ABSTRACT
With passage of time, each generation has shown interest in the mysterious rows and rings of standing stones to be found in northwest Europe, Why were they erected, sometimes at great expense of the resources available to prehistoric people? We believe that at one stage in prehistory many of them were used in conjunction with the horizon to observe the rising and setting of the sun and moon. No written evidence exists; the evidence is only that obtainable from the stones themselves. Erected four thousand years ago, many of the stones seem to act as focal points in the landscape by involving the horizon, the sky, and the land. Each lichen-covered stone seems timeless, its own character formed by the weathering effects of wind, rain, and sun. We attempt to show that it is highly probable the erectors made and used a solar calendar and observed and recorded the moon's movements carefully, so carefully that they could have predicted eclipses. A sensitive method of observing the moon, one that even shows the effect of the sun's small perturbation (Δ) of the moon's orbit, could have been used by the people who set out the stones.
