(Newswire.net — January 2, 2020) — Archaeologists have found traces of massive lightning strikes within a 4,000-year-old standing stone site in Lewis, which indicates early men may have used this ancient sanctuary to attract lightning, BBC reports.
The monument is believed to be intentionally built to attract lightning and thunder, BBC reports. The monument makes upright stones deliberately lined up around a point where the traces of lightning strikes can be clearly seen. Experts believe the stones were intentionally aligned to attract lightning which could give a new meaning to the site, a more practical one.
Archaeologist Dr Richard Bates, of the University of St Andrews, claims that the association with this stone circle is unlikely to be coincidental. He also said that such clear evidence for lightning strikes is “extremely rare in the UK.”
It is uncertain “Whether the lightning at Site XI focused on a tree or rock which is no longer there, or the monument itself attracted strikes” Dr Bates said, but he is pretty sure the lighting was attracted intentionally. That means that in Neolithic time priests possessed a greater knowledge on lightning than we give them credit for.
What experts, however, cannot determine is whether the stone circle was erected around a point hit by lightning or built to attract the natural phenomena to strike the specific place within the center of the stone circle.
What makes the discovery important is that it indicates that the forces of nature were closely linked to the daily life and beliefs of the island’s first farming communities.
According to Dr Bates the construction of a stone circle was deliberately placed in a dominant position above the Calanais complex, which could indicate the intention.
The discovery was made by the Calanais Virtual Reconstruction Project, a joint venture led by the University of St Andrews with standing stones trust Urras nan Tursachan and the University of Bradford and supported by funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise.