Several newly discovered megalithic sites in England reflect an arrangement similar to that of the famous ancient British site of Stonehenge, including its archaeoastronomical alignments. The alignments at these sites marking sunrise and sunset at the summer and winter solstices are naturally suggestive of sun worship, which can be found in many cultures globally dating back thousands of years.
For me it is obvious why the ancients would worship the sun, because when the sun comes up in the morning, it changes one's whole situation. Many of us live in relative comfort today, but imagine being around 5,000 years ago, when homes were not so cozy and comfy. You would be so happy to see and feel the sun in the morning, after a dark, cold and possibly dangerous night!
The video on the page linked below is quiet and unnarrated by a human voice, but to me it demonstrates simply this happy, enlightening time of the day when the sun - which is just about the most cosmic yet third-dimensional agency humans can imagine actually "cares" about them - brings its life-renewing light and warmth to the earth.
Nine recently discovered stone monuments in England predate Stonehenge but share similar construction and alignment with the famous megaliths.
THE GIST:
* Nine megaliths in England share similar construction and alignment with Stonehenge.
* These monuments all mark the rising of the midsummer sun and the setting of midwinter sun.
* Burials and food remains found nearby suggest death-related rituals may have been held at the standing stones....
The Dartmoor megaliths, which were recently carbon-dated to around 3500 B.C., could predate Stonehenge, but both sites feature large standing stones that are aligned to mark the rising of the midsummer sun and the setting of the midwinter sun....
The ancient Brits were not necessarily sun worshippers, however. ...
Pitts believes the "solstice alignment phenomenon perhaps has something to do with death."
As he explains the setting sun and shorter days of winter would have represented the passage into the darkness of the underworld, and the reverse as the days start to lengthen again.
"At Stonehenge," he continued, "the dark navy-colored bluestones may themselves represent ancestors or spirits from the underworld, while the big orangey-pink (before weathering) sarsens could reflect summer and light."...
While the ancient Brits may not necessarily have been sun worshippers, it is likely that some of them were at various points and for long periods of time, for the very reasons given above. The astrotheology of these sites is clearly reflected in the fact that they are astronomically aligned and quite likely served as temples or sacred spaces.
Further Reading
The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar
Astrotheology of the Ancients
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|2010-04-12 16:47:11 manu - interestingim mcufre at hotmail send me an email id like to ask you a couple of things.
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|2010-04-12 09:12:51 Imsofrickinmad - Specious reasoning
The link between astronomical observance and worship is specious at best. There are a plethora of alternatives not mentioned, including but not limited to, agricultural efficiency, seasonal laws (ie duck season for example), maybe they were not worshiping at all but cowering from it's power using these days as significant dates in the flux of said power.
Looking to the future, using the methodology you use here, future archeologists will be able to conjecture that we worship some cuboid god figure. As each home seems to have a ritually important cuboid sculpture in prominent position inside their house. Huge temples of iron are constructed hoping to connect with the celestial cuboid.
Yes, TV is important in many peoples lives but I hope for one that no one ever tries to connect it to worship.
For what it is worth, I believe that the ancient Britons were Moon and Water worshipers. I doubt that statement will find support here though, seems the dots have already been connected.
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|2010-04-12 15:07:59 Acharya SIf you have studied the history of religion dating back many thousands of years, you will find plenty of evidence that demonstrates the link between ASTRONOMICALLY ALIGNED SACRED SITES and "sun worship" or, more broadly, astrotheology. The theory, therefore, is sound, logical and reasonable, not "specious at best."
Again, these are astronomically aligned sacred sites we're discussing. And we have a huge tradition of astrotheological religion that is clearly related to such sites, such as in Egypt and Babylon.
There is certainly no reason at all to become "so frickin' mad" at such a contention.
In order to maintain the perspective of separation between these astronomically aligned sacred sites and astrotheology, we must be ignorant of this massive body of knowledge dating back many thousands of years - and, unfortunately, it is clear from such reactions that most people are ignorant of this fascinating and vitally important information.
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|2010-04-12 12:26:10 Amy - This is really cool stuff!
It does show a universal connection with astrotheology and of course humans being so reliant on the natural world all around them, makes sense. Pre-historic calendars, is what comes to my mind. lol
Good stuff!
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It has been long established in Wales that Stonehendge was part of a huge observatory to worship and celebrate the sun and the moon, Scientists remain closed about the ancient britains because of the Roman empires obliteration of any kind of documentation on the subject and the stories are verbally handed down to those who would help, and to those who would take part in those ceremonies. An ancient tribe in South Wales that carved and transported the blue stones was central in the key to celebrating the rituals for the sun and moon. The Gower is littered with sites if only people would look.
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|2010-04-12 15:55:48 PennyQuote:ericswan "Where is the evidence that this is a form of worship?"
When one actually looks into it there's a mountain of evidence as Acharya explained in her post above.
National Geographic's "Nebra Sky Disc"
National Geographic's "Ancient Astronomers"
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|2010-04-12 16:53:32 Harv Howard - Sun worship in early BritianIt always amazes me how quick "experts" are to decree stoneworks are evidence of sun worshipers rather than evidence of keys for the understanding of the natural Universe right under out feet.
Once early man started switching from hunting to farming--as we must imaging on the ancient rollings plains of england, then crucial information in hard and fast stoneworks would have been theire pertetual timetables for the seasons.
We assume that the sun's angles, etc. were well known BEFORE the stone edifices were built. I say, the evidence shows just the reverse: Best to imagine that those works were given before the local population had the slightest knowledge of how the heavens worked. From there the learned to plant and two figure out how it all worked together as one unit.
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A soldier in a large army does not get his orders from the general. He interacts with the sergeant who is the lowest representative of the powers that be. Similarly, we have a sergeant representing the Father God of the multiverse, and it is the Sun of our solar system. Mother God is represented by her local representative Mother Earth, the Goddess of pagans. We can pray to one, or the other, or both, it does not matter.
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|2010-04-12 19:35:08 PeteQuote:Harv Howard said "It always amazes me how quick "experts" are to decree stoneworks are evidence of sun worshipers rather than evidence of keys for the understanding of the natural Universe right under out feet."
Why must it be either or? Why can't it be both, rather than mutually exclusive? Astrotheology is how we ended up with solar and lunar calendars. We have Adam's calendar which is around 75,000 years old.
Archaeoastronomy worldwide demonstrates that stone monuments built by the ancients often mark alignments of celestial events such as the solstices, equinoxes and much more. They also performed many religious rituals celebrating these events.
Quote:"At Stonehenge in England and Carnac in France, in Egypt and Yucatan, across the whole face of the earth are found mysterious ruins of ancient monuments, monuments with astronomical significance. These relics of other times are as accessible as the American Midwest and as remote as the jungles of Guatemala. Some of them were built according to celestial alignments; others were actually precision astronomical observatories... Careful observation of the celestial rhythms was compellingly important to early peoples, and their expertise, in some respects, was not equaled in Europe until three thousand years later."
- Dr. Edwin Krupp, Astronomer and Director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles
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|2010-04-13 16:11:32 imsofrickinmadHmm, seems the quote and reply links don't work here on my end but regardless:
"There is certainly no reason at all to become "so frickin' mad" at such a contention."
Here is another example of why I say your reasoning is specious. You see my monicker and reason mad= angry and further to this, anger directed at you. Well, incorrect. This is MY monicker, I've used for many years. Mad as in a hatter not hopping mad. Thank you for this self illustrated point.
I still contend that not one piece of evidence has been shown to indicate that THIS site is a site of worship. Astronomically important, undoubtedly. Burials at the site, well they need to be quantified in terms of date, style of death and reviewed for other commonalities before one can claim worship.
Worship is indicative of process, ritual and ceremony. Right now we just have an ancient dead body puzzle at a monument site.
"In order to maintain the perspective of separation between these astronomically aligned sacred sites and astrotheology, we must be ignorant of this massive body of knowledge dating back many thousands of years - and, unfortunately, it is clear from such reactions that most people are ignorant of this fascinating and vitally important information."
"Massive bodies of knowledge" are not facts, nor truths. You claim so far from my observation purely conjecture. Your above statement truly smacks of hype. For the separation exists as links need to be more tangible than solar alignment or symbolic, there must be tangible ritual commonality. The sun is shared by the whole planet, it's importance is without dispute. It is,however, very disputable that x people worship y god as they have created a structure to monitor/ observe a global occurrence. On my wall in my house I have a Cambodian tapestry, thus I have been to Cambodia. Yes? Sorry to report that to this date these feet of mine have never ventured to that lovely part of the world despite my desires.
Your article though interesting lacks credibility in your claims, furnish me the proof, not just design a connect the dots across the globe.
So there is no mistake I close using a more specific monicker:
From: I'm just a silly boy, but not so silly to believe this just yet.
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|2010-04-13 18:55:50 Acharya SYou may wish to study the subject further. I'm afraid I do not have time to spoonfeed you the massive amount of EVIDENCE about ancient astrotheological worship that would certainly lead a wise and knowledgeable person to make such observations as to the purpose of any astronomically aligned sacred site.
Again, such observations are logical, rational, sound and scientific - in fact, not to raise them would be an egregious lack of scholarship.
First though, I would like to take us to a time before this...to another article just released. Seems that the history of mankind's emergence from primate took a wild turn recently.
We are NOT "out of Africa" as was drilled into us the last 30-40 years. Seems on Crete, they have discovered remains of tools made by Homo Erectus. Over 100,000 years old. These were the primates that preceded Neandertal man. The common ancestor of both Neandertals and modern humans (homo sapien sapien). In other words, it is looking more and more like some archaic PRIMATE left Africa, spread throughout the entore world THEN evolved into Erectus, THEN Neandertal THEN Sapien Sapien. Living side by side for tens of thousands of years.
Um, these ancient primates to Crete on boats. But even more interesting, is that the scientists have now discovered the remains found in Indonesia on the island of Flores, are the remains of a small archaic human...that lived up to 17,000 years ago, or even more recently.
And THESE primates preceded Erectus in the evolutionary chain. And, THEY took boats to Indonesia.
Sooooo, we now have the odd historical "record" and the "experts" that haven't adjusted their timelines yet, insisting that ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, persians, et all, were too " ignorant, undeveloped, lacking of the technology" to have explored our entire world...while scientific PROOF now shows so-called "archaic" PRIMATES SAILED THE SEAS. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of years ago.
Back to this article: For those like me that get indigestion from listening to the same old experts get it wrong over and over and over, I suggest taking an hour of your life, and reading "Stars, Stones and Scholars" by Andis Kaulins. (www.stonesstarsscholars.com)
Learn about the history of the exploration of this world by a group of Earth Explorers (Argonauts to be exact), that completely mapped and set stone megaliths throughout the entire planet. Learn about the "cupmarks" found on all megaliths the so-called experts can't seem to decipher (they are star maps).
Learn about a cave in Wales....where relics 10,000 years old from Africa were found, along with astrological charts written on the walls. Learn about how many of the boundaries in Europe reflect the ancient skies ("on Earth, as it is in Heaven." Guess what? There is a map of Africa drawn on the walls of this cave. With a mark showing the center of the continent. And when the author traveled to this part of Africa, deep in the heart of Africa, what do you think he found?
Stone Megaliths.
Merlin. A Mer Line? A standard of Measurement? Related to the VIKING PHAROAH Narmer? Also known as Akkad King Naram Sin?
"Merlin" was an historical person. Not the "wizard" of the fables....but none the less one of the most important geniuses of the early modern human race.
Here kiddies: http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi102.htm
Read closely. Real closely. It even has a picture for ya to gaze upon, from a stone carving in the Louvre, of our VIKING PHAROAH. READ IT ALL CAREFULLY.
Gee, were the ancient people of the British Isles "sun worshipers"? Is water wet?
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