In Scotland discovered an ancient calendar

Holes dug in the north of Scotland around 10,000 years ago, according to British archaeologists, not that other, as the world's oldest calendar. If this is true, then the calendar Stone Age nearly 5,000 years older than the Sumerian bronze calendar found in Mesopotamia, which is still considered the first calendar in the history of mankind.

Primitive calendar discovered during aerial terrain Warren Field in the Scottish county of Aberdeenshire. Specialists of the Royal Commission of Antiquities.

The history of Scotland are interested in inconspicuous from the ground, but unusual bird's-eye-deepening traces on the field. In 2004, near the Castle Kreyzes began archaeological excavations, which lasted until 2006.

However, only now a group of scientists from four British universities, led by Professor Vincent Gaffney from the University of Birmingham and Richard Bates from the University of St. Andrews  completed the study. The results of this work are published in the latest issue of Internet Archaeology.

Notably, the newspaper Independent, that calendar primitive hunters and gatherers used for over four thousand years - from 8000 BC. e. During this period, the pit periodically updated - tens, maybe hundreds of times. Therefore it is impossible to find out when they placed wooden poles and hoisting the stones.

The complex, which consists of 12 holes, designed so that you can mark the months and moon phases. Pits are focused on the point of sunrise at the winter solstice, which may allow annually to make allowance for the actual astronomical time and know exactly when to expect the next change of season. If desired, the lunar calendar can be brought into line with the solar year.

Mentally, this dozen holes can be connected in an arc, located on the 50-meter interval before the V-shaped depression on the horizon, from which in the middle of winter sun rose. In the solar year is laid 12.37 lunar cycle, and we can assume that each well is a particular month, and the whole arc - a year.

Expresses a version that arc depicted as movement growing and waning of the moon across the sky. On both sides of the arc and the depth of the pits smaller diameter than those that are closer to the middle. Changing the size of holes can also indicate that the neighboring months perceived as pairs. Such cosmological dualism is known in many ancient cultures, but had never really talked about it in relation to the Stone Age.