'Henges, Now and Then

Along with Memorial Day and the official beginning of Summer, we had a biannual celestial event in NYC aptly named "Manhattan-henge". Also named the Manhattan Solstice, it is an event during which the setting sun is perfectly aligned with the grid of numbered, east–west streets of Manhattan. (Note: Unfortunately, we had rain, so it was not seen this weekend in it's full glory)

Pretty cool, huh? Now, this isn't exactly like it's namesake "Stonehenge" on Salisbury Plain in the UK where the sun aligns exactly to come over the foot stone on the actually Summer Solstice. But it is the best we "moderns" could do.

Well, and Manhattan is situated about 29 degrees off true North/South and of course, was not designed as a...whatever Stonehenge is supposed to be. These ancient stonemasons had a lot of time on their hands to study the celestial bodies and a bunch of stones that they had dragged hundred of miles, and no city government to tell them where and how they could build their "henge" (if you know what I mean).

On my trip earlier this month, I went to another ancient place in Ireland called Newgrange. It is a mound outside of Dublin that when excavated in the 20th Century, it was discovered that the opening and the inner chamber of the mound were aligned perfectly with the sun to mark the Winter Solstice. It predates the Great Pyramids of Egypt by a thousand years, and is worth the trip to see.

Now to my point. There is this great wonder by all who visit as to how these ancient people could possibly have the skill to build these monuments to the sun with such precision that the sun would be exactly aligned at a specific day ever single year. I do not find this so extraordinary. They looked at the sky a lot. What else did they have to do at night or while tending to the flocks during they day? Of course, they would study the heavens, create stories about great Gods who inhabited the night skies and, at the most basic, it was their entertainment.

And as always, there are humans who went beyond mere entertainment, and observed their world in hopes to improve it. They started with what was available to them every day - the sky. And through that observation, they determined that the big, firey thing in the sky that comes over the horizon every day, rises at a certain point on the horizon and sets at another point on the horizon. And by putting markers down in a circle, they observed that the point moved. If you think about it, it was the earliest form of a computer and used to predict the trajectory of the Sun. If they had been stupid, humans would never have progressed to cell phones and reality shows...oh, wait.

By the way, there are hundreds of these mounds and "henges" throughout Ireland and the UK, many of which have yet to be excavated and studied. Who knows what other celestial events these other mounds were meant to mark.

Anyway, discuss.