Stonehenge was NOT a giant calendar, scientists say trends now

Stonehenge was NOT a giant calendar, scientists say trends now
Stonehenge was NOT a giant calendar, scientists say trends now

Stonehenge was NOT a giant calendar, scientists say trends now

It's one of the world's most iconic historic sites and a British cultural icon, but it seems the debate over how and why Stonehenge was built around 5,000 years ago is far from over.

A new paper claims to 'debunk' the theory proposed last year that the Wilshire monument served as a solar calendar, helping people track the days of the year. 

The Italian and Spanish experts argue that this assertion is 'totally unsubstantiated' and based on 'forced interpretations, numerology and unsupported analogies'. 

The British researcher behind the theory thinks Stonehenge's great sandstone slabs, called sarsens, each represented a single day in a month, making the entire site a huge time-keeping device. 

He has hit back at the new criticism of his theory, calling it 'a classic piece of ranting without a conclusion' that's 'ill-informed' and 'picks away at the corners'. 

An academic study by Politecnico di Milano has 'debunked' a 2022 theory about the mysterious monument from the Neolithic period - but

An academic study by Politecnico di Milano has 'debunked' a 2022 theory about the mysterious monument from the Neolithic period - but 

Last year, a  British researcher said the design of Stonehenge represented a calendar, which enabled people to track a solar year of 365.25 days based on the alignment of the sun on the solstices. The large sarsens at the site appear to reflect a calendar with 12 months of 30 days

Last year, a  British researcher said the design of Stonehenge represented a calendar, which enabled people to track a solar year of 365.25 days based on the alignment of the sun on the solstices. The large sarsens at the site appear to reflect a calendar with 12 months of 30 days

The new paper was authored by Dr Giulio Magli of Politecnico di Milano and Professor Juan Antonio Belmonte of Universidad de La Laguna in Tenerife. 

'Stonehenge is an astonishingly complex monument, which can be understood only by taking into account its landscape and the chronology of its different phases along the centuries,' they say. 

'In a recent paper, the author has proposed that the project of the “sarsen” phase of Stonehenge was conceived in order to represent a calendar year of 365.25 days. 

'The aim of the present letter is to show that this idea is unsubstantiated, being based as it is on a series of forced interpretations, numerology, and unsupported analogies with other cultures.'

The calendar theory was proposed last year by Professor Timothy Darvill, who thinks Stonehenge would have let ancient locals track a solar year of 365.25 days calibrated by the alignment of the solstices, taking inspiration from ancient Egypt. 

Professor Darvill called the newly-published assessment 'a classic piece of ranting without a conclusion'. 

'Their main beef is not actually with my ideas but rather the consensus of Egyptologists who I cite in my original paper,' the British researcher told MailOnline. 

'It's easy to assert that someone is wrong, but what is their evidence? And how exactly do they interpret the arrangement of stones at Stonehenge?' 

For his study published in Antiquity a year ago, Professor Darvill analysed the numbers and positioning of Stonehenge's great sandstone slabs, called sarsens.

Sarsens form all 15 stones of Stonehenge's central horseshoe, the uprights and lintels of the outer circle, as well as outlying stones such as the Heel Stone, the Slaughter Stone and the Station Stones. 

This bird's-eye view of the 5,000-year-old monument in Salisbury, Wiltshire shows the trilithons in the centre of the site

This bird's-eye view of the 5,000-year-old monument in Salisbury, Wiltshire shows the trilithons in the centre of the site

According to Professor Darvill, the entire site was the physical representation of one month (lasting 30 days) and the 30 stones in the sarsen circle each represented one day within the month. This illustration shows the ring of 30 upright sarsen stones, numbered S1 to S30 in clockwise fashion

According to Professor Darvill, the entire site was the physical representation of one month (lasting 30 days) and the 30 stones in the sarsen circle each represented one day within the month. This illustration shows the ring of 30 upright sarsen stones, numbered S1 to S30 in

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