Gerald Hawkins and Fred Hoyle argued that Stonehenge's 56 Aubrey holes could serve as an eclipse predictor. In their model, the moon marker moved two holes per day, the sun marker two holes every 13 days, and the node markers three holes per year, yielding an 18.67-year cycle close to the real 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle. The proposal remains disputed and required periodic corrections; Richard Atkinson criticised it as impractical for Bronze Age builders. Plutarch separately reported that Pythagoreans used a 56-sided figure called Typhon in eclipse calculations.
Hawkins and Hoyle proposed Stonehenge's 56 Aubrey holes as an eclipse predictor
EnglandArchaeoastronomy
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Gerald Hawkins and Fred Hoyle proposed the eclipse-predictor interpretation in Stonehenge Decoded (1966).
- The Aubrey Holes form a roughly circular set of 56 pits within Stonehenge's enclosure.
- In the Hawkins–Hoyle model, the moon marker moved two holes per day, completing one circuit in 28 days; the sun marker moved two holes every 13 days, and the node markers three holes per year.
- The model's 18.67-year cycle is close to the actual lunar nodal cycle of about 18.6 years.
- Richard Atkinson criticised the proposal as impractical for Bronze Age builders and invoked the 'howling barbarians' criticism.
- Plutarch reported that Pythagoreans used a 56-sided figure called Typhon in eclipse-related calculations.
- Ales Stenar, the Swedish formation known as the Stone Ship, is a separate elongated arrangement rather than another Aubrey-style 56-pit circle.
- The eclipse-predictor interpretation is a disputed reconstruction requiring periodic corrections, not an established function of the holes.
Sources
stonesofstonehenge.org.uk
Linked in video description
Eclipse Cycles and Eclipses at Stonehenge - ADSui.adsabs.harvard.edu
by R Colton · 1967 · Cited by 19 — the number of Aubrey holes (56) is particularly significant. if the builders of Stonehenge did predict eclipses, they did it in much simpler ways.
Possible Use of Stonehengenature.com
by RR NEWTON · 1972 · Cited by 7 — Aubrey holes at Stonehenge were used to count the years of a 56-year cycle, important in the motion of the Moon and the occurrence of eclipses.
Hawkins' Lunar Astrology: When Ancient Stones Met ...wilfredhazelwood.com
Hawkins' work, first published in Nature in 1963, proposed that Stonehenge's 56 Aubrey Holes could be used to predict lunar eclipses by moving markers from hole ...
Astro-Archaeology at Stonehengetivas.org.uk
He discovered that lunar eclipses could be predicted through a system of moving stones around the circle of Aubrey Holes. Controversially, he went on to suggest ...
Aubrey holesen.wikipedia.org
He believed that the key to the holes' purpose was the lunar eclipse, which occurs on average about twice a year on a 346.62 day cycle (the eclipse year).
Pegs and Ropes: Geometry at Stonehengenature.com
by A Johnson · 2008 · Cited by 2 — In this paper, we will focus on the Aubrey Hole circuit. We will argue that it was laid down with the specific purpose of drawing a 56-sided polygon, and that a ...
the origins of the people buried at Stonehengeberksarch.co.uk
3000-2750 BC, the bank and ditch was constructed together with the ring of 56 Aubrey Holes, which may already have contained bluestones; ...
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