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Stonehenge has aligned with the sunlight on thesolsticesfor thousands of year , but is it potential that it also aligns with the moonlight ? A once - in - a - generation result , roll in the hay as a " major lunar standstill " is now underway , and scientist are ready to investigate whether ancient people construct the monument to align with our raw satellite .
A major lunar standstill occurs every 18.6 years , when the moonshine rises and sets at a more northern and southward home along the horizon than usual , according to astatementfrom the Royal Astronomical Society . What ’s more , from our linear perspective on Earth , the moon will reachhigher altitudes in the sky than the summer sunand lower altitudes than the wintertime sun .
A new investigation will determine whether Stonehenge has a link to the moon at the “major lunar standstill."
This unique moonshine oscillation is taking post this twelvemonth and into 2025 . " It ’s a recollective cycle . archeologist have n’t had that many chance to canvas it [ at Stonehenge],“Jennifer Wexler , fourth-year place historiographer with a strong suit in prehistoric sites at English Heritage , an organization that oversees historic site in England , tell Live Science .
Related : Was Stonehenge an ancient calendar ? A Modern study says no .
Stonehengehas endure through many phase of building and rebuilding , starting in about 3000 B.C. with the building of a big , circular ditch that had an inner and outer money box and two entranceway . On the inner circle within this repository , archaeologists have found 56 pits , dubbed Aubrey Holes for John Aubrey , a seventeenth - century antiquarian who first described them . It ’s possible the Aubrey Holes once hold in upright timber or Harlan Fisk Stone . But somehold cremation interment , as do other locations within Stonehenge . Strangely , many of the cremations are ground in the southeast part of Stonehenge , near three pits that probably once held timber Wiley Post , and which appear to ordinate with the southerly moonrise of a major lunar dead end .
It appears that these southeastern burials , both in the Aubrey Holes and around them , stay meaningful , because in about 2500 B.C. , when the famous prominent Edward Durell Stone were ab initio place , ancient detergent builder put down the so - called four Station Stones in this situation . The long axis vertebra of the rectangle these stones form may align with the most southwards rising point of the moon , allot to the assertion .
" Stonehenge ’s architectural connection to the Sun is well known , but its link with the Moon is less well understood,“Clive Ruggles , professor emeritus of archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester , pronounce in the statement . " The four Station Stones align with the Moon ’s extreme positions , and researchers have debated for years whether this was deliberate , and — if so — how this was achieved and what might have been its purpose . "
Ancient multitude may have viewed the major lunar standstill as a sacred prison term , as they " would have been so much more aware of the sky than we are now , " Wexler said . " These multitude also would have also been early Fannie Farmer , so empathize these cycle per second would have been extremely important to them . "
Perhaps the great unwashed told their children or grandchildren about the moonlight ’s unique placement , she said . " It might have been part of the ancestral connection to Stonehenge as a station . "
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During observations of the major lunar deadlock at Stonehenge , researchers with Historic England , Oxford , Leicester and Bournemouth universities and the Royal Astronomical Society will analyze dissimilar aspects at the site .
" We want to understand something of what it was like to experience these extreme Moonrises and sets,“Amanda Chadburn , an archaeologist at the University of Oxford ’s Kellogg College , said in the statement , " and to find their ocular effects on the stones ( for example , patterns of brightness and shadow ) , and debate modern influences like dealings and trees , and to document all of this through photography for future discipline . "
Through 2024 , the public is invited to Stonehenge for various event , include apop - up planetarium , lectures and an online - onlylivestreamof the southernmost moonrise at Stonehenge in June . The researchers are also collaborating with a team at Chimney Rock , Colorado , the site of a Chacoan settlement that may also align with the synodic month during the major lunar standstill .
