Henge corrals?

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PeterH P
PeterH Dec 18, 2005 22:11:30
Replying to FourWinds

I certainly accept that the apparent lack of consistent alignments does not prove that henges did not have a ritual purpose. The rituals may have had nothing to do with sun rises, sets or alignment to a hill etc.

Yet this further increases my unease when you say that the entrances to tombs face many different directions also. Could it be that we have been conditioned to see solar alignments where they do not exist simply because they do exist elsewhere. Perhaps the majority of henges and chambered tombs were built with entrances where convenient because sunrises and sunsets were of no importance to the builders. Clearly there are solar alignments that work and we can see that they do. Does that mean that all are aligned to stages of the solar cycle?

F FourWinds
FourWinds Dec 18, 2005 23:08:14
Replying to PeterH

>> Does that mean that all are aligned to stages of the solar cycle?

No it doesn't. I often think people look for solar/stellar alignments too quickly. From my experience there is as much, if not more, importance in how a site relates to the landscape and its features. We need to look at less obvious things.

This is something that was brought home to me on a visit to Malin More court tomb. There the winter solstice sun does not rise in any special place, but it does perform a prety spectacular trick at midday when it rolls across the top of a mountain to the south http://www.megalithomania.com/show/image/3736

However, the lack of a solar alignment at a handful of sites doesn't mean that the sites with identifiable alignments are coincidental. When one appears exist it probably does. The 'light box' at Newgrange and the one in Loughcrew are proof of that.

The variation in tomb alignment just goes to show that there was a diversity in belief/importance. There probably is no unified theory of ancient belief and it's probably folly to search for it, but that won't stop us looking for it :-)