Archaeoastronomy in the British Isles - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 73

hill of Clisham, as varied by the 9 min wobble. At Temple Wood
in Argyllshire there are five possible sight-lines to major stand-
still (north) setting, three of them marked by stones. One of these
aligns with the maximum northerly perturbation, and one of the
possible ones would have given the southerly perturbation, plus
other subtler variations (Fig. 4.19a ). Outside the ring of Brodgar,
the Thoms believed, a thousand years after it was first built nine
viewing stations were set up, and of these no fewer than seven
were “activated” at the extremes of the wobble [ 9 ].
Now, unless all the alignments of this class are coincidence
(a claim which at this stage seems, frankly, pretty desperate),
only two possibilities now arise. Of them Alexander Thom says,
in Megalithic Sites in Britain : “megalithic Man's interest in the
9 min oscillation probably arose from the fact that eclipses can
happen only when the Moon's declination is near the top of one of
these waves [ 9 ] .” Perhaps so, although, as we have seen, the effect
could have been discovered just by continuing observation at one
of the accurately aligned, more northerly, sites. If the connection
with eclipses was not recognized, then there are enough sites of
this type to suggest that the effect was studied out of pure interest,
which sounds like scientific inquiry.
If the connection with eclipses was recognized, then the pre-
dictions may well have been used to awe the superstitious popu-
lace and increase the power of the priests. But inductive reasoning
and prediction are usually taken to be the tests of scientific insight,
whatever the motivation for the research program. Either way, the
northward push of the observing program to sites where the effect
could be measured suggests that there was indeed a nationwide
class of astronomers.
If the motive was pure research, perhaps pilgrimages were
made to the northerly sites as to Jerusalem or Mecca. But, if - as
is more probable - the underlying motive was the acquisition of
more power for the priests, then it wouldn't do for knowledge of
an impending eclipse to be confined to remote sites such as Bal-
linaby on the west coast of Islay. There would have to be boats
and runners and beacons and horn signals to get the word from
the islands, if that was where the key sightings were made, all
the way to the high priests of Stonehenge and Avebury, if not to
Carnac. Given that even in Neolithic times the weather was not