A study by a team of archaeoastronomers are investigating the possible connection of the moon in influencing the Stonehenge builders.

According to a press statement by the Royal Astronomical Society, academics from Oxford, Leicester and Bournemouth universities, suggest that a major lunar standstill, a rare astronomical phenomenon, may have influenced the monument’s alignment.

A lunar standstill, also known as a lunistice, is when the Moon reaches its furthest north or furthest south point during the course of a month. A major lunar standstill is when the declination at lunar standstill varies in a cycle 18.6 years long between 18.134° (north or south) and 28.725° (north or south), due to lunar precession.

Professor Clive Ruggles, emeritus professor of archaeoastronomy at Leicester University, said: “Stonehenge’s architectural connection to the Sun is well known, but its link with the Moon is less well understood.

“The four Station Stones align with the Moon’s extreme positions, and researchers have debated for years whether this was deliberate, and – if so – how this was achieved and what might have been its purpose,” added Professor Ruggles.

The researchers plan to document Moonrises and sets at key moments in the year when the moon will be in alignment with the Station Stones. In addition, they plan to document the event and show the visual effect on the stones though light patterns and shadows.

It is believed that at least one major lunar standstill was marked during the early phases of construction at Stonehenge. This is evidenced in the cremated remains in the ditch and bank that now surrounds the stone circle, and in the Aubrey Holes – 56 pits. Many of the cremations are located in the south-eartern part in the direction of the most southerly rising position of the moon.

English Heritage, said: “The Station Stones may have been employed to help measure out the sarsen circle around 500 years after the site was first used for cremations, when the large sarsen circle was being built, suggesting a compelling and enduring connection between the lunar cycles and the architecture of Stonehenge.”

Header Image Credit : iStock

Sources : Royal Astronomical Society

This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily

Archaeologists are conducting a study of the Iron-Age metropolis of Tel Hazor to understand how one of the largest “megacities” of the Bronze Age was abandoned and then resettled.

Tel Hazor is located north of the Sea of Galilee in the northern Korazim Plateau, Israel. From the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age, Tel Hazor emerged as one of the largest fortified cities in the Fertile Crescent, which the Book of Joshua described as “the head of all those kingdoms”.

Various sources from this period, including letters and clay tablets from cities in Syria and Egypt, indicate that Tel Hazor was a major trading hub and cultural melting pot for the entire Near East region.

A new project, titled: “Resettlement of Ruins and Memories in the Making – A Case Study on Hazor and the Shaping of Early Israelite Identities during the Iron Age”, is being conducted by researchers from the University of Oldenburg in partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Regensburg.

Around 1300 BC during the Late Bronze Age (LBA), a major destruction event with extensive burning left the city abandoned. However, Tel Hazor was repopulated during the Iron Age on a reduced scale.

The project objective is to understand which culture repopulated the city and provide new insights into the transition at Tel Hazor from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age based on archaeological findings and references in biblical texts. The Book of Joshua from the Old Testament, for instance, describes how the Israelites conquered Hazor, which was inhabited by Canaanites at the time.

Researchers from the fields of archaeology, social and cultural history, anthropology and Hebrew biblical studies, plan to create a comprehensive overview of the cultural and ethnic transformations that took place in the area between the Euphrates and the Sinai Peninsula during the transition – and of how the identity of the early Israelites developed in the course of these upheavals.

A second objective is the literary-historical and cultural-historical reconstruction of the accounts of Hazor and the Canaanites within the biblical tradition, and an examination of how these narratives are linked to the biblical imagination of Israel as an early tribal culture.

Hebrew Bible scholar and archaeologist Prof. Dr Benedikt Hensel, said: “In the biblical narratives, Hazor is portrayed as the capital of the Canaanites. This image is for the most part artificial, but over the centuries during which the biblical texts were compiled it endured – even long after the settlement had been abandoned.”

“Hazor serves as a counter-image to the Israelites, shaping the identity of biblical Israel through literary means,” he observes. The project team is investigating the potential historical anchor points of these identity-building processes,” added Hensel.

Header Image Credit : Maryam Matta

Sources : University of Oldenburg – Resettlement processes and cultural transformation in an ancient megacity

This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily