God Orion in Classic Art God Orion in Statue
If there is one constellation that dominates an Orkney winter, it must surely be Orion.
Even to those not remotely interested in astronomy, this pattern of stars is 1 of the most striking and recognisable in the night sky. Four bright stars class an hourglass shape around Orion's "belt" – a ring of 3 stars forming a straight (or near straight) line.
As a child I took pride in beingness able to point out Orion, and, even back so, recognised the fact that it was a winter constellation. When Orion was high, you knew that Christmas was nearby.
The constellation returns to the heaven in late autumn, at which fourth dimension it doesn't rise until later midnight. But every bit the days shorten, Orion'due south appears earlier and earlier and past midwinter dominates the southern sky.
He remains visible until early bound, his disappearance coinciding with the return of life and light to the islands.
I had oftentimes wondered whether the constellation had any significance to our ancient ancestors – but, knowing how these theories tin often raise the bile of academia, left it well lonely.
Until 2005.
Thornborough Henges
And so, I heard virtually a site in England that had hit the national news headlines because it was under threat from industrial quarrying. The 5,500-year-old Thornborough Henges, in Northward Yorkshire, had been alleged to be the world's first monument aligned to Orion.
At the head of the enquiry was the eminent archaeologist, Dr January Harding, senior lecturer at Newcastle University. He claimed that using 3D computer models, he could show the site had a number of stellar alignments. Just above all this, what actually caught the media's attending was the similarity of the placing of the iii great henges on the landscape and the three stars of Orion'south Chugalug.
In addition, archaeological work at Thornborough suggested that Orion was meaning prior to the construction of the 3 henges.
The first major monument on the site was built around 3,500BC. This was a one.2km-long processional way, aligned then its western end pointed towards the mid-wintertime setting of Orion. This besides meant the eastern end aligned to the midsummer solstice.
Then, around 3000BC, when the three henges at Thornborough were constructed, they appear to have been deliberately laid out to mirror Orion's Chugalug. Not simply this, but their southern entrances framed the rising of the brilliant star, Sirius, which in plow meant their centrality aligned on the midwinter solstice.
In an article at the time, Dr Harding explained: "Thornborough was a sacred landscape, a place of religious worship, and nosotros should endeavor to translate these astronomical orientations within that context.
"This astronomical clan was emphasised by the banks of the henges existence coated in brilliant white gypsum. Neolithic people surely felt they were at the center of the very cosmos as they worshipped the heavens above."
Professor Clive Ruggles, author of Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, was not so convinced past the Orion'due south chugalug layout of the henges.
In 2003, following a television documentary on Thornborough, he wrote on his website:
The idea that the configuration of the henges themselves formed a spatial representation of the three stars is something that I view with considerable scepticism."
He did, however, concede that information technology is plausible that the rising of the stars, in relation to the local mural, may have been significant.
He said: "For the record, it is the other aspects of the astronomical arguments at Thornborough, notably the diverse alignments upon the horizon ascent position of Orion's Belt, combined with the other show for Thornborough being some sort of pilgrimage centre, that combine to make a plausible case that the heliacal rising of Orion's Belt was the trigger that caused people to set out on their journey to the site from distant for an autumn ceremony."
So what does this take to exercise with Orkney?
As mentioned to a higher place, I had ever wondered about the layout of the three henges in Orkney's World Heritage Site – the Continuing Stones o' Stenness, the Band o' Brodgar and Ring o' Bookan.
Indeed, anyone looking at a map of the surface area would spot one apparent link immediately. Overlay the stars of Orion'due south Belt over a map of the Ness and you get a matching layout (run across right)
The distance ratios between Bookan and Stenness fit perfectly, although the heart star is slightly out over Brodgar. This is not that surprising, however. If the layout is not mere coincidence, the prehistoric observer could reasonably measure the altitude ration between the stars, but not the infinitesimal angle involved.
Merely fifty-fifty if nosotros accept that the layout of the three Orkney henges is pure chance, it could all the same exist argued that their siting was significant to the advent, and movement, of Orion in the winter heaven.
Orion ascent
From the Ring o' Bookan, looking down beyond the Ness o' Brodgar, the Stones o' Stenness are nigh exactly south-east (actually a few degrees to the south).
A prehistoric observer continuing at Bookan, at midwinter, would see the giant Orion rising over the Stenness monument (see illustration right).
So, for example, were nosotros sitting at Bookan at midwinter 2500BC (which past our calendar would be January 9), Orion's belt would appear above the south-eastern horizon, in the gap between the Firth and Orphir hills, around 4.30pm. Orion's ascension would be followed shortly later by the appearance of the star Sirius, one of the brightest objects in the nighttime heaven.
The constellation would then motion beyond the tiptop of the Orphir hills, at an altitude 11 degrees lower than today, before setting again just after midnight.
Where Orion, and Sirius, sets is besides interesting. The constellation would have slipped behind the Hoy hills – approximately 23 degrees further west from the spot the midwinter sun had "died" earlier that solar day.
Was information technology this noticeable correlation with the motility of the midwinter sunday that may have marked Orion as significant? Nobody argues about the connection between the winter solstice sun and Maeshowe, for instance, but Orion not only sets in the same surface area equally the winter sun, but it rises in the same area likewise – in effect information technology could exist seen to be following the sun.
Classical mythology depicts Orion as a hunter, trekking across the night sky followed by his true-blue hounds. Just what, if anything, did the group of stars represent to the early Orcadians?
Was it seen as responsible for the annual expiry of the lord's day? A fearful entity who's eventual demise marked the return of life and warmth to the country? Or was it a valiant espoused, or ally, of the dying sun, whose sacrifice ensured the return the light?
Or perhaps something else?
In belatedly 2006, I came beyond an intriguing possibility in a new book on Stonehenge.
Midwinter celebrations
In his volume, Stonehenge: The Biography of a Landscape, Professor Timothy Darvill, head of the Archaeology Group at Bournemouth Academy, outlined his theory that Stonehenge was an oracle and a centre for healing – not but a place for the dead, every bit is believed by many scholars.
The footing of his theory lies in the Preseli Mountains in Wales, 250 kilometres away from Stonehenge, and the source of the monument's massive bluestones.
He said: "It was believed that these item stones had many healing properties because in Preseli, there are many sacred springs that are considered to have health-giving qualities; the water comes out of the rocks used to build Stonehenge and it's well established that as recently every bit the late 18th century, people went to Stonehenge to suspension off bits of rock equally talismans."
Also, around the Stonehenge landscape, there are many burials, some of which have been excavated and amidst these there are a expert proportion of people who show sings of being unwell – some would accept walked with a limp or had broken bones – only the sort of thing that in modern times pressurises people to seek help from the Almighty."
Professor Darvill is firmly of the stance that the monument was believed to be at its near potent in the winter, when it was "occupied" by a prehistoric god.
This god, he suggests, was the equivalent of the Greek god of healing, hunting and music, Apollo, whom Greek myth tells united states of america "chose" to reside in the n – in the land of the Hyperboreans – for three months each winter.
Professor Darvill said: "In the case of Stonehenge, I advise that the presiding deity was a prehistoric equivalent of the Greek and Roman god of healing, Apollo. Although his principal sanctuary was at Delphi in Greece, information technology is widely believed that he left Hellenic republic in the wintertime months to reside in the land of the Hyperboreans – normally taken to be United kingdom."
According to the Roman author, Diodorus Siculus, Uk was inhabited by the Hyperboreans and was the birthplace of Apollo'south mother, Leto.
Because of this, he wrote:
Apollo is honoured among them to a higher place all other gods; and the inhabitants are looked upon equally priests of Apollo, after a manner, since daily they praise this god continuously in vocal and honour him exceedingly. And there is besides on the isle both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is spherical in shape."
Did Orion represent this ancient prehistoric god? A deity who presided over the darkest time of the year?
It is interesting to wonder whether Maeshowe'southward midwinter alignment, when the calorie-free of the setting sun shines into the main bedroom for a few days effectually the winter solstice, could accept marked a time significant to this god.
And if then, and following Professor Darvill's Stonehenge theory, was the Brodgar complex also a pilgrimage site – visited past those wishing to commune with the god(s) and mayhap seek cures for their ailments?
The healing aspects of the Orcadian stone circles are well-known in more recent history, in detail the connectedness between the rings and the nearby well at Bigswell. In add-on, there at least six wells survived on the Ness o' Brodgar into the 1800s – and at least one of these is said to have had healing powers.
Those seeking cures at Bigswell were plunged into the well's cold h2o earlier existence bound to a nearby mail service and left overnight. A secondary element of the healing rituals involved the Odin Stone – the holed-megalith that was likewise renowned for its magical cures.
How ancient these healing traditions were is open up to argue, then, in one case again, nosotros can only speculate.
But at the stop of the twenty-four hours, fifty-fifty if Orion and Orkney'southward best-known Neolithic monuments have absolutely no connection, the Ring o' Brodgar remains one of the finest, and nearly atmospheric, places in the county to view the constellation's procession across the wintertime heaven.
Sigurd Towrie
The material hither was first published on Sigurd Towrie's Orkneyjar website: www.orkneyjar.com
lindquistdausitherer1995.blogspot.com
Source: https://frontiersmagazine.org/on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven-was-orion-linked-to-orkneys-neolithic-heartland/
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