenious: 24 days in February plus 22 days in
March (March 22 being originally the fixed date for Easter) gives us 46
days (6 × 7) + 4, and from the point of view of priestcraft the result
was eminently satisfactory, for thousands of people still light fires
on Shrove Tuesday or on the first Sunday of Lent, whether those days
occur in February or March. They are under the impression that they are
doing homage to a church festival, and the pagan origin is entirely
forgotten not only by them but even by those who chronicle the practices
as “Lent customs.”[27]
Finally, after the introduction of the movable Easter, the priests at
Rome, instead of using the “pagan” ashes produced on the eve of the
first Sunday in Lent or Ash Wednesday in each year, utilised those
derived from the burning of the palms used on Palm Sunday of the year
before.
Further steps were taken to conceal from future generations the origin
of the “pagan” custom due on February 4. February 3 was dedicated to St.
“Blaze.” How well this answered is shown by the following quotation from
Percy.[28] “The anniversary of St. Blazeus is the 3rd February, when it
is still the custom in many parts of England to light up fires on the
hills on St. Blayse night: _a custom antiently taken up perhaps for no
better reason than the jingling resemblance of his name to the word
Blaze_.”
This even did not suffice. A great candle church festival was
established on February 2. This was called “Candlemas,” and Candlemas is
still the common name of the beginning of the Scotch legal year. In the
Cathedral of Durham when Cosens was bishop he “busied himself from two
of the clocke in the afternoone till foure, in climbing long ladders to
stick up wax candles in the said Cathedral Church; the number of all the
candles burnt that evening was 220, besides 16 torches; 60 of those
burning tapers and torches standing upon and near the high altar.”[29]
There is evidence that the pagan fires at other times of the year were
also gradually replaced by candles in the churches.
_May 6._
The May festival has been treated by the Church in the same way as the
February one. With a fixed Easter Sunday on March 22, 46 days after
brought us to a Thursday (May 7), hence Holy Thursday[30] and Ascension
Day. With Easter movable there of course was more confusion. Whit
Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost, was only nine days after Holy Thursday,
and it occurred, in some years, on the same day of the month as
Ascension Day in others. In Scotland the festival now is ascribed to
Whit Sunday.
It is possibly in consequence of this that the festival before even the
change of style was held on the 1st of the month.
In Cornwall, where the celebrations still survive, the day chosen is May
8.
_August 8._
For the migrations of the dates of the “pagan” festival in the beginning
of August from the 1st to the 12th, migrations complicated by the old
and new style, I refer to Prof. Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures, p. 418, in
which work a full account of the former practices in Ireland and Wales
is given. The old festival in Ireland was associated with Lug, a form of
the Sun-God; the most celebrated one was held at Tailetin. This
feast--Lugnassad--was changed into the church celebration Lammas, from
A.S. hl’áfmaesse--that is loaf-mass or bread-mass, so named as a mass or
feast of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the corn harvest. The old
customs in Wales and the Isle of Alan included the ascent of hills in
the early morning, but so far I have found no record of fires in
connection with this date.[31]
_November 8._
The facts that November 11 is quarter day in Scotland, that mayors are
elected on or about that date, show, I think, pretty clearly that we are
here dealing with the old “pagan” date.
The fact that the Church anticipated it by the feast of All Souls’ on
November 1 reminds us of what happened in the case of the February
celebration; later I give a reference to the change of date; and perhaps
this date was also determined by the natural gravitation to the first of
the month, as in the case of May, and because it marked at one time the
beginning of the Celtic year.
But what seems quite certain is that the feast which should have been
held on November 8 on astronomical grounds was first converted by the
Church into the feast of St. Martin on November 11. The _Encyclopædia
Britannica_ tells us: “The feast of St. Martin (Martinmas) took the
place of an old pagan festival, and inherited some of its usages, such
as the Martinsmännchen, Martinsfeuer, Martinshorn, and the like, in
various parts of Germany.”
St. Martin lived about A.D. 300. As the number of saints increased, it
became impossible to dedicate a feast-day to each. Hence it was found
expedient to have an annual aggregate commemoration of such as had not
special days for themselves. So a church festival “All Hallows,” or
“Hallowmass,” was instituted about A.D. 610 in memory of the martyrs,
and it was to take place on May 1. For some reason or another this was
changed in A.D. 834; May was given up, and the date fixed as November 1.
This was a commemoration of all the saints, so we get the new name “All
Saints’ Day.”
There can be little doubt that the intention of the Church was to
anticipate, and therefore gradually to obliterate the pagan festival
still held at Martinmas, and it has been successful in many places. In
Ireland, for instance; at Samhain,[32] November 1, “the proper time for
prophecy and the unveiling of mysteries.”... It was then that fire was
lighted at a place called after Mog Ruith’s daughter Tlachtga. From
Tlachtga all the hearths in Ireland are said to have been annually
supplied, just as the Lemnians had once a year to put their fires out
and light them anew from that brought in the sacred ship from Delos. The
habit of celebrating _Nos Galan-galaf_ in Wales by lighting bonfires on
the hills is possibly not yet extinct.
Here, then, we find the pagan fires transferred from the 8th to the 1st
of November in Ireland, but in the Isle of Man this is not so. I will
anticipate another reference to Rhys by stating that Martinmas had
progressed from the 11th to the 24th before the change of style brought
it back, “old Martinmas,” November 24, being one of the best recognised
“old English holidays,” “old Candlemas” being another, at the other end
of the May year; this last had slipped from February 2 to February 15
before it was put back again.
With regard to the Isle of Man Rhys writes[33] that the feast is there
called Hollantide, and is kept on November 12, a reckoning which he
states “is according to the old style.” The question is, are we not
dealing here with the Martinmas festival _not_ antedated to November 1?
He adds, “that is the day when the tenure of land terminates, and when
serving men go to their places. In other words it is the beginning of a
new year.” This is exactly what happens in Scotland, and the day is
still called Martinmas.
There is a custom in mid-England which strikingly reminds us of the
importance of Martinmas in relation to old tenures, if even the custom
does not carry us still further back. This is the curious and
interesting ceremony of collecting the wroth silver, due and payable to
his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury on “Martinmas Eve.”
The payment is made on an ancient mound on the summit of Knightlow
Hill, about five miles out of Coventry, and in the parish of
Ryton-on-Dunsmore. One feature about this singular ceremonial is that it
must take place before sun-rising.
[24] Hazlitt, _Dictionary of Faiths and Folklore_, under Gule of August.
[25] _Survey of the South of Ireland_, p. 232.
[26] Under Ash Wednesday.
[27] Frazer, _Golden Bough_, iii., 238 _et seq._
[28] _Notes to Northumberland Household Book_, 1770, p. 333.
[29] Quoted by Hazlitt.
[30] Much confusion has arisen with regard to the Holy Thursday in
Rogation week because there is another Holy or Maundy Thursday in Easter
week. Archæologists have also been often misled by the practice of many
writers of describing the May festivals as midsummer festivals. The
first of May, of course, marked the beginning of summer.
[31] Mr. Frazer informs me that the 13th August was Diana’s day at Nemi
and there was a fire festival.
[32] _Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514.
[33] _Celtic Folklore_, p. 315.
CHAPTER XIX
SACRED FIRES
The magnificent collection of facts bearing on this subject which has
been brought together by Mr. Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ renders it
unnecessary for me to deal with the details of this part of my subject
at any great length.
We have these records of fires:--
(1) In February, May, August and November of the original May year.
(2) In June and December on the longest and shortest days of the
solstitial year, concerning which there could not be, and has not been,
any such change of date as has occurred in relation to the May year
festivals.
(3) A fire at Easter, in all probability added not long before or at the
introduction of Christianity. I find no traces of a fire festival at the
corresponding equinox in September.
We learn from Cormac that the fires were generally double and that
cattle were driven between them.
Concerning this question of fire, both Mr. Frazer and the Rev. S.
Baring-Gould[34] suggest that we are justified in considering the
Christian treatment of the sacred fire as a survival of pagan times. Mr.
Baring-Gould writes as follows:--“When Christianity became dominant, it
was necessary to dissociate the ideas of the people from the central
fire as mixed up with the old gods; at the same time the central fire
was an absolute need. Accordingly the Church was converted into the
sacred depository of the perpetual fire.”
He further points out that there still remain in some of our churches
(in Cornwall, York, and Dorset) the contrivances--now called
cresset-stones--used. They are blocks of stone with cups hollowed out.
Some are placed in lamp-niches furnished with flues. On these he remarks
(p. 122):--
“Now although these lamps and cressets had their religious
signification, yet this religious signification was an afterthought. The
origin of them lay in the necessity of there being in every place a
central light, from which light could at any time be borrowed; and the
reason why this central light was put in the church was to dissociate it
from the heathen ideas attached formerly to it. As it was, the good
people of the Middle Ages were not quite satisfied with the central
church fire, and they had recourse in times of emergency to other, and
as the Church deemed them unholy, fires. When a plague and murrain
appeared among cattle, then they lighted need-fires from two pieces of
dry wood, and drove the cattle between the flames, believing that this
new flame was wholesome to the purging away of the disease. For kindling
the need-fires the employment of flint and steel was forbidden. The fire
was only efficacious when extracted in prehistoric fashion, out of
wood. The lighting of these need-fires was forbidden by the Church in
the eighth century. What shows that this need-fire was distinctly
heathen is that in the Church new fire was obtained at Easter annually
by striking flint and steel together. It was supposed that the old fire
in a twelvemonth had got exhausted, or perhaps that all light expired
with Christ, and that new fire must be obtained. Accordingly the priest
solemnly struck new fire out of flint and steel. But fire from flint and
steel was a novelty; and the people, Pagan at heart, had no confidence
in it, and in time of adversity went back to the need-fire kindled in
the time-honoured way from wood by friction, before this new-fangled way
of drawing it out of stone and iron was invented.”
The same authority informs us that before Christianity was introduced
into Ireland by St. Patrick there was a temple at Tara “where fire
burned ever, and was on no account suffered to go out.”
Mr. Frazer,[35] quoting Cerbied, shows that in the ancient religion of
Armenia the new fire was kindled at the February festival of the May
year, in honour of the fire-god Mihr. “A bonfire was made in a public
place, and lamps kindled at it were kept burning throughout the year in
each of the fire-god’s temples.” This festival now takes place at
Candlemas, February 2.
We must assume, then, that the pagan fires were produced by the friction
of dry wood, and possibly in connection with an ever-burning fire. In
either case the priests officiating at the various circles must have had
a place handy where the wood was kept dry or the fire kept burning, and
on this ground alone we may again inquire whether such structures as
Maeshowe at the Stenness circle, the Fougou at that of the Merry
Maidens, and indeed chambered barrows and cairns generally, were not
used for these purposes amongst others; whether indeed they were not
primarily built for the living and not for the dead, and whether this
will explain the finding of traces of fires and of hollowed stones in
them, as well as some points in their structure. Mr. MacRitchie[36] has
brought together several of these points, among them fireplaces and
flues for carrying away smoke.
At both solstices it would appear that a special fire-rite was
practised. This consisted of tying straw on a wheel and rolling it when
lighted down a hill. There is much evidence for the wheel at the summer,
but less at the winter, solstice; still, we learn from the old Runic
_fasti_ that a wheel was used to denote the festival of Christmas. With
regard to the summer solstice I quote the following from Hazlitt (under
John, St.):--
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--The Carro, Florence. From Baring-Gould’s
_Strange Survivals_.]
“Durandus, speaking of the rites of the Feast of St. John Baptist,
informs us of this curious circumstance, that in some places they roll a
wheel about to signify that the sun, then occupying the highest place in
the Zodiac, is beginning to descend. ‘Rotam quoque hoc die in quibusdam
locis volvunt, ad significandum quod Sol altissimum tunc locum in Cœlo
occupet, et descendere incipiat in Zodiaco.’ Harl. MSS. 2345 (on
vellum), Art. 100, is an account of the rites of St. John Baptist’s Eve,
in which the wheel is also mentioned. In the amplified account of these
ceremonies given by Naogeorgus, we read that this wheel was taken up to
the top of a mountain and rolled down thence; and that, as it had
previously been covered with straw, twisted about it and set on fire, it
appeared at a distance as if the sun had been falling from the sky. And
he further observes, that the people imagine that all their ill-luck
rolls away from them together with this wheel. At Norwich, says a writer
in _Current Notes_ for March, 1854, the rites of St. John the Baptist
were anciently observed, ‘when it was the custom to turn or roll a wheel
about, in signification of the sun’s annual course, or the sun, then
occupying the highest place in the Zodiac, was about descending.’”
At Magdalen College, Oxford, the May and June years are clearly
differentiated. There is a vocal service at sunrise on May morning,
followed by boys blowing horns. At the summer solstice there is a sermon
preached during the day in the quadrangle.
One of the most picturesque survivals of this ancient custom takes place
at Florence each year at Easter. This is fully described by
Baring-Gould. The moment the sacred fire is produced at the high altar a
dove (in plaster) carries it along a rope about 200 yards long to a car
in the square outside the west door of the cathedral and sets fire to a
fuse, thus causing the explosion of fireworks.
The car with its explosives is the survival of the ancient bonfire.
It would appear that the lighting of these fires on a large scale
lingered longest in Ireland and Brittany.
A correspondent of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ (February, 1795) thus
describes the Irish Beltane fires in 1782, “the most singular sight in
Ireland”:--
“Exactly at midnight, the fires began to appear, and taking the
advantage of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely
extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the fires
burning on every eminence which the country afforded. I had a farther
satisfaction in learning, from undoubted authority, that the people
danced round the fires, and at the close went through these fires, and
made their sons and daughters, together with their cattle, pass through
the fire; and the whole was conducted with religious solemnity.”
It will have been observed with reference to these fire festivals that
although there were undoubtedly four, in May, August, November and
February, those in May and November were more important than the others.
This no doubt arose from the fact that at different times the May and
November celebrations were _New Year_ festivals. With regard to the New
Year in November in Celtic and later times. Rhys writes as follows
(_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514):--
“The Celts were in the habit formerly of counting winters, and of
giving precedence in their reckoning to night and winter over day and
summer (p. 360); I should argue that the last day of the year in the
Irish story of Diarmait’s death meant the eve of November or
All-halloween, the night before the Irish _Samhain_, and known in Welsh
as _Nos Galan-gaeaf_, or the Night of the Winter Calends. But there is
no occasion to rest on this alone, as we have the evidence of Cormac’s
Glossary that the month before the beginning of winter was the last
month; so that the first day of the first month of winter was also the
first day of the year.”
That the November bonfire was recognised as heralding the dominion of
the gods and spirits of darkness,[37] that the old ideas surrounding
Horus and Set in Egypt were not forgotten, is evidenced by the fact that
when it was extinct the whole company round it would suddenly take to
their heels, shouting at the top of their voices:--
Yr hwch đu gwta | The cropped black sow
A gipio ’r ola’! | Seize the hindmost!
A piecing together of the folklore and traditions of different districts
suggests that sacrifices were made in connection with the fire
festivals, in fact that the fire at one of the critical times of the May
year at least was a sacrificial one.
I will quote two cases given by Gomme[38] for May Day and All Souls’ Day
respectively:--
“At the village of Holne, situated on one of the spurs of Dartmoor, is a
field of about two acres, the property of the parish, and called the
Ploy Field. In the centre of this field stands a granite pillar (Menhir)
six or seven feet high. On May-morning, before daybreak, the young men
of the village used to assemble there, and then proceed to the moor,
where they selected a ram lamb, and after running it down, brought it in
triumph to the Ploy Field, fastened it to the pillar, cut its throat and
then roasted it whole, skin, wool, &c. At midday a struggle took place,
at the risk of cut hands, for a slice, it being supposed to confer luck
for the ensuing year on the fortunate devourer. As an act of gallantry
the young men sometimes fought their way through the crowd to get a
slice for the chosen amongst the young women, all of whom, in their best
dresses, attended the Ram Feast, as it was called. Dancing, wrestling,
and other games, assisted by copious libations of cider during the
afternoon, prolonged the festivity till midnight.”
In the parish of King’s Teignton, Devonshire, “a lamb is drawn about the
parish on Whitsun Monday in a cart covered with garlands of lilac,
laburnum and other flowers, when persons are requested to give something
towards the animal and attendant expenses; on Tuesday it is then killed
and roasted whole in the middle of the village. The lamb is then sold in
slices to the poor at a cheap rate.”
The popular legend concerning the origin of this custom introduces two
important elements--a reference to “heathen days” and the title of
“sacrifice” ascribed to the killing of the lamb (p. 31).
“At St. Peter’s, Athlone, every family of a village on St. Martin’s Day
kills an animal of some kind or other; those who are rich kill a cow or
sheep, others a goose or turkey, while those who are poor kill a hen or
cock; with the blood of the animal they sprinkle the threshold and also
the four corners of the house, and ‘this performance is done to exclude
every kind of evil spirit from the dwelling where the sacrifice is made
till the return of the same day the following year’” (p. 163).
Other traditions indicate that human sacrifices were in question, and
that lots were drawn, or some other method of the choice of a victim was
adopted. I quote from Hazlitt (i., 44) the following report of the
Minister of Callender in 1794:--
“The people of this district have two customs, which are fast wearing
out, not only here, but all over the Highlands, and therefore ought to
be taken notice of, while they remain. Upon the first day of May, which
is called Beltan, or Bàl-tein-day, all the boys in a township or hamlet
meet in the moors. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure,
by casting a trench in the ground of such a circumference as to hold the
whole company. They kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk
in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is
toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up,
they divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to
one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They
daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly
black. They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet. Everyone,
blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet is entitled to
the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person, who is
to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore in rendering
the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast. There is little
doubt of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered in this
country as well as in the East, although they now pass from the act of
sacrificing, and only compel the devoted person to leap three times
through the flames; with which the ceremonies of the festival are
closed.”
I may conclude this chapter by referring to similar practices in
Brittany, where Baring-Gould[39] has so successfully studied them.
The present remnants of the old cult in the different parishes are now
called “pardons”;[40] they are still numerous. I give those for the May
and August festivals (p. 83).
_May._
Ascension Day. Bodilis, Penhars, Spezet (at the well of
S. Gouzenou), Landevennec, Plougonnec.
Sunday after Ascension Day. Trégoat, S. Divy.
Whit Sunday. Kernilis; Plouider; Edern; Coray; Spezet
(Chapel of Cran).
Whit Monday. Quimperlé (Pardon des Oiseaux); Pont
l’Abbé (Pardon des Enfants); Ergué-Armel,
La Forêt, Landudal, Ploneis, Landeleau,
Carantec.
Whit Thursday. Gouezec (Les Fontaines).
_August._
1st Sunday in August. Pleyben (horse races); Plébannalec;
Pouldreuzic; Plougomelin; Huelgoët; S.
Nicodème in Plumeliau (M.) (Cattle
blessed; second day horse fair, and girls
sell their tresses to hair merchants).
Judging by the “pardons,” the solstitial celebrations are not so
numerous as those connected with the May year; the bonfire is built up
by the head of a family in which the right is hereditary. The fire has
to be lighted only by a pure virgin, and the sick and feeble are carried
to the spot, as the bonfire flames are held to be gifted with miraculous
healing powers.
When the flames are abated, stones are placed for the souls of the dead
to sit there through the remainder of the night and enjoy the heat.
“Every member of the community carries away a handful of ashes as a
sovereign cure for sundry maladies. The whole proceeding is instinct
with paganism” (p. 75). With regard to the accompanying sacrifices we
read: “In ancient times sacrifices were made of cocks and oxen at
certain shrines--now they are still presented, but it is to the chapels
of saints. S. Herbot receives cow’s tails, and these may be seen heaped
upon his altar in Loqeffret. At Coadret as many as seven hundred are
offered on the day of the “pardon.” At S. Nicolas-des-Eaux, it is S.
Nicodemus who in his chapel receives gifts of whole oxen, and much the
same takes place at Carnac.”
[34] _Strange Survivals_, p. 120 _et seq._
[35] _Golden Bough_, iii. 248.
[36] _The Testimony of Tradition._
[37] _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 516; _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 215.
[38] _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 32 and 163.
[39] _A Book of Brittany._
[40] These “pardons” run strangely parallel with the “Feast Days” in E.
and W. Penrith, in Cornwall, where of 26 feasts, 13 occur around the
chief days of the May year.
CHAPTER XX
SACRED TREES
The subject of tree-worship is a vast one, as anyone may gather who will
read the _Golden Bough_. Fortunately for my readers it is not necessary
to discuss the whole or even any great part of it in connection with the
inquiry which now concerns us. I may say that only rarely is the old
tree-worship considered with its concomitant of temple-worship, so that
I now have to bring together information widely separated because the
connection which I have to show was intimate has not been enlarged upon;
indeed, in many cases it has not been suspected.
There is another limitation of the inquiry. We have only to deal chiefly
with those plants and trees recorded as worshipped at the chief festival
times of the year, which have already been marked out for us by the fire
ceremonials. These fires were like the chronofer installed in modern
days at the General Post Office, their practical function being to give
the time; they announced the beginning of a new season.
In Chapter IV. I referred to the association of Mistletoe with the
Solstitial worship. When we deal with the May year we meet constantly
with references to the Rowan and the Hawthorn in the folklore connected
with it. We seem in presence, then, not only of tree cult generally, but
of sacred trees special to each of the two worships we have been
considering. I propose now, therefore, to bring together some of the
information to be gathered from a very cursory reference to the vast
literature which exists on the subject.
In the first instance I begged my friend, Professor Bayley Balfour,
Keeper of the King’s Garden at Edinburgh, to give me some particulars of
the Rowan Tree, which I imagined (1) to have been chosen on account of
its flowers being prominent about May Day (Beltane) and its berries in
early November (Hallowe’en), and (2) to have a different habitat from
the Mistletoe. I have to thank my friend for much valuable information.
The Rowan Tree, called also the Mountain Ash (_Pyrus Aucuparia_), seems
to grow pretty freely all over the _Northern_ parts of Europe. Professor
Balfour tells me: “Rowan is essentially a Northern plant--an immigrant
to Europe from N.W. Asia--and now is spread all over North and Central
Europe in abundance, with only some ‘feelers’ passing south into the
Mediterranean Basin. It does not go south of Cappadocia in Asia Minor.
It does not reach Greece. In Italy it occurs on the Eastern Apennines,
and also in N.E. Sicily. In Spain it runs over the higher regions in the
N. and into the centre, passing just into Portugal. Its occurrence in
Madeira is not certainly established as a natural phenomenon; perhaps it
is only introduced there. In all these Southern outruns the tree cannot
be said to have any dominance, and its area and abundance are infinitely
less than in the North. Scandinavia is one of its best homes. Everywhere
it is found right north to 71°, there becoming a bush only, but yet
ripening seed. It reaches Iceland, where trees of some size occur. All
over Great Britain and Ireland it is generally spread. You may certainly
say there is much in Norway, and there is equally certainly less, even
little, in Italy.”
In Pratt’s _Flowering Plants of Great Britain_ (vol. 2, p. 260) it is
stated, “The flowers, which grow in dense clusters, and are
greenish-white, appear in May.... In autumn, however, the tree is more
beautiful than in summer, for at that season the rich cluster of red
fruits gleams among the foliage, each berry having the form of a tiny
apple, and containing a little core and seeds within.”
At Christiania the mean of ten years’ flowering is given by Professor
Schübeler[41] as--first flowers, June 19; general flowering, June 30.
This, then, is later than in Britain. On high grounds the fruit is
conspicuous here on November 1; on lower levels the birds attack it and
reduce its striking appearance before that date.
Associated with the Rowan in the folklore connected with temple worship
is the Hawthorn, Whitethorn or “May” (_Crategus oxyocantha_), which also
flowers at the beginning of May, while its berries or “haws,” like those
of the Rowan, are conspicuous in November. We see, then, that there is a
most obvious reason in this for the association of the two trees.
According to Rhys,[42] the English name appears to be of Scandinavian
origin, the Old Norse being _reynir_, Danish _rönne_, Swedish _rönn_;
and the old Norsemen treated the tree as holy and sacred to Thor.
These two trees interest us from three points of view. We find them
connected with:--
1. May and November celebrations.
2. Superstitions concerning witchcraft, &c.
3. Holy wells.
In this chapter I shall deal with the two former.
I. _The May Celebrations._
Seeing that the year beginning in May was established because that month
really opened the vegetation year, it is little to be wondered at that
among the chief features of New Year’s Day was what we may term a flower
worship; it is probable that we are here dealing with the sacred-tree
side of the general festival at all the monuments erected in connection
with the May year worship. The old traditions have lingered longest
around the things we have still with us, the trees and flowers; and it
is in connection with this side of the worship that most information is
available. From the facts I have already stated, for Britain the Rowan
and Hawthorn were most naturally selected as the typical forms.[43]
Many poets have written of this festival[44]: Chaucer, Shakspere,
Milton, Bourne, Herrick and others. Chaucer writes:
“Fourth goeth al the Court both most and lest,
To fetch the flouris fresh and branche and blome,”
when not the courtiers only, but lowliest of men and maidens sallied
forth
“To do observaunce to a morn of May.”
There is a vast literature connected with May Day celebrations, among it
references to Celtic customs, and I may add that, besides May Day,
August, November and February had their flower festivals also. I shall,
however, deal chiefly with May in this book to keep it within bounds.
May Day in Manx was termed _Shenn Laa Boaldyn_; it is the _belltaine_ of
Cormac’s _Glossary_, the Scotch Gaelic equivalent of which is
_bealtuinn_.
The traditions and customs connected with May Day in Great Britain have
survived longest in the West of England; even now, as will be seen by
the account of recent celebrations at Helston in Cornwall, given below,
they are still continued.
Altogether the customs, ancient and modern, of which the flower worship
formed a part, may be summed up as follows:--
1. Lighting of bonfires,[45] and, in the evening, houses illuminated
with candles, torches carried about, and fireballs played with.
2. Man and beast passed through the fire or between two fires.
3. Going out at daybreak to gather Whitethorn or May (Sycamore in
Cornwall), and making whistles of the branches for the May-music and
merry-making. Blowing of tin horns at daybreak by boys, and from money
received getting breakfast at a farmhouse.
4. Flower-bedecked girls dance round a Maypole, and one chosen as
“Queen of the May.”
5. In Cornwall the custom prevailed till lately of going out with
buckets or any available vessels full of water and thoroughly wetting
anyone who was not wearing a piece of May.
6. The “Furry Dance” (in Cornwall), which consists in dancing through
the town and also through as many houses as desired. If resistance is
offered it is permitted to break open the door, and no penalty can be
imposed.
7. Sacrifices made (Isle of Man) at a very ancient date, and probably
human ones still earlier (Scotland).
8. Special worship at holy wells.
Flowers are public property on Flora Day, and this custom of dancing
through the _houses_ is supposed to have originated probably for the
purpose of picking the flowers in the gardens behind.
The following is a short abstract of a very interesting account given in
_The Western Weekly News_, May 13th, 1905, of the “Flora Day” at
Helston, Cornwall, which took place this year. It gives us an idea of
former festivals which are so quickly dying out:--
The Furry Dance is always the feature of the day. The first part took
place at seven o’clock in the morning, at which hour two couples started
out and danced through the streets and through some houses of residents.
The great dance was at noon, and those taking part in it assembled in
the Corn Exchange.
When all was ready the whole company, headed by a band playing the old
Furry Dance, started out and danced through the town and through many
houses.
The rest of the day was given over to a Horse Show and to much
merry-making. Excursions had been run from all parts.
II. _The Rowan Tree and Witchcraft._
There is little doubt that in the constant association of the Rowan with
the May worship and the holy wells which were adjacent to the stone
circles where the worship was conducted, we find the reason of the
selection of the wood of the Rowan Tree as an antidote to all the ills
which witchcraft was supposed to bring about. Rhys tells us that “The
tree has also the old names of Quicken-tree, Roddon, and Witchen-tree.”
To quote again from Pratt (_op. cit._ vol. 2, p. 261): “The old notion
that the Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree, as it is called in the North, was
efficacious against witchcraft and the evil eye, still prevails in the
North of England and the Scottish Highlands. Pennant remarks, in his
_Tour of Scotland_, that the farmers carefully preserve their cattle
against witchcraft by placing branches of Honeysuckle and Mountain Ash
in their cowhouses on the 2nd of May. The milkmaid in Westmorland may
often be seen, even now, with a branch of this tree either in her hand
or tied to her milking-pail, from a similar superstition; and in earlier
days crosses cut out of its wood were worn about the person. In an old
song called “Laidley Wood,” in the _Northumberland Garland_, we find a
reference to this:
“The spells were vain, the hag return’d
To the Queen in sorrowful mood,
Crying, that witches have no power
Where there is Rown-tree wood.”
Rhys, referring to May Day customs in the Isle of Man, writes[46]: “This
was a day when systematic efforts were made to protect man and beast
against elves and witches; for it was then that people carried crosses
of rowan in their hats and placed may-flowers over the tops of their
doors and elsewhere as preservatives against all malignant influences.
With the same object in view, crosses of rowan were likewise fastened to
the tails of the cattle, small crosses which had to be made without the
help of a knife.”
In connection with this last reference, Rhys quotes a passage showing
that a similar thing is done in Wales on May Eve.[47] “Another bad
papistic habit which prevails among some Welsh people is that of placing
some of the wood of the rowan-tree (_coed cerdin_ or criafol) in their
corn lands (_ttafyrieu_) and their fields on May-eve (_Nos Glamau_) with
the idea that such a custom brings a blessing on their fields, a
proceeding which would better become atheists and pagans than
Christians.”
Rhys also tells us that in Lincolnshire,[48] “a twig of the rowan-tree,
or wicken, as it is called, was effective against all evil things,
including witches. It is useful in many ways to guard the welfare of the
household, and to preserve both the live stock and the crops; while
placed on the churn it prevents any malign influence from retarding the
coming of the butter.”
We also read (p. 358): “Not only the Celts, but some also of the
Teutons, have been in the habit of attaching great importance to the
rowan or roan tree, and regarding it as a preservative against the
malignant influence of witches and all things uncanny.... Moreover, the
Swede of modern times believes the rowan a safeguard against witchcraft,
and likes to have on board his ship something or other made of its wood,
to protect him against tempests and the demons of the water world.”
In the Hibbert Lectures, 1886, we have another interesting reference to
this tree. Rhys first relates an old Irish fairy story, the scene of
which is supposed to have been “on the plain near the Lake of Lein of
the Crooked Teeth, that is to say, the Lake of Killarney.” In it we are
told that the scarlet quicken-berries were first brought from the “Land
of Promise,” that one was accidentally dropped and took root, and “from
the berry there grew up a tree which had the virtues of the quicken-tree
growing in fairy-land, for all the berries on it had many virtues.” Then
we learn (page 358) that these berries “formed part of the sustenance of
the gods, according to Goidelic notions; and the description which has
been quoted of the berries makes them a sort of Celtic counterpart to
the soma-plant of Hindu mythology.”
This suggests that at the November Celebration a decoction or brew of
Rowan berries was used for curative or superstitious purposes.
* * * * *
I have thought it desirable to enter at some length into the use of the
Rowan as a protection against witchcraft and as the basis of a brew used
for different purposes, because the Mistletoe has been dealt with in
exactly the same manner; indeed, it was to the later Solstitial worship
what the Rowan and Maythorn were to the earlier May worship.
Mr. Frazer has collected in his _Golden Bough_[49] much information
bearing on these points.
In Sweden, on Midsummer Eve, Mistletoe is sought after, the people
“believing it to be, in a high degree, possessed of mystic qualities;
and that if a sprig of it be attached to the ceiling of the
dwelling-house, the horse’s stall, or the cow’s crib, the ‘Troll’ will
then be powerless to injure either man or beast.” The Oak Mistletoe, we
are told, is “held in the highest repute in Sweden, and is commonly seen
in farmhouses hanging from the ceiling to protect the dwelling from all
harm, but especially from fire; and persons afflicted with the falling
sickness think they can ward off attacks of the malady by carrying about
with them a knife which has a handle of Oak Mistletoe.
“A Swedish remedy for other complaints is to hang a sprig of Mistletoe
round the sufferer’s neck, or to make him wear on his finger a ring made
from the plant.”
It would appear from Mr. Frazer’s inquiries that the Mistletoe was _en
évidence_ at both the summer and winter solstice--precisely as the Rowan
and Hawthorn were associated with the May and November festivals.
He writes:--
“The sacred mistletoe may have acquired, in the eyes of the Druids, a
double portion of its mystic qualities at the solstice in June, and
accordingly they may have regularly cut it with solemn ceremony on
Midsummer Eve. The conjecture is confirmed when we find it to be still a
rule of folklore that the mistletoe should be cut on this day. Further,
the peasants of Piedmont and Lombardy still go out on Midsummer-morning
to search the oak-leaves for the ‘oil of St. John,’ which is supposed to
heal all wounds made with cutting instruments. Originally, perhaps, the
‘oil of St. John’ was simply the mistletoe, or a decoction made from it.
For in Holstein the mistletoe, especially oak-mistletoe, is still
regarded as a panacea for green wounds; and if, as is alleged,
‘all-healer’ is the name of the plant in the modern Celtic speech of
Brittany, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, this can be nothing but a
survival of the name by which, as we have seen, the Druids addressed the
oak, or rather, perhaps, the mistletoe. At Lacaune, in France, the old
Druidical belief in the mistletoe as an antidote to all poisons still
survives among the people; they apply the plant to the stomach of the
sufferer, or give him a decoction of it to drink.”
If we attempt to collate the different festivals with the vegetation
most striking or abundant at each, in different countries naturally
possessing different floras, a great variety of plants and trees has to
be considered. It is probable that the Rowan-tree was chiefly taken here
as the representative of the ash in more southern and eastern lands, and
the ash indeed did not always take second rank, especially in the
worship connected with wells, as we shall see. Grimm[50] calls the ash
“a world tree which links heaven, earth and hell together; of all trees
the greatest and holiest.”
In the same way at the later established Vernal Equinox festival, the
palm which grows in lower latitudes was replaced here by the willow.
Coles, in his _Adam in Eden_,[51] writes: “The willow blossoms come
forth before any leaves appear, and are in their most flourishing state
usually before Easter, divers gathering them to deck up their houses on
Palm Sunday, and therefore the said flowers are called palme.” Willows
are still used to deck churches at this time.
As in the case of the Rowan, the willow (or palm) was a protection
against witchcraft; small crosses and palm were carried about in the
purses and placed upon doors. These crosses had to be made on Palm
Sunday out of the wood used in the church. Sometimes box replaced the
willow.
We are driven to the conclusion that practices connected with magic, the
precursor of the later “witchcraft,” were associated with the festivals
now in question, and that the products of the vegetable world at the
different seasons were utilized for these purposes.
The putting on of a special garb by the vegetable world at each season
in turn would be one of the first things to be manifested, and the close
association of it with the stars and the sun in their yearly course
would cause the representatives of it to be worshipped together with
them, and it would appear from the records that the astronomer priests
did not neglect those magical arts which were practised by man in the
early stages of civilisation.
Indeed, these magical practices seem to have taken such firm root that
it was difficult to get rid of them even in much later times. Newton[52]
writes: “I once knew a foolish cock-brained priest which ministered to a
certaine young man the ashes of boxe, being (forsooth) hallowed on Palme
Sunday, according to the superstitious order and doctrine of the Romish
Church, which ashes he mingled with their unholie holie water using to
the same a kind of... exorcisme; which... medicine (as he persuaded the
standers by) had vertue to drive away any ague.”
Among the virtues attributed to the May thorn was that of preserving the
beauty of those maidens who at daybreak on May morning each year would
wash themselves in hawthorn dew. As late as 1515 it was recorded that
Catherine of Aragon, accompanied by twenty-five of her ladies, sallied
out on May morning for this purpose.
[41] Schübeler, _Die Pflanzenwelt Norwegens_, Christiania, 1873-75, p.
439.
[42] _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 358.
[43] The Rowan had to be cut on Ascension Day, _Golden Bough_, III, p.
448.
[44] Pratt’s _British Flowering Plants_, vol. 2, p. 266.
[45] The word bonfire, according to the _Century Dictionary_, comes from
the “early modern English, boonfire, bondfire, bounfire, later burnfire;
Scotch, banefire; the earliest known instance is banefyre. ‘ignis
ossium,’ in the _Catholicon Anglicum_, A.D. 1483; from bone (Scotch,
bane, Middle English, bone, bon, bane, &c.) + fire.”
Hence the word seems formerly to have meant a fire of bones; a funeral
pile, a pyre. And it has gradually developed into a fire out in the
open, whatever its object.
[46] _Celtic Folklore_, vol. i. p. 308.
[47] Vol. ii. p. 691.
[48] _Celtic Folklore_, vol. i. p. 325.
[49] Second Edition, vol. iii. pp. 343 _et seq._
[50] _Teutonic Mythology_, Stallybrass’s translation, ii. 796.
[51] Quoted by Hazlitt under Palm Sunday.
[52] _Herbal for the Bible_, p. 207.
CHAPTER XXI
HOLY WELLS AND STREAMS
I have thought it most important to look up this subject with a view of
seeing whether any clues were available which could help us to associate
the introduction of the well ceremonials with the worshippers of the May
or of the Solstitial year. For shortness I will call the ceremonial
“baptism,” not necessarily baptism in the modern sense, but as implying
the use of water for purifying or other religious purpose.
That baptism was pre-Christian is shown by John the Baptist using the
Jordan for this purpose before Christ’s ministration began. (Matt. 3.
6.)
There is a tremendous literature[53] dealing with the folklore of holy
wells and streams. The number of holy wells and streams in Britain is
legion; there are 3,000 in Ireland alone, and the first thing which
strikes us in a casual study of the folklore is the close association of
the wells with sacred trees. Almost equally distinctly we gather that
both were situated near holy stones, and that the worship included
ceremonials connected with all three.
The folklore dealing with holy wells and well-worship is so various that
it will be useful for our present purpose to classify the portions we
need under the following headings.
1. Well-worship outcome of pre-Christian days and customs.
2. Wells generally situated near circles, dolmens, cromlechs or cairns,
or churches which have replaced them.
3. Association with sacred trees.
4. Well-worship and offerings.
5. Time of the chief festivals.
1. _Pagan origin._--It seems to be accepted now that well-worship in
Britain originated long before the Christian era; that it was not
introduced by the Christian missionaries, but rather they found it in
vogue on their arrival, and tolerated it at first and utilized it
afterwards, as they did a great many other Pagan customs.
With regard to this point Wood-Martin writes:[54]
“In many Irish MSS. there are allusions to this pre-Christian worship.
For example, Tirehan relates that St. Patrick, in his progress through
Ireland, came to a fountain called Slaun, to which the Druids offered
sacrifices, and which they worshipped as a God; and in Adamnan’s _Life
of St. Columkille_ it is recounted that this saint, when in the country
of the Picts, heard of a notable fountain to which the Pagans paid
divine honour.”
He adds (p. 50):
“It evidently did not originate in the blessing of wells by early saints
and thus spread downwards, until it became almost, if not quite,
universal; on the contrary, it began from the people, who were being
Christianized, and thence permeated the entire system of Irish
Christianity.”
Baring-Gould tells us much concerning the transitional state (pp. 28 _et
seq._). Wood-Martin divides holy wells into three classes: (1) those
which “derive their reputed virtues from Pagan superstition”; (2) those
which were “transferred from Pagan to so-called Christian uses,” and (3)
“a few which may lay claim to a merely Christian origin.”[55]
It is very easy to understand how the purely devout custom developed in
course of time, in the case of some wells at any rate, into a more
superstitious one, how some wells came to be called “wishing-wells” and
others were regarded as prophetic. Rhys gives us several instances of
these two classes in Wales.[56]
Wishing-wells are known all over the United Kingdom; many authors give
accounts of them.[57]
There can be no doubt that in the most ancient times magical practices
were carried on at wells or at the religious centre of which the well
formed a constituent part. Local practices of witchcraft would be a
natural survival of these. Gomme (p. 87) thus refers to the well of St.
Aelian, not far from Bettws Abergeley, in Denbighshire.
“Near the well resided a woman who officiated as a kind of priestess.
Anyone who wished to inflict a curse upon an enemy resorted to this
priestess, and for a trifling sum she registered, in a book kept for the
purpose, the name of the person on whom the curse was wished to fall. A
pin was then dropped into the well in the name of the victim, and the
curse was complete.”
The magical associations with wells appear in the following extract
(given by Quiller-Couch, p. 134) of a letter from Dr. O’Connor, the
author of the letters of Columbanus, to his brother.
“I have often inquired of your tenants what they themselves thought of
their pilgrimages to the wells of _Kill-Aracht_, _Tobbar Brighde_,
_Tobbar Muir_, near Elphin, _Moor_, near _Castlereagh_, where multitudes
annually assembled to celebrate what they, in broken English, termed
_Patterns_ (Patron’s days); and when I pressed a very old man, Owen
Hester, to state what possible advantage he expected to derive from the
singular custom of frequenting in particular such wells as were
contiguous to an old blasted oak, _or an upright hewn stone_, and what
the meaning was of the yet more singular custom of _sticking rags_ on
the branches of such trees and spitting on them, his answer, and the
answer of the oldest men, was that their ancestors always did it, and
that it was a preservation against _Geasa Draoidecht_, _i.e._, the
sorceries of the Druids, and that their cattle were preserved by it from
infectious disorders; that the _daoini maithe_, _i.e._, the fairies,
were kept in good humour by it; and so thoroughly persuaded were they of
the sanctity of these Pagan practices that they would travel bareheaded
and barefooted from ten to twenty miles for the purpose of crawling on
their knees round these wells, upright stones, and oak trees, westward,
as the sun travels, some three times, some six, some nine, and so on in
uneven numbers until their voluntary penances were completely
fulfilled.”
2. _Wells generally situated near stone monuments or churches which have
replaced them._--We find many instances of wells near stone circles and
dolmens.
It may even be that the existence of the spring determined the position
of the circle, for the officiating astronomer-priest must like other
mortals have had a water supply available. “Where a spring or a river
flows,” says Seneca, “there should we build altars and offer sacrifices”
(Hope, p. 47). The following shows how closely connected they were.[58]
“Closely associated with the circles, and occupying an equally important
position in the religious rites and ceremonies of the ancient
inhabitants, were sacred wells. These were more numerous than circles,
no doubt owing to the fact that their acquisition was more easily
accomplished: but amongst sacred wells we find some, as we find certain
circles, occupying a position of pre-eminence in the religious cult of
their votaries, and these, as a rule, in close proximity to sun and moon
temples. At Tillie Beltane, in Aberdeenshire, in close proximity to the
remains of a larger and smaller circle, is a well which was held sacred
by the people. According to Col. Leslie, on Beltane and Midsummer days,
those on whom the dire hand of disease had fallen, or those desirous of
averting that calamity, went seven times round the sacred wells sunwise
(deasil)[59] and then proceeded to the circles, where a like ceremony
was performed.”
“In Stenness we find the same association of the well and the circles.
But in harmony with the unrivalled completeness of these monuments... we
find the sacred well here in a closer and deeper connection with the
circles than elsewhere.”
“In the parish of Stenness there is a district called Bigswell, in the
centre of which is a sacred well, and from which the district takes its
name, Big(s)well.... Be that as it may, we know from tradition that down
to the time when the Stone of Odin was demolished, parents came to the
well with children, on Beltane and Midsummer, passed round it sunwise,
and having bathed their little ones (a healthy ordeal), carried them
thence to the Stone of Odin, and passed them through the hole as a
divine protection against the malignant influences of the evil one.”
Borlase records an instance of a well near a stone-circle in Ireland in
the Townland of Ballyferriter, in County Kerry.[60]
The same author also gives examples in Ireland of wells near dolmens,
and of wells _covered_ by dolmens.[61]
It may be remarked that in Cornwall Chapel Euny well is associated with
the circles at Bartinné and Carn Euny; St. Cleer with the three circles
at the Hurlers, and Alsia well is near the Bolleit circle. Mr. Horton
Bolitho is my authority for these statements.
A well is often found near a cell, cairn or _keeill_. Rhys gives us two
examples in the Isle of Man.[62] At Ardmore Bay the holy well is within
the ruined chapel of the saint.[63] A vast pile of stones surrounds the
holy well in Glencolumbkille in Donegal.[64]
It might be useful to add here that it is a very common thing to find a
well by a so-called tomb of a saint.
Let us turn now to wells situated near churches.
It is very generally known that many churches have been built on the
sites of stone-circles, menhirs, &c. This leads us to think that some
form of worship must have taken place at the “ancient-stones”
originally. The following extract from Wilson’s _Archæology_ (page 110)
is given in _Stonehenge_ by Sir Henry James (page 17):
“The common Gaelic phrase--Am bheil thu dol don chlachan--Are you going
to the stones?--by which the Scottish Highlander still enquires at a
neighbour if he is bound for church, seems in itself no doubtful
tradition of ancient worship within the monolithic ring.”
Rhys[65] gives us many instances of wells near churches, and here it may
be useful to add that the Welsh for well is Ffynnon.
Ffynnon Faglan is described as being near a church, also Ffynnon Fair, a
wishing-well. Criccieth Church is supposed to have had a well near it at
one time. Again, Ffynnon Beris is near the parish church of Llanberis
(p. 366), and Ffynnon Elian near to the church of Llanelian,
Denbighshire. Then there are St. Teilo’s Church and Well at Llandeilo
Llwydarth, near Maen Clochog, North Pembrokeshire.
Wood-Martin[66] refers to the rites at the well of Tubberpatrick, part
of the ceremony taking place in the church near by.
3. _Association of sacred wells with sacred trees._--Rhys, and many
other authors, give us several instances of a tree by the side of a
well.[67]
When we come to deal with well offerings we shall find, in fact, that in
almost every case a tree has been a necessary companion of the well, as
the well offerings were hung on them.
In many cases, of course, the kind of tree is not specified. When it is,
it is almost invariably the rowan or hawthorn. Rhys tells us: “The tree
to expect by a sacred well is doubtless some kind of thorn.”[68]
Then again, with reference to Ireland, Rhys, p. 335, quotes a passage
from a letter by the late Mr. W. C. Borlase, on Rag Offerings and
Primitive Pilgrimages in Ireland, to the effect that a hawthorn almost
invariably stands by the brink of the typical Irish “holy well.”
There are also many references to thorn trees in the same position in
Wales.
There are thorn trees at St. Madron’s well in Cornwall, and at Chapel
well St. Breward in the same county near Bodmin, there is a thorn tree
over the well.
Not only are wells often recorded as near sacred trees, but in the case
of some we learn that at the chief annual festival they were decked with
flowers and garlands, and “encircled with a jovial band of young people
celebrating the day with song and dance.” This is recorded of the
“blessing of the Brine” at Nantwich (Hope, p. 7).
4. _Well worship and offerings._--Although the traditions and
superstitions connected with wells are fast becoming things of the past,
in certain parts they are still believed and practised.
Gomme[69] informs us that well-worship prevails in every county of the
three kingdoms. He finds it “most vital in the Gaelic countries,
somewhat less so in the British, and almost entirely wanting in the
Teutonic south-east. In some cases wells were resorted to for the cure
of diseases; in others to obtain change of weather or good luck.
Offerings were made to them to propitiate their guardian gods and
nymphs. Pennant tells us that in olden times the rich would sacrifice
one of their horses at a well near Abergelen to secure a blessing upon
the rest.[70] Fowls were offered at St. Tegla’s Well, near Wrexham, by
epileptic patients,[71] but of late years the well spirits have had to
be content with much smaller tributes--such trifles as pins, rags,
coloured pebbles and small coins.”
In consequence of this dwindling down of the offering we have chiefly to
do with rags, but I think we may learn from the traditions that
originally it was an offering of a garment, and to the officiating
priest, at the well, or temple with which the well was connected. It is
also a question whether the almost universal association of pins with
the garment or part of it might not have originated at a time when such
an offering--it was probably originally a skin--to a priest without a
pin (of bone) to fasten it on would not have been complete. In Kent’s
cavern pins of bone have been found associated with bones of palæolithic
mammals.
Mr. Gomme tells us,[72] “In the case of some wells, especially in
Scotland, at one time the whole garment was put down as an offering.
Gradually these offerings of clothes became less and less till they came
down to rags.” He also points out, as we have already seen, that “the
geographical distribution of rag-offerings coincides with the existence
of monoliths and dolmens.”
As has been noted, almost invariably by the side of every well there
grows the “sacred tree,” a rowan or thorn for the most part; on this
tree the rags are hung, then the bent pin is dropped in. If there
happens to be no tree, or if it is so old that only the stump is left,
then the rags may sometimes be seen wedged in between the stones of the
well.
Quiller-Couch (p. 135) tells us that at Ahagour in Mayo is a well much
frequented by pilgrims, for penance chiefly, where among other offerings
they cut up their clothes, be they ever so new, and tie them to the two
old trees growing near, “lest, on the day of judgment,” thinks the
superstitious peasant, “the Almighty should forget that he came there,
and in order that the tokens should be known, when St. Patrick should
lay them before the tribunal.”
When the original well-worship in relation with the temples became
disestablished, if the well-worship were kept up at all, reasons other
than the old one would soon be invented, and many of these would
naturally be connected with magic and sorcery. In the oldest days the
priest would be a physician as well as an astronomer and a magician, and
his advice might be good for various disorders, but after he had
disappeared there was only magic to depend upon; and this atmosphere is
reflected in the traditions.
I will now give a few extracts to show what goes on at present in
certain localities with regard to the offerings, and the frame of mind
of the devotees.
With reference to the reasons for the offerings made in the present day,
Wood-Martin writes:[73]
“Wells were the haunts of spirits that proved to be propitious if
remembered, but were vindictive if neglected, and hence no devotee
approached the sacred precincts empty-handed, the principle being no
gift no cure; therefore the modern devotee, when tying up a fragment
from the clothing, or dropping a cake, a small coin, or a crooked pin
into the well, is unconsciously worshipping the old presiding spirit of
the place.”
Rhys[74] gives us a great deal of information on this. The ritual varies
at some of them. People came from far and near; it is the custom to make
some sort of offering, rags and pins being the most modern, and about
these we have most information as a matter of course.
Rhys quotes statements he has received about three wells in the county
of Glamorgan (Vol. 1, p. 356). At the first it was the custom “that the
person who wishes his health to be benefited should wash in the water of
the well, and throw a pin into it afterwards.” At another “the custom
prevails of tying rags to the branches of a tree growing close at hand”;
and at the third, “it is the custom for those who are healed in it to
tie a shred of linen or cotton to the branches of a tree that stands
close by; and there the shreds are almost as numerous as the leaves.”
Further (p. 363) we read of another Ffynnon Faglan, and of this Rhys
says, “One told me his mother used to take him to it when he was a child
for sore eyes, bathe them with the water, and then drop in a pin. The
other man, when he was young, bathed in it for rheumatism.” Of this well
it is recorded that when it was cleaned out about fifty years ago “two
basinfuls of pins were taken out,” which were all bent, but no coins
were found in it.
Wood-Martin[75] also gives an interesting account of the rite performed
at a certain well in Ireland; it is a little more elaborate than at
some, but affords an idea of what was probably at one time a very usual
ceremony in connection with stones in other places.
“In a statistical account of the parish of Dungiven, written in 1813, it
is stated that at the well of Tubberpatrick, after performing the usual
rounds, devotees wash their hands and feet with the water and tear off a
small rag from their clothes, which they tie on a bush overhanging the
well; from whence they all proceed to a large stone in the River Roe,
immediately below the old church, and having performed an oblation they
walk round the stone, bowing to it, and repeating prayers as at the
well. Their next movement is to the old church, within which a similar
ceremony goes on, and they finish this rite by a procession and prayers
round the upright stone.”
5. _Time of the chief festival._--On this point there is not a great
quantity of precise information, but what we have points to May 1 as
being about the time when the holy wells are most frequented and
considered most efficacious.
This lack of information arises from the fact that the existence of the
May year in prehistoric times has not been even dreamt of by those who
have compiled the various accounts of the fast fading traditions, and in
very many instances a reference to an unknown saint’s day is the only
information given as to the time of the annual celebration. Wide
generalisation, therefore, from the material at hand is risky.
I will refer in the first instance to the May worship, and begin with
the famous Madron well in Cornwall, the walls of which I found to be
oriented to the May sunrise, so that the priest officiating at the altar
would face the sunrise. Quiller-Couch (p. 137) thus refers to what
happened there.
“Children used to be taken to this well on the first three Sunday
mornings in May to be dipped in the water, that they might be cured of
the rickets, or any other disorder with which they were troubled. Three
times they were plunged into the water, after having been stripped
naked; the parent, or person dipping them, standing facing the sun;
after the dipping they were passed nine times round the well from east
to west; then they were dressed and laid on St. Madern’s bed; should
they sleep, and the water in the well bubble, it was considered a good
omen. Strict silence had to be kept during the entire performance, or
the spell was broken. At the present time the people go to the well in
crowds on the first Sunday in May, when the Wesleyans hold a service
there, and a sermon is preached; after which the people throw in two
pins or pebbles to consult the spirit, or try for sweethearts; if the
two articles sink together, they will soon be married.
“Here divination is performed on May morning by rustic maidens anxious
to know when they are to be married. Two pieces of straw about an inch
long are crossed and transfixed with a pin. This, floated on the waters,
elicits bubbles, the number of which, carefully counted, denotes the
years before the happy day.”
Chapel Euny in Cornwall, near the Bartinné circle, has a wishing (lucky)
well near it. It was used on one of the three first Wednesdays in May.
Children suffering from mesenteric disease are dipped three times
“widderschynnes,” that is contrary to the sun’s motion, and dragged
round the well three times in the same direction.[76]
Edmunds[77] thus refers to this well:--
“Some years since I had the curiosity to go with a friend to Chapel Euny
on one of these Wednesdays, and, whilst watching at a distance, we saw
two women come to the well at the appointed hour, and perform this
ceremony on an infant.”
_Alsia Well_, in the parish of Buryan, same parish as Bolleit circle,
has its well ceremonials on the first three Wednesdays in May.
In Cornwall the May bathing ceremonial is even carried out in salt
water.[78] The time chosen is the same as that at Madron and Chapel
Euny, the first three Sundays in May.
This Sunday in May celebration is not confined to Cornwall. At Eden
Hall, Giant’s Cave, water with sugar is drunk on the third Sunday in
May. A vast concourse of both sexes is present.[79]
At Rorrington, a township in the parish of Chirbury, was a holy well at
which a wake was celebrated on Ascension Day.
In the account of this well given by Gomme (p. 82) we get a glimpse of
many associated usages.
“The well was adorned with a bower of green boughs, rushes, and flowers,
and a may-pole was set up. The people walked round the well, dancing and
frolicking as they went. They threw pins into the well to bring good
luck and to preserve them from being bewitched, and they also drank some
of the water. Cakes were also eaten; they were round flat buns from
three to four inches across, sweetened, spiced, and marked with a cross,
and they were supposed to bring good luck if kept.”
The legend given by Quiller-Couch (p. 55) respecting St. Cuthbert’s well
in North Cornwall is that “in olden times mothers on Ascension Day
brought their deformed or sickly children here, and dipped them in, at
the same time passing them through the aperture connecting the two
cisterns; and thus, it is said, they became healed of their disease or
deformity. It would seem that other classes also believed virtue to
reside in its water; for it is said that the cripples were accustomed to
leave their crutches in the hole at the head of the well.”
At the village of Tissington, near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, the custom
of well-flowering is still observed on every anniversary of the
Ascension (Hope, p. 48).
We may gather from these associated observances at different places that
the wells themselves were situated near circles, for the worshippers
would not be distributed at such a time. This argument is strengthened
by the custom of “waking the well” which took place on the patron
saint’s day.
With regard to the time of the day or night at which well-worship took
place, there seems little doubt that for the most part it was carried on
at night. The practices connected with the “waking of the well” indicate
this clearly, and when it is remembered that these ancient worships were
carried on at a time when marriage had not been instituted, we can
understand that many ‘pagan’ rituals savoured of sensualism as we should
now think and call it.
The particular times when it was considered most propitious for the
_sick_ to visit the wells appear anciently to have been at daybreak or
sunrise.
At the well at Farr, in Sutherlandshire, it is held that the patient,
after undergoing his plunge, drinking of the water, and making his
offering, “must be away from the banks so as to be fairly out of sight
of the water before the sun rises, else no cure is effected.” At Roche
Holywell, in Cornwall, before sunrise on holy Thursday was the appointed
time.
Sometimes the moment of sunrise is chosen. To bathe in the well of St.
Medan, at Kirkmaiden in Wigtonshire, as the sun rose on the first Sunday
in May was considered an infallible cure for almost any disease.
On the other hand, in some cases, as at St. Madron’s well, noon is
chosen on the first three Sundays in May, “not believing that these
waters have any virtue if resorted to on any other days of the year, or
at any other hour of the day.”
With regard to the August festival, there is a holy well at St. Cleer,
near the Hurlers; the festival is held on August 9th.[80] I have no
special references to August wells in Ireland, but there is evidence
given by Piers[81] that at that time cattle were bathed.
“On the first Sunday in harvest, viz., in August, they will be sure to
drive their cattle into some pool or river and therein swim them; this
they observe as inviolable as if it were a point of religion, for they
think no beast will live the whole year thro’ unless they be thus
drenched. I deny not but that swimming cattle, and chiefly in this
season of the year, is healthful unto them, as the poet hath observed:--
“Balantemque gregem fluvio mersare salubri.”--_Virg._
In th’ healthful flood to plunge the bleating flock.
but precisely to do this on the first Sunday in harvest, I look on as
not only superstitious but profane.”
I next come to the solstice in June.
There is evidence concerning wells quite akin to that furnished by the
astronomical use of the circles, that the May year festivals were
subsequently changed to solstitial dates. The well worship does not
appear to have been carried on in the cold weather--hence the absence of
references to February and November; for the same reason we have only
now to do with the summer solstice.
Hazlitt quotes the following from the Irish Hudibras (1689) concerning
June worship at a well in the North of Ireland:--
“Have you beheld, when people pray
At St. John’s well on Patron-Day,
By charm of priest and miracle,
To cure diseases at this well;
The valleys filled with blind and lame,
And go as limping as they came.”
At Barnwell (Beirna-well = youths’ well), near Cambridge, the festival
took place on St. John’s Day.[82]
Brand, in his history of Newcastle (ii. 54), refers to a well still
called Bede’s Well, near Jarrow. “As late as 1740 it was a prevailing
custom to bring children troubled with any disease or infirmity; a
crooked pin was put in, and the well laved dry between each dipping. My
informant has seen twenty children brought together on a Sunday, to be
dipped in this well, at which also, on Midsummer Eve, there was a great
resort of neighbouring people, with bonfires, music, etc.”
Hope gives references to seven wells dedicated to “St. John,” one to
“St. John the Baptist,” and four to St. Peter. These _may_ have been
solstitial wells, but the information given is very slight and not to
the present point. He states (xxii) that the most important celebrations
were first held in May and at the summer solstice. He then adds, “later
Easter and Ascensiontide were the favoured seasons.” May, Summer
Solstice and Easter was, I think, the true order.
Finally, I may refer to the earliest holy well known to history. This is
the famous well at Heliopolis where Rā used to wash himself, and
Piankhi, B.C. 740, went and washed his face in it. At this same well the
Virgin sat and washed her Son’s swaddling bands in it. Its water made
the balsam trees to grow. It is now called by the Arabs “The Fountain of
the Sun” ‘Êyn ash-Shems.
[53] The literature that I have chiefly consulted is as follows:--
R. C. Hope _Holy Wells; their Legends and Traditions._
R. L. Quiller-Couch _Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall._
W. G. Wood-Martin _Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland._
G. L. Gomme _Ethnology in Folklore._
Prof. Rhys _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh._
W. C. Borlase _Dolmens of Ireland._
S. Baring-Gould _A Book of the West._
[54] _Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland, A Folklore Sketch_, ii., p.
47.
[55] Pp. 11, 47.
[56] _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh_, ii., p. 366.
[57] Wood-Martin, _loc. cit._, ii., p. 80.
[58] _Standing Stones and Maeshowe of Stenness_, by Magnus Spence, p.
13.
[59] That is from W. to E. through N., or E. to W. through S.; in the
same direction as the hands of a clock.
[60] _The Dolmens of Ireland_, i., p. 3.
[61] _Ibid._, pp. 95, 765.
[62] _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh_, i., p. 332.
[63] Borlase, _loc. cit._, p. 760.
[64] _Ibid._, p. 426.
[65] Rhys, _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh_, p. 363.
[66] _Pagan Ireland_, p. 160.
[67] Rhys, _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh_, i., pp. 354, 356, 357, &c.
[68] Rhys, _ibid._, p. 332.
[69] _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 78.
[70] Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 351.
[71] Sikes, _idem._, p. 329.
[72] _Folklore_, 1892, p. 89.
[73] _Pagan Ireland_, p. 145.
[74] _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh._
[75] _Pagan Ireland_, p. 160.
[76] Hope, p. 14.
[77] _The Land’s End District_, p. 72.
[78] Edmunds, p. 72.
[79] Hope, p. 40.
[80] St. Cleer = St. Cledod, A.D. 482. The arms of St. Cleer are the Sun
in its glory.
[81] Description of Westmeath, 1682, quoted by Vallencey, i., 121.
[82] Hazlitt, ii., 616.
CHAPTER XXII
WHERE DID THE BRITISH WORSHIP ORIGINATE?
The recent chapters have, I think, established, by the evidence derived
from folklore and tradition, that there was in the long past a combined
worship of trees, wells and streams in the neighbourhood of sacred
places, the sacred place being a stone circle or some other monument
built up of stones.
We have gathered also that the chief times of worship were on or near
the most important dates defined for us by the May year, the original
year marked out by the various agricultural and other operations proper
to the various seasons.
It is again imperative that I should point out that if the basis of this
worship was not utility it must have been started by men sufficiently
skilled to indicate by their astronomical knowledge the proper times for
the various operations to which I have referred. In this we see the
reason for the local combination of the worship in the neighbourhood of
the stones, for the stones were really the instruments which enabled the
astronomer-priest to be useful to the community; that he in process of
time became powerful and sacred because he was wise, and added medicine
and magic to his other qualifications, was only what was to be expected.
I am not the first to have been driven by the facts to note the close
association to which I have referred, that the cults were not separate
but were parts of one whole.
Wood-Martin speaks with the most certain sound on this point. “It will
be seen that, from a review of the whole subject, stone, water, tree,
and animal-worship are intimately connected.”[83]
What the analysis in the recent chapters, taken in connection with the
astronomical results previously stated, has done is perhaps to give a
clear reason for the connection. Not only were the cults started
together, but they remained together for a long time; it is only in
quite late years that the traditions have become so dim that practices
once closely connected are now dealt with apart from the rest.
Hope points out (p. xxii) that the 16th of the canons of the reign of
Edgar, A.D. 963, which enjoins the clergy to be diligent, advance
Christianity, and extinguish heathenism, mentions especially the worship
of stones, trees, and fountains. The laws of Knut (A.D. 1018) specify
the worship “of heathen gods, the sun, moon, fire, rivers, fountains,
rocks, or trees.”
Now, although the folklore evidence I have brought together has been
gathered for the most part from the British Isles, my inquiries have not
been limited to that area.
It was natural that when the study of folklore had suggested that there
was a close connection between the worship carried on in Britain at
stone monuments, sacred trees, and sacred wells an attempt should have
been made to see whether these three cults had been associated out of
Britain with the ceremonials of any of the early peoples for which
complete and trustworthy information is available.
On this point the traditions of widely sundered countries is amazingly
strong.
The folklore of the Pyrenees, France, Spain and Portugal regarding
sacred wells is very similar to that of Ireland. Borlase writes:[84]
“It is interesting to notice that the pre-Christian custom called
_dessil_, or circuit around a venerated spot, which is practised in
Ireland in the case of one dolmen at least, as well as at wells and
Churches innumerable, is found also in Portugal.”
In the Pyrenees, too, fairies and spirits are thought much of in this
connection. Borlase tells us:[85] “They are the presiding genii of
certain wells.” He adds:
“It is not in Ireland alone that dolmens are associated with the notion
of wells and water springs. The Portuguese names, Anta do Fontao, Fonte
Coberta, Anta do Fonte-de Mouratao, and the French names, Fonte de
Rourre, and Fonte nay le Marmion, show this to be the case.”[86]
In Persia Sir Wm. Ouseley saw a tree covered with rags, and similar
trees in the Himalayas are associated with large heaps of stones (Gomme,
p. 105).
The late General Pitt-Rivers affirms that the customs of well-offerings
I referred to in the last chapter are invariably associated with cairns,
megalithic monuments or some such early Pagan institutions, and he adds
that the area in which traces of well-offerings are found is
conterminous with the area of the megalithic monuments.[87]
The idea that the waters of certain wells have marvellous healing powers
is also not confined to the British Isles, for in a great many parts of
Europe, perhaps more especially in France, Spain and Portugal, we find
instances.
The practice of worshipping in connection with wells and the sacred
stones and sacred trees which were associated with them, as we have
seen, was indeed in ancient days almost, if not quite, universal
wherever man existed. The traditions of the past, therefore, are to be
gathered over a very wide area. I quote a summary of the universality of
this practice given by the late General Pitt-Rivers in the paper already
noticed:
“Burton says it extends throughout northern Africa from west to east;
Mungo Park mentions it in western Africa; Sir Samuel Baker speaks of it
on the confines of Abyssinia, and says that the people who practised it
were unable to assign a reason for doing so; Burton also found the same
custom in Arabia during his pilgrimage to Mecca; in Persia Sir William
Ouseley saw a tree _close to a large monolith_ covered with these rags,
and he describes it as a practice appertaining to a religion long since
proscribed in that country; in the Dekkan and Ceylon Colonel Leslie says
that the trees in the neighbourhood of wells may be seen covered with
similar scraps of cotton: Dr. A. Campbell speaks of it as being
practised by the Limboos near Darjeeling in the Himalaya, where it is
associated, as in Ireland, with large heaps of stones; and Huc in his
travels mentions it among the Tartars.”
The astronomical facts given in this book, gathered from a study of the
monuments in these islands, can only give us information touching the
introduction of the combined worship here.
My investigations have strongly suggested, to say the least, that there
were men here with knowledge enough to utilise the movements of the sun
and stars for temple, and no doubt practical purposes before 2000 B.C.,
that is, a thousand years before Solomon was born, and at about the time
that the Hecatompedon was founded at Athens.
If this is anywhere near the truth, these men must have been
representatives of a very old civilisation.
Now the civilisation principally considered by archæologists in
connection with the building of the monuments which I have studied is
the Aryan, of which the Celts formed a branch. This view, however, is
not universally held; the late General Pitt-Rivers, and I know of no
higher authority, stated his opinion that “The megalithic monuments...
take us back to pre-Aryan people, and suggest the spread of this people
over the area covered by their remains.”[88]
Mr. Gomme is of the same opinion (p. 27):
“Ceremonies which are demonstrably non-Aryan in India, even in the
presence of Aryan people, must in origin have been non-Aryan in Europe,
though the race from whom they have descended is not at present
identified by ethnologists.”
Sergi also points out:--
“Indo-Germanism led to almost entire forgetfulness of the most ancient
civilisations of the earth, those born in the valleys of the Euphrates
and the Tigris, and in the valley of the Nile; no influence was granted
to them over Greco-Roman classic civilisation, almost none anywhere in
the Mediterranean.”[89]
It is not necessary for me to deal at length with the great Aryan
controversy in this book, even if the subject were within my competence,
which it is not; but now that we have a large number of monuments dated,
say, within twenty years of their use, it is important to bring forward
some dates arrived at by archæologists and philologists to compare with
those which the astronomical method of inquiry has revealed.
Hall[90] gives evidence to show that the Aryans did not reach Greece
till after the earlier period of the Mycenæan age, which he dates at
about 1700 B.C.
With regard to the date of the Aryan invasion of Britain, Mr. Read, of
the Department of Ethnography, British Museum, informs me that it may be
taken as about 1000 B.C.; it was associated with cremation. It is highly
probable that these Aryans were the Goidels or the Gael. These were
followed some 700 years later by another Aryan sept--the Brythons. Mr.
Read is also of opinion that the Goidels reached Britain from the
country round the South Baltic, and the Brythons from or through
north-east France.
Archæologists, however, recognise a pre-Aryan invasion, about 1800 B.C.
(a date determined by the introduction of bronze), of a brachycephalic
folk who built covered barrows, different in these respects from the
neolithic folk, who were long-skulled and built long barrows. Now, in
relation to the stone structures to which this book especially refers,
the question arises, are we then dealing with this swarm or the people
whom they found on the soil?
There are some indications in the traditions which imply that we are
really dealing with an early stone age, when flints were the only
weapons, and there were no clothes to speak of. I will give one or two
examples of these traditions. Gomme (p. 53) refers to a singular fact
preserved among the ceremonies of witchcraft in Scotland:
“In order to injure the waxen image of the intended victim, the
implements used in some cases by the witches were stone arrowheads, or
elf-shots, as they were called, and their use was accompanied by an
incantation. Here we have, in the undoubted form of a prehistoric
implement, the oldest untouched detail of early life which has been
preserved by witchcraft.”
Gomme (p. 39) also tells us that one of the May practices at Stirling is
for boys of ten and twelve years old to divest themselves of their
clothing, and in a state of nudity to run round certain natural or
artificial circles. “Formerly the rounded summit of Demyat, an eminence
in the Ochil range, was a favourite scene of this strange pastime, but
for many years it has been performed at the King’s Knot, in Stirling, an
octagonal mound in the Royal Gardens. The performances are not
infrequently repeated at Midsummer and Lammas.” He adds, “The fact that
in this instance the practice is continued only by ‘boys of ten and
twelve years old,’ shows that we have here one of the last stages of an
old rite before its final abolition.”
Baring-Gould (p. 21) provides us with a practice in Brittany which would
seem to be a remnant of a pre-clothing age.
Near Carnac is a menhir, at which a singular “ceremony took place till
comparatively recently, and may perhaps still be practised in secret. A
married couple that have no family repair to this stone when the moon is
full, strip themselves stark naked and course one another round it a
prescribed number of times, whilst their relations keep guard against
intrusion at a respectful distance.”
Now it is in connection with this question that I am in hopes that some
help may be got from the astronomical results recorded in the present
volume. The dates revealed by the orientation of the circles and
outstanding stones already dealt with (and there is a large number to
follow) indicate that it is among the records of some people of whom the
civilisation is very ancient that we must look in the first instance
with a view of tracing the origin of our British monuments.
Further, now that we have been able to follow their astronomical
methods, to note how sound they were, and to gather the purposes of
utility they were intended to serve, it is simply common sense to
inquire, in the first instance, if they may have been connected with
these ancient peoples whose astronomical skill is universally
recognised, and whose records and even observations have come down to
us.
Now, while we know nothing of the astronomy of the Aryans generally, or
that of the Celts in particular, the astronomical knowledge of the
Babylonians and Egyptians is one of the wonders of the ancient world.
Hence Babylonia and Egypt are at once suggested, and the suggestion is
not rendered a less probable one when we remember that both these
peoples studied and utilised astronomy at least some 8,000 years ago.
But here we are dealing with two peoples. It is more than probable that
they both were associated more or less near the origin with one race,
the ideas of which permeated both civilisations.
I have it on the highest authority, that of Dr. Budge, that in Babylonia
there were originally the Sumerians and the Semites. The primitive race
which conquered the Egyptians seems to have been connected with the
former as regards civilisation, and with the latter as regards some
aspects of the Egyptian language.
This race was Semitic, and as the pyramids, built some 6,000 years ago,
are a proof of the interaction of the two civilisations at that time,
for the Easter festival celebrated on the banks of the Nile came from
the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, we may omit the pre-Semites
from our consideration.
There is other evidence that the connection between the Semites and
Egyptians was close astronomically, so that any Semitic influence in
later times or in other lands would be sure to show traces of this
connection, and in temple worship it would be traceable. While the
carefully oriented Egyptian temples built of stone remain and have been
carefully studied, those erected in the centres of Semitic power, built
of unbaked brick, have for the most part disappeared, but for the most
part only; some stone structures remain, but in regard to them there has
been no Lepsius; of their orientation, too, little is known. This is all
the more to be regretted since Layard, in addition to many E. and N.
buildings found at Nimrood, noted at the mound of Kouyunjik, the site of
Nineveh, lat. 36° 20′ N., that Sennacherib’s palace, which appears to
have been built round a central temple, was oriented to the May
year.[91] (Az. N. 68° 30′ E. = Dec. N. 16°.)
Now, calling in the Babylonians as the originators of what went on in
Britain 4,000 years ago may seem to some to be far-fetched in more ways
than one; but the Babylonians were a remarkable people; according to
some they originated all the voyaging of the early world, though other
authorities point out that the first ships in the eastern seas must have
been Indian.
Ihering[92] adduces a series of facts which indicate clearly that the
Babylonians carried on maritime navigation at least as early as about
3500 B.C. But, whatever this time was, the Semites and Egyptians had
already a rich culture behind them at a time when the Aryans, whatever
or wherever their origin, had not made themselves a place in the world’s
history. An ancient sea connection between Babylonia and India may
explain the similarity of the British and Indian folklore.
Some facts with regard to long distance ancient travel are the
following. Our start-point may be that Gudea, a Babylonian king who
reigned about 2500 B.C., brought stones from Melukhkha and Makan, that
is, Egypt and Sinai (Budge, _History of Egypt_, ii., 130). Now these
stones were taken coastwise Sinai to Eridu, at the head of the Persian
Gulf, a distance of 4,000 miles, and it is also said that then, or even
before then, there was a coast-wise traffic to and from Malabar, where
teak was got to be used in house- and boat-building. The distance from
Eridu coastwise to Malabar, say the present Cannanore, is 2,400 miles.
The distance, coastwise, from Alexandria to Sandwich, where we learn
that Phœnicians and others shipped the tin extracted from the mines in
Cornwall, is only 5,300 miles, so that a voyage of this length was quite
within the powers of the compassless navigators of 2500 B.C.
The old idea that the ancient merchants could make a course from Ushant
to, say, Falmouth or Penzance need no longer be entertained; the
crossing from Africa to Gibraltar and from Cape Grisnez to Sandwich were
both to visible land, _i.e._ coastwise. The cliffs on the opposite land
are easily seen on a clear day.
Hence it would have been easier before the days of astronomical
knowledge and compasses to have reached England, and therefore Ireland
and the Orkneys, than to get to some of the islands in the
Mediterranean itself.[93]
It is seen then that it is possible that Semites might have built our
stone monuments between 2000 and 1200 B.C., while it is quite certain
that the Aryans did not build them, if the archæologists are not widely
wrong in their dates.
Let us, then, begin our inquiries by considering the information
available with regard to the Semites. Let us see in the first instance
whether they had stone monuments, and sacred trees and sacred wells; a
system of worship; and whether this worship was connected with the sun
and stars.
It is fortunate for us in this matter that one of the most fully
equipped scholars which the last century produced, Robertson Smith,
devoted his studies for many years to _The Religion of the Semites_, and
information on the points raised is to our hand; all I need do is to
give as shortly as possible a statement of the various conclusions he
had reached on the points to which our attention may in the first
instance be confined. I quote from his book _The Religion of the
Semites_.
The Semites include the Babylonians, who spoke a Semitic dialect, for
there were Sumerian speaking peoples among them, Assyrians, Phœnicians,
Hebrews, Arabs and Aramæans, who in ancient times occupied the fertile
lands of Syria, Mesopotamia and Irak from the Mediterranean coast to the
base of the mountains of Iran and Armenia. They also embrace the
inhabitants of the great Arabian peninsula, which is believed to have
been the centre of dispersion.
The ordinary artificial mark of a Semitic sanctuary was the sacrificial
pillar, cairn, or rude altar (p. 183): it was a fixed point where,
according to primitive rule, the blood of the offering was applied to
the sacred stones; or where a sacred tree, as we shall see presently,
was hung with gifts; the stones and tree being symbols of the God (p.
151).
Further, it is certain that the original altar among the northern
Semites was a great unhewn[94] stone, or a cairn, at which the blood of
the victim was shed (p. 185).
Monolithic pillars or cairns of stones are frequently mentioned in the
more ancient parts of the Old Testament as marking sanctuaries; Shechem,
Bethel, Gilead, Gilgal, Mizpah, Gibeon, and En-Rogel are referred to (p.
186).
There is evidence that in very early times the sanctuary was a cave (p.
183). The obvious successors of a natural cave are, (1) an artificial
cave made in the earth like the natural one, and (2) a model or
representation of a cave built of stone, with a small entrance which
would be barred, and covered over with earth, thus protecting the
priests from wild animals and the weather.
The dolmens and cromlechs which are found in the Semitic area where
there are stones doubtless had this origin.
The use of a cave was probably borrowed both by the Egyptians and Greeks
(there is a cave, for instance, at Eleusis) from the Semites.
In later times, when caves or their equivalents were no longer in vogue
and temples were erected, they enclosed a Bit-ili or Beth-el, an upright
stone, consecrated by oil.[95]
We next learn (pp. 170 and 183) that no Canaanite high place was
complete without its sacred tree standing beside the altar.
In tree-worship pure and simple as in Arabia, the tree is adored at an
annual feast (? May), when it is hung with clothes and women’s ornaments
(p. 169).
The tree at Mecca to which offerings are made is spoken of as a “tree to
hang things on.”
The references to “groves” given in the Bible as associated with temple
worship are misleading, “groves” being a wrong translation of the word
Asherah, which was a pole made of wood which the Jews adopted from the
Canaanites. It was ornamented and perhaps draped, and was most probably
originally a tree. It may have been used in the “high places” because
single trees would not grow there in the East any more than on the moors
in Devon and Cornwall.
The antiquity of this emblem is proved by Smith’s statement (p. 171)
that in an Assyrian monument from Khorsābād an ornamental pole is shown
beside a portable altar. “Priests stand before it engaged in an act of
worship and touch the pole with their hands or perhaps anoint it with
some liquid substance.”
The draping of the tree seems to be proved by the passage which
suggested the mistranslation to me before I wrote to some Hebrew
scholars among my friends who allowed me to consult them. The passage is
as follows (II. Kings, xxiii., 6, 7):--
“And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without
Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and
stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves
of the children of the people.
“And he brake down the houses of the Sodomites, that were by the house
of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove.”
To show how little variation there was in the Semitic practices to those
recorded in British folklore I may state that one of my friends--one of
the revision committee--informed me that his impression was that the
Asherah was furnished with pegs or hooks, so that the garments, &c.,
might be easily hung on it.
* * * * *
I next come to the sacred waters. A sacred fountain, as well as the
sacred tree, was a common symbol at Semitic sanctuaries (p. 183).
Nevertheless, they were sometimes absent, the main place being given to
altar worship. Further, Robertson Smith was of opinion that this altar
worship did not originate with tree [? or water] worship (p. 170); but
still, sacred wells are among the oldest and most ineradicable objects
of reverence among all the Semites, and were credited with oracular
powers (pp. 128, 154). The fountain or stream was not a mere adjunct to
the temple, but was itself one of the principal _sacra_ of the spot (p.
155).
Undoubtedly there were ordeals among other things at these wells (p.
163). One case is given in Numbers, v., 17, where the words “holy water”
occur, and other water “that causeth the curse” is referred to. Ordeal
by water is not unknown among British customs.
It is interesting to note that special sanctity was attached to groups
of seven wells (p. 167), and that one such group was called
Thorayga=Pleiades (p. 153).[96] We may gather from this that one of the
most sacred times for Semitic worship was at the May festival, marked by
the rising of the Pleiades.
Although I do not find many references in Robertson Smith’s book as to
great festival days, there is other evidence which shows that the May
festival was the greatest, and represented New Year’s Day. I have
already shown that the May-November year is the one recognised in the
present Turkish, Armenian and I believe Persian calendars (p. 29). As
this was the year used at Thebes 3200 B.C., we may take it that at that
time it was universal in W. Asia and the adjacent lands. The Jews
afterwards adopted the equinoctial year.
It seems highly probable that we may learn from many passages in the
Old Testament what the Semitic temple practices were generally. There
were sacrifices of men and beasts, burnt offerings, and lighting of
fires, through which the children were made to pass.
I give some references to these fire practices.
“And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to
Molech.”--Leviticus, xviii., 21.
“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
“Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a
necromancer.”--Deuteronomy, xviii., 10, 11.
“He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to
pass through the fire.”--II. Kings, xvi., 3.
“And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the
fire, and used divination and enchantments.”--II. Kings, xvii., 17.
“And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of
Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through
the fire to Molech.”--II. Kings, xxiii., 10. (See also 4 and 5.)
Fire sacrifices which were interpreted as offerings of fragrant smoke
were prevalent among the settled Semites (p. 218). Sacrificial fat was
burned on the altar. Smith remarks: “This could be done without any
fundamental modification of the old type of sacred stone or altar
pillar, simply by making a hollow on the top to receive the grease, and
there is some reason to think that fire-altars of this simple kind,
which in certain Phœnician types are developed into altar candlesticks,
are older than the broad platform altar proper for receiving a burnt
offering” (p. 364).
* * * * *
With regard to the worship of the sun and stars by the Semites, we read
that the Semite addressed his God as Baal or Bal. The simple form of
Baal was the sun.[97]
By the Semites the stars were, on account of their movements, held to be
alive; they were therefore gods, and it was in consequence of this
widespread belief that the stars were worshipped (p. 127). The
worshippers “burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, to the moon and to
the planets, and to all the hosts of heaven” (II. Kings, xxiii., 5). Job
congratulated himself that “his heart had not been enticed, nor his
mouth kissed his hand, if he beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon
walking in her brightness” (Job, xxxi., 26-27). The worship of the
morning star as a god is the old Semitic conception (Isa., xiv., 12),
“Lucifer son of the Dawn.”
We gather from the later practices of the Saracens that the sacrifices
to the morning star could not be made after the star had disappeared in
the dawn.[98] The God had to be in the presence of the worshippers.
* * * * *
The Semitic worship was generally carried on in “high places”; in the
Babylonian temples built in a river valley the “high places” were
secured by building towers with the sanctuary on the top.
These high places were necessary because exact observations of the
risings of the heavenly bodies formed part of the ceremonial, and a
clear horizon was absolutely imperative. That this was generally
understood and acted on is well evidenced by the fact that in the Old
Testament the mention of high places is nearly always associated with
the references to the religion of the Canaanites and other Semitic
nations as if the high places were among the most important points in
it.
* * * * *
Other arguments may be founded upon linguistic considerations. Prof. J.
Morris Jones[99] finds that the syntax of Welsh and Irish differs from
that of other Aryan languages in many important respects, _e.g._ the
verb is put first in every simple sentence. Prof. Rhys had suggested
that these differences represented the persistence in Welsh and Irish of
the syntax of a pre-Aryan dialect, and as the anthropologists hold that
the pre-Aryan population of these islands came from North Africa, it
seemed to Prof. Jones that that was the obvious place to look for the
origin of these syntactical peculiarities. He finds the similarities
between Old Egyptian and neo-Celtic syntax to be astonishing; he shows
that practically all the peculiarities of Welsh and Irish syntax are
found in the Hamitic languages.
This conclusion practically implies that the bulk of the population of
these islands, before the arrival of the Celts, spoke dialects allied to
those of North Africa. The syntactical peculiarities must have
represented the habits of thought of the people, which survived in the
Celtic vocabulary imposed upon them.
These conclusions were not known to me when I began to see the necessity
of separating the cult of the June from that of the May year, and the
identity of the conclusions drawn from astronomical and linguistic data
is to me very striking and also suggests further special inquiries.
It is also worth while to state that the Semites, including the Hebrews
and Phœnicians, did not burn their dead. Finally, I may quote a remark
made by General Pitt-Rivers in the paper already referred to:--“If we do
not accept one old civilization as the origin of the various practices,
then we must assume accidental origins in each country.”
[83] Wood-Martin, p. 265.
[84] _Dolmens of Ireland_, ii., p. 696.
[85] _Ibid._, ii., p. 580.
[86] _Ibid._, p. 772.
[87] _Journal Eth. Soc._, N.S., i., 64.
[88] _Journ. Eth. Soc._, N.S. i., 64.
[89] _The Mediterranean Races_, p. 4.
[90] _The Oldest Civilisation of Greece_, p. 105.
[91] This I gather from the plan prepared by Lieut. Glascott, R.N., who
apparently accompanied Mr. Layard. He indicates the true north point
with a sailor’s precision in such matters. (See p. 305).
[92] _Evolution of the Aryan_, Translation by Drucker, § 32.
[93] The prevalence of solstitial customs in Sardinia and Corsica, with
apparently no trace of the May year, tends to support this view, which
is also strengthened by the fact that the solstitial customs in Morocco
are very similar to those we read of in Britain: the May year is
unnoticed, and there is a second feast at Easter (March 16th). See
Westermarck in _Folk-lore_, vol. xxi., p. 27.
[94] And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it
of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted
it.--Exodus, xx., 25.
[95] And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he
had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon
the top of it.
And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and
of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto
thee.--Genesis, xxviii., 18, 22.
[96] Herodotus, iii., 8, refers to an Arabian rite in which seven stones
are smeared with blood among peoples whose only gods were Dionysos and
Urania, whom they called Orotalt and Alilat.
[97] Sayce, _Babylonians and Assyrians_, p. 234.
[98] _Nili op. quaedam_ (Paris, 1639), pp. 28, 117, quoted by Robertson
Smith, p. 151.
[99] “Pre-Aryan Syntax in Insular Celtic,” in the _Welsh People_, by
Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, pp. 617-641.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SIMILARITY OF THE SEMITIC AND BRITISH WORSHIPS
I propose in this chapter to bring into juxtaposition the various
British and Semitic-Egyptian practices which we have so far considered.
I confess I am amazed at the similarities we have come across in the
first cast of the net; we have found so much that is common to both
worships in connection with all the points we considered separately. I
will, for convenience, deal with the various points seriatim.
1. The cult of sacred stones or cairns.
The only objection which, so far as I can see, may be raised to these
practices being absolutely common is the idea among many British
archæologists that the cairns, in which term I include chambered barrows
or dolmens and their skeletons, the cromlechs and stone passages, were
set up for burial and not for worship. This idea has arisen because some
of them have been used for burials. But I cannot accept this argument,
because since the burials might have taken place at any time subsequent
to their erection they prove nothing as to the reason of the erection;
and further, if these chambered cairns were meant for burials, there
should be burials in all of them, and yet there are none in the most
majestic of them all, Maeshowe.
Let us consider a few facts in relation to the Semitic use of cairns
referred to on p. 244.
That the cromlechs found both in Britain and Syria--there are 780 in
Ireland and 700 in Moab--are the remains of chambered cairns is pretty
clear from the evidence brought forward by Borlase.[100]
Mr. John Bell, of Dundalk, disinterred over sixty cromlechs from cairns
in Ulster. All dolmens were covered by tumuli according to Mr. Bell and
Mr. Lukis. Monuments called cairns in the earliest Ordnance Survey have
been marked dolmens in subsequent surveys (_e.g._ Townland of Leana in
Clare) because the earth covering the stones had disappeared in the
meantime.
Among the evidences of natural and artificial caves preceding cairns
which replaced them are the twenty-four caves which have been explored
in France (_op. cit._, p. 568).[101]
Borlase points out with regard to the Irish dolmens that large tumuli
were not essential; all that was necessary was that the walls of the
cell or crypt should be impervious to the elements and to wild animals.
A creep or passage communicating with the edge of the mound is common to
Ireland, Wales, Portugal and Brittany (_op. cit._, p. 428).
The facts that the cairns so often had their open ends facing the N.E.
or S.E., and that the west end was generally higher, like the naos
trilithons at Stonehenge, must be borne in mind.
Most of what we know of earliest man has been obtained from their lives
in caves; what they ate, the contemporary fauna and their art are thus
known to us, but caves have not been considered as tombs, though men
have died and left their remains in them.
In the case of a dolmen, however, an artificial cave, as we shall see,
the possibility of people living in them appears never to have been
considered seriously, and the tomb theory has led to bad reasoning and
forced argument.
When burials are absent it has been suggested that “owing to some
peculiarity of the soil, the entire of the human remains have become
decomposed, only the imperishable stone implements entombed with the
body remaining.”[102]
Mr. Spence has pointed out the extreme improbability of Maeshowe being
anything but a temple, and I may now add on the Semitic model. There
were a large central hall and side rooms for sleeping, a stone door
which could have been opened or shut _from the inside_, and a niche for
a guard, janitor or hall porter! So high an authority as Colonel Leslie
has pointed out that neither Maeshowe, New Grange and Dowth on the
Boyne, nor Gavr Innis in Brittany bear any internal proof of being
specially prepared as tombs.[103]
There is another point connected with these dolmens and cromlechs. An
origin in the Semitic area easily explains why in Asia and Britain the
dolmens are so alike, down to small details, such as the perforation of
one of the side stones. Borlase has remarked also upon the similarity of
Indian and Irish dolmens (_op. cit._, p. 755), similar holes also being
common to them. The curious concentric circles, &c., found on some
dolmen stones are common to Assyrian vessels.[104]
The most philosophical study of this question I have seen[105] certainly
suggests that much light may be expected from this source.
Part of the cult of the sacred stones was the ceremony of _anointing
them_. Robertson Smith (p. 214) gives us the meaning and history of
anointing among the Semites, and notes its continuation from Jacob’s
pouring oil on sacred stones at Bethel, through the time of Pausanias to
that of the Pilgrims of the fourth century A.D.
The anointing of stones was certainly carried on in ancient times in
Britain and Brittany. Baring-Gould tells us:[106]
“Formerly the menhir was beplastered with oil and honey and wax, and
this anointing of the stones was condemned by the bishops. In certain
places the local clergy succeeded in diverting the practice to the
Churches. There are still some in Lower Brittany whose exterior walls
are strung with wax lines arranged in festoons and patterns.
“In some places childless women still rub themselves against menhirs,
expecting thereby to be cured of barrenness, but in others, instead,
they rub themselves against stone images of saints.”
When I visited the Cave of Elephanta in 1871 I was told that the barren
women of Bombay visit the cave once a year and anoint the standing stone
in the chief chamber. In Egypt they still rub their bodies on the
Colossi.
2. Sacred fires.
Among the Semites the sacrificial fat was burned on the altar. And we
have seen that “this could be done without any fundamental modification
of the old type of sacred stone or altar pillar, simply by making a
hollow on the top to receive the grease.”[107]
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--Cresset-stone, Lewannick. From Baring-Gould’s
_Strange Survivals_.]
Baring-Gould[108] has written on the question of sacrificial and sacred
fires in ancient times in Britain, and points out that there still
remain in some of our churches (in Cornwall, York and Dorset) the
contrivances--now called cresset-stones--used. They are blocks of stone
with cups hollowed out precisely as described by Robertson Smith. Some
are placed in lamp-niches furnished with flues. On these he remarks (p.
122):--
“Now although these lamps and cressets had their religious
signification, yet this religious signification was an afterthought. The
origin of them lay in the necessity of there being in every place a
central light, from which light could at any time be borrowed.”
3. The cult of the sacred tree.
I have shown that the sacred trees in Britain, whether rowan, thorn or
mistletoe, were at their best at the times of the festivals at which
they were chiefly worshipped. Mrs. J. H. Philpot, in her valuable book
on “the sacred tree,” gives us the names of some used in different
countries; it would be interesting to inquire whether the same
consideration applies to them in the Semitic and other areas.
There seems to be no doubt that the Semitic Asherah was the precursor of
the British Maypole, even to its dressing of many coloured ribands, and
from the Maypole customs we may infer something of the Semitic practices
which have not come down to us. Even “Jack o’ the Green” may eventually
be traced to Al-Khidr (p. 29) of the old May festivals.
4. The cult of the sacred well.
Here we find only trifling differences. The chief one is the use of
pins in Britain. If we knew more about the Asherah with its hooks this
difference might disappear.
It has been pointed out by several authors that the worship of wells and
water would be most likely to arise in a dry and thirsty land.
5. The time of the chief festivals.
Here we find beyond all question that the festival times were the same
to begin with. May is the chief month both in West Asia and West Europe.
It was not till a subsequent time that June and December were added in
Egypt and Britain, and April and September among the Jews.
6. The characteristics of the festivals.
Here again is precise agreement. The list I gave on p. 205 of what can
be gathered from British folklore is identical with the statements as to
Semitic practices which I quoted from Robertson Smith in the last
chapter.
7. The worship in high places.
Absolute identity; and from this we can gather that the ancient
condition of the high places wherever selected for temple worship was as
treeless as it is now; otherwise the observations of sun- and star-rise
and -set would be greatly interfered with.
Of course, there may have been “groves” associated with, but away from,
sanctuaries in both Semitic and British areas: but it is not impossible
that much which has been written on this subject with regard to Britain
and the “Druids” may have been suggested in part by the erroneous
translation of Asherah to which I have referred. It has also been stated
that an early transcriber who, in error, substituted lucus for locus may
also be held partly responsible, even if lucus does not mean a clearing
in a grove, as some maintain.
8. The god or gods worshipped.
The year-gods in Babylonia and Egypt respectively were Baal and Thoth.
It is worth while to inquire whether either name has made its appearance
as a loan-word in the traditions of Western Europe.
About Baal there can be no question as to the coincidence, whether
accidental, as some philologists affirm, or not.
We find Bel or Baal common to the two areas. Mr. Borlase informs us
(_op. cit._, p. 1164) that in Western Europe Bel, Beal, Balor, Balder,
and Phol, Fal, Fáil are the equivalents of the Semitic Baal. Balus,
indeed, is named as the first king of Orkney. A May worship is connected
with all the above. Beltaine and many variants describe the fires
lighted at the festival, and it is worthy of note that although this
fire worship has been extended to the solstitial ceremonials in June,
the name Baltaine has never been applied to it at that time except by
writers who think that the term “midsummer” may be applied
indiscriminately to the beginning of May and the end of June.
I next deal with the Egyptian year-god Thoth. In Greece he became
Hermes, among the Romans Mercury. In this connection I can most usefully
refer to Rhys’s Hibbert Lectures and his chapter on the Gaulish
Pantheon. He tells us (p. 5) that “Mercury is the god with whom the
monuments lead one to begin.” There is also mention of a god Toutates or
Teutates, and a Toutius, who might have been a public official (? priest
of Toutates). Only Celtic or other later origins of the words are
suggested; it is not said whether the possible Egyptian root has been
considered.
We may even, I think, go further and ask whether some of the
constellations were not figured as in Egypt, otherwise it is difficult
to account for the horror of the black pig (p. 195) at Hallowe’en. The
whole Egyptian story is told in my _Dawn of Astronomy_[109] in
connection with the worship of Set, that is the stars visible at night,
blotted out at dawn by the rising sun, or becoming predominant after
sunset.
9. The worship of the sun and stars.
Here also, as I have shown, is complete agreement. The same astronomical
methods have been employed for the same purpose. The chief difference
lies in the fact that by lapse of time the precessional movement caused
different stars to be observed as clock stars or to herald the sunrise
on the chief ceremonial days.
[100] _Dolmens of Ireland_, p. 426.
[101] “France, indeed, furnishes us with a stepping-stone, as it were,
between the natural cave and the dolmen in certain artificial caves
which offer comparison both with the former and the latter... the
natural cave was scooped out into a large chamber or chambers either by
the swirling of water pent up in the limestone or other yielding rock
and finding its way out through some narrow crevice. The ground plan and
section, therefore, is that of an _allée couverte_ with a vestibule...
the artificial cave is modelled on the natural one, and yet bears, as M.
Mortillet points out, a close resemblance to the dolmen.”
[102] Wandle, _Remains of Prehistoric Age in England_, p. 147.
[103] It is interesting to point out in relation to the fact that
different swarms successively introduced the May and solstitial years
that the “sleeping rooms” of the May year cairns at New Grange are about
3 feet square, while at the solstitial Maeshowe, built very much later,
the dimensions are 6 feet × 4¹⁄₂ feet. There were differences of
sleeping posture in the old days among different peoples as well as
different methods of burial.
[104] Borlase, p. 617.
[105] “The Builders and the Antiquity of our Cornish Dolmens,” by Rev.
D. Gath Whitley (_Journal R.I. Cornwall_, No. 4).
[106] _Book of Brittany_, p. 21.
[107] _History of the Semites_, p. 364.
[108] _Strange Survivals_, p. 122.
[109] Pp. 146, 215, and elsewhere.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE MAY-YEAR IN SOUTH-WEST CORNWALL
The previous pages of this volume have apparently dealt with two
distinct subjects; the use of the British monuments on the orientation
theory, and the folklore and tradition which enable us to get some
glimpses into the lives, actions, habits and beliefs of the early
inhabitants of these islands, and the region whence these early
inhabitants had migrated.
But although these subjects are apparently distinct, I think my readers
will agree that the study of each has led to an identical result,
namely, that in early times it was a question of the May year, and that
the solstitial year was introduced afterwards. This was the chief
revelation of the monuments when they were studied from the astronomical
point of view.
Without confirmation from some other sources this result might have been
considered as doubtful, and the orientation theory might have been
thought valueless. It has, however, been seen that folklore and
tradition confirm it up to the hilt. I think it may be said, therefore,
that the theory I put forward in this book touching the astronomical use
of our ancient temples is so far justified.
The British monuments I had considered before this appeal to tradition
was made were the circles at Stonehenge, Stenness, The Hurlers and
Stanton Drew, and the avenues on Dartmoor. These were studied generally,
the main special result being that to which I have referred; we not only
found alignments to sunrise and sunset on the critical quarter-days of
the May years, but we found alignments to the stars which should have
been observed either at rising or setting to control the morning
sacrifices.
But this inquiry had left out of account several circles in south-west
Cornwall, of which I had vaguely heard but never seen. When I had
written the previous chapters showing how fully May-year practices are
referred to in the folklore of that part of the country, I determined to
visit the circles, dealing with them as test objects in regard to this
special branch of orientation. I had not time to make a complete survey;
this I must leave to others; but with the help so readily afforded me,
which I shall acknowledge in its proper place, I thought it possible in
a brief visit to see whether or not there were any May-year alignments.
In the following chapters I will give an account of the observations
made, but before doing so, in order to prove how solid the evidence
afforded by the Cornish monuments is, I will state the details of the
local astronomical conditions depending upon the latitude of the Land’s
End region, N. 50°. In the chapter containing some astronomical hints to
archæologists I referred (p. 122) to the solstice conditions for
Stenness beyond John o’ Groat’s, because those conditions afforded a
special case, the solstice being determined by the arrival of the sun at
its highest or lowest declination, which happens on particular dates
which recur each year. But with regard to the May year, during the
first week of May the sun’s declination is changing by over a quarter of
a degree daily, so that we must not expect to find the declination of
16° 20′ (see p. 22) rigidly adhered to.
As I have shown (p. 23), the sun’s passage through this declination four
times on its annual path on the dates stated accurately divides the year
into four equal parts. But this accuracy might have been neglected by
the early observers, so that, for instance, the sun’s position on the
4th or 8th of May instead of that on the 6th might have been chosen as
being in greater harmony with the agricultural conditions at the place.
The conditions of the sunrise from John o’ Groat’s to Land’s End, 2′ of
the sun being visible above the sky-line, can be gathered from the
following diagram:--
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--Place of first appearance of the May sun, in
British latitudes.
~Vertical axis: N. LAT. From bottom: 48-59.~
~Horizontal axis: AZIMUTHS. From left: 55-67.~
~Curves, from left: HORIZON, 0° HILL, 2°HILL.~]
The exact azimuths for this sunrise in the Land’s End region (Lat. 50°)
in relation to the place of the sunrise when half the sun has risen,
with a sea horizon, are shown in Fig. 51.
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--Showing the influence of the height of the
sky-line on the apparent place of sunrise in May and August. The double
circle shows the tabular place of sun’s centre.]
CHAPTER XXV
THE MERRY MAIDENS CIRCLE (LAT. 50° 4′ N.)
One of the best preserved circles that I know of is near Penzance. It is
called the Merry Maidens[110] (Dawns-Maen), and is thus described by
Lukis[111] (p. 1):--
“This very perfect Circle, which is 75 feet 8 inches in diameter, stands
in a cultivated field which slopes gently to the south.
“It consists of 19 granite stones placed at tolerably regular distances
from each other, but there is a gap on the east side, where another
stone was most probably once erected.
“Many of the stones are rectangular in plan at the ground level, vary
from 3 feet 3 inches to 4 feet in height, and are separated by a space
of from 10 to 12 feet. There is a somewhat shorter interval between
four of the stones on the south side.
“In the vicinity of this monument are two monoliths called the Pipers;
another called Goon-Rith; a holed stone (not long ago there were two
others); and several [5] Cairns.”
Lukis thus describes the “Pipers”:--
“Two rude stone pillars of granite stand erect, 317 feet apart, and
about 400 yards to the north-east of the Circle of Dawns-Maen. No. 1 is
15 feet high, 4 feet 6 inches in breadth, and has an average thickness
of 22 inches, and is 2 feet 9 inches out of the perpendicular. The stone
is of a laminated nature, and a thin fragment has flaked off from the
upper part. No. 2 is 13 feet 6 inches high, and is much split
perpendicularly. At the ground level its plan in section is nearly a
square of about 3 feet.”
Goon-Rith is next described:--“No. 3 is naturally of a rectangular form
in plan, and is 10 feet 6 inches in height. The land on which it stands
is called Goon-Rith, or Red Downs. The upper part of the stone is of
irregular shape.”
Borlase, in his _History of Cornwall_ (1769), only mentions the circle,
but W. C. Borlase, in his _Nænia Cornubiæ_ (1872), gives a very rough
plan including the stones before mentioned and several barrows, some of
which have been ploughed up.
At varying distances from the circle and in widely different azimuths
are other standing stones, ancient crosses and holed stones, while some
of the barrows can still be traced.
The descriptions of the locality given by Borlase and Lukis, however,
do not exhaust the points of interest. Edmonds[112] writes as follows:--
“A cave still perfect... is on an eminence in the tenement of Boleit
(Boleigh) in St. Buryan, and about a furlong south-west of the village
of Trewoofe (Trove). It is called the ‘Fowgow,’ and consists of a trench
6 feet deep and 36 long, faced on each side with unhewn and uncemented
stones, across which, to serve as a roof, long stone posts or slabs are
laid covered with thick turf, planted with furze. The breadth of the
cave is about 5 feet. On its north-west side, near the south-west end, a
narrow passage leads into a branch cave of considerable extent,
constructed in the same manner. At the south-west end is an entrance by
a descending path; but this, as well as the cave itself, is so well
concealed by the furze that the whole looks like an ordinary furze break
without any way into it. The direction of the line of this cave is about
north-east and south-west, which line, if continued towards the
south-west, would pass close to the two ancient pillars called the
Pipers, and the Druidical temple of Dawns Myin, all within half of a
mile.”
This fougou is situated on a hill on the other side of the Lamorna
Valley, near the village of Castallack, and the site of the Roundago
shown in the 1-inch Ordnance map.
Borlase[113] says that many similar caves were to be seen “in these
parts” in his time, and others had been destroyed by converting the
stones to other uses.
There is evidence that the circle conditions at the Merry Maidens were
once similar to those at Stenness, Stanton Drew, the Hurlers, Tregaseal
and Botallack, that is that there was more than one, the numbers running
from 2 to 7. Mr. Horton Bolitho, without whose aid in local
investigations this chapter in all probability would never have been
written, in one of his visits came across “the oldest inhabitant,” who
remembered a second circle. He said, “It was covered with furze and
never shown to antiquarians”; ultimately the field in which it stood was
ploughed up and the stones removed. It is to prevent a similar fate
happening to the “Merry Maidens” themselves that Lord Falmouth will not
allow the field in which they stand to be ploughed, and all antiquarians
certainly owe him a debt of gratitude for this and other proofs of his
interest in antiquities. Mr. Bolitho carefully marked the site thus
indicated on a copy of the 25-inch map. I shall subsequently show that
the circle which formerly existed here, like the others named, was
located on an important sight-line.
Mr. Horton Bolitho was good enough to make a careful examination of the
barrows A and B of Borlase.[114] In A (S. 69° W.) he found a long stone
still lying in the barrow, suggesting that the barrow had been built
round it, and that the apex of the barrow formed a new alignment. In B
there is either another recumbent long stone or the capstone of a
dolmen. This suggests work for the local antiquarians.
I should state that there may be some doubt about barrow A, for there
are two not far from each other with approximate azimuths S. 69° W. and
S. 64° W. The destruction of these and other barrows was probably the
accompaniment of the reclamation of waste lands and the consequent
interference with antiquities which in Cornwall has mostly taken place
since 1800.
[Illustration: _Photo. by Lady Lockier._
FIG. 52.--The Merry Maidens (looking East).]
But it did not begin then, nor has it been confined to barrows. Dr.
Borlase, in his parochial memoranda under date September 29, 1752,
describes a monolith 20 feet above ground, and planted 4 feet in it, the
“Men Peru” (stone of sorrow) in the parish of Constantine. A farmer
acknowledged that he had cut it up, and had made twenty gate-posts out
of it.
My wife and I visited the Merry Maidens at Easter, 1905, for the
purpose of making a reconnaissance. Mr. Horton Bolitho and Mr. Cornish
were good enough to accompany us.
On my return to London I began work on the 25-inch Ordnance map, and
subsequently Colonel R. C. Hellard, R.E., director of the Ordnance
Survey, was kind enough to send me the true azimuths of the Pipers. In
October, 1905, Mr. Horton Bolitho and Captain Henderson, whose help at
the Hurlers I have already had an opportunity of acknowledging, made a
much more complete survey of the adjacent standing stones and barrows.
In this survey they not only made use of the 25-inch map, but of the old
plan given by W. C. Borlase dating from about 1870. Although the
outstanding stones shown by Borlase remain, some of the barrows
indicated by him have disappeared.
In January, 1906, my wife and I paid other visits to the monuments, and
Mr. Horton Bolitho was again good enough to accompany us. Thanks to him
permission had been obtained to break an opening in the high
wall-boundary which prevented any view along the “Pipers” sight-line. I
may here add that unfortunately in Cornwall the field boundaries often
consist of high stone walls topped by furze, so that the outstanding
stones once visible from the circles can now no longer be seen from
them; another trouble is that from this cause the angular height of the
sky-line along the alignment cannot be measured in many cases.
I will now proceed to refer to the chief sight-lines seriatim. The first
is that connecting the circle which still exists with the site of the
ancient one. On this line exactly I found four points, a barrow (L)
which Borlase had missed (further from the circle than his barrow A),
the site, the present circle, and the fougou; azimuth from centre of
circle N. 64° E. and S. 64° W. This is the May-year line found at
Stonehenge, Stenness, the Hurlers and Stanton Drew.
In connection with this there is another sight-line which must not be
passed over; from the circle the bearing of the church of St. Burian is
about N. 64° W.; like the fougou it is situated on a hill, and near it
are ancient crosses which I suspect were menhirs first and crosses
afterwards.[115] However this may be, we see in this azimuth of 64°
three times repeated that the May and August sunrises and sunsets and
the February and November sunsets were provided for.
With regard to the other sight-lines I will begin with that of the
Pipers, as it is quite obviously connected with the eastern circle only;
the stones could not have been seen from the other on account of rising
ground. The barrow shown in this direction by Borlase has now entirely
disappeared, and the earth has evidently been spread over the
surrounding field; its surface is therefore higher than formerly, so
that when the opening was made in the wall the top of the nearest piper
could not be seen from the centre of the circle; an elevation of about 2
feet from the ground level was necessary. Walking straight from the
circle to the first piper, the second piper was exactly in a line,
though at a much lower level. This showed that the Ordnance values were
not quite accurate, which was not to be wondered at as no direct
observation had been possible. I therefore adopted the mean of the
Ordnance values as the true azimuth:--
Piper 1.--N. 37° 58′ 36″ E.
Piper 2.-- 38 52 36
----------
Mean 38 25 36
The sky-line from the centre of the circle was defined by the site of
the vanished barrow, angular elevation 20′, and it is highly probable
that the function of the barrow when built was to provide a new
sight-line when the star-rise place was no longer exactly pointed out by
the piper line.
With these data the star in question was Capella, dec. 29° 58′ N.,
heralding the February sunrise, 2160 B.C.
I next come to the famous menhir Goon-Rith. The conditions are as
follows:--from the circle Az. S. 81° 35′ W. Altitude of sky-line 34′.
Concerning this alignment from the circle, it may be stated that it cuts
across many ancient stones, including one resembling a rock basin or
laver, and another either a holed stone or the socket of a stone cross.
I suspect also the presence in old days of a holy well attached to the
circle, for there is a pool of water in a depression which is shown in
the 25-inch map.
I regard it as quite possible that we are here in presence of the
remains of a cursus, an old _via sacra_, for processions between the
circle and the monolith.
I have not been able to find any astronomical use for this stone from
the circle or from the site of the old one, but if we suppose it to have
been used like the Barnstone at Stenness for observations _over_ the
circle its object at once becomes obvious.
From the azimuth given, the declination of the star was 5° 24′ N. Now
this was the position of the Pleiades B.C. 1960, when they would have
warned the rising of the May sun.
So that it is possible that the erection of the Pipers and of Goon-Rith
took place at about the same time, and represent the first operations.
The next alignment has an azimuth of S. 69° W. from the circle; it would
be the same within a degree from the site of the one which has
disappeared; altitude of sky-line 32′; this line is to a stone cross on
rising ground,[116] doubtless a re-dressing of an old menhir, and on the
line nearer the circle are the remains of a barrow.
With these data the star in question was Antares, dec. S. 13° 18′,
heralding the May sunrise 1310 B.C.
There is another stone cross defining a line az. N. 11° 45′ E. from the
circle, altitude of sky-line about the same as along the Piper azimuth;
an intervening house prevents measurement. These values give us N. dec.
38° 46′, referring to Arcturus warning the August sunrise in 1640 B.C.
The three alignments already referred to, then, give us the warning
stars for three out of the four quarter-days of the May year.
There is still another stone cross, Az. N. 82° 5′ W., hills about 34′.
This has no connection with the May year, but may refer to the
equinoctial one.
W. C. Borlase refers to several holed stones. The data for two of these,
supplied by Capt. Henderson, are as follows:--
Az. Alt. of sky-line
Stone in hedge N. of road S. 50°33′ E. 45′
Stone, half still standing S. 79 25 W. 49
Azimuths near these have been noted before at other circles, and it must
not be forgotten that as the holed stones on my view were used for
observation, these azimuths must be reversed, since it is probable that
the observations were made over the circle. If this were so, then S.E.
would be changed into N.W., and we should get N. 50° 33′ W. indicating
the solstitial sunset. Similarly, S.W. would become N.E., and we should
have N. 79° 25′ E., possibly a Pleiades alignment.
I have brought together in the following table all the sight-lines so
far referred to. Where the altitude of the sky-line has been measured it
is marked with a *.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--25-inch Ordnance Map of Merry Maidens, showing
alignments.]
In the map the probable site of the second circle and the barrows have
special marks attached to them. The numbers of the alignments in the
table are also shown in the map.
TABLE OF ALIGNMENTS.
------+-------------+-----+----------+------------+------+------------
Align-| Azimuth. |Hill.| Decl. |Sun or Star.| Date.| Mark.
ment. | | | | | |
------+-------------+-----+----------+------------+------+------------
| | | | | B.C. |
1 |N. 11° 45′ E.| 20′ |38° 46′ N.|Arcturus | 1650 |Stone in
| | | |(warning | |road.
| | | |August) | |
| | | | | |
2 |N. 38° 25′ E.| 20′*|29° 58′ N.|Capella | 2160 |The Pipers
| | | |(warning | |and barrow.
| | | |February) | |
| | | | | |
3 |N. 64° E. | ¹⁄₃°|16° 21′ N.|May year | -- |Fougou.
| | | | | |
4 |S. 38° 22′ N.| 20′ |30° 27′ S.|Pipers line | -- |Barrrow B.
| | | | | |
5 |S. 64° W. | 20′ |16° 26′ S.|May year | -- |Barrow L.
| | | |(February- | |
| | | |November | |
| | | |setting) | |
| | | | | |
6 |S. 69° W. | 32′*|13° 18′ S.|Antares | 1310 |Stone cross
| | | |(warning | |on hill and
| | | |May) | |Barrow A.
| | | | | |
7 |S. 81° 35′ W.| 32′*| 5° 24′ N.|_Reversed | 1960 |Goon-Rith.
| | | |line._ | |
| | | |Pleiades | |
| | | |elev. ¹⁄₂° | |
| | | |(warning | |
| | | |May) | |
| | | | | |
8 |N. 64° W. | 42′ | 16° N.|May year | -- |St. Burian
| | | |(May eve | |Church.
| | | |setting) | |
------+-------------+-----+----------+------------+------+------------
[110] I may here remark that “9 maidens” is very common as a name for a
circle in Cornwall. It is a short title for 19 maidens. Lukis implies
that Dawns-Maen once consisted of 20 stones. If all the circles followed
suit it would be interesting to note if the present number of 19 is
always associated with a gap on the eastern side. The “pipers” are, of
course, the musicians who keep the maidens merry, as does the “blind
fiddler” at Boscowen-un Circle.
[111] _Prehistoric Stone Monuments, Cornwall._
[112] _The Land’s End District_, p. 46.
[113] _Antiquities_, p. 274.
[114] _Nænia_, p. 214.
[115] In A.D. 658 a council assembled at Nantes decreed:--“As in remote
places and in woodlands there stand certain stones which the people
often worship, and at which vows are made, and to which oblations are
presented--we decree that they be all cast down and concealed in such a
place that their worshippers may not be able to find them.”
“Now the carrying out of their order was left to the country parsons,
and partly because they had themselves been brought up to respect these
stones, and partly because the execution of the decree would have
brought down a storm upon their heads, they contented themselves with
putting a cross on top of the stones.”--_Book of Brittany_, by
Baring-Gould, p. 20.
[116] With regard to this Mr. Horton Bolitho has sent me the following
note:--“The rising ground here is called locally ‘Lanine Hill’ (spelt
Lanyon and pronounced Lanine); this is worth noticing, as it is the same
name as the dolmen six or seven miles away from Boleit, and in the same
district as the Men an Tôl and Boskednan Circle, to say nothing of
Lannion in Brittany. Lan signifies something sacred, the place of the
saint, or belonging to the saint.”
CHAPTER XXVI
THE TREGASEAL CIRCLES (LAT. 50° 8′ 25″ N., LONG. 5° 39′ 25″ W.)
There are two circles situated on Truthwall Common near to Tregaseal and
not far from St. Just; the one is nearly to the east of the other, and
there are outstanding stones, including four holed stones, and several
barrows. The eastern temple has a diameter of 69 feet, and includes, at
the present time, nine erect and four prostrate stones; the original
structure seems to have contained twenty-eight stones according to
Lukis.
My wife and I visited the region in January, 1906, but previously to our
going Mr. Horton Bolitho, accompanied by Mr. Thomas, whose knowledge of
the local antiquities is very great, had explored the region and taught
us what to observe.
The chief interest appears to lie on the N.E. quadrant, where, in
addition to a famous longstone on a hill about a mile away, the nest of
holed stones and several of the barrows are located. Carn Kenidjack, a
famous landmark, lies to the north.
Of the two circles, I confined my attention almost exclusively to the
eastern one, as the other is in a fragmentary condition, though it is
still traceable. It is hidden almost entirely from the eastern circle by
a modern hedge.
Mr. Horton Bolitho, who accompanied us in January, has again visited the
spot, with Mr. Thomas, for the purpose of further exploration, and
determining the angular height of the sky-line along the different
alignments, which I have plotted from the 6-inch and 25-inch maps. My
readers will therefore see that my part of the work has been a small
one, and that they are chiefly indebted to those I have named.
No theodolite survey has as yet been made for determining the azimuths
and the height of the hills. The following approximate azimuths have
been determined by myself from a 25-inch map, and the elevations by Mr.
Horton Bolitho by means of a miner’s dial.
Alignments. Azimuth. Elevation.
1. Apex of Carn N. 12° 8′E. 4′ 0′
2. Barrow 800′ distant N. 20 8 E. 3 50
3. Two barrows 900′ distant N. 50 8 E. 1 50
4. Holed stones N. 53 20 E. 1 15
5. Longstone N. 66 38 E. 2 10
6. Stone N. 76 13 E.
The carn referred to in the above table is Carn Kenidjack, called “the
hooting cairn.” The rocks on the summit, in which there is a remarkable
depression, are still by local superstition supposed to emit evil sounds
by night.
[Illustration: _Photo. by Lady Lockyer._
FIG. 54.--The Eastern Circle at Tregaseal.]
Of the sight-lines studied so far, those to and from the Longstone and
the holed stones seem the most important. The Longstone,[117] 1¹⁄₂ miles
to the N.E., is a monolith 10 feet high on the western side of a hill;
it is visible from the circle though furze has grown round and partly
hidden it.
The meanings of the various alignments seem to be as follows:--
Decl. N. Star. Date.
1. Apex of Carn 42° 33′ 0″ Arcturus 2330 B.C.
2. Barrow 800′ distant 40 29 0 „ 1970 „
3. Two barrows 900′ distant 25 20 21 ? Solstitial
4. Holed stones 23 2 20 ? „
5. Longstone 16 2 0 May sun
6. Stone 9 15 0 Pleiades 1270 B.C.
Regarding the possible solstitial alignments, the declinations obtained
may be neglected until the azimuths and angular heights of the hills
have been determined with a good theodolite. A change of -10′ in the
angular elevation, and hence about that in the resulting declination,
would bring the date given by the barrows to about 2000 B.C.
The position of the Longstone is well worthy of attention. Several very
fine monuments which mark the surrounding horizon are visible from it in
azimuths with which other monuments have made us familiar. They are as
follows:--
Alignment. Az. Hills.
Longstone to Mên-an-tol N. 50° 30′ E. 0° 34′
„ Nine Maidens (Boskednan) N. 54 0 E. 1 0
„ W. Lanyon Quoit N. 67 0 E. 0 0
„ Lanyon Quoit N. 72 45 E. 0 0
These values, of which the angular heights of the hills were determined
approximately from the contours on the 1-inch Ordnance map, lead us to
the following declinations:--
Alignment. Decl. Star. Date.
Longstone to Mên-an-tol 24° 7′ N. Solstitial sun.
„ Nine Maidens 22 37 N. „
(Boskednan)
„ W. Lanyon Quoit 14 3 N. May sun.
„ Lanyon Quoit 10 30 N. Pleiades 1030 B.C.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--Photograph of Ordnance Map, showing
sight-lines.]
The May-sun alignment, it may be noted, differs from that from the
circle. The heights of hills when determined may give us the same solar
declination; that now used gives the declination for April 28 and August
15 in our present calendar.
Regarding the alignment on Lanyon Quoit, it need only be pointed out
that the Pleiades date obtained is some 200 years after the date
obtained for the analagous alignment from the circle, showing that if
these two monuments--the Tregaseal circle and the Longstone--have any
relationship, the removal to the high plain, now known as Woon Gumpus
and Boswen Commons, was an afterthought improvement.
I next come to the holed stones, not only the nest of them not far from
the circle, but the famous Mên-an-tol itself.
I had heard before going to Tregaseal that the four holed stones shown
on the Ordnance map had been knocked down and set up again (not
necessarily in their old places) two or three times. Mr. Horton Bolitho
and Mr. Thomas, however, in their examination were convinced that the
largest of them has never been moved. They also express the belief that
the others are not more than a foot or so from their original positions,
and that this change is only due to their re-erection by Mr. Cornish
after they had fallen down. So far I have heard nothing of the direction
of the hole in the stone which retains its original position.
Another interesting matter is that the explorers in question were able
to trace an ancient stone alignment from the circle to the holed
stones.
I have long held that these holed stones were arrangements for
determining an alignment. The famous Odin stone at Stenness, long since
disappeared, was, if we may trust the very definite statements made
about its position, used to observe the Barnstone in one direction and
the chief circle in the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--Plan of the Mên-an-tol from Lukis, showing that
it was an apparatus for observing the sunrise in May and August in one
direction and the sunset in February and November in the other. Sun’s
declination, 16° N. or S.]
The azimuths suggest that theodolite measures may show that the
Tregaseal stones might have been used in the same way; they, the
Longstone and Lanyon Quoit, are in nearly the same straight line, the
alignment, holed stones to Longstone and Lanyon Quoit, being N. 67° E.,
so that the May sunrise may have been noted in this way.
[Illustration: _Photo. by Lady Lockyer._
FIG. 57.--The Mên-an-tol.]
Several other monuments, _e.g._, Chûn Castle and Cromlech, are to be
found in the immediate neighbourhood of the Tregaseal circle and the
Longstone, but these will have to await further investigation as to
their character and antiquity before any conclusions concerning their
astronomical use can be deduced.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--The Mên-an-tol. Front view and section, from
Lukis.
~Front view: D. LOOKING S.W., SCALE 1 INCH TO 1 FOOT.~
~Section: SECTION OF D.~]
Not only do we find in this neighbourhood the nest of holed stones to
which I have referred, but the Mên-an-tol, the most famous of them all,
in England at all events. This, then, is the place to say a few words
about them. I have before stated my opinion that these stones, instead
of being used as slaughter stones or posts at which to tie up the victim
before sacrifice, or in any other similar employment, were really
sighting stones to enable an alignment to be easily picked up. As such
these were, of course, treated as sacred, and hence the folk-lore
connected with them. This folk-lore seems to be most complete in the
case of the famous stone of Odin at Stenness, so I condense Mr. Spence’s
account of it.
Children brought to the stone at Beltaine and Midsummer, after being
carried sunwise round the holy well were passed through the hole as a
protection against the powers of the evil one. Marriage ceremony
consisted of joining hands through the hole, a vow held as sacred as
the legal marriage of to-day. Pains in the head cured by inserting the
head in the cavity, cure of palsy in children. Children and adults
travelled many miles to secure relief in this way.
At the Mên-an-tol the curative effects could only be obtained by
crawling through the aperture, which is of considerable size.
As a rule, however, the aperture is much more restricted. The general
size of the holed stone and the position of the aperture in it may be
well gathered from the fact that almost all of them have been used for
gateposts, and are now to be seen fulfilling that function. In some
cases the old special use can be inferred, but in others this is more
difficult, as the stones have been shifted or slewed round, or the
ancient monument to which the sighting stone was directed has
disappeared.
The astronomical origin of the Mên-an-tol, which obviously has never
been disturbed, is quite obvious. Fig. 56 (from Lukis) shews that it was
arranged along the May year alignment, the advent of May and August,
February and November being indicated by the shadows cast by the stones
through the aperture on to the opposite ones.
To the south-west the alignment for the February and November sunsets
passes exactly over Chûn Castle.
The “Tolmen” near Gweek, Constantine, another famous holed stone 7 feet
9 inches high and with an aperture of 17 inches, is according to a
magnetic bearing I took last Easter parallel to the Mên-an-tol, and
doubtless was used for the same purpose.
[117] In Cornwall this is the name generally given to a monolith.
CHAPTER XXVII
SOME OTHER CORNISH MONUMENTS
_Boscawen-un_, _N. Lat._ 50° 5′ 20″
My wife and I visited Boscawen-un on a pouring day, when it was
impossible to make any observations. Mr. Horton Bolitho, who was with
us, introduced us to the tenant of Boscawen-noon--Mr. Hannibal Rowe--who
very kindly, in spite of the bad weather, took us to the circle and the
stone cross to the N.E. of it.
Lukis thus described this monument:[118]--
“The enclosed ground on which this circle stands is uncultivated and
heathy, and slopes gently to the south. Twenty years ago a hedge ran
across it and bisected the circle.
“This monument is composed of nineteen standing stones, and is of an
oval form, the longer diameter being 80 feet and the shorter 71 feet 6
inches. One of the stones is a block of quartz 4 feet high, and the
rest, which are of granite, vary from 2 feet 9 inches to 4 feet 7 inches
in height. On the west side there is a gap, whence it is probable that
a stone has been removed. Within the area, 9 feet to the south-west from
the centre, is a tall monolith, 8 feet out of the ground, which inclines
to the north-east, and is 3 feet 3 inches out of the perpendicular.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--Photograph of the Ordnance Map.]
“In 1594 Camden describes this monument as consisting of nineteen
stones, 12 feet from each other, with one much larger than the rest in
the centre. It must have been much in the same condition then as now. As
he does not say that the monolith enclosed within it was inclined, it is
possible that it was upright at that time.
“Dr. Stukeley’s supposition was that it originally stood upright, and
that ‘somebody digging by it to find treasure disturbed it.’
“On the north-east side there are two fallen stones which Dr. Borlase,
in 1749, imagined to have formed part of a Cromlech. It is more probable
that they are the fragments of a second pillar which was placed to the
north-east of the centre, and as far from it as the existing one is.
There are instances, I believe, of two pillars occupying similar
positions within a circle. One of the stones, that marked C in my plan,
on the eastern side of the ring, was prostrate in the Doctor’s time.
“At a short distance to the south-east and south-west there are cairns,
which have been explored.”
For this monument I have used the 6-inch map, as the circle lies nearly
at the centre, and all the outstanding stones are within its limits. The
heights of the sky-line were measured by Mr. H. Bolitho at a subsequent
visit with a miner’s dial; the resulting declinations have been
calculated by Mr. Rolston. A theodolite survey will doubtless revise
some of them:--
Marks. Az. Hills. Dec. Star. Date.
1. F. Stone cross N. 43° 15′ E. 2° 7′ +29° 26′ Capella 2250
2. P. Fine menhir N. 53 30 E. 1 15 22 58 Solstitial --
sun
3. B. Blind N. 54 30 E. 1 15 22 24 Solstitial --
Fiddler sun
4. Two large N. 66 50 E. 1 0 14 55 May sun --
menhirs
5. Stone cross N. 78 0 E. 1 0(?) + 8 8 Pleiades 1480
(May)
6. Stone S. 66 30 E. 1 0(?) -14 32 November --
sun
7. Stone N. 83 30 W. 1 0(?) + 4 36 Pleiades 2120
(September)
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--Showing azimuths in Lat. N. 50° for the summer
solstice sunrise, with different heights of hills for 1905 A.D. and 1680
B.C.
~Vertical axis from bottom: SEA LEVEL, ¹⁄₂°, 1°, 1¹⁄₂°, 2°.~
~Horizontal axis, top, from left: 1905 A.D., 49° 20′-54° 20′.~
~Horizontal axis, bottom, from left: 1680 B.C. (DATE OF STONEHENGE), 48°
40′-53° 40′.~]
I gather from a report which Mr. H. Bolitho has been good enough to send
me that modern hedges and farming operations have changed the conditions
of the sight-lines, so that 1 and 3 are just invisible from the circle.
This is by no means the only case in which the sighting stone has just
been hidden over the brow of a hill and in which signals from an
observer on the brow itself have been suggested, or a _via sacra_ to the
brow from the circle; there are many monoliths in this direction which
certainly never belonged to the circle.
From the menhir P (No. 2) a fine view is obtained from N. to S. through
E., so that the Blind Fiddler and the two large menhirs, and almost the
circle, are visible. The curious shapes of 1 and 2 are noted, the east
face vertical and the west boundary curved, like several sighting stones
on Dartmoor.
The circle itself has several peculiarities. In the first place, as
shown by Lukis, it is not circular, the diameters being about 85 and 65
feet; the minor axis runs through the pillar stone in the centre and the
“fallen stones” of Dr. Borlase towards the “stone cross” (which is no
cross but a fine menhir) in Az. N. 43° 15′ E. This would suggest that
this was the original alignment in 2250 B.C., but against this is the
fact that the two stones of the circle between which the “fallen stones”
lie are more carefully squared than the rest. It is true, however, that
this might have been done afterwards, and this seems probable, for they
are closer together than the other circle stones.
The one quartz stone occupies an azimuth S. 66° W. It was obviously
placed in a post of honour. As a matter of fact, from it the May sun
was seen to rise over the centre of the circle.
As there are both at Tregaseal and Boscawen-un alignments suggesting the
observation of the summer solstice sunrise, it is desirable here to
refer to the azimuths as calculated. For this purpose Fig. 60 has been
prepared, which shows these for lat. 50° both at the present day and at
the date of the restoration at Stonehenge.
My readers should compare this with Fig. 36, which gives the solstice
sunrise conditions of Stenness in Lat. N. 59°. Such a comparison will
show how useless it is to pursue these inquiries without taking the
latitude and the height of the sky-line into account.
“_Stripple Stones_” (lat. 50° 32′ 50″ N., long. 4° 37′ W.)
This is a very remarkable circle consisting of 5 erect and 11 prostrate
stones situated on a circular level platform 175 feet in diameter on the
boggy south slope of Hawk’s Tor on the Hawkstor Downs in the parish of
Blisland. The circle itself is about 148 feet in diameter, and the whole
monument is, in Lukis’s opinion, the most interesting and remarkable in
the country. Surrounding the platform is a ditch 11 feet wide, and
beyond that a penannular vallum about 10 feet in width. The peculiarity
of the vallum is that it has three bastions situate on the north-east,
north-west, and east sides. It is to the north-east bastion that I wish
to refer.
Sighting from the huge monolith, which is now prostrate but originally
marked the centre of the circle, along a line bisecting the arc of this
bastion we find that the azimuth of the sight-line is N. 25° E.; the
angular elevation of the horizon from the 1-inch Ordnance map appears to
be about 0° 22′. From these values, proceeding as in the former cases,
we find
Alignment. Decl. Star. Date.
Centre of circle to centre of bastion 35° 1′ N. Capella 1250 B.C.
indicating that this alignment was formed for the same purpose as that
which dominated the erection of the “Pipers.”
“_Nine Maidens_” (lat. 50° 28′ 20″ N., long. 4° 54′ 35″ W.)
In this monument we find a very different type from those considered
previously.
The Nine Maidens are simply 9 stones in a straight line 262 feet in
length at the present day; possibly, as suggested by Lukis, it may have
extended originally to the monolith known as “The Fiddler,” situated
some 800 yards away in a north-easterly direction. Measuring the azimuth
of the alignment on Lukis’s plan, and finding the horizon elevations
from the 1-inch Ordnance map, we have the following:--
Az. Hills. Decl. Star. Date.
N. 28° E. 0° 0′ 37° 47′ N. Capella 1480 B.C.
It may be remarked that here we have a date for the use of Capella
intermediate between those obtained for the “Pipers” and the “Strippie
Stones” respectively.
[118] _Prehistoric Stone Monuments of the British Isles: Cornwall._ W.
C. Lukis. P. 1.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE CLOCK-STARS IN EGYPT AND BRITAIN.
I have now finished my astronomical reconnaissance of the British
monuments. I trust I have shown how important it is that my holiday task
should be followed by a serious inquiry by other workers so that the
approximate values with which I have had to content myself for want of
time may be replaced by others to which the highest weight can be
attached. This means at each circle reversed observations with a
six-inch theodolite and determination of azimuths by means of
observations of the sun if necessary.
I propose in the present chapter to bring together the general results
already obtained in cases where the inquiry has been complete enough to
warrant definite conclusions to be drawn.
The first result to be gathered from the observations, and one to which
I attach the highest importance, is that the practice, so long employed
in Egypt, of determining time at night by the revolution of a star round
the pole, was almost universally followed in the British circles. This
practice was to watch a first-magnitude star, which I named a
“clock-star,”[119] of such a declination that it just dipped below the
northern horizon so that it was visible for almost the whole of its
path.
Doubtless this same method of determining the flow of time during the
night watches was also employed in Babylonia,[120] but there, alas! the
temples, or, in other words, the astronomical observatories, have
disappeared, so that only the Egyptian practice remains for us to study.
_Egypt._
Let us, before we proceed, consider some results which have been
gathered from the study of the Egyptian observations.
One of the earliest temples in Egypt concerning which we have historical
references to check the orientation results was built to carry on these
night observations at Denderah, lat. N. 26° 10′. The star observed was α
Ursae Majoris, decl. N. 58° 52′, passing 5° below the northern horizon;
date (assuming horizon 1° high) about 4950 B.C., _i.e._, in the times of
the Shemsu Heru, before Mena, as is distinctly stated in the
inscriptions.
After α Ursae Majoris had become circumpolar in the latitude of
Denderah, γ Draconis, which had ceased to be circumpolar, and so
fulfilled the conditions to which I have referred, replaced it. Its
declination was 58° 52′ N. about 3100 B.C., and it, therefore, could
have been watched rising in the axis prolonged of the old temple in the
time of Pepi, who restored it then, no doubt on account of the advent
of the new star, and is stated to have deposited a copy of the old plan
in a cavity in the new walls.
Here, then, we have two dates given by orientation of a clock-star
temple entirely agreeing with the most recent views of Egyptian
chronology.
In Dr. Budge’s _History of Egypt_ (iii. 14) the story of the rebuilding
of the temple at Annu by Usertsen (2433 B.C., Brugsch) is given from an
ancient roll. Supposing this temple built parallel with the faces of the
remaining obelisk, γ Draconis would rise in its axis prolonged 2500
B.C., proving that Usertsen did at Annu what Pepi previously did at
Denderah, and that the same reason for restoration and even the same
star were in question.[121]
When the clock-star ceased to be visible in the chief temple other
subsidiary temples were subsequently built to watch it. Thus γ Draconis
was watched at Thebes from 3500 B.C. to the times of the Ptolemys by
temples oriented successively from that of Mut Az. N. 72° 30′ E. to 68°
30′, 63° 30′, and 62°.[122]
It is worth while to show that what we know now of the Egyptian methods
of observation enables us to carry the matter further, while we gather
at the same time that in consequence of the difference of latitude the
method employed in Egypt could not be followed in Britain.
I showed in the _Dawn of Astronomy_ that several ancient shrines
consisted of two temples at right angles to each other (see Fig. 13),
one axis pointing high N.E. to observe the clock-star--the worship of
Set--the other low N.W. to observe either the sun by itself, or in
association with some important star of the same declination as the sun.
The temples of Mut and Menu (or Min), and of Amen, with the associated
temple M. of Lepsius, at Karnak, are the best extant examples of this
principle of temple building.
There is evidence that both at Annu and Memphis the same principle was
followed, but at Annu one obelisk alone remains, and at Memphis one
temple; from these, however, Captain Lyons and myself have obtained
sufficient data to enable the original directions of the temple-systems
to be gathered.
At Denderah, if such a N.W. temple ever existed it has disappeared, but
as the monument stands there are still two temples at right angles to
each other, but the second one faces S.E. instead of N.W.
This premised, I will now give, in anticipation of another one dealing
with the British monuments, a list of the most ancient star temples in
Egypt, with their azimuths and the first-magnitude clock-stars which
could have been observed in them at different dates. These dates have
been approximately determined by the use of a precessional globe, an
horizon of 1° elevation being assumed. As I have shown, the present
views of Egyptian chronology and the inscriptions carry us back to α
Ursae Majoris, at Denderah. But there is a suggestion at Luxor, and
perhaps also at Abydos, that Vega was used before that star, though
there are, so far as I know, no temple traces of Arcturus.
--------------+-------+------+-------+-----+------+--------+---------
Temple. |N. Lat.| Az. | N. |Vega.| Arc- |α Ursae | γ
| | N.E. | Decl. | |turus.|Majoris.|Draconis.
--------------+-------+------+-------+-----+------+--------+---------
Annu |30° 10′|14° 0′|57° 25′| 6250| 5550 | *5200 | *2500
Memphis |29 50 |12 45 |58 20 | 6450| 6000 | 5000 | 2850
Denderah |26 10 |18 30 |58 52 | 6550| 6200 | *4950 | *3100
Thebes (Mut) |25 40 |17 30 |59 46 | 6700| 6700 | 4800 | *3500
Tell-el-Amarna|27 40 |13 0 |60 12 | 6800| 6800 | 4750 | 3700
Nagada |26 10 |12 0 |61 16 | 7000| 7400 | 4600 | 4000
--------------+------+-------+-------+-----+------+--------+---------
There is a very great difference between determining the date of a
temple erected to the rising or setting of a particular star, and of one
erected to the rising or setting of the sun on a particular day of the
year. In the latter case no date can be given unless we have reason to
believe that both the sun _and_ a star rose or set at the same point of
the horizon at the same date; in other words, the sun and star had the
same declination, and the rising or setting of both could be seen in the
same temple.
I assumed, without historical data, that this view was acted on in
Egypt, at the temple of Menu; Mr. Penrose found, with historical data,
that it was actually acted on in Greece at the Parthenon. To show that
we are at all justified in this view we must study the association of
gods with temple worship, and look for temples in different azimuths
erected at different times if the god is a star; and we can run the star
home if the dates fall in with the star’s precessional change. Thus
there is reason for supposing that the god Ptah and the star Capella
were associated. There is a temple of Ptah at Memphis, Az. N. 77° 15′
W., hills 50′, decl. N. 11°, star Capella, date 5200. In the rectangular
system at Memphis, then, α Ursae Majoris was watched in one temple and
Capella in the other at that date. There is also evidence that the god
Menu was associated with the star Spica. In the temple system of Mut at
Thebes, in 3200 B.C., γ Draconis was used as a clock-star in one temple,
while the setting of Spica was watched in the other.
If a temple is erected to the sun with no specially named cult, it may
be a sun-temple pure and simple, not connected with star worship because
there was no star with the proper declination at the time.
In Greece temple-building was carried on at a much later time, so late
that perhaps water clocks were available, so that we should not expect
to find many clock-star temples in that country. As a matter of fact
there is only one, of which the data, according to Mr. Penrose, are as
follows:--
N. Decl. Star. Date.
Thebes, The City of the Dragon +54° 28′ γ Draconis 1160
It will be seen that the star used in Greece was the last clock-star
traced in the Egyptian temples.
_Britain._
I now come to Britain. So far as my inquiries have gone, these
clock-star observations were introduced into these islands about 2300
B.C.
In my statement concerning them I will deal with the astronomical
conditions for lat. 50° N., as it is in Cornwall that the evidence is
most plentiful and conclusive.
In that latitude and at that time Arcturus, decl. N. 41°, was just
circumpolar with a sea horizon, and therefore neither rose nor set.
Capella, decl. N. 31°, when northing was 9° below the horizon, so that
it rose and set in azimuths N. 37° E. and N. 37° W. respectively; it was
therefore invisible for a long time and was an awkward clock-star in
consequence.
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--Arcturus and Capella as clock-stars in Britain.
AB = sea horizon.
A′B′ = horizon 3° high.
]
Fig. 61 represents diagrammatically the conditions named, the
circumpolar paths of Arcturus and Capella being shown by the smaller and
larger circle respectively. _A B_ represents the actual sea horizon and
_A′ B′_ a locally raised horizon 3° high, whilst the dotted portion of
the larger circle represents the non-visible part of Capella’s apparent
path.
What the British astronomer-priests did, therefore, in the majority of
cases was to set up their temples in a locality where the N.E. horizon
was high, so that Arcturus rose and set over it and was invisible for
only a short time, as shown in the diagram by the raised horizon _A′
B′_.
The two lists following contain the names of the monuments where I
suggest Arcturus was used as a clock-star. In the first, the angular
elevation of the sky-line as seen from the circle in each case has been
actually measured, and the date of the alignment is, therefore, fairly
trustworthy; but in the second list the elevations have been estimated
from the differences of contour shown on the one-inch Ordnance map, and
the dates must be accepted as open to future revision.
ARCTURUS AS A CLOCK-STAR.
I.
-------------+-------------------+---------------------------------+
| Position. | |
Monument. +---------+---------+ Alignment. |
| Lat. N. | Long. W.| |
-------------+---------+---------+---------------------------------+
Tregaseal |50° 8′ 0″| 5°39′20″|Circ. to Carn Kenidjack |
| | | |
The Hurlers |50 31 0 | 4 27 20 |S. circ. over cent. circ. |
| | |Cent. circ. over N. circ. |
| | |N. circ. over N.E. barrow |
| | | |
Merrivale |50 33 15 | 4 2 30 |Circ. to remains of cromlech |
| | |Direction of smaller avenue |
| | | |
Fernworthy |50 38 30 | 3 54 10 |Direction of Avenue |
| | | |
Stanton Drew |51 22 0 | 2 34 20 |Cent. of Gt. Circ. to Quoit |
| | | |
Fernworthy |50 38 30 | 3 54 10 |Direction of Avenue |
| | | |
Merry Maidens|50 3 40 | 5 35 25 |Circ. to stone in the road |
| | | |
Stanton Drew |51 22 0 | 2 34 20 |S.W. circ. to centre of Gt. Circ.|
-------------+---------+---------+---------------------------------+
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
Monument. | Az. |Hills.| Decl. |Date
| | | N. |B.C.
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
Tregaseal |N. 12° 8′ E.| 4° 0′|42° 33′|2330
| | | |
The Hurlers |N. 11 15 E.| 3 24 |41 38 |2170
|N. 14 18 E.| 3 24 |41 9 |2090
|N. 18 44 E.| 3 24 |40 6 |1900
| | | |
Merrivale |N. 15 0 E.| 3 1 |40 36 |1990
|N. 24 25 E.| 5 0 |39 55 |1860
| | | |
Fernworthy |N. 13 0 E.| 1 15 |39 7 |1720
|N. 14 20 E.| 1 15 |38 51 |1670
| | | |
Stanton Drew |N. 17 59 E.| 2 33 |38 38 |1620
| | | |
Fernworthy |N. 15 45 E.| 1 15 |38 34 |1610
| | | |
Merry Maidens|N. 11 45 E.| 0 12 |38 27 |1590
| | | |
Stanton Drew |N. 19 51 E.| 1 44 |37 30 |1420
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
II.
-------------+-------------------+---------------------------+
| Position. | |
Monument. +---------+---------+ Alignment. |
| Lat. N. | Long. W.| |
-------------+---------+---------+---------------------------+
Trowlesworthy|50°27′30″| 4° 0′20″|Direction of primary avenue|
| | |Direction of final avenue |
| | | |
Longstone |50 8 10 | 5 38 20 |Longstone to Chûn Cromlech |
(Tregaseal) | | | |
| | | |
Lee Moor |50 26 30 | 3 59 40 |Direction of avenue |
-------------+---------+---------+---------------------------+
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
Monument. | Az. |Hills.| Decl. |Date
| | | N. |B.C.
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
Trowlesworthy|N. 7° 0′ E.|2° 52′|41° 24′|2130
|N. 12 0 E.|2 52 |41 6 |2080
| | | |
Longstone |N. 9 0 E.|1 43 |40 39 |2000
(Tregaseal) | | | |
| | | |
Lee Moor |N. 22 0 E.|2 28 |38 17 |1500
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
In some cases, for one reason or another, this arrangement was not
carried out, and Capella, in spite of the objection I have stated, was
used in the following circles:--
CAPELLA AS A CLOCK-STAR.
-------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
| Position. | |
Monument. +---------+---------+ Alignment. |
| Lat. N. | Long. W.| |
-------------+---------+---------+-----------------------------+
I. | | | |
| | | |
Boscawen-un |50° 5′20″| 5°37′ 0″|Circ. to Stone Cross |
| | | |
Merry Maidens|50 3 40 | 5 35 25 |Circ. over the “Pipers” |
| | | |
II. | | | |
| | | |
The Nine |50 28 20 | 4 54 30 |Direction of Nine Maidens row|
Maidens | | | |
| | | |
Stripple |50 32 51 | 4 37 35 |Centre to N.E. bastion |
Stones | | | |
-------------+---------+---------+-----------------------------+
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
Monument. | Az. |Hills.| Decl. |Date
| | | N. |B.C.
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
I. | | | |
| | | |
Boscawen-un |N. 43°15′ E.|2° 7′|29° 36′|2250
| | | |
Merry Maidens|N. 38 26 E.|0 20 |29 58 |2100
| | | |
II. | | | |
| | | |
The Nine |N. 28 0 E.|0 0 |33 47 |1480
Maidens | | | |
| | | |
Stripple |N. 26 0 E.|0 22 |34 38 |1320
Stones | | | |
-------------+------------+------+-------+----
At the Merry Maidens, however, with nearly a sea horizon, when Arcturus
ceased to be circumpolar and rose in Azimuth N. 11° 45′ E., it replaced
Capella, and was used as a clock-star after 1600 B.C.
In this system of night observation we have the germ of the use in later
times of an instrument called the “night-dial,” specimens of which,
dating from the fourteenth century, can be seen in our museums. The
introduction of graduated circles permitted the employment of
circumpolar stars, and the “guards” of the Little Bear or the “pointers”
of the Great Bear were thus used. There was a disc with a central
aperture through which the pole star could be observed; the disc could
be adjusted for every night in the year; an arm was then moved round so
that the direction of the pointers (or the guards) with regard to the
vertical could be measured; on a second concentric circle the time of
night could be read off.
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--A “night-dial.”]
[119] _Dawn of Astronomy_, 1894, p. 343.
[120] Jensen, _Kosmologie der Babylonier_, p. 147.
[121] _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 215.
[122] _Ibid._, p. 214.
CHAPTER XXIX
A SHORT HISTORY OF SUN TEMPLES
_The Original Cult_
I have given detailed evidence showing that the first circle builders in
Britain worshipped the May-year sun, whether they brought it with them
or not. This year was used in Babylon, Egypt, and afterwards in Greece.
In the two former countries May was the harvest month, and thus became
the chief month in the year. The dates were apt to vary with the local
harvest time.
The earliest extant temple aligned to the sun at this festival seems to
have been that of Ptah at Memphis, 5200 B.C. I have already referred to
this temple in relation to the clock-star observations carried on in it.
This approximate date of the building of the temple is obtained by the
evidence afforded (1) by the associated clock-star (see p. 298), and (2)
by the fact that the god Ptah represented the star Capella, since there
is a Ptah temple at Thebes aligned on Capella at a later time, when by
the processional movement it had been carried outside the solar limit.
There was also a similar temple at Annu (Heliopolis, lat. N. 30° 10′),
but it has disappeared. The light of the sun fell along the axis when
the sun had the declination N. 11°, the Gregorian dates being April 18
and August 24.
Another May-year temple was that of Menu at Thebes, Az. N. 72° 30′ W.
(lat. N. 25°; sun’s declination N. 15°; Gregorian date, May 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 63.--Layard’s plan of the Palace of Sennacherib
discovered in the mound of Kouyunjik. The temple axis, XXXVI., XXXIV.,
XXIX., XIX. (XXII. is on a lower level), faces the rising of the May
sun.]
As we have seen (p. 299), Spica had this declination in 3200 B.C., and
the coincidence may have been the reason for the erection, or, more
probably, the restoration, of the temple,[123] especially as γ Draconis
came into play as a new clock-star at the same date.
[Illustration: FIG. 64.--Layard’s plan of the Mound at Nimrood showing
its equinoctial orientation.]
The researches of Mr. Penrose in Greece have provided us with temples
oriented to the May-year sun. I shall return to them afterwards, as they
are later in time than the British monuments.
[Illustration: FIG. 65.--The Temples at Chichen Itza.]
The explorations of Sir H. Layard at Nineveh, lat. 36° N., have shown
that the temple in Sennacherib’s palace, which may have been a
restoration of a much older temple, was also oriented to the May sun.
It is a pity that our present-day archæologists do not more strictly
follow the fine example set by Sir Henry Layard in his explorations of
Kouyunjik. When he had unearthed Sennacherib’s palace (700 B.C.) he was
careful to give the astronomical and magnetic bearings of the buildings
and of the temple which seemed to form the core of them. The bearing is
Az. N. 68° 30′ E., giving the sun’s declination as N. 16°.
I am enabled by the kindness of Mr. John Murray to give copies of the
plans which Sir H. Layard prepared of the excavations both at Kouyunjik
and Nimrood, showing the careful orientation which enables us to claim
Sennacherib’s temple as one consecrated to the May year, while at
Nimrood (Babylon) the equinoctial worship was in vogue as at the
pyramids.
In association with these plans of Layard’s, I give another by Mr.
Maudslay of the as carefully oriented temples at Chichen Itza (N. lat.
20°) explored by him. In these temples, of unknown date and origin, the
azimuths of two show that the May year was worshipped.[124]
_The May-Year Monuments in Britain._
In the first glimpses of the May year in Egypt we have dates from 5000
B.C. It does not follow that it did not reach Great Britain before about
2000 B.C. because monuments made their appearance about that time. It is
clear, also, that with the possibilities of coastwise traffic as we have
found it, it might as easily have reached Ireland by then; 2000 B.C.,
therefore, is a probable date for the May worship to have reached
Britain arguing on general principles; we now come to a detailed summary
of the facts showing that it really reached Britain earlier.
Alignments in British monuments designed to mark the place of the sun’s
rising or setting on the quarter-days of the May year have been found as
follows:--
-------------+----------------------+----------------+----------------
| Position. | May and Aug. | Feb. and Nov.
Monument. +----------+-----------+-------+--------+-------+--------
| Lat. N. | Long. W. |Rising.|Setting.|Rising.|Setting.
-------------+----------+-----------+-------+--------+-------+--------
Merry Maidens|50° 3′ 40″| 5° 35′ 25″| * | * | | *
Boscawen-un |50 5 20 | 5 37 0 | * | | * |
Tregaseal |50 7 50 | 5 39 20 | * | | |
Longstone |50 8 10 | 5 38 20 | * | | |
(Tregaseal) | | | | | |
Down Tor |50 30 10 | 3 59 30 | * | | |
Merrivale |50 33 15 | 4 2 30 | * | | |
The Hurlers |50 31 0 | 4 27 20 | | | * |
Stonehenge |51 10 40 | 1 49 30 | * | * | |
Stanton Drew |51 22 0 | 2 34 30 | * | | |
| | | | | | ?
| | | circle| | |avenue
| | | along | | | to
| | | avenue| | |circle
| | | | | | *
Stenness |59 0 10 | 3 13 40| * | * | * |
-------------+----------+-----------+-------+--------+-------+--------
I have already shown that it was the practice in ancient times for the
astronomer-priests not only to watch the clock-stars during the night,
but also other stars which rose or set about an hour before sunrise, to
give warning of its approach on the days of the principal festivals.
Each clock-star, if it rose and set very near the north point, might be
depended on to herald the sunrise on _one_ of the critical days of the
year, but for the others other stars would require to be observed. This
practice was fully employed in Britain.
_May Warnings._--The following table gives the stars I have so far noted
which were used as warners for the May festival.
---------------------+------------+-------------
| |Date or dates
Monument. | Star. | B.C.
| |
---------------------+------------+-------------
Stonehenge |Pleiades (R)| 1950
| |
Merry Maidens |Pleiades (R)| 1930
|Antares (S)| 1310
| |
The Hurlers |Antares (S)| 1720
|Pleiades (R)| 1610
Merrivale |Pleiades (R)| 1610
| „ | 1420
| |
Boscawen-un |Pleiades (R)| 1480
| |
Tregaseal |Pleiades (R)| 1270
| |
Stenness |Pleiades (R)| 1230
| |
Longstone (Tregaseal)|Pleiades (R)| 1030
---------------------+------------+-------------
(R) = rising. (S) = setting.
It is convenient here to give a list of the May warning stars found by
Mr. Penrose in Greece, as it shows that the same stars were observed for
the same purpose.
+-------------------------------+------------+--------+--------+-----
| | | Decl. | Day. |Year.
+-------------------------------+------------+--------+--------+-----
| | | | |B.C.
|Archaic temple of Minerva |Pleiades (R)| +7° 50′|April 20|2020
|Hiero of Epidaurus, Asclepieion| „ (R)| +9 15 | „ 28|1275
|Hecatompedon | „ (R)| +9 58 | „ 26|1150
|Older Erechtheum |Antares (S)|-14 31 | „ 29|1070
|Temple of Bacchus |Pleiades (R)|+10 35 | „ 29|1030
|Corinth |Antares (S)|-16 0 | May 6| 770
|Aegina | „ (S)|-16 45 | „ 7| 630
+-------------------------------+------------+--------+--------+-----
The warning stars at Athens were the Pleiades for temples facing the
east, and Antares for temples using the western horizon.
_August warnings._--Sunrise at the August festival was heralded by the
rising of Arcturus, which, as we have seen, was also used as a
clock-star. The alignments and dates given in the Arcturus table
therefore hold good for August. At the Hurlers, where the hill over
which Arcturus was observed fell away abruptly, we find Sirius
supplanting Arcturus as the warning star for August in 1690 B.C.
_November warnings._--So far I have discovered no evidence that any star
was employed to herald the November sun. There may be two reasons for
this. In the first place the November festival “Halloween” took place at
sun_set_ and the sun itself could be watched, no heralding star being
necessary.
Secondly, the atmospheric conditions which prevail in Britain during
November would not be conducive to the making of stellar observations
_at the horizon_, and only risings or settings were observed with regard
to the quarter-days.
_February Warnings._--In the same way that Arcturus served the double
purpose of clock-star and herald for the August sun, so did Capella
serve to warn the February sun in addition to its use at night. The
alignments and dates given in the Capella table will therefore hold good
for its employment at the February quarter-day.
_The Solstitial Year Monuments._
In Egypt generally, the solstitial worship followed that of the May and
equinoctial years. The religion of Thothmes III. and the Rameses was in
greatest vogue 2200-1500 B.C.
We find little trace of it in Greece proper, though Mr. Penrose has
traced it in Calabria and Pompeii, and in some of the islands.
The solstitial cult was born in Egypt; it is a child of the Nile-rise. I
have shown in my _Dawn of Astronomy_ that the long series of temples
connected with the solstice may have commenced about 3000 B.C.; but for
long it was a secondary cult; it was parochial until the twelfth
dynasty, say 2300 B.C. Egypt’s solstitial “golden age” may be given as
1700 B.C., and her influence abroad was very great, so that much travel,
“coastwise” and other, may be anticipated. It is for some centuries
after the first date that the introduction of the solstitial worship
into Britain may be anticipated. It, for instance, is quite probable
that the pioneers of this worship should have reached Stonehenge in 2000
B.C.
The solstitial alignments found by Mr. Penrose in Greece are as
follows:--
+----------------+-----------------+--------+-------+-----
|Temples. | | Decl. | Day. |Year.
+----------------+-----------------+--------+-------+-----
| | | | |B.C.
| | JUNE. | | |
|Athens, Dionysus|Antares (setting)|-11° 2′|June 20|1700
|(Upper Temple) | | | |
|Pompeii (Isis) |β-Geminorum |-16 44 | „ 19| 750
| | | | |
| | DECEMBER. | | |
|Metapontum |β-Geminorum |+29° 38′|Dec. 21| 610
| | (setting) | | |
|Locri | „ |+29 40 | „ 21| 610
+----------------+-----------------+--------+-------+-----
We find plentiful evidence that the worship of the solstitial sun such
as was carried on in Egypt at Karnak and at other places[125] was
introduced into Britain some time after the May-year worship was
provided for in the monuments.
Although some of the alignments already discovered are in all
probability solstitial, the variation of the sun’s solstitial
declination is so slow and takes place between such narrow limits that a
most careful determination of the actual azimuths and of the angular
heights of the various horizons must be made before any definite
conclusion as to dates can be arrived at. The necessity for this care is
illustrated in the paper on Stonehenge[126] communicated to the Royal
Society by Mr. Penrose and myself in 1891, where, after taking the
greatest precautions, the resulting date was in doubt to the amount of
200 years in either direction.
So far Stonehenge is the only temple at which these observations have
been made, so that for the other alignments contained in the following
list no dates can yet be given.
-----------+---------------+--------------+------------+---------+----
Monument. | Alignment. | Az. | Decl. | Season. |Date
| | | (provi- | |B.C.
| | | sional). | |
-----------+---------------+--------------+------------+---------+----
Stonehenge |Direction of |N.49°34′18″ E.|23°54′30″ N.|Summer(R)|1680
|avenue | | | |
| | | | |
Boscawen- |Circ. to fine |N.53 30 0 E.|22 58 13 |Summer(R)|
un |menhir | | | |
|Circ. to Blind |N.54 30 0 E.|22 24 12 | „ |
|Fiddler | | | |
| | | | |
Tregaseal |Circ. to row of|N.53 20 25 E.|22 53 26 |Summer(R)|
|holed stones | | | |
|Circ. to two |N.50 0 0 E.|24 7 0 | „ |
|barrows 900′ | | | |
|distant | | | |
| | | | |
Longstone |Mèn-an-tol to |S.50 30 0 W.|24 33 0 S.|Winter(S)|
(Tregaseal)|Longstone | | | |
| | | | |
The |N. circ. to |S.50 50 0 E.|24 17 20 S.|Winter(S)|
Hurlers |S.E. stone | | | |
| | | | |
Stanton |Gt. Circle to |N.51 0 0 E.|23 48 46 N.|Summer(R)|
Drew |N.E. circle | | | |
| | | | |
Stenness |Circle to |N.39 30 0 E.|24 3 15 N.|Summer(R)|
|Hindera Fiold | | | |
|Barnstone to |N.41 16 0 E.| -- | „ |
|Maeshowe | | | |
|Circ. to Ward |S.41 0 0 E.| -- |Winter(R)|
|Hill tumulus | | | |
|Circ. to Onston|S.36 30 0 W.| -- | „ (S)|
|tumulus | | | |
|Circ. to tumuli|N.37 0 0 W.| -- |Summer(S)|
-----------+---------------+--------------+------------+---------+----
(R) = rising. (S) = setting.
I cited an alignment at the Hurlers which marked the rising point of
Betelgeuse. This star warned the summer solstice sunrise at about the
Hurlers’ date. So far, however, I have not yet found any suggestion of
its use elsewhere.
At Shovel Down and Challacombe on Dartmoor there are avenues pointing a
few degrees west of north. The sight-lines along these avenues would
mark the setting-point of Arcturus at the time that that star (setting)
warned the rising of the sun at the summer solstice; but this use cannot
be considered as established, as Arcturus would scarcely set before its
light was drowned in that of the rising sun. The absence of darkness in
high summer in these latitudes and the bad weather in the winter may
both be responsible for so few alignments for the solstices.
_The Equinoctial Year Monuments._
The equinoctial pyramid and Babylonian cult in vogue in Egypt in the
early dynasties (4000 B.C.), with the warning stars Aldebaran (March)
and Vega (September), was represented in Greece at a much later period.
The facts for Greece, according to Mr. Penrose, are as follows:--
+---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+-----
| | | Decl.| Day. |Year.
+---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+-----
| | | | |B.C.
| |MARCH. | | |
| | | | |
|Nike Apteros |Spica (setting)|+6°10′|Mar. 17|1130
|Juno Lacinia (near Croton) |α-Arietis |+7 27 | „ 28|1000
|Paestum (Neptune) |Spica (setting)|+3 5 | „ 22| 535
|Gergenti (Hercules) | „ |+2 30 | „ 30| 470
| | | | |
| |SEPTEMBER. | | |
| | | | |
|Rhamnus (Themis) |Spica (rising) |+6° 0′|Sept. 17|1092
|Tegea (Minerva) | „ „ |+5 51 | „ 18|1075
|Syracuse (? Minerva) | „ |+4 30 | „ 20| 815
|Athens (dedication unknown)| „ |+4 17 | „ 23| 780
|Rhamnus (Nemesis) | „ „ |+4 5 | „ 22| 747
|Bassæ (Apollo) | „ „ |+3 57 | „ 22| 728
|Ephesus (Diana) | „ „ |+3 57 | „ 25| 715
|Syracuse (Diana) | „ „ |+2 22 | „ 26| 450
|Ephesus (Diana) | „ | -- |Oct. 6| 355
|(re-orientation) | | | |
+---------------------------+---------------+------+--------+----
In Britain equinoctial alignments are not wanting, but so few have been
traced that I have reserved them for future inquiry.
[123] See _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 318.
[124] The temple conditions are approximately as follows:--
_PALENQUE._
Azimuths. Decl.
N. 21° 30′ E. 60° 15′ }
N. 18 0 E. 62 36 }Stellar temples. Clock-stars.
S. 27 0 W. 56 17 }
S. 66 0 E. 23 0 Solstice}Solar temples.
S. 73 0 E. 16 0 May }
_CHICHEN ITZA._
Azimuths. Decl.
N. 26° 0′ E. 59° 0′ Stellar temple. Clock-star.
S. 70 0 E. 19 0 (?)
N. 70 0 W. 19 0 (?)
N. 67 0 W. 22 0 Solstitial}Solar temples.
N. 72 30 16 0 May }
[125] _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 78.
[126] _Proc. Roy. Soc._, vol. 69.
CHAPTER XXX
THE LIFE OF THE ASTRONOMER-PRIESTS
The facts contained in the preceding chapters have suggested, at all
events, that whatever else went on some four thousand years ago in the
British circles there was much astronomical observation and a great deal
of preparation for it.
In a colony of the astronomer-priests who built and used the ancient
temples we had of necessity:--
(1) Observatories, _i.e._, circles in the first place; next something to
mark the sight-lines to the clock-star for night work, to the rising or
setting of the warning stars, and to the places of sunrise and sunset at
the chief festivals. This something, we have learned, might be another
circle, a standing stone, a dolmen, a cove, or a holed stone.
A study of the sight-lines shows us that these collimation marks, as we
may call them, were of set purpose, generally placed some distance away
from the circles, so far that they would require to be illuminated in
some way for the night and dawn observations. When there was no wind,
one or more hollows in a stone, whether a menhir or a quoit, might have
held grease to feed a wick or a pine-wood torch. But in a wind some
shelter would be necessary, and the light might have been used in a
cromlech or allée couverte. Stones have been found with such cups, and
débris of fires have been found in cromlechs.
It must not be forgotten that here there was no oil as in the Semitic
countries whence, as we have seen, the immigrants came; and it was not a
question of a light on the sight-line alone. If wood were used, it must
have been kept dry for use, and whether wood or animal fat were employed
the most practical and convenient way of lighting up would have been to
keep a fire ever burning in some sheltered place.
(2) Dwellings, which would be cromlechs or many-chambered barrows,
according to the number of astronomer-priests at the station. These
dwellings would require to be protected against the invasions of the
local fauna, very different from what it is now, and for this a small,
and on that account easily blocked, entrance would be an essential.
These dwellings would naturally suggest themselves as the shelter place
for the ever-burning fire or the supply of dry wood. Tradition points
with no uncertain sound to the former existence of life and light in
these “hollow hills.” Mr. MacRitchie’s book[127] contains a mine of most
valuable and interesting information on this subject.
(3) A water supply for drinking and bathing, which might be a spring,
river or lake, according to the locality.
Given a supply of food we have now provided for the shelter and
protection of the astronomer and the man.
But the man who brought this new astronomical knowledge was, before he
came, astrologer and magician as well, and, further, he was a priest;
hence on account of his knowledge of the seasons, he could not only help
the aboriginal tiller of the soil as he had never been helped before, by
his knowledge; but he could appeal in the strongest way to his
superstitious fears and feelings, by his function as the chief
sacrificer and guardian of the sacrificial altars and fires. Hence it
was that everything relating to the three different classes of things to
which I have referred was regarded as very holy because they were
closely associated with the astronomer-priests, on whom the early
peoples depended for guidance in all things, not only of economic, but
of religious, medical and superstitious value.
The perforated stones were regarded as sacred, so that passing through
them was supposed to cure disease. Whether men and women, or children
only, passed through the hole depended upon its size. But a hole large
enough for a head to be inserted was good for head complaints.
The wells, rivers, and lakes used by the priests were, as holy places,
also invested with curative properties, and offerings of garments
(skins?), and pins to fasten them on, as well as bread and wine and
cheese, were made at these places to the priests.
The fact that the tree on which the garment was hung was either a rowan
or a thorn shows that these offerings commenced as early as the
May-November worship.
The holed stones, besides being curative, were in long after years,
when marriage had been instituted, used for the interchange of marriage
vows by clasping hands through the opening.
The cups for the light would also be sacred objects; and many of them
have been since used for holy water.
The cursus at Stonehenge and the avenues on Dartmoor may be regarded as
evidences that sacred processions formed part of the ceremonial on the
holy days, but sacrifices and sacred ceremonials were not alone in
question; many authors have told us that feasts, games and races were
not forgotten. This, so far as racing is concerned, is proved, I think,
by the facts that the cursus at Stonehenge is 10,000 feet long and 350
feet broad, that it occupies a valley between two hills, thus permitting
of the presence of thousands of spectators, and that our horses are
still decked in gaudy trappings on May Day.
Nor is this all. It is hard to understand some of the folklore and
tradition unless we recognise that at a time before marriage was
instituted, at some of the sacred festivals the intercourse of the sexes
was permitted if not encouraged. This view is strengthened by the
researches of Westermarck[128] and Rhys.[129] Given such a practice, the
origin of matriarchal customs and of the _couvade_ is at once explained;
and it is clear that the charges against the Druids of special cruelty
and impurity must be withdrawn. Their sacrifices and customs were those
common to all priesthoods in the ancient world.
I have shown that some circles used in the worship of the May year were
in operation 2200 B.C., and that there was the introduction of a new
cult about 1600 B.C., or shortly afterwards, in southern Britain, so
definite that the changes in the chief orientation lines in the stone
circles can be traced.
To the worship of the sun in May, August, November and February was
added a solstitial worship in June and December.
The associated phenomena are that the May-November Balder and Beltaine
cult made much of the rowan and may thorn. The June-December cult
brought the worship of the mistletoe.
The flowering of the rowan and thorntree in May, and their berries in
early November, made them the most appropriate and striking floral
accompaniments of the May and November worships, and the same ideas
would point to a similar use of the mistletoe in June and December.
The fact that the June-December cult succeeded and largely replaced the
May-November one could hardly have been put in a cryptic and poetic
statement more happily than it appears in folklore: Balder was killed by
mistletoe.
This change of cult may be due to the intrusion of a new tribe, but I am
inclined to attribute it to a new view taken by the priests themselves
due to a greater knowledge, among it being the determination, in Egypt,
of the true length of the year which could be observed by the recurrence
of the solstices, and of the intervals between the festivals reckoned in
days.
However this may have been, all the old practices and superstitions
were retained, only the time of year at which they took place was
changed. As the change of cult was slow, in any one locality the
celebrations would be continued at _both_ times of the year, and for
long both sets of holidays were retained.
Since I have shewn that the solstitial worship came last, traces of
this, as a rule, would be most obvious in places where it eventually
prevailed over the cult of the May year. In such places the absence of
traces of the May festival would be no valid argument against its former
prevalence. In other places, like Scotland, where the solstitial cult
was apparently introduced late and was never prevalent, we should expect
strong traces of the May worship, and, as a matter of fact, it is very
evident in the folk lore and customs of Scotland; even the old May year
quarter days are still maintained.
Between the years 2300 B.C. and 1600 B.C., whether we are dealing with
the same race of immigrants or not, we pass from unhewn to worked
stones. The method of this working and its results have been admirably
shown to us by Prof. Gowland’s explorations at Stonehenge.
From the tables, given in Chap. XXVIII, it can be seen that, so far as
the present evidence goes, there was a pretty definite time--about 2300
B.C.--of beginning the astronomical work at the chief monuments;
Cornwall came first, Dartmoor was next.
Almost as marked as the simultaneous beginning are the dates of ending
the observations, if we may judge of the time of ending by the fact that
the precessional changes in the star places were no longer marked by the
marking out of new sight lines.
The clock-star work was the first to go, about 1500 B.C. The May-warning
stars followed pretty quickly.
We may say, then, that we have full evidence of astronomical activity of
all kinds at the circles for a period of some 700 years.
What prevented its continuance on the old lines? It may have been that
the invention of some other method of telling time by night had rendered
the old methods of observation, and therefore the apparatus to carry
them on, no longer necessary.
On the other hand, it may have been that some new race, less
astronomically inclined, had swept over the land.
I am inclined to take the former view. It is quite certain that for the
clock-stars other observations besides those on the horizon would soon
have suggested themselves for determining the lapse of time during the
night. The old, high, bleak, treeless moorlands might then in process of
time have been gradually forsaken, and life may have gone on in valleys
and even in sheltered woods, except on the chief festivals. When this
was so astronomy and superstition would give way to politics and other
new human interests, and the priests would become in a wider sense the
leaders and the teachers of the more highly organised community.
It is clear that in later days as at the commencement they were still
ahead in the knowledge of the time. “Hi terrae mundique magnitudinem et
formam, motus coeli ac siderum, ac quod dii velunt sciere profitentur”
is Pomponius Mela’s statement concerning them.[130] From 1500 B.C. to
Cæsar’s time is a long interval, and yet the astronomical skill of the
so-called Druids, who beyond all question were the descendants of our
astronomical-priests, was then a matter of common repute. Cæsar’s
account of the Druids in Gaul (_Bello Gallico_, vi. c. 13, 14, 15) is
extremely interesting because it indicates, I think, that the Druid
culture had not passed through Gaul and had therefore been waterborne to
Britain, whither the Gauls therefore went to study it.[131]
Simultaneously with the non-use of the ancient stones, we may imagine
that the priests--of ever-increasing importance--no longer dwelt in
their cromlechs, but, rather, occupied such buildings as those which
remain at Chysoister, and from this date it is possible that burials may
have taken place in some of the mounds then given up as dwelling places.
As sacred places they were subsequently used for burials, as Westminster
Abbey has been; but burials were not the object of their erection.[132]
This new habit may have started the practice of cist burial by later
people in barrows thrown up for that special purpose.
I cannot close this Chapter without expressing my admiration of the
learning and acumen displayed by Dr. Borlase in his treatment of the
subject of the Druids in his _History of Cornwall_, published in 1769; I
find he has anticipated me in suggesting that the hollowed stones were
used for fires. It is clear, now that the monuments have been dated,
that the astronomical knowledge referred to by Cæsar and Pomponius Mela
was no new importation; if, therefore, the present view of ethnologists
that the Celtic intrusion took place about 1000 B.C. is correct, it is
certain the Celts brought no higher intelligence with them than was
possessed by those whom they found here; nor is this to be expected if,
as the inquiry has suggested, the latter were the representatives of the
highest civilisation of the East with which possibly the former had
never been brought into contact.
[127] _The Testimony of Tradition._
[128] _History of Human Marriage_, Chapter II.
[129] _Celtic Folklore_, ii., 654.
[130] _Pomp. Mela_, Lib. II. c. 2. I have already (p. 52) quoted Cæsar’s
testimony to the same effect.
[131] “Disciplina in Britannia reperta, atque in Galliam translata esse
existimatur.”--_C. Bell. Gall._ lib. vi. c. 13. This “discipline” also
included magic according to Pliny. “Britannia hodie eam (_i.e._ Magiam)
attonite celebrat tantis ceremoniis, ut eam Persis dedisse videri
possit” (lib. xxx. c. 1.)
[132] Bertrand and Reinach, _Les Celtes et les Gaulois dans les Vallées
du Pô et du Danube_, p. 82. Tregellis, “Stone Circles in Cornwall.”
_Trans._ Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1893-4.
APPENDICES
I. DETAILS OF THE THEODOLITE OBSERVATIONS AT STONEHENGE
The instrument chiefly employed was a six-inch transit theodolite by
Cooke with verniers reading to 20″ in altitude and azimuth. Most of the
observations were made at two points very near the axis, which may be
designated by _a_, _b_. Station _a_ was at a distance of 61 feet to the
south-west of the centre of the temple, and _b_ 364 feet to the
north-east. The distance from the centre of Stonehenge to Salisbury
Spire being 41,981 feet, the calculated corrections for parallax at the
points of observation with reference to Salisbury Spire are:--
Station _a_ + 4′ 12″.
„ _b_ - 25′ 20″.
(1) _Relative Azimuths._--Theodolite at station _a_--
Salisbury Spire 0° 0′ 0″
N. side of opening in N.E. trilithon of the external ring 237 27 40
Tree in middle of clump on Sidbury Hill 237 40 20
Highest point of Friar’s Heel 239 47 25
S. side of opening in N.E. trilithon 240 14 40
Middle „ „ „ 238 51 10
(2) _Absolute Azimuths._--All the azimuths were referred to that of
Salisbury Spire, the azimuth of which was determined by observations of
the Sun and Polaris.
(_a_) _Observation of Sun_, _June 23, 1901_, 3.30-3.40 P.M.
Mean of observed altitudes of Sun 41° 26′ 35″
Refraction -1′ 4″} 0 0 58
Parallax + 6 }
-----------
True altitude of Sun’s centre 41 25 37
Latitude = 51° 10′ 42″. Sun’s declination = 23° 26′ 43″. Using the
formula
sin ¹⁄₂(Δ + _c_ - _z_) sin ¹⁄₂(Δ + _z_ - _c_)
cos² ¹⁄₂ A = --------------------------------------------
sin _c_ . sin _z_
where A = azimuth from south, Δ = polar distance, _c_ = co-latitude,
and _z_ = zenith distance,
we get
Azimuth of Sun S. 75° 30′ 30″ W.
Mean circle reading on Sun 84 38 35
----------
Azimuth of Salisbury Spire S. 9 8 5 E.
(_b_) _Observations of Polaris._--June 23, 1901. Time of greatest
easterly elongation, calculated by formula cos _h_ = tan φ cot δ, is
G.M.T. 1.34 A.M.
Azimuth at greatest easterly elongation, calculated by the formula
sin A = cos δ sec φ
is 181° 57′ 0″ from south.
Observed maximum reading of circle 256° 33′ 0″
True azimuth of star 181 57 0
----------
Meridian (S.) reading of circle 74 36 0
Circle reading on Salisbury Spire 65 28 0
---------
Azimuth of Salisbury Spire S. 9 8 0 E.
The mean of the two determinations gives for the azimuth of Salisbury
Spire S. 9° 8′ 2″ E. This result agrees well with the value of the
azimuth communicated by the Ordnance Survey Office, namely, 9° 4′ 8″
from the centre of the circle, which being corrected by +4′ 12″ for the
position of station _a_, is increased to 9° 8′ 20″.
Hence, from the point of observation _a_, 9° 8′ 20″ has been adopted as
the azimuth of Salisbury Spire.
We thus get the following absolute values of the principal azimuths from
the point _a_:
Highest point of Friar’s Heel 239° 47′ 25″
-9 8 20
--------------
230 39 5
or N. 50 39 5 E.
Middle of opening in N.E. trilithon 238 51 10
-9 8 20
--------------
229 42 50
or N. 49 42 50 E.
The difference of 8¹⁄₂′ between this and the assumed axis 49° 34′ 18″ is
so slight that considering the indirect method which has necessarily
been employed in determining the axis of the temple from the position of
the leaning stone, and the want of verticality, parallelism and
straightness of the inner surfaces of the opening in the N.E. trilithon,
we are justified in adopting the azimuth of the avenue as that of the
temple.
Next, with regard to the determination of the azimuth of the avenue as
indicated by the line of pegs to which reference is made on p. 65. The
small angle between the nearest pegs A and B (which are supposed to be
parallel to the axis of the avenue), observed from station _a_, was
measured, and the corresponding calculated correction was applied to the
ascertained true bearing of the more distant peg B.
Thus
True bearing of peg B = 238° 35′ 0″
Calculated correction to peg A = 0 12 8
------------
True bearing of line AB 238 47 8
Bearing of Salisbury Spire 189 8 20
------------
True bearing of a line parallel to
the axis of near part of avenue N. 49 38 48 E.
The mean of the three independent determinations by another observer was
49° 39′ 6″.
The calculated bearing of the more distant part of the axis of the
avenue determined in the same manner by observations from station _b_ is
49° 32′ 54″. The mean of the two, namely, 49° 35′ 51″, justifies the
adoption of the value 49° 34′ 18″ as given by the Ordnance Survey for
the straight line from Stonehenge to Sidbury Hill.
(3) _Observation of Sunrise._--On the morning of June 25, 1901, sunrise
was observed from station _a_, and a setting made as nearly as possible
on the middle of the visible segment as soon as could be done after the
Sun appeared.
The telescope was then set on the highest point of the Friar’s Heel, and
the latter was found to be 8′ 40″ south of the Sun.
Sun’s declination at time of observation 23° 25′ 5″
Elevation of horizon at point of sunrise 0 35 48
Assuming 2′ vertical of Sun to have been visible at
observation, we have apparent altitude of Sun’s upper
limb 0 37 48
Refraction - 27′ 27″ } -0 27 18
Parallax + 0 9 }
-----------
True altitude of upper limb 0 10 30
Sun’s semi-diameter 0 15 46
-----------
True altitude of Sun’s centre -0 5 16
From this it results that the true azimuth of
the Sun at the time of observation = N. 50° 30′ 54″ E.
And since azimuth of Friar’s Heel = 50 39 5
-----------
2′ of sunrise should be N. of Friar’s Heel 0 8 11
Observed difference of azimuth = 0 8 40
-----------
Observed - calculated = 0 0 29
The observation thus agrees with calculation, if we suppose about 2′ of
the Sun’s limb to have been above the horizon when it was made, and
therefore substantially confirms the azimuth above given of the Friar’s
Heel and generally the data adopted.
II. HINTS ON MAKING, AND METHOD OF REDUCING, THE FIELD OBSERVATIONS.
It will probably be found useful if I give here a few hints as to the
precautions which must be taken in making the field observations and an
example of their reduction to an astronomical basis.
For the _azimuths_ of the sight-lines the investigator of these
monuments cannot do better than use the 25-inch, or 6-inch, maps
published by the Ordnance Survey. Their accuracy is of a very high order
and is not likely to be exceeded, even if approached, by any casual
observer having to make his own special arrangements for correct time
before he can begin his surveying work.
In some cases, however, it may be found that the Survey has not included
every outstanding stone which may be found by an investigator on making
a careful search; many of the stones are covered by gorse, &c., and are
not, therefore, easily found.
In such cases the azimuth of some object that is marked on the map
should be taken as a reference line and the difference of azimuth
between that and the unmarked objects determined. By this means the
azimuths of all the sight-lines may be obtained.
When using the 25-inch maps for determining azimuths it must be borne in
mind that the side-lines are not, necessarily, due north and south. The
Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, will probably on
application state the correction to be applied to the azimuths on this
account, and this should be applied, of course, to each of the values
obtained.
If for any reason it is found necessary or desirable to make
observations of the azimuths independently of the Ordnance Survey, full
instructions as to the method of procedure may be found in an
inexpensive instruction book[133] issued by the Board of Education. The
instructions given on p. 49, § 3, are most generally applicable, and
the form on p. 76 will be found very handy for recording and reducing
the observations.
In making observations of the angular elevation of the horizon a good
theodolite is essential. Both verniers should be read, the mean taken,
and then the telescope should be reversed in its Ys, reset, and both
readings taken again. One setting and reading are of little use.
The Ordnance Survey maps may also be employed _in a preliminary
reconnaissance_ to obtain approximate values of the horizon elevations.
This may be done by measuring the distances and contour-lines shown on
the one-inch maps. This method, however, is only very roughly
approximate owing to the fact that sharp but very local elevations close
to the monuments may not appear on these maps and yet be of sufficient
magnitude to cause large errors in the results.
Where trees, houses, &c., top the horizon, they should, of course, be
neglected and the elevation of the ground level, at that spot, taken.
Should the top of the azimuth mark (stone, &c.) show above the actual
horizon, its elevation should be recorded and not that of the horizon.
Having measured the angular elevation of the horizon along the
sight-line, it is necessary to convert this into actual zenith distance
and to apply the refraction correction before the computations of
declination can be made.
The process of doing this and of calculating the declination will be
gathered from the examples given below:--
_Data._
Monument:--E. circle Tregeseal, lat. 50° 8′ N. _i.e._ colat = 39° 52′.
Alignment. Centre of circle to Longstone.
Az. (from 25″ Ordnance Map). N. 66° 38′ E.
Elevation of horizon (measured) 2° 10′.
Reference to the May-Sun curve, given on p. 263, indicates that this is
probably an alignment to the sunrise on May morning. Therefore, in
determining the zenith distance, the correction for the sun’s
semi-diameter (16′) must be taken into account, allowing that 2′ of the
sun’s disc was above the horizon when the observation was made.
_Zenith Distance_:--
Zenith distance of true horizon = 90°
„ „ local „ = 90° - 2° 10′ = 87° 50′
Bessel’s tables show that refraction, at altitude 2° 10′, raises sun
17′. If 2′ of sun’s limb is above horizon, sun’s centre is 14′ below.
∴ True zenith distance of sun’s centre = 87° 50′ + 17′ + 14′ = 88° 21′.
_Declination_:--
Having obtained the zenith distance, and the azimuth, the latitude being
known, the N.P.D. (North Polar Distance) of the sun may be found by the
following equations:--
(1) tan θ = tan _z_. cos A,
where θ is the subsidiary angle which must be determined for the purpose
of computation, _z_ is the true zenith distance, and A is the distance
from the _North_ point.
cos _z_. cos (c - θ)[134]
(2) cos Δ = -------------------------,
cos θ
where Δ is the N.P.D. of the celestial object, and _c_ is the colatitude
(90° - lat.) of the place of observation.
In the example taken this gives us--
(1) tan θ = tan 88° 21′. cos 66° 38′
θ = 85° 50′ 45″
cos 88° 21′. cos (39° 52′ - 85° 50′ 45″)
(2) cos Δ = ----------------------------------------
cos 85° 50′ 45″
Δ = 73° 57′ 50″
Declination, δ, = (90° - Δ) = 16° 2′ 10″ N.
Reference to the Nautical Almanac shows that this is the sun’s
declination on May 5 and August 9. We may therefore conclude that the
Long-stone was erected to mark the May sunrise, as seen from the
Tregeseal Circle.
Had we been dealing with a star, instead of the sun, the only
modification necessary in the process of calculating the declination
would have been to omit the semi-diameter correction of 14′.
Having obtained a declination, we must refer to the curves given on pp.
115-6 in order to see if there is any star which fits it, and to find
the date.
Take, for example, the case of the apex of Carn Kenidjack, as seen from
the Tregeseal circle--
Az. = N. 12° 8′ E.; hill = 4° 0.′ lat. = 50° 8′.
This gives us a declination of 42° 33′ N., and a reference to the
stellar-declination curves (p. 115-6) shows that Arcturus had that
declination in 2330 B.C. From the table given on p. 117, we see that at
that epoch Arcturus acted as warning-star for the August sun.
In cases where the elevation of the horizon is 30′, or in preliminary
examinations, where it may be assumed as 30′, the refraction exactly
counterbalances the hill, and therefore the true zenith distance at the
moment of star-rise is 90°. Hence the N.P.D. of the star may be found
from the following simple equation--
(3) cos Δ = cos A cos λ
where Δ and A have the same significance as before and λ is the
_latitude_ of the place of observation.
[133] _Demonstrations and Practical Work in Astronomical Physics at the
Royal College of Science, South Kensington._ Wyman and Sons, 1_s._
[134] cos (c - θ) = cos -(c - θ).
INDEX
A.
=Abydos=, clock star at, 297.
=Africa=, sacred stones and trees, 235.
=Aldebaran=, _see_ Tauri α.
“=Allée couverte=,” 41, 317.
“=All Hallows=,” 187;
Irish and Welsh equivalents, 195.
“=All Souls=,” change of date, 186.
=Alsia well=, 227.
=Altar stone=, Stonehenge, 81;
Aberdeen type, 36.
=Amen-Rā=, 2;
temple of, 55, 297.
=Amplitude=, 10, 111.
=Animals=, sacrifices of, 197.
=Annu=, temples at, 296, 297, 304.
=Antares=, _see_ Scorpionis α.
=Antiquaries=, Society of, 69, 133.
=Antrobus=, Sir Edward, 49, 69, 94.
=Apollo=, 52.
=Arabia=, sacred stones and trees in, 235.
=Archæology=, relation to astronomy, 4.
=Arcturus=, _see_ Boötis α.
=Aries=, 15, 315.
=Armenia=, calendar in, 29;
fire festival in, 191.
=Aryans=, 40, 236.
=Ascension Day=, 185, 231.
_Asherah_, 245, 257.
=Ash Wednesday=, 182.
=Assacombe=, 158.
=Assyria=, sacred trees, &c., 245.
=Astronomer-priests=, procedure of, 110, 316.
=Athens=, May-day worship, 108;
temples at, 32;
warning stars at, 311.
=August-festival=, dates of, 185;
in Brittany, 199;
in Ireland and Wales, 186;
warning-stars, 311.
=Aurigae= α (=Capella=), clock- and warning-star, 117, 272, 290, 292,
293, 298, 299, 304, 312;
associated with Ptah, 304.
=Avebury=, cove at, 37.
=Avenue=, at Stonehenge, 63, 65.
=Avenues=, in Brittany, 149;
on Dartmoor, 146, 319;
definition of, 37.
=Axis= (=of temple=), Stonehenge, 55, 60;
Karnak, 56;
Kouyunjik, 305;
Annu, 305;
change of, 42.
=Azimuth=, defined, 10, 111;
changes in, 122;
of May sunrise, 264.
=Azimuth-marks=, illumination of, 110.
B.
=Baal=, 197, 249, 259.
“=Baal’s Fire=” (=Beltan=), 40.
=Babylon=, 24, 240, 259, 295, 308;
May year in, 304.
=Babylonians=, astronomical knowledge of, 240;
early navigators, 241.
=Baker=, Sir Samuel, 235.
=Balder=, 320.
=Balfour=, Prof. Bayley, 201.
=Ball=, Dr. Henry, 26.
=Balus=, first king of Orkney, 259.
=Baring-Gould=, Rev. S., 149, 190, 194, 198, 213, 215, 239, 256.
=Barnstone-Maeshowe= (=Orkney=), 129.
=Barrows=, burials in, 323;
chambered, 164, 192, 317;
date of, 78, 238;
employment of, 38, 110, 140, 268;
varieties of, 143.
=Bartinné=, Cornwall, 219.
=Battendon=, 158.
=Batworthy=, avenues near, 160.
=Bede’s well=, near Jarrow, 230.
=Beirna-well= (=Barnwell=), 230.
=Bell=, Mr. J., of Dundalk, 253.
=Beltaine=, ceremonies at, 40, 197, 285, 320;
variations of, 201, 204, 218, 259.
=Betelgeuse=, _see_ Orionis α.
=Bethel=, 245, 255.
=Bigswell=, 218.
“=Blind Fiddler=,” The, 291.
=Blisland=, Cornwall, 291.
=Blocking-stones=, 156, 176.
=Blow=, Mr., 69.
“=Blue stones=,” at Stonehenge, 80, 91.
=Bolitho=, Mr. Horton, 140, 219, 268, 270, 277, 282, 287, 289, 291.
=Bonfires=, _see_ Fires.
=Bookan=, Ring of, 128.
=Boötis α= (=Arcturus=), 117, 137, 150, 151, 156, 158, 159, 160, 161,
163, 174, 273, 280, 299, 301, 311, 314.
=Borlase=, Dr., 134, 218, 219, 234, 254, 255, 267, 289, 323.
=Borlase=, Mr. W. C., 37, 213, 266, 274.
=Boscawen-Un=, 287, 290, 309, 314.
=Boswens Common=, 282.
=Britain=, introduction of clock-stars, 299;
May-year temples, 309;
pre-Celtic inhabitants, 250.
=Brittany=, festivals, 198;
megalithic remains, 96;
solstitial fires, 194.
=Britons=, Saxon slaughter of, 95.
=Bronze-age=, 75, 78.
=Brugsch=, 1, 296.
=Budge=, Dr., 296.
=Burials=, 146, 164;
in mounds, 323.
=Burton=, Captain, 235.
C.
=Cæsar=, 52, 323, 324.
=Cairns=, employment of, 38, 142, 164, 192, 289;
Biblical references to, 244;
burials in, 252;
orientation of, 254.
=Calabria=, 312.
=Calends=, the winter, 195.
=Calendar=, changes in the, 23;
Armenian and Turkish, 29;
Celtic, 186;
Koptic, 28.
=Camden=, 289.
=Canaan=, sacred stones and trees in, 245.
=Canis Majoris= α (=Sirius=), 108, 117, 143, 311.
=Candlemas=, 143, 184, 185, 188, 191.
=Canopus=, 18.
=Capella=, _see_ Aurigae α.
=Capricorni= α, 117.
=Caradon Hill=, 143.
=Carn Kenidjack=, 278.
=Carnac=, bonfires at, 40;
menhirs at, 98, 105, 239;
sacrifices at, 199.
=Carruthers=, Mr., 69.
=Castallack=, Cornwall, 267.
=Castor=, _see_ Geminorum.
=Cattle=, drenching in holy wells, 230.
=Caves=, purpose of, 244, 254.
“=Cave of Elephanta=,” 256.
=Celts=, calendar of the, 186, 195;
intrusion of, 324;
worship, 32.
=Ceylon=, 235.
=Chabas=, 1.
=Chaldea=, 12.
=Challacombe=, 158;
multiple avenue, 149, 159;
solstitial worship, 314.
=Chapel Euny=, Cornwall, 219, 226.
=Chaucer=, 203.
“=Cheesewring, The=,” 134.
=Chichén-Itzá=, 32, 308.
“=Choir Gawr=,” 53.
=Chûn Castle=, Cornwall, 284, 286.
=Chûn Cromlech=, Cornwall, 284.
=Churches=, replaced stone circles, 219.
=Chysoister=, 323.
=Circles (stone)=, employment of, 232, 316;
associated with wells, 228;
classification of, 36, 37;
star observations in, 109.
=Cists=, 164;
burials in, 323.
=Clock-stars=, employment of, 108, 294, 296, 298, 299, 304, 308;
fall into disuse, 322.
=Coinage=, early British, 52.
=Collimation-marks=, 316.
=Constantine=, Cornwall, 269.
=Cord=, The stretching of the, 1.
=Cormac=, Archbishop, 181, 189, 195, 204.
=Cornish=, Mr., 270, 282.
=Cornwall=, astronomical conditions in, 262;
azimuths of May sunrise, 264;
clock-stars in, 299;
May bathing in, 227;
stone circles in, 36, 262;
wells and circles in, 219.
=Cosens=, Bishop, of Durham, 184.
=Council of Nice=, 23.
_Couvade_, 319.
=Coves=, 37, 316.
=Cresset-stones=, 190, 256.
=Cromlechs=, defined, 37;
employed, 101, 102, 161, 253;
in cairns, 253;
uses of, 110, 141, 245, 252, 317.
=Crosses (stone)=, old monoliths, 141, 273.
=Crozon=, monuments at, 101.
=Cult=, change of, 320.
“=Cultus Lapidum=,” denouncement of, 39.
=Cumberland=, stone circle in, 36.
=Cunnington=, Mr., 79, 81, 90.
=Cups=, for containing lamps, 319.
=Cursiter=, Mr., 35, 123.
=Cursus=, The, at Stonehenge, 154, 155, 319.
D.
=Danams=, 90.
=Danckworth=, Dr., 111.
=Dartmoor=, avenues on, 146, 151, 319.
=Davies=, Mr., 27, 95.
=Declination=, defined, 10;
change of, 111.
=Deepdale=, 132.
=Dekkan=, sacred stones and trees in the, 235.
=Denderah=, 295, 297.
_Dessil_, pre-Christian custom, 234.
=Devoir=, Lieut., 98, 104, 105, 145, 152.
=Diana=, temple of, 31.
=Diodorus Siculus=, 51.
=Diseases=, cure of, 318.
=Divination=, at holy well, 226.
=Dolmens=, 255, 316;
derivation of name, 38;
_à galerie_, described, 38;
_à l’allée couverte_, described, 38;
in tumuli, 253;
in Ireland, 37;
purpose of, 41, 252, 254;
Semitic origin of, 245.
=Down Tor=, May-year at, 309.
=Draconis= γ, 295, 296, 299, 305.
=Drizzlecombe=, 158.
=Druids=, arrival of, 27;
customs of, 259, 319, 323;
mistletoe and the, 210;
teachings of, 52.
=Dümichen=, 1.
=Durandus=, 183, 192.
=Durham=, cathedral customs at, 184.
=Dwellings of priests=, 317, 323.
=Dymond=, Mr., 166, 171.
E.
=Easter=, 40, 182, 183;
May festival replaced by, 231;
variation of date, 24.
=Ecliptic=, change of obliquity, 15.
=Eden Hall=, 227.
=Edgar= (A.D. 963), 233.
=Edmonds=, Mr., 267.
=Egypt=, astronomy in, 249;
calendar, 28;
clock-stars, 295;
equinoxes in Lower, 108;
May-year, 304;
sequence of worships, 312;
solstices, 258;
temple azimuths, 298;
year-gods, of, 259.
=Elias= (Elijah), or Al-Khidr or El-Khidr, 29, 257.
=Ephesus=, 32.
=Equator=, apparent path of stars at, 7.
=Equinoxes=, the, 13, 18, 108, 211;
temples for, 32;
in Britain, 64, 315.
=Erechtheum=, the older, 31, 108, 142.
=Euphrates=, rise of the, 30.
=Evans=, Sir John, 76.
F.
=Falmouth=, Lord, 268.
=Farr=, Sutherlandshire, 229.
=Farmer=, Prof., 27.
=Feasts=, 187, 319.
=February=, warning-stars in Britain, 312.
=Ferguson=, Dr., 110.
=Fernworthy=, avenues at, 158.
=Festivals=, 182, 185, 258;
Cornish, 139;
May, 40, 185, 196, 198, 226, 247, 258.
=Fires=, at various seasons, 30, 32, 39, 183, 184, 189, 194, 204;
Druidical, 181;
in cromlechs, 317;
in hollowed stones, 323;
pagan, 191;
Roman Catholic and Protestant, 182;
sacred, 195, 248, 256;
customs, 190, 199;
festivals, 194;
rites, 192;
signals, 21;
wheels, 193.
=Flints=, 79.
=Florence=, fire customs, 193.
=Folklore=, 179;
Babylonian and Indian, 242;
Semitic and British, 246.
=Fosseway=, the Great, 147.
=Fougou=, 192, 267.
=Fountains=, 246.
=France=, place names derived from wells, 234.
=Frazer=, Dr., 26, 28, 40, 189, 209.
=Friar’s Heel=, the (Stonehenge), 53, 60, 68, 90, 93.
“=Furry Dance=,” the, 206.
G.
=Gaillard=, 96, 104.
“=Galgal=,” description of, 38.
=Games=, 319.
=Garments=, offerings of, 318.
=Gauls=, 323.
=Gavr Innis=, 38, 255.
=Gemini=, 15.
=Geminorum=, α, β and γ, 117.
=Geoffrey of Monmouth=, 52.
=Glamorgan=, rites at holy wells, 223.
=Globe=, celestial, 8;
precessional, 114.
=Goidels=, 237.
=Gomme=, Mr., 195, 213, 216, 221, 222, 227, 236, 238.
“=Goon-Rith=,” 266.
=Gould=, Baring-, _see_ Baring-Gould.
=Gowland=, Prof., 3, 45, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 80, 82, 87, 91, 321.
=Greece=, astronomical observations in, 34, 298, 311;
divisions of year in, 20, 304;
temples in, 34, 306, 311, 313, 315;
temple building in, 299.
=Grimm=, 26, 211.
=Grovely Castle=, 66.
=Groves=, Biblical reference to, 245;
sacred, 27, 258.
=Giraldus Cambrensis=, 52.
=Gudea= (2500 B.C.), 242.
=Guest=, Dr., 95.
H.
=Hall=, Mr., 237.
=Halley=, 54.
=Hallowe’en=, 125, 143, 201, 311.
=Hallowmass=, 187.
=Hameldon=, 147.
=Hammerstones=, and axes, 74.
=Harrison=, Mr., 50.
=Har-Tor=, 158.
=Harvest=, season of, 139, 304.
“=Hautville’s Quoit=,” 167, 168.
=Hawthorn=, 201, 202, 221.
=Hawk’s Tor=, 291.
=Hazlitt=, 183, 197, 239.
=Hecatæus=, of Abdera, 51.
=Hecatompedon=, the, 31, 108, 154.
=Helios=, 29.
=Hellard=, Colonel, 270.
=Helston=, May-day at, 205.
=Henderson=, Capt., 140, 270, 274.
=Henry of Huntingdon=, 52.
=Hermes=, 259.
=Hieroglyphics=, 38.
=Higgins=, Mr., 62.
=Hills=, actual and angular heights, 112;
effects of, 120, 264, 291.
=Hoare=, Sir R. C., 61, 149.
=Holed stones=, _see_ stones.
=Hollantide=, 188.
=Holne= (Dartmoor), 195.
=Holy of Holies=, 16, 55.
=Holy Thursday=, 185.
=Honeysuckle=, 207.
=Hook Lake=, 158.
=Hope=, 213, 228, 231, 233.
=Horizon=, angular elevation of, 112;
early employment of, 2, 5, 250.
=Horses=, at May-day festivals, 319.
=Horus=, 32, 195.
=Huc=, 236.
“=Hurlers=, The” (Cornwall), 36, 133, 134, 135;
alignments at, 137;
change of warning star at, 311;
dates of construction, 139;
May-year at, 309;
solstices at, 314.
=Hyperboreans=, 51.
I.
=Ihering=, 241.
=Illuminations=, collimation-mark, 317;
May-day, 204.
=Implements=, flint, 74.
=Inverness=, type of circle at, 36.
=Ireland=, division of the year in, 30;
festivals in, 187, 197, 309.
=Isis=, 32.
=Isle-of-Man=, festivals in the, 187, 207;
wells and circles in the, 219.
J.
=James=, Sir Henry, 219.
=Japan=, 3, 84.
=Jews=, equinoctial festivals among the, 258.
=Johnston=, Colonel, 111, 129, 135, 152, 166.
=Jones=, Inigo, 53.
=Jones=, Prof. J. M., 250.
=Josephus=, 32.
=Judd=, Prof., 80, 91.
=June-Year=, 93, 251.
K.
=Karnak=, temples at, 55, 297.
=Kenidjack=, Carn, 278.
=Kerenneur=, 105.
=Kerlescant=, 39.
=Kerloas=, 105.
=Keswick=, 35, 111.
=King’s Teignton=, 196.
=Kingstone=, The, at Roll-Rich (Oxon.), 36.
=Kit’s Coity House=, 37.
=Knightlow Hill= (Coventry), 188.
=Knut= (A.D. 1018), 233.
=Kouyunjik=, 308, 322.
L.
“=Lammas=,” 186.
=Lanyon=, 273.
=Lanyon Quoit=, 280.
=Latitude=, results of, 291.
=Layard=, Sir H., 241, 307, 308.
=Lent=, origin and customs of, 183, 184.
=Leslie=, Colonel, 218, 235, 255.
=Lewis=, Mr. A. L., 35, 123, 176.
=Lockyer=, Dr., 111.
=Longstones=, found in barrows, 268.
=Longstone=, The (Tregeseal), 278, 280, 309, 314.
“=Lug=,” the Irish Sun-God, 186.
=Lugnassad=, Irish feast, 186.
=Lukis=, Dr., 37, 133, 144, 150, 253, 265, 287, 291, 292.
=Luxor=, 297.
=Lyrae=, α (Vega), 297, 315.
M.
=MacRitchie=, Mr., 192, 317.
=Madron (Cornwall)=, 225.
=Maeshowe (Orkney)=, 35, 123, 125, 253, 254;
date of, 129;
use of, 192.
=Markab=, _see_ Pegasi α.
=Marriage=, customs, 285, 319.
=Martin=, St., in Germany, 187.
=Martinmas=, old, 188.
=Maudslay=, Mr., 32, 308.
=Mauls=, 75.
=May-day=, 108, 201, 204.
=May-eve=, 95, 207.
=May-festivals=, 40, 185, 196, 198, 226, 247, 258.
=Maypole=, 205, 227.
=May-sun=, 36, 151, 262, 263.
=May-thorn=, 202, 212, 320.
=May-year=, the, 19, 181, 232, 304, 320;
divisions of, 263, 304;
provided for, 18, 35, 64, 93, 98, 104, 105, 127, 174, 241, 247, 271,
280, 284, 286, 290, 304, 306, 307, 308, 309, 321;
relation to June-year, 106, 230, 251, 261;
warning-stars, 117, 142;
worship, 95, 96, 109.
=Mecca=, 245.
_Meinrethydd_ (May-eve), 95.
=Melon=, island of, 102.
=Memphis=, Capella at, 304;
May-worship, 18;
temples at, 297, 298.
=Mên-an-tol=, 284, 286.
=Ménec (Le)=, 39, 98, 159.
=Menhirs=, 37, 105;
ceremonies at, 256;
in Brittany, 96;
near holy wells, 225;
various, 39, 101, 102, 103, 152, 157.
=Men-Peru=, 269.
=Menu or Min=, temple of, 29, 31, 108, 142, 297, 298, 305;
associated with Spica, 299.
=Mercury=, 259.
=Merrivale=, avenues at, 147, 153, 154;
May-year at, 309.
=Merry Maidens=, 265;
alignments at, 271, 276;
clock-stars at, 302;
May-year at, 309.
=Midsummer=, ceremonies at, 231, 285.
=Midsummer eve=, mistletoe on, 210.
=Mihr=, Armenian fire-god, 191.
=Mistletoe=, 26, 27, 201, 210, 320;
as a medicine, 210;
“Oil of St. John,” 210;
Swedish notions concerning, 209.
=Mitchell’s Egyptian Calendar=, 28.
=Molech=, 248.
=Molene Island=, 103.
=Monoliths=, 81, 216, 244.
=Montelius=, 76.
=Moon=, employment of the, 18;
worship of the, 249.
=Morbihan=, alignments at, 100.
=Morgan=, Lloyd, Prof., 167, 170, 176.
=Morgan=, Mr., 53.
=Morrow=, Mr., 171, 174.
=Mountain-ash=, 206.
=Mungo-Park=, 235.
=Murray=, Mr. George, 27.
=Murray=, Mr. John, 308.
=Mut=, temple of, 297.
=Mythology=, origin of, 19.
N.
=Nantwich=, 221.
=Naos=, The, at Stonehenge, 16, 41, 63, 95.
=Need fires=, 190.
=Neolithic-age=, 75, 76.
=New-Grange (Meath)=, 38.
=Newton’s herbal=, 212.
=New-year=, change of date, 194.
=Night-dial=, use of, 302.
=Nile=, 3, 18, 312.
=Nimrood=, temples at, 241, 308.
“=Nine Maidens=” (The), 292, 293.
=Nineveh=, May temple at, 307.
=Norwich=, sun-wheel at, 193.
_Nos Galan-galaf_, 187.
_Nos Glamau_, 207.
=November=, festival, 186, 195, 290, 311.
O.
=Oak=, contiguous to sacred wells, 216.
=Obliquity of the Ecliptic=, change of the, 15, 43.
=Observations=, astronomical and religious, 125, 322.
=O’Connor=, Dr., 216.
=Odin stone=, Stenness, 127, 218, 283, 285.
=Offerings=, at holy places, 222, 318.
=Onston=, 132.
=Ordeals=, 247.
=Ordnance Survey=, 111, 253.
=Orientation=, first use of, 18.
=Orionis, α (Betelgeuse)=, 117, 144, 314.
=Orkney=, 125, 259.
=Otley=, Mr. Jonathan, 35, 111.
=Ouseley=, Sir William, 234.
P.
=Palenque=, 32, 308.
=Palæolithic age=, 75.
=Palm=, at vernal equinox, 211.
=Palm Sunday=, 184, 211.
=Panathenæa=, 31.
=Parallelithons=, 148.
“=Pardons=,” in Brittany, 198.
=Parthenon=, 298.
=Payn=, Mr. Howard, 66, 94.
=Pegasi=, α and β, 117.
=Pennant=, tour of Scotland, 206.
=Penrose=, Mr., 31, 34, 38, 42, 51, 62, 78, 89, 93, 94, 109, 142, 154,
298, 306, 310, 312, 313, 315.
=Pentecost=, feast of, 32, 185.
=Pepi=, 295.
=Percy’s Northumberland Notes=, 184.
=Perrott=, Mr., 148.
=Persia=, rag-offerings in, 234.
=Petrie=, Flinders, Prof., 62.
=Pet-ser=, 2.
=Philpot=, Mrs., 257.
=Picks=, of deer’s-horn, 78.
“=Pierre du Conseil=” (Lagatjar), 104.
=Piers’= Survey of S. Ireland, 182, 229.
=Pins=, as offerings at sacred wells, 222, 227, 258, 318.
“=Pipers=, The,” 266, 271.
=Pitt-Rivers=, General, 235, 236.
=Plato=, 7.
=Pleiades=, at British monuments, 153, 273, 274, 280, 290;
employed by Semites, 247;
elsewhere, 108, 117, 151, 155, 162, 310, 311.
=Ploudalmezeau=, monuments at, 100.
=Ploy-field=, the, at Holne, 196.
=Pole=, apparent path of stars at the north, 6;
elevation of the, 9;
motion of stars, round, 300, 303.
=Pollux=, _see_ Geminorum.
=Pompeii=, 312.
=Pomponius Mela=, 322, 324.
=Pont l’Abbé=, menhirs at, 105.
=Portugal=, place-names from wells, 234.
=Pratt’s flowering plants=, 202, 206.
=Precession=, effects of, 64, 295.
=Prestwich=, Prof., 79.
=Priests=, 316, 317.
=Processions=, sacred, 319.
=Ptah=, 29, 31, 298, 304.
=Pylons=, use of, 55.
=Pyramids=, building of, 18;
worship at, 29.
=Pyrenees=, genii at holy-wells, 234.
_Pyrus aucuparia_, 201.
Q.
=Quicken-tree=, 206, 208.
=Quiller-Couch=, holy wells, 213, 216, 223, 226, 228.
=Quoit=, definition of, 38.
R.
=Racing=, at festivals, 319.
=Rags=, as offerings in sacred places, 216, 222, 223, 225.
=Ram Feast=, at Holne (Dartmoor), 196.
=Read=, Mr. C. H., 237.
=Refraction=, effect of, 112, 120.
=Rent-day=, date of, in Ireland, 30.
=Rhys=, Prof., 26, 30, 186, 188, 202, 206, 207, 208, 213, 215, 219,
220, 223, 250, 260, 319.
=Roddon=, = Rowan, 206.
=Roll-Rich=, Oxon., 36.
=Rolston=, Sir. W. E., 120, 122, 290.
=Rorrington=, Chirbury, 227.
=Rowan-tree=, 201, 211, 318, 320;
and witchcraft, 206, 208;
near sacred wells, 220.
=Rowe’s perambulation of Dartmoor=, 147, 148, 152, 158, 287.
=Rūz Kāsim=, 29.
=Rūs Khidr=, 29.
S.
=Sacred-fires=, _see_ fires.
=Sacrifices=, 197, 205, 319.
=Sagittarius=, 15.
=Sainhain=, feast of, 187.
=Sanctuary=, at Stonehenge, 55.
=St. Aelian=, Derbyshire, 216.
=St. Blaze= (“=Blayse=,” “=Blazeus=”), anniversary of, 184.
=St. Burian=, Cornwall, 267, 271.
=St. Claire=, 140.
=St. Cleer=, holy well at, 229.
=St. Cuthbert=, Cornwall, 228.
=St. Herbot=, sacrifices to, 199.
=St. John’s Day=, festivals on, 230.
=St. John’s Eve=, fire customs, 192.
=St. Just=, Cornwall, stone circle at, 277.
=St. Justin=, 140.
=St. Martin=, feast of, 186.
=St. Medan=, holy well at Kirkmaiden, 229.
=St. Michael’s Mount=, 40.
=St. Nicodemus=, sacrifices to, 199.
=St. Peter’s=, Rome, 32.
=St. Renan=, monuments at, 100.
=Salisbury=, position of cathedral, 65;
solstitial custom at, 43.
=Saracens=, star-worship among the, 249.
=Sardonyx=, employment of, 32.
=Sarsens=, stones, 15, 45, 79, 91.
=Scandinavia=, temples in, 63.
=Schübeler=, Prof., 202.
=Scorpionis α (Antares)=, 117, 142, 273, 310, 311.
=Scotland=, May-year in, 109, 186, 321;
types of stone circles in, 36.
=Scott=, Sir Walter, 40.
=Seasons=, astronomical and vegetational, 212.
=Semites=, beliefs concerning the stars, 249;
in Britain, 243, 246;
temple practices among the, 240, 248, 256.
=Sennacherib=, May temple of, 308.
=Sergi=, Prof., 237.
=Serpentis α=, 117.
=Sesheta=, 2.
=Set=, British equivalent of, 195.
=Shakspeare=, 204.
=Sheat=, _see_ Pegasi β.
_Shenn Laa Boaldyn_ (Manx May-day), 204.
=Shinto=, cult of, 3.
=Shovel Down=, Devon, 158, 160, 314.
=Shrines=, trilithons as, 37.
=Shrove Tuesday=, 182.
=Sight-lines=, 316;
different methods of marking, 107;
methods of using, 41.
=Silbury (or Sidbury)=, 66.
=Sirius=, _see_ Canis Majoris α.
=Skins=, offerings of, 318.
“=Slaughter Stone=,” the, 90, 93.
=Smith=, Colonel Hamilton, 148.
=Smith=, Dr. J., 52.
=Smith=, Robertson, Prof., 243, 245, 248, 255, 257.
=Society of Antiquaries=, 69.
=Solstices=, the, 13, 108, 120;
azimuths of sunrise at, 43, 291;
at Palenque and Chichén Itza, 308;
celebration of, 40, 193;
date of introduction into Britain, 313;
determination of, 16;
in Egypt, 3, 13;
in France, 99, 103, 104;
in Morocco and Britain, 243;
provided for at British monuments, 93, 129, 176, 274, 280, 290, 312,
314;
sunrise at, 36;
warning stars for, 117, 314;
worship at, 259, 320.
=Spence=, Mr., 35, 123, 128, 254, 285.
=Spica=, _see_ Virginis α.
=Stalldon Moor=, 150, 163.
=Standen (near Hungerford)=, 79.
=Stanton Drew=, 166, 167, 170, 173;
cove at, 37;
dates of, 174;
dimensions of circles at, 171;
May-year at, 309;
solstitial worship at, 314.
=Stars=, changes in declination of, 42, 109;
northern, 114;
heliacal risings of, 108;
reason for observations of, 42;
worship of, 139, 249.
_See_ clock-stars.
=Stenness=, 35, 123, 218;
azimuths of sunrise at, 120;
observations required at, 129;
seasons provided for at, 127, 131, 309, 314.
=Sterility=, 239, 256.
=Stirling=, festivals at, 238.
=Stockwell=, 67, 111, 129, 176.
=Stone-age=, 75.
=Stonehenge=, 41, 50, 51, 52, 58, 88, 91;
amplitudes of stars at, 11;
apparent paths of stars at, 7;
architecture of, 83;
avenue, 63, 65;
axis, 55, 60;
azimuth of sunrise at, 120;
the “Cursus” at, 319;
custom at, 43;
date of, 62, 67, 93;
desecration of, 47;
erection of, 84;
“Leaning Stone” at, 69, 84;
May-year at, 109;
origin of stones, 90;
position of, 65;
rededication of, 109;
solstitial temple, 108, 314;
“_Stanenges_,” 52;
tools found at, 74.
=Stones=, as azimuth marks, 110;
anointing of, 255;
cresset-, 190, 256;
holed, 37, 128, 282, 285, 286, 316, 318;
hollowed, 192, 248, 323;
Semitic, sacred, 244;
unhewn and worked, 321.
=Stone-worship=, proscribed, 271.
=Stripple Stones=, Cornwall, 36, 292.
=Stukeley=, Dr., 37, 53, 134, 289.
=Sunrise=, apparent, 120;
azimuth of, 64;
determination of, 118;
observation of, 63, 66, 99;
November, 93.
=Sunset=, determination of, 118;
the May-, 93.
=Sycamore=, 204.
T.
“=Tan Heol=,” 40.
“=Tan St. Jean=,” 40.
=Tanta Fair=, 28, 29.
=Tara=, perpetual fire at temple of, 191.
=Tauri α=, Aldebaran, 315.
=Tavistock=, 147.
=Temenos mound=, at Stonehenge, 47, 93.
=Temple-axis=, fixing of, 1.
=Temples=, associated, 297;
Egyptian, 55;
solstitial, 313.
=Thebes= (Egypt), 8, 108;
amplitudes at, 11;
stars used at, 299, 304;
May-year at, 247, 305.
=Thebes= (Greece), 299.
=Theodolite=, adjustments of, 172, 329.
=Thomas=, Mr., 277, 282.
=Thorn-trees=, associated with holy wells, 221.
=Thoth=, 259.
=Thurnham=, Dr., 63.
=Tigris=, rise of the, 30.
=Tirehan=, 214.
=Tissington=, Derbyshire, 228.
=Tlachtaga=, the fire of, 187.
=Tombs=, dolmens not intended for, 254.
=Torches=, 317.
=Toutates=, 260.
=Track-lines=, 149.
=Tradition=, 179.
“=Treachery of the Long Knives=,” 95.
=Trees=, sacred, 200, 220, 257;
Arabian worship of, 245;
Semitic, 244, 246.
=Tregaseal=, 277, 278, 280, 309, 314.
=Trilithons=, 81;
at Stonehenge, 58;
functions of, 37, 41;
in Japan, 3.
=Trippet stones=, 36.
=Tristis rock=, 158.
=Trowlesworthy=, 158, 161, 162.
=Truthwall Common=, 277.
=Tubberpatrick=, well at, 225.
=Tumuli=, 93, 102, 254;
at Stenness, 131.
=Turkey=, calendar in, 29.
U.
=Ursae Majoris α=, 295, 298.
V.
=Vallum=, 47, 291.
=Vega=, _see_ Lyrae α.
“_Via Sacra_,” 60, 155, 163.
=Via=, stones of, 128.
=Virginis α=, (Spica), 108, 142, 299, 305, 315.
W.
=Wales=, wells near churches, 229.
=Warning-stars=, 108;
in Britain, 310;
in Greece, 311.
=Water=, near holy places, 246, 317.
=Wells=, associated with trees, 219, 220;
curative powers, 235;
sacred associations, 206, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 228, 229, 234,
257, 273;
“Waking the Well,” 228;
wishing, 215;
worship at, 215, 233;
worship, modern, 221, 223, 225, 226.
=Westermarck=, Mr., 319.
=Westmorland=, May-day customs, 207.
=Whitethorn=, 202.
=Whitley=, Rev. D., 255.
=Whitsuntide=, 185, 196.
=Willow=, blossoms used on Palm Sunday, 211.
=Wiltshire Archæological Society=, 50.
=Windle=, Mr., 37.
=Witchcraft=, 206, 212, 216.
=Witchen-tree=, 206.
=Wood-Martin=, Mr., 213, 214, 220, 223, 233.
=Woon Gumpus Common=, 282.
=Worship=, British and Semitic, 252;
flower-, 203;
sun- and star-, 260;
well-, 228.
=Worth=, Mr. Hansford, 146, 148, 150, 153, 164.
=Worth=, Mr., R.N., 147, 148.
“=Wroth silver=,” payment of, 188.
Y.
=Year=, the astronomical, 16, 25;
the Celtic, 186;
division of the, 18;
the Julian, 23;
the lunar-, in Babylon, 24;
the solstitial-, 19, 139, 261;
the vegetation-, 18, 19, 25, 97, 109, 203.
=Yucatan=, the temples of, 33.
THE END
R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
Transcriber’s Notes
Inconsistent, archaic and unusual spelling, hyphenation and
capitalisation have been retained, except as mentioned below. This
includes proper and geographical names.
Depending on the hard- and software used, not all elements may display
as intended. Some tables are best viewed in a wide browser window.
Index: the occasional error in the order of entries has not been
corrected.
For the illustrated versions: Where the quality of the illustration in
the source document permits and where the visibility of details in or
the legibility of the illustration requires, larger versions of
illustrations have been provided. Availability of these larger
illustrations depends on the version used.
Page 100, Fig. 27, Menhir (A): the reference letter is missing from
the illustration.
Page 101, Carnac-Leomariaquer: probably Carnac-Locmariaquer (as on
Page 38).
Footnote [124], table Chichen Itza, last line: the E. or W. is missing
in the source document.
Changes made
Illustrations and tables have been moved out of text paragraphs;
footnotes were moved to the end of the chapter. Some tables have been
re-arranged. Ditto marks have occasionally been replaced with the
dittoed text.
Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been
corrected silently; some minor formatting inconsistencies have been
standardised silently. Some Greek accents and diacritics have been
ignored.
Page 29: closing bracket inserted after 185-6 days respectively
Page 90, Fig. 24: reference letters A, B, C and D inside the
illustration have been enlarged for better visibility.
Page 97: alignments changed to alignements; aujourdhui changed to
aujourd’hui
Page 173, first table: 19° 51′ E. changed to N. 19° 51′ E.
Page 220: footnote marker [65] inserted after Rhys where it seems to
fit best (lacking in source document).
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