From “Early Celtic ‘Stonehenge’ Discovered in Germany’s Black Forest” (ScienceDaily, Oct. 11, 2011), we learn:
A huge early Celtic calendar construction has been discovered in the royal tomb of Magdalenenberg, nearby Villingen-Schwenningen in Germany’s Black Forest. … The order of the burials around the central royal tomb fits exactly with the sky constellations of the Northern hemisphere.
With the help of special computer programs, Dr. Allard Mees, researcher at the Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum, could reconstruct the position of the sky constellations in the early Celtic period and following from that those which were visible at Midsummer. This archaeo-astronomic research resulted in a date of Midsummer 618 BC, which makes it the earliest and most complete example of a Celtic calendar focused on the moon.
Apparently, after the Romans took over, they replaced the moon-based calendar with their sun-based one, and these calendar stone circles fell into disuse.
See also: National Geographic: Site shows religion, not agriculture, prehistoric organizing force
and
Antikythera – an ancient mechanical instrument
It’s sobering to reflect on the many instances of progress of one kind or another just getting buried. Maybe there’s something in PayPal CEO Peter Thiel’s concern for today: “Is technological progress slowly winding down?” The main thing to see is that numerous times in history that did happen, and doubtless there were symptoms.
Truly fascinating. Discoveries like this offer a refreshing perspective on human history and progress.
Of course, our atheistic evolutionist friends will tell us that if stone circles like this were a product of self-replication with variation then they obviously made themselves. The only thing obvious about such claims is that they are missing the bleedin’ obvious!
As to accuracy of calenders, it may surprise some to learn that the ancient biblical ‘prophetic’ calender of 360 days, when taking into account it’s fairly simple system of ‘leap months’, is more accurate than our modern day calender that uses ‘leap days’:
Evidence for Neolithic people in Germany with an interest in such matters was reported 8 years ago here:
Circles for Space
German “Stonehenge” marks oldest observatory
By Madhusree Mukerjee
Scientific American, December 08, 2003
http://www.scientificamerican......-for-space
In the UK, there has always been resistance to the idea that the Neolithic communities were capable of recording anything of an astronomical nature, partly because of a presumption that culture evolves gradually and partly because getting convincing proof after 5 or 6 thousand years of wear and tear is hard. However, the evidences are not just in structures like this – but in evidences of trade, sophisticated construction, mining, sea-faring skills, and so on. I hope one day, archaeologists will abandon a Darwinian approach to cultural development and address the evidence with more open minds.