Fig. 62.—A “night-dial.”
Fig. 62.—A “night-dial.”
[119]Dawn of Astronomy, 1894, p. 343.[120]Jensen,Kosmologie der Babylonier, p. 147.[121]Dawn of Astronomy, p. 215.[122]Ibid., p. 214.
[119]Dawn of Astronomy, 1894, p. 343.
[120]Jensen,Kosmologie der Babylonier, p. 147.
[121]Dawn of Astronomy, p. 215.
[122]Ibid., p. 214.
I have given detailed evidence showing that the first circle builders in Britain worshipped the May-year sun, whether they brought it with them or not. This year was used in Babylon, Egypt, and afterwards in Greece. In the two former countries May was the harvest month, and thus became the chief month in the year. The dates were apt to vary with the local harvest time.
The earliest extant temple aligned to the sun at this festival seems to have been that of Ptah at Memphis, 5200B.C.I have already referred to this temple in relation to the clock-star observations carried on in it.
This approximate date of the building of the temple is obtained by the evidence afforded (1) by the associated clock-star (seep. 298), and (2) by the fact that the god Ptah represented the star Capella, since there is a Ptah temple at Thebes aligned on Capella at a later time, when by the processional movement it had been carried outside the solar limit. There was also a similar temple at Annu (Heliopolis, lat. N. 30° 10′), but it has disappeared. The light of the sun fell along the axis whenthe sun had the declination N. 11°, the Gregorian dates being April 18 and August 24.
Another May-year temple was that of Menu at Thebes, Az. N. 72° 30′ W. (lat. N. 25°; sun’s declination N. 15°; Gregorian date, May 1).
Larger planFig. 63.—Layard’s plan of the Palace of Sennacherib discovered in the mound of Kouyunjik. The temple axis, XXXVI., XXXIV., XXIX., XIX. (XXII. is on a lower level), faces the rising of the May sun.
Larger plan
Fig. 63.—Layard’s plan of the Palace of Sennacherib discovered in the mound of Kouyunjik. The temple axis, XXXVI., XXXIV., XXIX., XIX. (XXII. is on a lower level), faces the rising of the May sun.
As we have seen (p. 299), Spica had this declination in 3200B.C., and the coincidence may have been the reasonfor the erection, or, more probably, the restoration, of the temple,[123]especially as γ Draconis came into play as a new clock-star at the same date.
Larger planFig. 64.—Layard’s plan of the Mound at Nimrood showing its equinoctial orientation.
Larger plan
Fig. 64.—Layard’s plan of the Mound at Nimrood showing its equinoctial orientation.
The researches of Mr. Penrose in Greece have provided us with temples oriented to the May-year sun. I shall return to them afterwards, as they are later in time than the British monuments.
Larger mapFig. 65.—The Temples at Chichen Itza.
Larger map
Fig. 65.—The Temples at Chichen Itza.
The explorations of Sir H. Layard at Nineveh, lat. 36° N., have shown that the temple in Sennacherib’s palace, which may have been a restoration of a much older temple, was also oriented to the May sun.
It is a pity that our present-day archæologists do not more strictly follow the fine example set by Sir Henry Layard in his explorations of Kouyunjik. When he had unearthed Sennacherib’s palace (700B.C.) he was careful to give the astronomical and magnetic bearings of the buildings and of the temple which seemed to form the core of them. The bearing is Az. N. 68° 30′ E., giving the sun’s declination as N. 16°.
I am enabled by the kindness of Mr. John Murray to give copies of the plans which Sir H. Layard prepared of the excavations both at Kouyunjik and Nimrood, showing the careful orientation which enables us to claim Sennacherib’s temple as one consecrated to the May year, while at Nimrood (Babylon) the equinoctial worship was in vogue as at the pyramids.
In association with these plans of Layard’s, I give another by Mr. Maudslay of the as carefully oriented temples at Chichen Itza (N. lat. 20°) explored by him. In these temples, of unknown date and origin, the azimuths of two show that the May year was worshipped.[124]
In the first glimpses of the May year in Egypt we have dates from 5000B.C.It does not follow that it did not reach Great Britain before about 2000B.C.because monuments made their appearance about that time. It is clear, also, that with the possibilities of coastwise traffic as we have found it, it might as easily have reached Ireland by then; 2000B.C., therefore, is a probable date for the May worship to have reached Britain arguing on general principles; we now come to a detailed summary of the facts showing that it really reached Britain earlier.
Alignments in British monuments designed to mark the place of the sun’s rising or setting on the quarter-days of the May year have been found asfollows:—
I have already shown that it was the practice in ancient times for the astronomer-priests not only towatch the clock-stars during the night, but also other stars which rose or set about an hour before sunrise, to give warning of its approach on the days of the principal festivals.
Each clock-star, if it rose and set very near the north point, might be depended on to herald the sunrise ononeof the critical days of the year, but for the others other stars would require to be observed. This practice was fully employed in Britain.
—The following table gives the stars I have so far noted which were used as warners for the May festival.
It is convenient here to give a list of the May warning stars found by Mr. Penrose in Greece, as it shows that the same stars were observed for the same purpose.
The warning stars at Athens were the Pleiades for temples facing the east, and Antares for temples using the western horizon.
—Sunrise at the August festival was heralded by the rising of Arcturus, which, as we have seen, was also used as a clock-star. The alignments and dates given in the Arcturus table therefore hold good for August. At the Hurlers, where the hill over which Arcturus was observed fell away abruptly, we find Sirius supplanting Arcturus as the warning star for August in 1690B.C.
—So far I have discovered no evidence that any star was employed to herald the November sun. There may be two reasons for this. In the first place the November festival “Halloween” took place at sunsetand the sun itself could be watched, no heralding star being necessary.
Secondly, the atmospheric conditions which prevail in Britain during November would not be conducive to the making of stellar observationsat the horizon, and only risings or settings were observed with regard to the quarter-days.
—In the same way that Arcturus served the double purpose of clock-star and herald for the August sun, so did Capella serve to warn the February sun in addition to its use at night. The alignments and dates given in the Capella table will therefore hold good for its employment at the February quarter-day.
In Egypt generally, the solstitial worship followed that of the May and equinoctial years. The religion of Thothmes III. and the Rameses was in greatest vogue 2200-1500B.C.
We find little trace of it in Greece proper, though Mr. Penrose has traced it in Calabria and Pompeii, and in some of the islands.
The solstitial cult was born in Egypt; it is a child of the Nile-rise. I have shown in myDawn of Astronomythat the long series of temples connected with the solstice may have commenced about 3000B.C.; but for long it was a secondary cult; it was parochial until the twelfth dynasty, say 2300B.C.Egypt’s solstitial “golden age” may be given as 1700B.C., and her influence abroad was very great, so that much travel, “coastwise” and other, may be anticipated. It is for some centuries after the first date that the introduction of the solstitial worship into Britain may be anticipated. It, for instance, is quite probable that the pioneers of this worship should have reached Stonehenge in 2000B.C.
The solstitial alignments found by Mr. Penrose in Greece are asfollows:—
We find plentiful evidence that the worship of the solstitial sun such as was carried on in Egypt at Karnak and at other places[125]was introduced into Britain some time after the May-year worship was provided for in the monuments.
Although some of the alignments already discovered are in all probability solstitial, the variation of the sun’s solstitial declination is so slow and takes place between such narrow limits that a most careful determination of the actual azimuths and of the angular heights of the various horizons must be made before any definite conclusion as to dates can be arrived at. The necessity for this care is illustrated in the paper on Stonehenge[126]communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Penrose and myself in 1891, where, after taking the greatest precautions, the resulting date was in doubt to the amount of 200 years in either direction.
So far Stonehenge is the only temple at which these observations have been made, so that for the other alignments contained in the following list no dates can yet be given.
I cited an alignment at the Hurlers which marked the rising point of Betelgeuse. This star warned the summer solstice sunrise at about the Hurlers’ date. So far, however, I have not yet found any suggestion of its use elsewhere.
At Shovel Down and Challacombe on Dartmoor there are avenues pointing a few degrees west of north. The sight-lines along these avenues would mark the setting-point of Arcturus at the time that that star (setting) warned the rising of the sun at the summer solstice; but this use cannot be considered as established, as Arcturus would scarcely set before its light was drowned in that of the rising sun. The absence ofdarkness in high summer in these latitudes and the bad weather in the winter may both be responsible for so few alignments for the solstices.
The Equinoctial Year Monuments.
The equinoctial pyramid and Babylonian cult in vogue in Egypt in the early dynasties (4000B.C.), with the warning stars Aldebaran (March) and Vega (September), was represented in Greece at a much later period. The facts for Greece, according to Mr. Penrose, are asfollows:—
In Britain equinoctial alignments are not wanting, but so few have been traced that I have reserved them for future inquiry.
[123]SeeDawn of Astronomy, p. 318.[124]The temple conditions are approximately asfollows:—PALENQUE.Azimuths.Decl.N.21°30′E.60°15′}Stellar temples. Clock-stars.N.180E.6236S.270W.5617S.660E.230Solstice}Solar temples.S.730E.160MayCHICHEN ITZA.Azimuths.Decl.N.26°0′E.59°0′Stellar temple. Clock-star.S.700E.190(?)N.700W.190(?)N.670W.220Solstitial}Solar temples.N.7230160May[125]Dawn of Astronomy, p. 78.[126]Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. 69.
[123]SeeDawn of Astronomy, p. 318.
[124]The temple conditions are approximately asfollows:—
[125]Dawn of Astronomy, p. 78.
[126]Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. 69.
The facts contained in the preceding chapters have suggested, at all events, that whatever else went on some four thousand years ago in the British circles there was much astronomical observation and a great deal of preparation for it.
In a colony of the astronomer-priests who built and used the ancient temples we had ofnecessity:—
(1) Observatories,i.e., circles in the first place; next something to mark the sight-lines to the clock-star for night work, to the rising or setting of the warning stars, and to the places of sunrise and sunset at the chief festivals. This something, we have learned, might be another circle, a standing stone, a dolmen, a cove, or a holed stone.
A study of the sight-lines shows us that these collimation marks, as we may call them, were of set purpose, generally placed some distance away from the circles, so far that they would require to be illuminated in some way for the night and dawn observations. When there was no wind, one or more hollows in a stone, whether a menhir or a quoit, might have heldgrease to feed a wick or a pine-wood torch. But in a wind some shelter would be necessary, and the light might have been used in a cromlech or allée couverte. Stones have been found with such cups, and débris of fires have been found in cromlechs.
It must not be forgotten that here there was no oil as in the Semitic countries whence, as we have seen, the immigrants came; and it was not a question of a light on the sight-line alone. If wood were used, it must have been kept dry for use, and whether wood or animal fat were employed the most practical and convenient way of lighting up would have been to keep a fire ever burning in some sheltered place.
(2) Dwellings, which would be cromlechs or many-chambered barrows, according to the number of astronomer-priests at the station. These dwellings would require to be protected against the invasions of the local fauna, very different from what it is now, and for this a small, and on that account easily blocked, entrance would be an essential.
These dwellings would naturally suggest themselves as the shelter place for the ever-burning fire or the supply of dry wood. Tradition points with no uncertain sound to the former existence of life and light in these “hollow hills.” Mr. MacRitchie’s book[127]contains a mine of most valuable and interesting information on this subject.
(3) A water supply for drinking and bathing, which might be a spring, river or lake, according to the locality.
Given a supply of food we have now provided forthe shelter and protection of the astronomer and the man.
But the man who brought this new astronomical knowledge was, before he came, astrologer and magician as well, and, further, he was a priest; hence on account of his knowledge of the seasons, he could not only help the aboriginal tiller of the soil as he had never been helped before, by his knowledge; but he could appeal in the strongest way to his superstitious fears and feelings, by his function as the chief sacrificer and guardian of the sacrificial altars and fires. Hence it was that everything relating to the three different classes of things to which I have referred was regarded as very holy because they were closely associated with the astronomer-priests, on whom the early peoples depended for guidance in all things, not only of economic, but of religious, medical and superstitious value.
The perforated stones were regarded as sacred, so that passing through them was supposed to cure disease. Whether men and women, or children only, passed through the hole depended upon its size. But a hole large enough for a head to be inserted was good for head complaints.
The wells, rivers, and lakes used by the priests were, as holy places, also invested with curative properties, and offerings of garments (skins?), and pins to fasten them on, as well as bread and wine and cheese, were made at these places to the priests.
The fact that the tree on which the garment was hung was either a rowan or a thorn shows that these offerings commenced as early as the May-November worship.
The holed stones, besides being curative, were in longafter years, when marriage had been instituted, used for the interchange of marriage vows by clasping hands through the opening.
The cups for the light would also be sacred objects; and many of them have been since used for holy water.
The cursus at Stonehenge and the avenues on Dartmoor may be regarded as evidences that sacred processions formed part of the ceremonial on the holy days, but sacrifices and sacred ceremonials were not alone in question; many authors have told us that feasts, games and races were not forgotten. This, so far as racing is concerned, is proved, I think, by the facts that the cursus at Stonehenge is 10,000 feet long and 350 feet broad, that it occupies a valley between two hills, thus permitting of the presence of thousands of spectators, and that our horses are still decked in gaudy trappings on May Day.
Nor is this all. It is hard to understand some of the folklore and tradition unless we recognise that at a time before marriage was instituted, at some of the sacred festivals the intercourse of the sexes was permitted if not encouraged. This view is strengthened by the researches of Westermarck[128]and Rhys.[129]Given such a practice, the origin of matriarchal customs and of thecouvadeis at once explained; and it is clear that the charges against the Druids of special cruelty and impurity must be withdrawn. Their sacrifices and customs were those common to all priesthoods in the ancient world.
I have shown that some circles used in the worship of the May year were in operation 2200B.C., and that there was the introduction of a new cult about 1600B.C., or shortly afterwards, in southern Britain, so definite that the changes in the chief orientation lines in the stone circles can be traced.
To the worship of the sun in May, August, November and February was added a solstitial worship in June and December.
The associated phenomena are that the May-November Balder and Beltaine cult made much of the rowan and may thorn. The June-December cult brought the worship of the mistletoe.
The flowering of the rowan and thorntree in May, and their berries in early November, made them the most appropriate and striking floral accompaniments of the May and November worships, and the same ideas would point to a similar use of the mistletoe in June and December.
The fact that the June-December cult succeeded and largely replaced the May-November one could hardly have been put in a cryptic and poetic statement more happily than it appears in folklore: Balder was killed by mistletoe.
This change of cult may be due to the intrusion of a new tribe, but I am inclined to attribute it to a new view taken by the priests themselves due to a greater knowledge, among it being the determination, in Egypt, of the true length of the year which could be observed by the recurrence of the solstices, and of the intervals between the festivals reckoned in days.
However this may have been, all the old practicesand superstitions were retained, only the time of year at which they took place was changed. As the change of cult was slow, in any one locality the celebrations would be continued atbothtimes of the year, and for long both sets of holidays were retained.
Since I have shewn that the solstitial worship came last, traces of this, as a rule, would be most obvious in places where it eventually prevailed over the cult of the May year. In such places the absence of traces of the May festival would be no valid argument against its former prevalence. In other places, like Scotland, where the solstitial cult was apparently introduced late and was never prevalent, we should expect strong traces of the May worship, and, as a matter of fact, it is very evident in the folk lore and customs of Scotland; even the old May year quarter days are still maintained.
Between the years 2300B.C.and 1600B.C., whether we are dealing with the same race of immigrants or not, we pass from unhewn to worked stones. The method of this working and its results have been admirably shown to us by Prof. Gowland’s explorations at Stonehenge.
From the tables, given in Chap. XXVIII, it can be seen that, so far as the present evidence goes, there was a pretty definite time—about 2300B.C.—of beginning the astronomical work at the chief monuments; Cornwall came first, Dartmoor was next.
Almost as marked as the simultaneous beginning are the dates of ending the observations, if we may judge of the time of ending by the fact that the precessional changes in the star places were no longer marked by the marking out of new sight lines.
The clock-star work was the first to go, about 1500B.C.The May-warning stars followed pretty quickly.
We may say, then, that we have full evidence of astronomical activity of all kinds at the circles for a period of some 700 years.
What prevented its continuance on the old lines? It may have been that the invention of some other method of telling time by night had rendered the old methods of observation, and therefore the apparatus to carry them on, no longer necessary.
On the other hand, it may have been that some new race, less astronomically inclined, had swept over the land.
I am inclined to take the former view. It is quite certain that for the clock-stars other observations besides those on the horizon would soon have suggested themselves for determining the lapse of time during the night. The old, high, bleak, treeless moorlands might then in process of time have been gradually forsaken, and life may have gone on in valleys and even in sheltered woods, except on the chief festivals. When this was so astronomy and superstition would give way to politics and other new human interests, and the priests would become in a wider sense the leaders and the teachers of the more highly organised community.
It is clear that in later days as at the commencement they were still ahead in the knowledge of the time. “Hi terrae mundique magnitudinem et formam, motus coeli ac siderum, ac quod dii velunt sciere profitentur” is Pomponius Mela’s statement concerning them.[130]From 1500B.C.to Cæsar’s time is a long interval, and yetthe astronomical skill of the so-called Druids, who beyond all question were the descendants of our astronomical-priests, was then a matter of common repute. Cæsar’s account of the Druids in Gaul (Bello Gallico, vi. c. 13, 14, 15) is extremely interesting because it indicates, I think, that the Druid culture had not passed through Gaul and had therefore been waterborne to Britain, whither the Gauls therefore went to study it.[131]
Simultaneously with the non-use of the ancient stones, we may imagine that the priests—of ever-increasing importance—no longer dwelt in their cromlechs, but, rather, occupied such buildings as those which remain at Chysoister, and from this date it is possible that burials may have taken place in some of the mounds then given up as dwelling places. As sacred places they were subsequently used for burials, as Westminster Abbey has been; but burials were not the object of their erection.[132]This new habit may have started the practice of cist burial by later people in barrows thrown up for that special purpose.
I cannot close this Chapter without expressing my admiration of the learning and acumen displayed by Dr. Borlase in his treatment of the subject of the Druids in hisHistory of Cornwall, published in 1769; I find he has anticipated me in suggesting that the hollowedstones were used for fires. It is clear, now that the monuments have been dated, that the astronomical knowledge referred to by Cæsar and Pomponius Mela was no new importation; if, therefore, the present view of ethnologists that the Celtic intrusion took place about 1000B.C.is correct, it is certain the Celts brought no higher intelligence with them than was possessed by those whom they found here; nor is this to be expected if, as the inquiry has suggested, the latter were the representatives of the highest civilisation of the East with which possibly the former had never been brought into contact.