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Cosmology, calendars and society in Neolithic Orkney: a rejoinder to Euan MacKie

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Clive Ruggles  and
Gordon Barclay
Clive Ruggles
Affiliation:
School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, England, rug@le.ac.uk
Gordon Barclay
Affiliation:
Historic Scotland, Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH, Scotland, Gordon.Barclay@Scotland.gov.uk
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Abstract

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The authors examine critically MacKie's long-standing contentions concerning Neolithic Britain — theocratic control of society, the relationships between monuments and sunrise or sunset on significant days of the year, the use of an ‘elaborate and accurate’ solar calendar and its survival into the Iron Age and into modern times.

Keywords

NeolithicBritainArchaeoastronomyMaes HoweOrkney
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 74 , Issue 283 , March 2000 , pp. 62 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2000

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