Omaha daily bee., 1907-02-10
DkUlDS' CIRCLES EXPLAINED
nmspiscss Invented By Priests Of the Din
and Iiny Past
SIR NoRMM LOcMtFs DISCOVERIES
pun ana stars Used 70 Marx the
cslsndar-ReIision that spread
Thsusanas Of Years AEo
from Egypt to Britain.

living beyond the sources OF the north
wind" ruled by priests who worked m
carnations By means OF mistletoe cut with
golden knives and offered human sacrifices
on lonely stone affairs under the stars
Beyond this ths researches OF antiduarians
and students OF folk lore show that the
tradition OF these same Dyuids stiII sur
wives In remoter parts OF Great Britain.
as local superstitions and festivals, sacred
wells and. more than all. in peculiar rows
and circles OF roughly shaped stones. Such
blocks ars often Of gigantic size. while IT
is not uncommon for a pair Of stones. each
three times the height Of q man. to be
capped with another as large. neatly NOR
J tised in place.
The great circle at stonehsngs Is 100
feet 4cross. One OF the avenues at Dart
moor Is more than 1000 feet in length.
Such monuments Of a vanished faith occur
all over the British Isles from Cornwall to
| the orkneys.
Oddly enough, II turns out that the most
important OF recent contributions to the
/ knowledge OF these mysterious priests and
| their temples has been made, not by an
archaeologist. but by an astronomer-Sir
| Norman LOclSyer. For twenty years and
more Lockyer has been studying ancient
temples and other buildings, In Egypt and
Greece as well as nearer home, endeavor-
/ ing to make out their precise use as astrO-
nomical observatories.
! II has long been known that ancient
! priests have generally been astronomers
as we'll It has been known also in gem
eral way that most ancient temples have
been placed to. look toward the rising or
/ setting point 81 some particular heavenly
body. In fact, early peoples are prone to
| worship the host OF heaven" and many
early religious cults are based on the adora-
ton Of some particular star.
| 1t is. however, a new thing for a modern
| astronomer. aided by the resources Of mod
srn science. to put himself in the place OF
one Of these old astronomer-priests and
| by refined methods of measurement make
out exactly what the ancient worthy was
looking at and just when ne was doing II.
Lockyer reasoned that the old astronomer
priests would be sure to mix Up their re-
Iigion with their science, and having built
a temple for the worship OF some heavenly
body, would in addition make the deity
useful as an almanac. Star gods can be
utilized to tell the time by night. From
the morning alteration OF the sun god II
| IL but a step TO fixing the calendar by the
successive points on the horizon where the
divinity appears.
Lockyer's studies go back to that obscure
source OF religion and science. Nthe land Of
| Egypt. AS a matter of religion the Egyp-
tians worshipped the sun. As matter OF
science they were especially interested In
determining the summer soLstice, because
at that time began the annual rise Of the
Nile. In fact, the Egyptians were the only
early people who had any particular in
tsrest In Determining the longest day In
the year.
But the early astronomers had no tele-
scopes with spider web sight lines and mis-
crometer eyepieces. An they could do
was to tx some sort Of stone monument
in line with the point Of the horizon where
! the sun shone on a particular day.
Many Egyptian temples built between
| Zoo and 1890 b. c. have their long axis
so placed that on the longest day of the
year the light OF the rising sun comes
through q long line of narrow doorways
and ulumines a dark chamber at the
further end. Thus the Egyptians knew
when il was midsummer. Wherever, there
fore, one discovers temples OF othed naonu-
ments orfentsd with regard to the rising
| sun on June q there one may suspect the
| influence OF the Egyptian sun worship.
Now II has only been known that the
horseshoe line OF blocks at Stonehenge
1 AV0hn NtWdAA ans PNA-AN VI @AN ASAN@SNf -
that other parts OF the structure and one
especially prominent sight line have also
this direction LOckyer made a careful
determination Of the position OF this sun
rise point at various past epochs. as it has
| changed slightly In the course OF years
Correcting his observations Tor the height
Of the horizon where the ancient sight Inns
pointed, allowing for the refraetion Of the
air and the apparent distortion Of the suns
disc near the horizon, he computed that
Stonehense was built to face the precise
spot where the sun rose on June q about
i6S0 B. C. The Druids. then, from about
the year 100 B. C. appear to have been
priests OF a religion which originated in
Egypt some Thousand or more years be-
fore, and spread along the coast as the
early seamen made their way from cape to
cape until il reached Greece on the one
side and England on the other.
stonehenss Is therefore a monument to
I the religion OF the pyramids This same
religion OF the pyramids. moreover, has
| Given us our legal year, WHOSE cardinal
points are the solstices and the equinoxes,
and whose festivals were the originals OF
! Christmas, Easter and midsummer day-au
now more or less misplaced by changes OF
reckoning and Feformations OF the ealen-
aar.
The old Egyptian June year. the year
that begins near the end OF June or De-
cember. has. then. fixed the positions OF
half the ancient temples ana monuments
of Europe and given us much OF our mod
ern calendar. Nevertheless. the Deeembsr-
June year. based on the s0lstiees. was not
| the original year, even In Egypt
/ The earliest monuments OF All, going back
1 to e000 b. c., are the records of another
religion and another astronomy whose year
began with May & A temple observatory
aligned for sunrise on that date viii catch
the sun again On its way back on August
and dstsrmins two quarter points OF a
year divided into four equal seasons.
\ All over the ancient world therefore. the
0ldsr monuments are oriented with respect
/ 10 a year other than our legal calendar
year. for a year nansly which. allowing
tor changes % date, began on May day
and still marks its halfway point by Hal
l0ws'sn and All saints day, and one Of its
quarter points BY Candismaa, though the
other old quarter point holiday has lapsed.
This Nay year Il still recognised m Irish
and Scotch common Law, where Il likes the
| quarterly rent day. and In cur own prac-
tee OF moving on May L
The great sandstone blocks Of Stone