Ancient Solar Astronomy

By Arvind Bhatnagar
From “Fundamentals of Solar Astronomy”


Mythologies about the Sun
Among cultures of antiquity, the Sun has always occupied a central position. It caught the imagination of early man because the Sun gave him warmth, light, life, and acted as his clock. Because of this, he made the Sun his god and goddess, and worshipped it. Even today, in modern times, the Sun is worshipped in many countries and religions. Number of temples dedicated to the Sun god had been built. Many of the great cities of the ancient world were known as "The City of the Sun", such as Baalbec, Rhodes, and Heliopolis. More then just cult centers, scientists and astronomers of the day who lived in these cities studied the Sun, moon and planets, in an effort to devise accurate calendar systems. What are the folklore and mythological stories about our Sun from these civilizations? It is of interest to note that many of these stories originated at different times in history, and in far off places, yet they still possess meaning to us.

In Early Europe
In early Europe generally the Sun was considered as a male god, but among the Indo-Europeans it was a female goddess, and the Moon was a male god. In German, and Gaelic languages the word for Sun is still female. In many other languages a common solar association is still reflected, for example: in Sanskrit, the Sun is called 'Surya' and Savitra or Savita, in Gaul 'Sulis', in Lithuanian 'Saule', and in Latin and German 'Sol'. In addition, in Sanskrit the solar year is called 'Sama', which is similar in modern English to the word 'summer', and Celtic words such as 'Sarnhain' mean summer's end. Commonality is found in the names of the Sun among various cultures.

Norse
Europe has a long history with celestial deities. It was, in fact, named after the goddess Europa. Long ago a tribe known as Teutons colonized Europe or what is now called the European countries. Teuton people stemmed from an even older people known to us as Indo-Europeans. Early Teutons believed in a Sun goddess, Sol, and a Moon god Mani. Today in the German language, Sun is addressed as Die Some, a female noun, and the Moon as Der Mond, male. Like the dawn goddesses of the Greeks, Hindus and Egyptians, the early Germans propitiated a dawn goddess known as Ostara, or Eoster. It is this goddess from which the Christians incorporated a ceremony known as Easter, and her season, lencten in Anglo-Saxon, or literally "spring", became the Christian "Lent", leading to the Easter holiday. This reasoning leads to the medieval belief that the Sun "danced" on Easter day. Yet Eoster's most dominant symbol remains the 'egg', which symbolizes birth and renewal. Celestial knowledge of the Norse is seeped in symbols and myth. For thousands of years, the most sacred and important symbol was the 'Wheel of the Year', represented by a 6 or 8 spoke wheel, or by a solar cross within a wheel.

Such wheels are depicted on the famed silver cauldron of Gundestrup, which shows a horned deity touching a wheel. The Norse people, who lived in what is now known as Yorkshire, often cut out a solar wheel and placed it on the tops of mounds, inserting a pole or pillar to make a solar compass or a sundial. As in many other ancient cultures, the solstices played a key role in their lives, customs, and religious traditions. Solstices refer to the most northern and southern positions of the Sun in the sky. The modern word "solstice" stems from the Latin "sol stetit", or literally meaning that the "Sun stands still", and the official modem name of the Sun. Sol also finds it's origins in Latin, where sol is a feminine noun meaning 'Sun'.

Norse people devised their calendar taking into consideration the midsummer solstice. Among the Norse, the god Balder is the most closely associated with the solstices. In a myth that explains the actions of the midsummer and midwinter Sun, Balder, the son of the god Odin, was said to die at the hands of his evil brother who, wielded a mistletoe stake each summer solstice. He was reborn at the winter solstice, or what is still known in Germany as Mother Night (the 'mother' in question being the goddess who brings the new born Sun back into existence).

There are a large number of Norse myths about the Sun. In the epic of Sigmund, also known as Sigurd or Siefried, the Sun's magic sword is named Balmung, which means 'Sun beam'. In this tale, the hero comes across a valkrie surrounded in a ring of fire. It is a lovely Brunhild, who symbolizes a dawn maiden. The Saxon god, Saxnot (sax-sword) also had a magic sword, and one was said to have hung in his temple in such a way as to reflect the dawn's first light. Even Odin was associated with the Sun. The tale explains that Odin, in search of wisdom, once went to the well of Mimir (memory) to drink deeply and gain knowledge in the process. The guardian of the well asked one eye as a price for the act. Odin plucked the eye and threw it into the well where it became the Sun.

Presently in Scandinavia, on the eve of the summer solstice, thousands of people flock to the hillsides to light bonfires and to watch the Sun set, following a tradition started in the dawn of time. Though originally a tribute to the Sun, the event has since been assimilated by the Christians and transferred to honor St. John. Another notable, and still living midsummer tradition is the construction of large wheels made of wood or straw which are set on fire and rolled down hills to represent the Sun's journey toward the winter.

England/Ireland/Scotland
Norse tribes such as the Angles, Saxons, and native people of areas such as the Celts and Picts, invaded and influenced the English-Scottish people. This explains the Irish name for the Sun goddess Grian, a female noun. It indicates a close relationship with the Celts culture and their Indo-European descendents. The Irish concept of the 'solar cross' was prevalent and the 'central mound cosmology' was considered sacred centers known as 'Tara'.

They were constructed in such a way that from a central station extended four divisions or provinces. On holidays such as 'Samhain' (meaning Sun's end), to mark the end of summer, large bonfires were lit in these sacred centers, Tara, on the tops of mounds across the countryside. Another Irish deity is the spring goddess, 'Bride' (bright), who has much in common with the Norse's Ostara. A special temple complex in Kildare, originally known as Cill Dara, was dedicated in her honor. In this temple there was a circular building with an eternal flame burning in it, stoked with sacred oak wood. A holiday in her honor on February 2, known as Imbolc is often associated with the fertility of sheep. However the most important aspect of Bride's reign is the New Year's returning Sun. To mark this event, the modern day Catholic nuns admirably absorbed not only the goddess and her shrine, but follow also the old customs. Once a year, followers of St. Bride still go to the spiritual center where they circle a central pillar with a candle, visibly reenacting the yearly journey of the Sun. There is another Irish Sun goddess, Aine. In her honor there was an annual festival on each summer solstice day. The legend says that Aine had the ability to transform into a horse, perhaps referring to an ancient memory of the 'horse fetter', the Analemma of the Sun. Lugh, a Celtic Sun god, was said to be honored each year at the harvest festival of Lughnasad. His temple site gave a name to what is today called London.

In many Irish passage graves, carvings of the Sun's symbol are seen which support the idea that the ancient Irish associated the dead with the Sun. A multitude of other structures, such as megaliths, stone circles, graves and religious sites, seem to be aligned with solar events, for example with solstices and equinoxes. The famous passage grave is at Newgrange. Liarnh Greine, or 'The Cave of the Sun', is aligned such that on the winter solstice day a beam of sunlight at dawn illuminates the inside of the structure for approximately 17 minutes. Such associations have given rise to modem day superstitions in Ireland that those carrying the deceased past a graveyard, or sometimes a standing stone, had to circle it 'sun-wise' (clockwise) two or there times to avert ill. Otherwise a sunbeam falling on someone at a funeral would foretell of his or her death!

In 17th century Scotland there was a very similar concept of tying life with the Sun. When a child was born, a ceremony called 'saining' was done. An attendant would carry a candle sun-wise around both the mother and baby. Like most other pagan customs, Christianity later absorbed this and the meaning converted from receiving a blessing by the Sun to warding off the devil. In Gaelic we also find the source of the modem day word used by Wiccans when casting a circle. 'Deosil', which means 'sun-wise ', meant to walk in the clockwise direction of the Sun.

To this day pagans are still tracing the Sun's path. Owing to its diverse history, not much is found in England of ancient pagan sites, culture, and traditions. The Romans left behind some sites, however, such as the Chanctonbury Ring, called 'Mother Goring' by the locals. Archaeologists believe that this site is actually the remains of a Romano- British temple, and the rituals are re-enactment of the hero's quest around the celestial circle and the final victory of reaching the Sun. In Dorset, Ceme Abbas, a giant-Sun deity is carved on a hillside. Some say it is the Saxon god - Heil, Hayle, or Helis, equivalent to the Greek Helios and the Norse Hel. St. Michael's Mont in Comwall was originally called Dinsul, meaning, 'mount of the Sun'. The mountain is an island, and legend has it that it is the sole remnant of a lost culture called Lyonesse, which many associate with the Celtic Isle of Avalon, or the Norse Surnrnerland. Comwall has a large number of such historic sites, including the standing stone called the Men-an-Tol, a large circular stone with a central hole. It retains the tradition that to gain health, one must crawl through the hole towards the Sun! At the stone circle Long Meg and Her Daughters, there is an alignment to the winter solstice sunset, and the site of Castlerigg aligns to both the midsummer sunset and February 1, the ancient Imbolc.

Major Ancient Solar Observing Sites
As man evolved through time, he started looking at the Sun and its movement across the sky during the day, weeks, months and year, and discovered that the movement and position of the Sun is related to many phenomena around him. He watched the Sun rise daily in the east and set in the west, he noticed that the Sun does not rise or set at the same place in the horizon, but seems to shift its position from day to day, during the year. Perhaps he also discovered that its position in the sky repeats after about 365 days. Sometimes the Sun appeared quite high towards the north side and sometimes in the south. These positions of the Sun coincided with the seasons. When the Sun was towards the north, it was summer (in the northern hemisphere), quite warm even hot, but when it was towards the south side it was winter, quite cold. As man developed agriculture, it required tiling of fields, sowing and harvesting of crops etc., and he soon realized that the Sun has a profound influence on agriculture and on his daily needs. Thus the early man put the Sun at a pedestal and considered it as his god or goddess and coined folklore and stories to explain many unexplained phenomena. As the Sun was so important for him, he started making observations of the Sun so that he could keep a watch on its movement during the day, during the year, and also help him to make predictions on its position and solar events that may occur in time. For this purpose, he either constructed equipment suitable at that time, or used the natural configurations of rocks, buildings etc., to keep track of the Sun. Let us now take a look at ancient observatories or observing sites built and used by various civilizations around the world, beginning from the early Neolithic period to almost the eighteenth century AD.

The Stonehenge
Perhaps the earliest observatory or site for observing the Sun was built around 2950 - 2900 BC, in the Middle Neolithic period on the Salisbury Plain in southern England. It is now known as Stonehenge. In the 1940s and 1950s, Richard Atkinson indicated that the Stonehenge was built over period of many centuries and had three distinct phases of development. The first and the oldest phase was Stonehenge I, dating back to 2950 - 2900 BC, then followed the Stonehenge I1 period dating from 2900 to 2400 BC, and the third was the Stonehenge 111 phase from 2550 to 1600 BC. The earliest portion of the complex was built during Phase I. It consists of a circular bank, or ditch, and a counter-scarp bank of about 100 meters in diameter. Just inside the earthen bank is a circle of 56 'Aubrey' holes.

After 2900 BC and for the next 500 years and until 2400 BC, during the Phase 11, the Aubrey post-holes were perhaps used as indicated by the timber settings in the centre of the monument and at the north-eastern entrance. However, the Aubrey holes no longer hold posts and are partially filled. The numerous post-holes around the monument indicate that timber was used for the structures, but no clear patterns or configurations are discernible that would suggest their shape or form. Perhaps these were used for sighting celestial objects.

During the Phase 111 period, from 2550 to 1600 BC, the monument underwent a complicated sequence of settings with large stones. The first stone setting was comprised of a series of Bluestones placed in what are known as the Q and R holes. This originally had set of 30 stones but now has only 17. These are neatly trimmed upright sets of massive sandstones blocks, each weighing more than 25 tons. These stones form a circle of more than 33 m in diameter and 4 m in height. They form two horseshoe shaped patterns. Some of the pairs of stones have massive stone lintels, raised four meters above the ground.

Considering that many stones were brought from Marlborough Downs, some 32 km from the present site near the city of Salisbury,enormous work must have gone in building such huge structures. The question is for what purpose?

Around 1771 AD, it was realized that Stonehenge, in the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, was used to observe the Sun and to mark the time and day of the summer solstice (at present on June 21/22, when the Sun is in its northern-most position in the sky). When seen from the center of the Stonehenge circle, the Sun rose directly at a particular stone called the 'Heelstone', which is approximately 16 feet high (4.88 m) with another 4 feet (1.22 m) buried below the ground. One of its most misunderstood aspects, however, concerns this Heelstone. For decades it has been debated why it was so named. It is believed that the 'Heel' stone is a corruption of Welsh 'hayil', or Norse Hel, both of which mean Sun. Likewise in the English town of Helston, a stone once stood called the Hel Stone, though it has long since been removed. Alignment of the Sun with less prominent pairs of stones perhaps referred to the sunrise at other significant times of the year, such as the equinoxes, which fall 6 months before and after solstices.

Sir Norman Lockyer got interested in Stonehenge in the 1890s. He worked on the presumption that the midsummer Sun rose originally over the Heelstone at the time of its construction. He calculated back from the point where the Sun now rose at midsummer dawn (in 1901) precisely over the Heelstone, and thereby established the date Stonehenge might have been built. This turned out to around 1680 BC. However, Lockyer's calculations were flawed, because there were considerable error in his sightings and he used the wrong tables. His results are now usually dismissed. Later in 1950, Gerald Hawkins and Sir Fred Hoyle studied Stonehenge in great detail and proposed that besides being used as an observing site for astronomical sighting for solstices, it was also used to predict the solar and lunar eclipses. From these inferences it seems that the Neolithic people had a good knowledge of astronomy, including the movement of the Sun during the year and also of a calendar, which was required for the timing of agricultural, social and religious activities.

In Ireland at Newgrange
In Europe, indications of early solar observations came from the burial tombs and similar structures. In Ireland, there is a Megalithic passage tomb at Newgrange. This dates back to about 3200 BC. A 19-m long inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber with a corbelled roof that is surrounded by 97 kerb stones arranged in a circle. The direction of the entrance to the tomb is such that the passage and the chamber at Newgrange are illuminated by the winter solstice sunrise. At dawn, on solstice just after 9 am the Sun begins to rise across the Boyne Valley from Newgrange over a hill known as Red Mountain. For the following seventeen minutes, between 19 and 23 December, the sunbeam stretches into the narrow passage of Newgrange tomb and on into the central chamber. In Neolithic times it illuminated the rear stone of the central recess of the chamber. With simple stone technology, the Neolithic people captured a very significant astronomical and calendric moment. This tomb at Newgrange was precisely built so that at the time of winter solstice at sunrise, the first Sun's rays would strike the burial chamber at the end of the tomb. The timing and location of solstices and other astronomical events were important for the early Irish people for their day-to-day needs in agriculture, calendar, social and religious activities. Such burial chambers have been also found elsewhere in Ireland.

In Ancient Germany
In the December 2003 issue of the Scientific American magazine, Madhusree Mukerjee has shown that a vast shadowy circle of 75- meter wide has been also found in a flat field near Goseck, Germany. He suggests that this circle represents the remains of perhaps the world's oldest observatory, dating back 7,000 years. From an etched disk recovered at the site, archaeologists reason that the observatory was used by Neolithic and Bronze age people to measure the heavens. Originally it consisted of four concentric circles, a mound, a ditch and two wooden palisades. In the middle stood three sets of gates facing Southeast, Southwest and North. On the winter solstice day, someone at the center of the circles would see the Sun rise and set through the southern gates. Aerial surveys have identified 200-odd such circles scattered across Europe, but the Goseck structure is the oldest and best preserved of the 20 excavated thus far. This is now called the German Stonehenge; it precedes Stonehenge by at least two millennia.