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Welcome, I thought it best to detail some important information here. Firstly, all notes, glossary terms and definitions are embedded in the text as clickable links. To identify most photos etc, float your mouse over the pics. Check out my photo gallery pages for unusual Xmas lights from the US and look out for Celtic crosses coming to the Gallery pages on or about July/Aug
When you deal with ancient sites, inevitably you are looking at reminants that have lasted for thousands of years. A common fallacy is to apply CURRENT seasonal markers to these sites to ascertain purpose and intent, however people forget that dates change over long periods of time. In order to get around this I have compiled a series of tables below that show these changes. I use the Julian Old style calendar system here in the table. Generally, the rule is the further you go back in time, the dates of the seasons, such as, Summer solstice, Spring equinox etc. shift forward in our modern day and month, in our calendars. The Mesolithic and Neolithic peoples had only 4 divisions of their year, Winter solstice, Summer solstice, Spring(Vernal) equinox, and Autumnal equinox. A view of the tables below will help to explain this.
This will help you orientate your way around the articles where I've stated particular construct times.
If you come across a site that has an alignment , say, at 90°, then that site is forever aligned to true East. Azimuths will only change measurably based on a change in geographical latitude.For that reason here's another table of mid Northern latitudes and the 4 divisions of the year, with the changing azimuths at the horizon point of 0.5° for 2000 AD
If you wanted to adjust for 5000 years back to say 3000 BC then you would have to increment by a small adjustment of 1.2°. You would add this 1.2° to the midwinter solstice and midsummer sunset columns and subtract it for the other two columns. Its a small adjustment for a large change in time.
I bring this little item up because it can cause confusion. Cross
quarter days are specifically Celtic festivals that divide the year into 4
equal sections. They are called 'Imbolc', 'Bealtaine' ,'Lughnasa' and
'Sahain'. The last festival, Sahain, is more commonly known as
Halloween. The Celts came into being around 650 BC in Halstatt,
Austria. They have nothing to do with the Neolithic or Mesolithic peoples
however, you will see cross quarter days being used to explain site
alignments. This is of course another fallacy that goes hand in hand
with the myth that the Celts constructed Stonehenge. I don't know
where these bad ideas originate from, but they do exist, so I'm making
you aware of them.