Linda Howe at UK Stonehenge
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Two months ago, we reported on a
Stonehenge that has been discovered in Brazil. Now
archeologists are learning more about it. Here's what points
to the idea that the huge rocks may be a calendar, like
Stonehenge is: on December 21, which is the shortest day of
the year, the shadow of one of the blocks disappears.
It was important for early humans to keep track of the
shortest and longest days of the year, because when the
days began to get longer, they knew that the harsh winter
was over for another year and that their lives would therefore
continue. Scholars say that we don't know the real date of
the birth of
Jesus,
but that December 25 was chosen because it's a date when
calendar-watchers would be assured that spring was again
coming to the earth.
In LiveScience.com, Stan Lehman quotes archeologist
Mariana Petry Cabral as saying, "It is this block's alignment
with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was
once an astronomical observatory.''
Just like the overgrown Mayan cities that were hidden deep in
the jungles, locals in the area have known about the
monument for a long time. Archeologists didn't recognize
what it was until the saw it from the air by helicopter and
noticed, Cabral says, "the unique circular structure on top of
the hill.'' These days, satellite photos of the earth are often
what tip them off.
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