🅰ntiquity Journal Profile picture
Antiquity is a bimonthly review of world archaeology edited by @RobertEWitcher. Please be aware that we sometimes share relevant images of human remains.

Jun 21, 2022, 5 tweets

Today marks #SummerSolstice2022, the longest day of the year.

At Stonehenge, this special sunrise would have been framed by a pair of stones (although now only one survives).

📷: The surviving stone illuminated by the solstice; by Andrew Dunn / CC BY-SA 2.0

This computer model of the site shows how the Heel Stone and its missing partner would have framed the solstice sunrise, marked by the solid red arrow.

📷: By Jlert Joseph Lertola / CC0

This event likely had spiritual significance, but it could have also had a practical purpose.

Stonehenge may have served as a calendar, helping people count the days, weeks, and months of the year. The solstice shining through on the correct day confirms you counted right.

The proposed calendar works in a very straightforward way. Each of the stones in the sarsen circle is a day in a 30-day month, itself divided into three weeks of 10 days (decans). Distinctive stones mark the start of each week.

📷: The sarsens, with calendar bits labelled.

If you want to find out more, the original research is #OpenAccess:

'Keeping time at Stonehenge' - Timothy Darvill
doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2…

Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.

A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.

Keep scrolling