Scottish short stone rows

Abstract

Short stone rows received a good deal of attention during the 1980s and 1990s, at a time when archaeoastronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland was moving beyond reassessments of Alexander Thom-s “megalithic observatories” by identifying coherent groups of similar monuments with clear orientation trends. Many such rows are found in western Scotland, with the main concentration in Argyll and the island of Mull. Systematic analyses of their orientations produced credible evidence of an awareness of the 18.6-year lunar node cycle, within a “primary-secondary” pattern whereby isolated rows were oriented close to moonrise or moonset at the southern major standstill limit, while others oriented in this way were accompanied by a second row oriented in a declination range that could be interpreted either as lunar or solar. A detailed investigation of the landscape situation of the sites in northern Mull, accompanied by excavations at two of the sites, suggested that they were deliberately placed in locations where critical moonsets would be seen against prominent distant landscape features, but where the distant horizon in most or all other directions was hidden from view. A lack of independent archaeological evidence may help to explain why archaeoastronomical investigations at short stone rows have never progressed beyond “data-driven” studies of orientations and landscape situation. Nonetheless, the work that was done at these sites raised important general methodological issues, and pioneered techniques, that remain relevant across archaeoastronomy today.