The ‘Solarization’ of the Moon: Manipulated Knowledge at Stonehenge

Bronze Age as a period of separation from a resilient complex of traditions of Mesolithic and
even Palaeolithic origin. Extending this insight to recent findings in archaeoastronomy, this
paper treats the sarsen monument at Stonehenge as one among a number of monuments with
lunar-solar alignments which privileged night over day, winter over summer, dark moon
over full. The aim of the monument builders was to juxtapose, replicate and reverse certain
key horizon properties of the sun and the moon, apparently with the intention of investing
the sun with the moon’s former religious significance. This model is consistent with both
current archaeological interpretations of burial practices associated with the monument,
and with recent anthropological modelling of hunter-gatherer cultural origins.

Citation:
Sims, L. (2006) ‘The ‘Solarization’ of the Moon: Manipulated Knowledge at Stonehenge’ Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16 (2) 191-207.