What is a lunar standstill? : Problems of accuracy and validity in 'the Thom paradigm'
Part of : Mediterranean archaeology & archaeometry : international journal ; Vol.6, No.3, 2006, pages 161-167
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161-167
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Abstract:
North West European late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA) monumental alignments on thesun's soktices and the moon's standstills were first systematically studied by Thom (Thom 1971).Later research, since labelled 'the Thom paradigm' (Ruggles 1999), has rejected Thorn's eclipse predictionand calendncal theories for these ancient alignments, yet retained his definition of a lunarstandstill as the 'geocentric extreme declination' of the moon (Heggie 1981a, Heggie 1981b, Hoskin2001, Morrison 1980, North 1996, Ruggles 1999, Thom 1971). Thom suggested that prehistoric'extrapolation devices ' calculated this mid-transit property of the moon from observed horizon alignments,but subsequent research has found no evidence for such devices. While a mid-transit definitionof a lunar standstill is an accurate specification of the phenomena, it is based upon the premises ofmodern heliocentric astronomy and is unlikely to provide valid interpretations of the monumentbuilder's use of horizon 'astronomy'. This paper attempts to demonstrate that the current theoriesused to explain the late Neolithic/EBA function of lunar standstill alignments do not fit the horizon,and therefore megalithic user, properties of lunar standstills. It is argued that a recent model (Sims2006b) is more consistent with the archaeology and 'astronomy' of horizon-aligned monuments, andwith any ethnographic elaboration of the Thom paradigm.
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Keywords:
Lunar, Standstill, Neolithic, Alignment, Horizon, Astronomy
