Recumbent Stone Circles

Abstract

During the 1970s and early 1980s, British archaeoastronomers were striving to bridge the interpretative gulf between the “megalithic observatories” of Alexander Thom and an archaeological mainstream that, generally speaking, was hostile to any mention of astronomy in relation to the megalithic monuments of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain. The Scottish recumbent stone circles (RSCs) came to represent an example where sounder methodology could overcome many of the data selection issues that had beset earlier studies and, with due restraint, produce credible interpretations. Systematic studies of their orientations consistently concluded that the RSCs had a strong lunar connection, and it was widely envisaged that they were the setting for ceremonies associated with the appearance of the moon over the recumbent stone. Other evidence such as the presence of white quartz and the spatial distribution of cupmarks appeared to back up this conclusion. New archaeological investigations since 1999 have challenged and modified these conclusions, confirming in particular that the circles were built to enclose cairns rather than to demarcate open spaces. Yet the restricted pattern of orientations of these structures could only have been achieved by reference to the basic diurnal motions of the skies, and orientation in relation to simple observations of the midsummer moon remains the most likely reading of the alignment evidence taken as a whole. On the other hand, a consideration of the broader context, which includes the nearby Clava cairns, highlights instead the symbolic importance of the sun.