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Science 8 January 1965:
Vol. 147. no. 3654, pp. 127 - 130
DOI: 10.1126/science.147.3654.127
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Articles

Callanish, a Scottish Stonehenge

A group of standing stones was used by Stone Age man to mark the seasons and perhaps to predict eclipse seasons

Gerald S. Hawkins 1

1 Boston University, Boston, Mass., Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge

On the basis of the stone record it appears that the Callanish people were as precise as the Stonehengers in setting up their megalithic structure, but not as scientifically advanced. Callanish is, however, a structure that could have been used much as Stonehenge was. It would be interesting to obtain a date, by the radiocarbon method, for the peat in the area of Callanish, to determine how much older, or more recent, than Stonehenge this structure is. Perhaps the knowledge gained at Callanish was later used in the design of Stonehenge.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)