The Phœnician origin of Britons, Scots & Anglo-Saxons : discovered by Phœnician & Sumerian inscriptions in Britain, by preroman Briton coins & a mass of new history : with over one hundred illustrations and maps
226 PHGSNICIAN ORIGIN OF BRITONS & SCOTS
in the year. So it was supposed that they were intended for observing and fixing officially this date in the calendar year, for economic as well as sacred purposes, as this date was one of the chief festivals in the Sun religion.1 On the other hand, a few archeologists are still of opinion that all the Stone Circles are essentially sepulchral,? although no traces of any ancient burial are found in the larger Circles.
The conflicting results obtained by different modern writers in attempting to estimate the exact orientation of these Circles, and the manner in which they were used by their erectors as solar observatories, is, owing to ignorance of the exact point from which the erectors made their observations, and also to different individual opinions as to what was the true centre of the circle, as most of the Circles are not perfectly circular. Hitherto the point of observation for taking the sight-line of the sunrise has been assumed to be the “centre’’ of the Circle. It is supposed that the observer stood at this centre, and looked along the axis to the N.E. indicated by the outlying stones or avenue, and that, when the rising sun was seen along this line, it fixed the required solstice date.
But I found by personal examination of many of those great Circles which are still more or less complete, such as at Stonehenge, Keswick, Penrith, etc., that the point of observation was not at the Centre of the Circle but at the opposite or S.W. border, where I found a marked Observation Stone in the same relative position as in all the greater Circles containing the S.W. Stone which I examined, and which has hitherto escaped the notice of previous observers.
This “ Observation Stone ’’ I first found at the fine Keswick Circle, which is locally called ‘‘ Castle Rigg,” or “ Castle of
1A. L. Lewis, Arch. Jour., 49, 136, etc., J. R. A. I., r900, etc. Sir N. Lockyer and others. Lockyer supplied some confirmatory solar observations in regard to Stonehenge and other Circles with outlying stones and avenues to N.E. (L.S., 62, etc., 153, 265, etc.) ; but he impaired his resuits by taking arbitrary lines and by introducing extravagant astronomical theories, supposing these Circles’ use to be for observing the rising of stars; and he, moreover, believed that the early Circles were intendedjfor the observations of May Day of an agricultural and not a solar year.
*Sir A. Evans, Arch@ol. Rev., 1889, 31, 3, etc. R. Holmes, R.A.B.,
476, 479, etc. °L.S., 58, 176, etc.; and similarly other writers.