A Recreation of Visual Engagement and the Revelation of World Views in Bronze Age Scotland

Abstract

It has already been empirically verified that for many Bronze Age monuments erected in Scotland between 1400-900 BC, there was a concerted effort on behalf of the builders to align their monuments to astronomical bodies on the horizon. It has also been found that there are two common sets of complex landscape and astronomical patternings, combining specific horizon qualities (like distance and elevation) with the rising and setting points of particular astronomical phenomena. However, it has only been very recently demonstrated by us that that the visible astronomical-landscape variables found at Bronze Age sites on the inner isles and mainland of western Scotland were first established nearly two millennia earlier, with the erection of the mooted first standing-stone 'great circles' in Britain: Callanish and Stenness of Scotland. In this paper we demonstrate the connection between all of these monuments and the large LN circles south of Scotland, namely those of Castlerigg and Swinside in Cumbria, England.

Origins of Standing Stone Astronomy in Britain: New quantitative techniques for the study of archaeoastronomy

“…These above findings, along with the examination of our 3D landscape reconstructions of each site, revealed that the sky and land are woven together to create a complex series of particular interactions at very particular times of the lunar and solar cycles (Higginbottom et al 2013). (Higginbottom et al 2013: 47-53;Higginbottom in preparation 'The world begins here, the world ends here: Mull' (GH3)).…”

“…This means that Callanish was built in very close chronological proximity to Stenness. This, and their similar structural elements relating to circularity and to the dead (Higginbottom in preparation, Connecting the Great Stone Circles of Scotland (GH1); Higginbottom et al 2013; Richards (a)…”

“…Through further re-analyses of Ruggles work, in particular through our 2D & 3D landscape reconstruction, we have transformed our perception of the locational value of such sites by generating horizon profiles for sites in the above regions numerically and graphically from digital elevation data (Higginbottom et al 2013). The 2D site horizon profiles contain information on distance, elevation and direction of the visible horizon viewed from the monuments and were used to test for the likelihood that the distribution of observed horizon declinations indicated by monument alignments for each region was consistent with a distribution of deliberate astronomical alignments rather than a distribution of random astronomical alignments (the latter being the null hypothesis).…”

“…It was to overcome all of these limits in the study of archaeoastronomy discussed above that Smith developed the Horizon software which we apply below (Smith 2013).…”

The Placing of Early Bronze Age Metalwork Deposits: New Evidence from Scotland

“…It soon became apparent that in this case the sun would appear from behind the Nevis range on the shortest day of the year. That can hardly have gone unnoticed when so many earlier prehistoric monuments were associated with the solar cycle (Ruggles 1999, chapter 8;Higginbottom et al 2015). It seemed much more than a coincidence that one of the largest assemblages of early metalwork should be related to the highest summit in the British Isles.…”