Moving Sunsets

Now if you're bored already, you'll be even more bored by the end of this one.

Back on Down Tor Stone Row of course and I mentioned last time a possible discussion point as to whether it would be the sun setting on the near ridge above the row or whether it would be the sun setting on the far horizon that mattered.

First though, why does it matter, or, more importantly, why did it matter some two and a half to three thousand years ago. Obviously, the clue's in the time period. No time pieces then. Not in the same sense. But people had to know when the time was right to do certain stuff, whether that was sowing crops, getting livestock in or anything else that was to any degree time-sensitive.

Although they couldn't have know precisely why - and I certainly couldn't explain why succinctly - they came to realise that the sun did not set at the same time or the same place as the year passed. At some point then, the inevitable clever sod worked out that the time and the place where the sun set moved back and forth through the year, setting earlier and further south in the Winter, and later and further north in the Summer. At two points in the year, the progress south or north was halted and reversed. So, to measure the course of the year, you needed to measure the position of the setting sun.

With all that in mind, here's what Google Maps has on Down Tor Stone Row. What's important here is the alignment of the stone row in combination with the bank that runs east and perpendicular to the row alignment. Now if, as the current theory goes, the setting sun on the Winter Solstice lines up with the row, that is the alignment at the most southerly point in the year, then why does the bank run on in a southerly direction.

We found out why today. Accompanied by Clover and Clover's Mum who wants to be known by her real name - Ros - we arrived at the row just as the sun was sinking below the line of the bank as seen from the eastern end of the stone row. And we found, partly in disappointment, partly in intrigue, that the point where it hit the ridge was in fact a good ten to twenty degrees south of the row alignment.

What does this mean?

Well firstly it means that the row wasn't aligned with the Winter Solstice. It might mean that it was aligned with sunset on the Summer Solstice, though I suspect that it might actually line up with the Spring and Autumn equinox. If that's the case, then the row is pretty cool, to use a modern idiom, or bloody clever, to give its proper assignation.

If the weather allows it, we should be able to get to a more accurate position this weekend and I'll also be able to give you proof in the form of a photo.

Now, back to the beginning of this piece for a moment. The question was whether it was the sun moving behind the close ridge - where the bank is - or whether it was the sun setting behind the far horizon that mattered. It was very clear today that, for the row in question, it was the closer ridge that was rel event. And in turn, this gives a good indication that the row was important for what it revealed about the seasons rather than for any ritual or ceremonial use. This is not to say that in later years, Solstice measurement did not attain a ritual or celebratory position in the calendar, but it does suggest strongly that the row was not explicitly religious or ritualistic in design.

For the ninety-eight percent of readers who just like the piccies, here's Ros, Clover and Jack from the other day.