BBC:
An arrangement of pits excavated in a field at
Crathes
Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, appears to be a
10 000-year-old lunar calendar. The pits were found
by aerial surveys of the Scottish countryside, and excavations
began in 2004. The series of 12 pits, analyzed by Vince Gaffney
of Birmingham University, UK, and his colleagues, is arranged
to mimic the phases of the Moon and to track lunar months. The
team determined that the pits are also aligned with the
midwinter sunrise, potentially to help track the seasons and
reset the yearly lunar calendar. The age of the calendar is
5000 years older than the previous earliest known calendar
monuments from Mesopotamia.
