The Stonehenge mystery has been pinned down as a solar calendar after centuries of theories, according to new research.
Bournemouth University Professor Timothy Darvill deduced the circle of stones was based on a solar year of 365.25 days.
The ancient calendar differed with weeks of ten days and more months than the Gregorian version we use today.
The “Circle Calendar” is aligned with the sunrise of summer solstice and the sunset of winter solstice which has long seen the composition recognised as a solar calendar, the expert said.
He said: “The proposed calendar works in a very straightforward way. Each of the 30 stones in the sarsen circle represents a day within a month, itself divided into three weeks each of 10 days.”
Unique stones in the circle mark the start of each week, as well as a leap day every four years included in the design.
Professor Darvill’s analysis includes possible connections to the solstice traditions of ancient Egypt and the East Mediterranean.
The mineral monument, at Salisbury, Wiltshire, was built 4,500 around the same time as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza but we know far more about the Egyptian artefacts.
Comparisons to other ancient calendar systems led to the conclusion of their likely influence.
“Similar time-reckoning systems were being used in Mesopotamia by the late fourth millennium BC,” he added, publishing his findings in the journal Antiquity.
“Their adoption in the Eastern Mediterranean might have been more widespread at this time than previously realised.”
