By Tim Binnall
A new Stonehenge study seemingly confirms the longstanding theory that the famed megalithic site once served as a solar calendar for its ancient creators. Archaeologist Timothy Darvill of Britain's Bournemouth University conducted the potentially revelatory research, which was presented in a paper published earlier this week by the journal Antiquity. In a press release detailing the study's findings, he noted that "the clear solstitial alignment of Stonehenge" sparked theories that it was some kind of calendar "since the antiquarian William Stukeley," who exhaustively studied the monument in the 1720s. However, how exactly it functioned has remained a mystery that may have finally been solved.
Darvill explained that his research was informed by a recent study which determined that the site's iconic stones all originated from the same location and were assembled around 2500 BC. The archaeologist indicated that they had a collective purpose and, when compared to other solar calendars from that period, the layout was remarkably similar. "The proposed calendar works in a very straightforward way," Darvill said, "each of the 30 stones in the sarsen circle represents a day within a month, itself divided into three weeks each of 10 days." In order to form a complete solar year, he noted, the 'time piece' includes an intercalary month consisting of five days which are represented by the capped stone structures, known as Trilithons, found at the center of the site.
Although the solar calendar's 10-day-per-week method of keeping time is decidedly different from the configuration used today, Darvill observed that it was, in fact, "developed in the eastern Mediterranean in the centuries after 3000 BC and was adopted in Egypt as the Civil Calendar around 2700 and was widely used at the start of the Old Kingdom about 2600 BC." As such, he theorizes that this process for solar timekeeping may have been derived from those cultures and subsequently spread to England around 2500 BC when the famed monument was built. While Darvill's analysis is certainly compelling, since the creators of Stonehenge aren't here to confirm it, we'll keep holding onto hope that the site had something to do with aliens.