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Archaeoastronomy and the alleged ‘Stonehenge calendar’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2023

Giulio Magli  and
Juan Antonio Belmonte
Giulio Magli*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Juan Antonio Belmonte
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ Giulio.magli@polimi.it
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Abstract

In a recent Antiquity article, Darvill (2022) proposed that the mid third-millennium BC Stage 2 sarsen settings of Stonehenge (comprising the Trilithon Horseshoe, Sarsen Circle and the Station Stone Rectangle) were conceived in order to represent a calendar year of 365.25 days—that is, a calendar identical in duration to the Julian calendar. In the present article, the authors argue that this proposal is unsubstantiated, being based as it is on a combination of numerology, astronomical error and unsupported analogy.

Keywords

Prehistoric BritainStonehengearchaeoastronomyEgyptian calendarnumerologyanalogy
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 97 , Issue 393 , June 2023 , pp. 745 - 751
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd

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