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The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

bbc.com

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Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#51

Post by onion2k »

INTPenis wrote: post #46

What I find cute is that every year on the 21st of december a small number of modern day pagans and nature lovers gather at Ales Stenar here in southern Sweden and watch the sun rise over the center stone of the "ship". We bring thermos bottles, some bring kids, pets, and we just stand there in silence watching the sun. Afaik it's not coordinated, it's just a bunch of people having the same idea every year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4g4exnj2p5t?page=2 8,500 turned up at Stonehenge in the UK.

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#52

Post by gwbas1c »

lb1lf wrote: post #31

These are all over the place in Norway (as are they everywhere else, presumably!) When we moved to the island we currently live on, our address was in a road called 'Solsteinen' (The Sun Stone), but I didn't think anything of it until I realized that the roughly hewn stone serving as the property limit marker was juuu-uuust touched by the sun on Winter Solstice. Aha. A quick call to the local archaeologist confirmed…

> as are they everywhere else, presumably!

They aren't "all over the place" in the US, and I certainly don't have a local archaeologist that I can just call up.

FWIW: The Northeastern US is quite recent with human presence. It wasn't settled until after the last ice age. Pretty much anything old is celebrated because there is so little of anything old.

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#53

Post by beejiu »

voidUpdate wrote: post #3

How did ancient cultures know when the solstice was? If you didn't tell me it was the 21st, I don't know how I'd be able to tell you other than by carefully measuring the sunrise and sunset times

They could reason about the Pythagorean theorem in 2000 BC. It's not a surprise they could figure out when the sun set in 2800 BC.

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#54

Post by arethuza »

phinnaeus wrote: post #37
lb1lf wrote: post #31

These are all over the place in Norway (as are they everywhere else, presumably!) When we moved to the island we currently live on, our address was in a road called 'Solsteinen' (The Sun Stone), but I didn't think anything of it until I realized that the roughly hewn stone serving as the property limit marker was juuu-uuust touched by the sun on Winter Solstice. Aha. A quick call to the local archaeologist confirmed…

The local archaeologist? Incredible

I suspect most local councils in the UK have an archaeology team and failing that there are a lot of professional consulting archaeologists - a lot (all?) large scale building works often include the need for archaeological surveys and/or remediation.

e.g. Work for what is now the Queensferry Crossing bridge uncovered a 10,000 year old home:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-2...

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#55

Post by stryan »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #43
matusp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Go out every morning to work in your field. 2. When the Sun rises, make a note on the same fixed piece of wood, e.g., a fence. 3. Observe the leftmost and rightmost positions, these are your solstices. 4 You can now use your fence to identify and predict solstices.

I have read that the auspicious date of December 25th may have been intended to be the Solstice but that the degree of error for "making a note on a fence" is why we have the 25th. Merry Sun-Fence Day everyone. ;-)

IIRC The 25th was the solstice on the Julian calendar, but when you switch it to Gregorian the solstice moves to the 21st.

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#56

Post by aworks »

franze wrote: post #6

my modern equivalent(I needed last year for surfing (after i needed to cut a surf trip short as it became night)) https://daylight.franzai.com/

With your app, it seems daylight today in Chicago is the same length as yesterday's solstice, although it starts and ends 30 seconds later.

today - 07:18:59 → 16:24:29 = 9:5:30. yesterday - 7:18:23 → 16:23:53 = 9:5:30

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#57

Post by masfuerte »

aworks wrote: post #56
franze wrote: post #6

my modern equivalent(I needed last year for surfing (after i needed to cut a surf trip short as it became night)) https://daylight.franzai.com/

With your app, it seems daylight today in Chicago is the same length as yesterday's solstice, although it starts and ends 30 seconds later. today - 07:18:59 → 16:24:29 = 9:5:30. yesterday - 7:18:23 → 16:23:53 = 9:5:30

Sunrise and sunset aren't in phase (or exactly out of phase). The latest sunrise and the earliest sunset don't happen on the same day and neither happens on the solstice. Not at this northern latitude anyway.

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#58

Post by mistrial9 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #43
matusp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Go out every morning to work in your field. 2. When the Sun rises, make a note on the same fixed piece of wood, e.g., a fence. 3. Observe the leftmost and rightmost positions, these are your solstices. 4 You can now use your fence to identify and predict solstices.

I have read that the auspicious date of December 25th may have been intended to be the Solstice but that the degree of error for "making a note on a fence" is why we have the 25th. Merry Sun-Fence Day everyone. ;-)

no - it is currently three nights after the longest night. The three refers to a similar three days at Easter time.

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#59

Post by robotbikes »

gwbas1c wrote: post #52
lb1lf wrote: post #31

These are all over the place in Norway (as are they everywhere else, presumably!) When we moved to the island we currently live on, our address was in a road called 'Solsteinen' (The Sun Stone), but I didn't think anything of it until I realized that the roughly hewn stone serving as the property limit marker was juuu-uuust touched by the sun on Winter Solstice. Aha. A quick call to the local archaeologist confirmed…

> as are they everywhere else, presumably! They aren't "all over the place" in the US, and I certainly don't have a local archaeologist that I can just call up. FWIW: The Northeastern US is quite recent with human presence. It wasn't settled until after the last ice age. Pretty much anything old is celebrated because there is so little of anything old.

Ohio was populated with numerous earthworks, the Hopewell Earthworks finally being recognized as a UNESCO world heritage spot after being preserved for years by being used as a golf course. Unfortunately many of these have been lost as European settlers destroyed many of them. This continues to this day as Google is building a data center in central Ohio a top of land that was home to numerous native american burial mounds - https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/google-breaks-gro...

Re: The ancient monuments saluting the winter solstice

#60

Post by psunavy03 »

robotbikes wrote: post #59
gwbas1c wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as are they everywhere else, presumably! They aren't "all over the place" in the US, and I certainly don't have a local archaeologist that I can just call up. FWIW: The Northeastern US is quite recent with human presence. It wasn't settled until after the last ice age. Pretty much anything old is celebrated because there is so little of anything old.

Ohio was populated with numerous earthworks, the Hopewell Earthworks finally being recognized as a UNESCO world heritage spot after being preserved for years by being used as a golf course. Unfortunately many of these have been lost as European settlers destroyed many of them. This continues to this day as Google is building a data center in central Ohio a top of land that was home to numerous native american burial…

Has no one on Google's datacenter leadership team so much as SEEN a horror movie before?
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