It’s believed that at least one major standstill was marked during the early phase of Stonehenge, potentially influencing the monument’s design and purpose.

Between 3000 and 2500BC, several centuries before the large stones were brought to Stonehenge, people were burying cremated remains in the ditch and bank that now surrounds the stone circle, and in the Aubrey Holes – 56 pits which may originally have housed upright timber posts or stones. Many of these cremations were clustered in the south-eastern part of the monument, in the direction of the most southerly rising position of the moon, where three timber posts were set into the bank.

There is a further lunar connection at Stonehenge – the long axis of the rectangle formed by the four Station Stones also shares this orientation, in the direction of the southernmost moonrise at the major standstill. Researchers have debated for years whether this was deliberate, and—if so—how this was achieved and what might have been its purpose, so we will have a special chance this year to study if this alignment is truly the case.

The Station Stones may have been employed to help measure out the sarsen circle around 500 years after the site was first used for cremations, when the large sarsen circle was being built, suggesting a compelling and enduring connection between the lunar cycles and the architecture of Stonehenge.

For ancient people the light of the moon would have been useful at night, extending the time available for chores well beyond dusk and even allowing for night-time hunting. In addition, the regularity of the cycle of the lunar phases – from Dark Moon to Full Moon and back again – provided an ideal way to mark the passage of time and organise events and festivities.

Scholars believe that the earliest calendars were based on the phases of the moon and, unlike the Gregorian calendar, there are some lunar or luni-solar calendars still in use today such as the Arabic, Chinese and Hebrew calendars.

On a major lunar standstill, the moon rises and sets in a place on the horizon that the sun never reaches. For people who track the movement of the sun across the year – such as farming communities who use horizon calendars for planting and harvesting – the appearance of the moon further north and south than the extremes of the sun may have been highly significant. Perhaps this would have been a moment when the lunar deity was stronger than the solar one.

Happening only every 19 years or so, the major lunar standstill would have been a generational event – spoken about in the stories that passed orally from one generation to the next. The phenomenon may have marked huge celebrations of religious, spiritual and social significance, and perhaps also mark the time for the rites of initiation of young members of the community into adulthood.