All language subtitles for The Universe s08e01 Stonehenge.eng

Male narrator: Stonehenge,
one of the world's

oldest structures.
Its foundations predate

the Great Pyramids.
It is one of mankind's

most ancient mysteries.
Why is it here?

Is it a temple?
A burial ground?

A place for sacrifice?
Or could the mystery of

Stonehenge be revealed in
its builders' desire to explore

the unknown heavens and touch
the universe?

Using the cutting-edge
computer-generated imagery

that takes us into deep space,
we'll also go inside a virtual

Stonehenge to see what
the ancients saw and push

this prehistoric marvel to give
up its age-old secrets.

Ancient mysteries shrouded in
the shadows of time...

Now can they finally be solved
by looking to the heavens?

The truth is up there,
hidden among the stars in

a place we call the universe.

Sync and corrections by n17t01
www.addic7ed.com

The mysterious circle of stones
called Stonehenge sits on

a southern English plain
inside an earthen bank

5,000 years old.
It was built over 15 centuries,

begun by Stone Age farmers
and herders, later completed

by groups of successor peoples
with sophisticated

engineering skills.
What drove them to build it?

What is Stonehenge?

People have said that it's

a giant temple, a wonderful

monument sitting out in

the Salisbury plain, where

thousands of people could've

come thousands of years ago.

To worship what?

Gods?

We have no written records.
We take what we can from

what we see and attempt to
find out what it is.

Narrator: What we see are
the ruins of what was once

a complex array.
Could this structure made

of earthly rock actually have been
devoted to what takes place in the sky?

Watching the bright Sun
come up every day,

the Moon come up and
change its shape throughout

the weeks and the months,
must have been quite a show.

Narrator: Was this the Hubble
Telescope of its time?

The first clue to the mystery
may come from the Sun.

Every June, huge crowds gather
at Stonehenge in a strange

dawn ritual.
It's the first day of summer,

the solstice, longest day
of the year.

The people stare intently
at a giant boulder called

The Heel Stone.

What is remarkable about

the construction of Stonehenge

is that on the first day

of summer, if you stand at

the center of the monument

and orient yourself toward

The Heel Stone, then as the Sun
rises, you'll see, essentially,

the Sun come up just over
The Heel Stone.

Narrator: The precision to
which this occurs year after

year seems miraculous.

Is it just a coincidence,
or did the ancient builders put

the monstrous heel stone in just
the right place to mark this

day's sunrise every year?

It's outside of the ring.
It's over 200 feet outside

of the ring.
It is 16 feet tall.

It's probably got another
four feet in the ground

just to keep it stable,
and it weighs 35 tons.

Was Stonehenge a Sun
temple with its focus at

The Heel Stone?
Do other stones point to

the Sun as well?
The ruined monument we see

today is incomplete,
so the answers may lie in

just how the giant stones
were originally arranged.

The main ring was a series
of vertical slabs topped

with heavy crosspieces.
These lintels, as well as

the uprights, were made of
sarsen stone, a type of

sandstone common to the area.
The Sarsen Circle is

180 feet across, 30 stones.

Average weight can be anywhere

between 20 and 40 tons.

This is as large as a fully

loaded cement truck.

This construction task boggles
the mind even today.

Narrator: Inside the sarsen
ring is a horseshoe arrangement

of heavy stone arches, each
piece weighing up to 50 tons.

They're known by a deceptively
forbidding name, The Trilithons.

"Trilithon" just means
"three stones," three stones

in this configuration.
So two giant stones have

been stuck into the ground
with another giant stone

then carefully placed on top.

To work out the link
between the stones and

the Sun's changing path
through the sky, you would need

to visit Stonehenge every day
for a year and place cameras

in dozens of locations,
but now there's a better

way to look at Stonehenge
from every angle through

the power of state-of-the-art
computer graphics.

So in the simulation,
we're present-day summer

solstice sunrise.
We're camming out, coming up

over the monument,
taking at look at its

present state, advancing
the Sun as well, shadows come

across the surface,
and looks beautiful.

Narrator: Professor John
Filwalk heads up IDIA Lab at

Indiana's Ball State University.
It was started as part of

a $40 million project to
use computers to visualize

what our eyes cannot.
Massive processing power

immerses us in the
ancient monument.

To decipher the mysteries
of the silent stones.

Coming to the Sarsen Ring,

and we can take a look at the
*** the back, the main one.

Through the needle there.

Spin around so we can see
the features out there.

Narrator: Using exact
measurements of the stones

taken by archaeologists,
the computer's camera can

move around a precisely
reconstructed virtual

- Stonehenge.
- The simulation is as

accurate as can be.

We have an accurate model,

it's positioned accurately,

and the data is also accurate.

So what you're observing

is precise.

Astronomical data
compiled by NASA adds

the positions of everything in
the sky seen from the stones,

just as if you were
standing there.

And by typing in a date
and time of day,

we board an electronic
time machine that carries us

to any moment in the past,
present, or future.

Watching the sunrise
position change from month

- to month is effortless.
- At this point, let's advance

one month and see what happens.
You can see the Sun roughly

- framed by the sarsens there.
Narrator: - If we place the

computer's camera in the
center of Stonehenge,

one thing becomes
immediately clear.

Your eyes are drawn to
the horizon.

Modern man pays little
attention to the horizon.

In our cities, it all but
disappears, but for ancient

astronomers tracking the Sun,
the horizon was a key

- reference point.
- If you want to do

astronomy simply, it's really
hard to find things in

the middle of the sky,
to accurately locate them

when they're directly overhead.
But the horizon's a great

place to try and get an
accurate measurement of

how things are changing on
the sky.

Ancient astronomers

could see that the Sun

rises and sets at different

places on the horizon

during the year.

Because the Earth's axis
is tilted, the northern

hemisphere leans away from
the sun in winter,

making the sunrise seen
from Stonehenge farther south.

In the summer, the tilt is
toward the sun, making

the sunrise farther north.

Narrator: When it rises on
the first day of summer,

the Sun is as far north as
it ever gets.

Its position, in fact,
may have been so important

at Stonehenge, the central
axis of the entire site points

directly at it.

But other stones mark
the Sun too.

Take, for instance,
the massive trilithons.

And each one of those
appears to be a site for

an event on the horizon,
so for example, I can turn

to one of the trilithons
on the sunset of the first

day of summer and watch the Sun
set right through the middle,

and the sunlight will come
through like a dagger,

right into the heart of
the monument, right to where

- I'm standing.
Narrator: - But the summer

sunrise over the heel stone has
always seemed the most

important marker.
It's in line with the

ceremonial approach called
"The Avenue."

The crowds face northeast,
looking down The Avenue,

to witness the event each year.
But new evidence now suggests

that the true main event at
Stonehenge plays out in

a totally different direction
in a completely

different month.

Narrator: For thousands of
years, the monument we know as

Stonehenge has defied
definition, but today, many

believe it was an early
astronomers' site.

Was this a prehistoric
observatory with a spiritual

connection to the cycles
of the universe?

Exactly what was it its
builder saw?

The annual arrival of the
crowds celebrating sunrise

in the northeast on summer's
first day support the notion

that this was the main
event here.

But new evidence turns
this theory upside down.

It suggests that astronomer
priests conducted their most

sacred rites in
the other direction.

A high-tech laser scan in
2011 revealed something

totally new about the main
Sarsen Circle.

The sarsens seem to

have been very, very

carefully worked to look

their most beautiful on that

approach from the northeast

and as you go into the monument,

not looking from

the other direction.

Narrator: But what happens
as we do look in

that other direction?
The Sun is behind us.

The stones cast their
shadows ahead.

Were the Stonehenge builders
Sun worshipers who warned us,

"Look away from the
powerful God"?

Or could it be that the crowd
is not only facing the wrong

way, they are here on
the wrong day?

Happy solstice!

Narrator: If we spin forward
in time, half a year of

sunrises and sunsets have gone
by, and we reach the moment

when the Sun again appears
directly in front of us.

It happens in December on
the first day of winter,

when we see not the sunrise,
but the sunset.

Only one leg of the largest
trilithon still stands,

but in antiquity, it fully
framed the breathtaking event.

Was the brilliant winter sunset
an object of special worship?

If you walk up to a church,
you don't get into the church

and then turn round to see
the altar behind you.

The sacred stuff is ahead
of you, and by that same

argument, you might expect that
the sacred stuff at Stonehenge

is going to be ahead of you,
to the southwest.

Narrator: The new discovery
upends our assumptions.

If winter sunset was most
important, what other secrets of

the universe are hidden
within Stonehenge?

For answers, we must push past
the stones pointing to

the sunrises and sunsets
that have dominated

observations here.
Outside the main Sarsen Circle

were four station stones
laid out in a rectangle.

Their positions strongly
suggest they were meant as

sight line markers to something.
But what?

If you actually look at
the sides of that rectangle,

they just miss the stones
of the sarsen monument.

Now, only two of these station
stones are left now, but if you

had all four of them and you
looked along one side,

you'd have just seen one
corner from the other.

Narrator: To solve the
mystery of the station stones,

we return to the computer lab.
We set up the virtual camera

behind one stone and aim at
another across the long side of

the station stone rectangle.
We turn day into night,

and suddenly, we see the Moon.
As it sets just behind

the distant stone, the secret
begins to reveal itself.

The station stones may point
to the strange travels of the Moon.

In any given month, you'll see the
Moon do what the Sun does in a year.

It goes to the north and
goes to the south.

Narrator: The Moon itself
does not travel back and forth

across the horizon.
What we observe is the travel

of the places where the Moon
rises and sets every day.

One back-and-forth cycle
takes place every month.

With the station stones
pointing to lunar positions

and other stones aimed at
the Sun, some researchers

and scientists now believe Stonehenge
was designed for a dual purpose.

Right from the beginning,

it was a lunisolar observatory
or temple or a monument

to track the Sun and the Moon
positions on the horizon.

Narrator: But Moon tracking
is far more difficult than

watching the Sun.
How could Stonehenge's

astronomers have understood
the complex cycles of the Moon?

Even today's astronomers have
trouble visualizing how lunar

motions in space translate
into the Moon's march across

the horizon as it rises
and sets on Earth.

Think of yourself in
a rocket ship out in space,

looking at the Earth and Moon.

We know the earth is rotating
on a tilted axis, but at

the same time, the Moon
revolves around the Earth

in an orbit that has a tilt
of its own.

But to understand how the Moon
looks to us from Earth's

surface, I actually like
to turn the picture around,

with the Earth on its side
and the Moon at its southernmost

point on its tilted orbit.
If we zoom into Earth's surface

and look at the horizon,
we can see why the Moon

would appear to be rising
in the east, but also, for now,

- off to the south to some degree.
Narrator: - Seeing the Moon in

the southeast, the Stonehenge
astronomers would next have

watched for it to reach
the north end of the horizon.

The Moon takes about a month
to go around the Earth,

so in half that time,
about two weeks, the Moon

is at the other side
of its orbit.

Now, if we go back out into
space, it looks like this,

but to see how it looks
from Earth's surface,

we have to swing our
rocket ship all the way

around to the other side
of the planet.

When we do that, we can see
the Moon rising in the east

again, but now it's off to
the north by some amount

- instead of to the south.
Narrator: - But in aiming their

stones, the builders of
Stonehenge may have also

discovered a subtle secret in
the range of the Moon's motion.

The remarkable thing is,

over a period of about

18.61 years, this range

actually changes,

so after about nine years,

it'll decrease a bit,

and then in another nine years,

it'll go back to what it

was before.

So the range of lunar risings
is actually changing,

like an accordion sliding
back and forth over time,

- with a very well-defined cycle.
Narrator: - Over the course of

its monthly swings, the Moon
will reach two extreme

north/south positions in its
narrow range and a different

pair in its wide range,
four extreme positions in all,

and these are the targets
at which Stonehenge's

builders apparently
pointed their stones.

The lunar connection
showed up in 1961,

when Boston University
astronomer Gerald Hawkins

did the first computer
calculations of sight lines

at Stonehenge.
His findings turned

the ancient ruin into a symbol
of mankind's quest to connect

to the universe.
Hawkins's conclusions

remain controversial,
but many scientists still

respect the accuracy of
his work.

I don't think anybody
doubts the integrity of

his surveying work and his
calculations, and certainly

some of that was duplicated,
again, not just by others

but by Hawkins himself.

Narrator: But could a culture
without writing, a people

with only oral traditions,
have built up the knowledge

to develop such a keen
understanding of the moon

and its motions?

It really is an issue
of how long that cycle is.

A cycle that's, say, around

18 years long still is not

so long that it couldn't be

passed on orally from

generation to generation.

Narrator: The 18.61 years in
the Moon's cycle may have

figured in a bizarre numerical
code that remains one of

Stonehenge's most enduring
mysteries.

It is only one of many
on our journey to uncover

Stonehenge's true purpose,
like the mystery of

the missing rocks,
holes in the ground where

stones have disappeared.

Narrator: We are separated
from the builders of Stonehenge

by 5,000 years or more.
How can we possibly

understand what they
really meant to do,

so long before modern science
began revealing the nature

of the universe?
The achievement of the ancient

Britons is awesome.
But is there enough left

of Stonehenge to tell us
the whole story?

What we see of Stonehenge

is just half, or less,

of what Stonehenge really

once was.

Narrator: Fortunately,
Stonehenge hides some of

its greatest mysteries
underground, where signs of

- its many missing stones survive.
- There are marks there

of things that are no
longer there!

We have to speculate.
So what you can do is,

you can scrape off the surface
to get to the chalk bedrock.

To set these stones into
the landscape at Stonehenge

required making a socket down
into the chalk to keep these

giant big stones steady.
Those sockets are still there.

Narrator: While some sockets
held the big rocks, others

held wooden poles, and there
are hundreds of them.

Were these astronomical markers?
Along with the stones that

still remain, they would have
represented the advanced

technology of their time.

In the California desert,
advanced technology of our

own time may well become
a puzzle for the future.

5,000 years from now,
if all other clues have

disappeared, what might
people think of this?

Wow, look at that thing.
It's amazing.

What is that?

I would imagine a future
archaeoastronomer would

fairly quickly assume it's
some sort of ceremonial site.

They would see a monumental
metal structure.

Maybe it functioned as some
sort of sundial, maybe a place

of gathering since there's
no other habitation in the area.

All I can think of is
"Look where I am standing".

I'm standing in a huge desert,

I've got a horizon
360 degrees around.

It just feels like
it's a monument to the sky.

Because that is where
my eyes are concentrating.

It's the huge sky
that I'm seeing above me.

Narrator: Modern astronomers,
of course, can identify

- it instantly.
- This is really

state-of-the-art.
25-meter, 82-foot-across,

- dish-shaped radio telescope.
Narrator: - This modern

observatory conceals a clue
about the mysterious holes in

the chalk beneath the turf
at Stonehenge.

In radio astronomy,
scientists constantly

adjust their telescopes by
sighting distant,

ultra-bright galactic cores
called quasars to calibrate

their readings.
Did the Stonehengers go through

- a similar tweaking process?
- There are a number of

holes that have been dug
into the gap in the ditch

in the bank that surrounds
Stonehenge.

Narrator: The holes are among
many that held wooden posts,

easier to move than
the giant stones.

What's interesting is
that they're on that main

alignment that we know is
critical to Stonehenge,

because it's the rising of
the summer solstice Sun.

It's the setting of
the winter solstice Sun.

We've got this beautiful
alignment.

So what are these holes?
I gotta wonder if perhaps

this was fine-tuning
the positioning of markers

inside and outside
the monument.

Narrator: But four holes
hidden beneath the turf near

the heel stone may have aimed
not for the Sun, but the Moon.

They show how Stonehengers
might have tried to find a place

for a wooden post that would
point to the moon when it

rose at the farthest point
north it ever reached on

the horizon.
At IDIA lab, computer experts

dial in the coordinates for
their virtual Stonehenge to

show how the ancient observatory
may have been calibrated.

The ancient astronomers
knew, generally, the most

northern position of
the moonrise, but they needed

- some means of fine-tuning that.
Narrator: - By placing wooden

posts in the four poles,
Stonehengers may have expected

one of them to be close to
the most northern moonrise.

Virtual Stonehenge computes
the Moon's position and reveals

- the secret.
- At the fourth hole from

the position of the Sarsen
Circle center, we actually

do see a precise alignment.

Narrator: Who were these
people apparently so intent on

tracking the Sun and Moon?

What we're seeing here
is the transition from

the Old Stone Age to the New
Stone Age, and the essential

development of the New Stone Age
was human beings domesticating themselves.

They were staying in one place,
and they were starting to farm.

Narrator: These semi-nomadic
farmers and herders were

the first to start
building at Stonehenge.

They dug the circular ditch
and bank around 3,000 BC,

perhaps even earlier.
An opening in the northeast

faced the summer sunrise.
Over the next 1,500 years,

successor tribes added
the big stones, arranging

and rearranging them into
the array whose ruins

remain today.

If astronomical alignments
were in fact built into

Stonehenge, why was tracking
the Sun and Moon important?

So many other cultures
worshiped the Sun and

the Moon as gods, so it's not
a huge leap to then assume

that the people of Stonehenge
were also worshiping the Sun

and the Moon as gods.

Narrator: Early man watched
the Sun and Moon to keep time

for thousands of years
before Stonehenge, but here,

the counting of the days
and years may have been

- an ancient sacrament.
- The sky was the first

clock, but in many ways,
Stonehenge and the monuments

like it were a way of creating
a culture that ritualized time

in some sense.

Narrator: Over 15 centuries,
Stonehenge's builders dug holes,

hauled stones, shifted them
around, added some,

subtracted others.
Was this the realm of ancient

astronomers?
Or was it the lair of a secret

cult in a long lost religion
with its faith founded in science?

The enduring mystery of Stonehenge may
rest not with its massive

rocks but in the cosmic
patterns of the universe.

Sight lines between the stones
align so well to the Sun

and Moon, it seems like
an ancient observatory,

but at a time when human
cultures were dominated by

strange gods and superstitions,
did Stonehenge's farmers

and herders achieve some
of mankind's first

scientific discoveries?

Agriculture was a technology,

but it couldn't be separated

from the sense of the mythic,

of the sense of the religious,

the sense of that there were

sacred powers being invoked

every time you planted

seeds in the ground.

So the idea that all that
was happening here was

religion is a mistake,
just like saying all that

was happening there was
some kind of proto-science

is also a mistake.
You couldn't separate them

out for these cultures.

Narrator: Without written
records, the stones are our

only evidence of the monument's
connection to the universe.

Today we think of astronomers
as scientists, precision

observers who attack
the mysteries of space

with precision instruments.
Did they inherit the legacy

left by the ancient astronomers
and their stones?

All of these are actually

precision-built for their

technology 5,000 years ago.

That's the reason why some of

them are still standing today.

They were that well

put together.

Narrator: But just how
precise was this precision-built

monument?
The Sun and Moon sight lines

among Stonehenge's rocks are
accurate to about one degree.

There's a simple trick

we astronomers use for
estimating on degree in the sky.

If you hold out your
pinkie finger at arm's length

and look at how wide
it appears,

that's about one degree.

Now, the Sun and the Moon are each
about half a degree in size, so,

your pinkie finger is about twice
the width of the Sun or the Moon.

Narrator: In today's world,

what we call precision is
much more demanding.

A degree 5,000 years ago

was probably good enough

for what they were trying to do.

These days, we talk about
locating things in the sky

to accuracies of fractions
of an arc second, and an arc

second is a few thousandths
of a degree.

Narrator: But at Stonehenge,
was one degree enough?

Thousands of pilgrims each
year will swear that the

sun rises directly above
the heel stone, but one-degree

accuracy gives them some
wiggle room.

As the virtual Stonehenge
demonstrates, if the Sun and

the heel stone don't quite
line up, a simple step to

one side is all it takes to
make it good enough.

To see the Sun rising

from Stonehenge over

the heel stone today,

you just go to the center

of the monument and wait

for the Sun to come up,

and of course, it'll do that.

And if you're off to the side
a few feet, well, it'll be off

a little bit, but it'll be
close enough for most people,

because they're at the solstice,
and they're at Stonehenge.

And that's what matters,
because the Sun is coming up

and people are charmed
by the convergence of all

- of these details.
Narrator: - Precisely observing

the sunrise at Stonehenge is
complicated by the slanted

path the Sun takes through
the sky.

When the Sun first breaks
the horizon, it is just to

the left of the heel stone.
Rising on a slanted path,

it travels up and to the right,
eventually appearing over

the heel stone like a golf
ball on a tee.

The summer sunrise
alignment has troubled

observers who point out
that today's heel stone is

tilted and once stood taller.
In addition, when we punch in

a summer sunrise from
5,000 years ago,

our computer simulation
shows the sun rising even

farther to the left.
Does this seriously challenge

the precision of Stonehenge?

What most people don't
realize is that there was

a companion stone, almost
certainly, to the heel stone.

Narrator: It is another one
of the monument's

missing stones.
The chalk hole in which it

stood was discovered in 1979,
when a ditch had to be dug

for a local telephone line.
Archaeologists excavated

ahead of the construction crew,
and a long-hidden secret

of Stonehenge was revealed.
Its existence may solve

the puzzling discrepancy
surrounding Stonehenge's

- accuracy.
- We don't know for certain

the two stones stood together,
but it seems highly likely,

given the symmetry of things.
These stones would've

stood symmetrically.
Midsummer sunrise would have

risen exactly between them.

Narrator: Accuracy in
observing positions of the Sun

and Moon is the domain of space,
but the Stonehengers

might have also sought
precision in probing

the mysteries of time.
The cycle of the Sun was

one tool, and the Moon,
even better.

In terms of tracking time,
the Moon may have been more

important to early peoples
than the Sun, because what

happens with the Moon?
The Moon goes through this

remarkable change in phases,
from new, to where it's

completely invisible, to full,
and back again.

Narrator: The Moon's cycle of
phases takes 29 1/2 days,

a time span that shows up
at Stonehenge in the 30

Y holes and 29 Z holes.
The holes were discovered

in 1923 and surround the main
stone ring.

By counting 29 days in one
month and 30 in another,

the early astronomers kept pace
with the 29 1/2 day lunar cycle.

But counting the various
rings and rows of stones

and holes at Stonehenge
drives us even deeper into

its mystery.
Why are there 19 stones in

one arrangement?
Why are there 56 holes

in another?
Could these numbers hide

an ancient code with
the power to predict future

events in the universe?

The sky and Stonehenge appear to be
silent partners.

No user manual exists,
because the Stonehengers

had no writing.
Still, they may have left us

a secret astronomical message
encoded in numbers.

Consider the number
four groups of stones and holes.

19, 29, 30, and 56.

What could these numbers mean?

These are numbers that
only describe the periodicities

that can be associated with one
unique astronomical object,

and that is the Moon.

Narrator: While the 29 and 30
Y and Z holes represent

the lunar month, 19 small blue
stones inside the big Sarsen

Circle represent the Moon's
long-known Metonic Cycle.

Let's say we have a full
Moon on July 4th of this year.

Well, next year, the Moon won't
be full on July 4th.

It'll be some other phase.
To have a full Moon on

July 4th again, you need
to wait 19 years, and that's

the Metonic Cycle.

Narrator: But the mystery of
a Moon-based code goes even

deeper at Stonehenge.
There's another hidden number

in a large outer circle
formed by the baffling

Aubrey holes.

The Aubrey holes are
named for John Aubrey,

who in the 1600s was one of the
first people to notice these funny

indentations outside the
stone circle at Stonehenge.

They are a set of 56 pits.
They're evenly spaced in

a perfect circle just inside
the ditch and bank.

Narrator: The fact that
the holes number 56 hints

at what may be Stonehenge's
most controversial theory.

They've been thought, by some, to be
part of an astronomical computer,

that the 56 holes could be
used to mark the 18.6-year

cycle and 56-year cycles that
underlie eclipse predictions.

Narrator: What could
the number 56 at Stonehenge

have to do with predicting
eclipses?

If 56 is a lunar number,
it must relate to the full Moon,

because without it, there can
never be a lunar eclipse.

Suppose the Earth is here
and the Sun is over there.

You can have a full Moon
only when the Moon is on

the opposite side of the Earth
relative to the Sun,

so it would be over here.
Now, if the Moon, Earth,

and Sun are exactly in
a straight line, the Earth

will cast a shadow on the Moon,
and that's called

- a lunar eclipse.
Narrator: - The Stonehenge

eclipse computer, with its 56
Aubrey holes, may have

worked like this.
After one lunar eclipse,

the challenge was to figure
when it would happen again.

After 19 years in the Metonic
Cycle, the Moon was full

on the same date but at
a slightly different position

in the sky.
When would it be not only full

but in exactly the same spot
lined up with the Earth

and Sun for an eclipse?

The number that works
is not 19, not 56,

but 18.61 years,
the same time it takes

the Moon's back-and-forth
trip on the horizon to expand

and contract.
It's a way to pinpoint

the Moon's position and so
predict the mystical arrival

- of a lunar eclipse.
- During a total lunar eclipse,

the Moon can turn a deep orange
color or even blood red,

so that must've been a pretty
compelling, even frightening,

event for ancient peoples
who worshiped it.

Narrator: But the
Stonehengers, without writing,

could not deal with fractions.
Counting to 18.61 was

impossible, and that is where
the 56 Aubrey holes come in.

The number 56 is also
the sum of the number 19

and 18 and 19.

So by using the 56 Aubrey
holes to count 19 years,

then 18, then 19 again,

the count per year averaged
less than half a percent

from 18.61, the very number
needed to track the Moon's

exact positions on the horizon and predict
danger periods when eclipses might occur.

Without physical or written
evidence, the eclipse connection

at Stonehenge is not
widely accepted.

Skeptics believe numerical
clues, like the number of

Aubrey holes, mean nothing.

The fact there's 56 of them--

well, there has to be some
number of them.

I mean, it's 56 because it
happens to be 56.

Narrator: Or perhaps we have
vastly underestimated

Stonehenge's astronomers.
Was this monument really

a sacred observatory?

Until we find written
records from that era,

if we ever do, or we build
a time machine to go back,

really, we're stuck
with plausibility.

Narrator: But plausibility
leaves open an astounding

conclusion, that the ancient
shamans were astronomers and

Stonehenge their observatory.
5,000 years ago,

their observations
achieved a level not seen

elsewhere in the world for
almost 2,000 years.

Perhaps they were the first to map the
path of the Sun across the year's seasons,

the first to calculate
the lengthy cycles of the Moon,

and even the first to predict
the timing of eclipses.

If so, the people of Stonehenge

were our earliest space
scientists, embarking on

mankind's historic exploration
of the universe.

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