It may sound like fantasy, but as darkness approached – and with it an extremely rare lunar event – it felt like the beasts and birds of Stonehenge sensed something strange was happening.
The song of the cabbages and the flight of the stars seemed particularly energetic; rabbits, animals with a mythical connection to the moon, circled with apparent purpose around the stone circle; the people who had gathered at the monument became shy.
Stonehenge is, of course, closely associated with the rising and setting of the sun, but there is also a growing belief that the ancient people who built the circle were also fascinated by the moon – and aware of a phenomenon now occurring called the “Stopping “big moon,” something that only happens every 18.6 years.
This weekend, archaeologists, astronomers and archaeoastronomers (who study how prehistoric humans responded to the sky) arrived at the time of the full moon to explore the theory that Stonehenge’s creators may have placed some stones to mark the lunar stop, when the rise of the moon and the setting moon is further along the horizon.
“It’s very exciting,” said Clive Ruggles, an emeritus professor of archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester. “This is a special night because the moon is going its lowest possible path across the sky and it’s also full while it’s doing that, so it’s both things together.”
Ruggles, who was armed with charts, cameras and a theodolite, said the key was four “station stones” that form the corners of a rectangle framing the stone circle. When the moon rises at its southernmost point and sets at its northernmost point, it lines up with the station stones.
“Was this all on purpose?” asked Ruggles. “My idea is that yes, I think people were aware that every 18th or 19th year, there were times when you could see the moon rising extremely high in the south and setting extremely high in the north, and people they knew and remembered it.”
Heather Sebire, English Heritage’s senior curator for Stonehenge, said it made sense that the builders of Stonehenge would take the moon into account. “They were the first farmers. They must have observed the weather, the seasons. So they would have seen the moon too.”
Sebire said some of Stonehenge’s blue stones caught the moonlight beautifully, adding: “That may be one of the reasons why they used them.” She also explained that, during the early phase of Stonehenge, people buried the cremated remains of the dead in a part of the monument that matches the station stones. “There may be something to all this,” Sebire said.
Jennifer Wexler, a Stonehenge historian for English Heritage, said the vast nature of the landscape made it a great place to see not only the setting sun but also the rising moon, especially when it is large. “It feels like this kind of saw of cosmic entities. It’s very powerful.”
Those present had a sense of kinship with other places around the world where the full moon was being observed. Similar groups were looking at it at the standing stones at Calanais on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, at Chimney Rock, Colorado, an ancient Chacoan settlement, and at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
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Modern life violates the phenomenon at Stonehenge. Cars and lorries roar close by on the A303 and, unfortunately, a plantation on the horizon obscures the line of sight to the place on the horizon where the southernmost moon first appears.
Only two of the station’s four stones are still in place. The markers show where English Heritage believes the two missing stones were positioned – but some of the archaeoastronomers think one may be slightly off. A temporary marker – a handbag – was placed where they believe it may have been.
The UK weather, inevitably, also has its say. As the time of moonrise approached on Friday night, the clouds rolled in and there was a light rain. There was a faint glow over the plantation, but there was no big, amazing moon, making any meaningful measurements difficult.
It was not a disaster. The exact date of the lunar stop is in January 2025 and it can be studied for months by both parties.
“It’s a shame the clouds came,” said Fabio Silva, a senior lecturer in archaeological modeling at Bournemouth University. “But these things happen. We will have other chances. We will be back.”