2. Solstice and Equinox

The Equinox (Vernal & Autumnal)


There are only two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. These events are referred to as Equinoxes. The days become a little longer at the higher latitudes (those at a distance from the equator) because it takes the sun longer to rise and set. 

The Solstices (Summer & Winter)


The summer solstice occurs at the moment the earth's tilt toward from the sun is at a maximum. The summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, which is located at 23.5° latitude North, and runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and southern China. For every place north of the Tropic of Cancer, the sun is at its highest point in the sky and this is the longest day of the year.

The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, it occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is located at 23.5° south of the equator and runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil, and northern South Africa.

Source: https://www.weather.gov/cle/Seasons

Actividad desplegable

Read the following text, then match the sites with the statements. There is one extra statement you do not need to use.

5 Ancient sites aligned with the solstice and equinox. How our ancestors tracked the seasons.

Machu Picchu
Image in Wikimedia Commons under CC license

Our ancestors lived amidst nature more than most of us do today. They observed the universe, marveling in its rhythms. They used the Sun and the Moon as a sort of calendar, tracking the Sun's path across the sky. Here are some examples of the ancient sites and monuments that aligned with the solstice and equinox.

Our ancestors built the first observatories to track the sun's progress.

1. MACHU PICCHU

Machu Picchu is the transcendent City of the Incas. This archaeological site is perched atop a mountain overlooking the Urubamba Valley in Peru.

There is a giant stone at the top of this sacred mountain called Intihuatana, which means "the place when the sun gets tied." Amazingly, the stone is perfectly positioned so each corner sits at the four cardinal points (north, south, east and west). Therefore, the stone is a precise indicator of the date of the two equinoxes; it's a solar click.

2. CHICHEN ITZA

At what is now Chichen Itza ("CHEE-chen-EET-sa"), Mexico, Mayans built a huge pyramid around the year A.D. 1000. The play of the Sun's light on it signals the beginning of the seasons.

On the spring equinox, for example, the light pattern looks like a snake. Mayans called this day "the return of the Sun serpent."

3. STONEHENGE

Every year on the summer solstice, thousands of people travel to Wiltshire, England to Stonehenge, a place with huge stones that were arranged in a circle around 3000 B.C. The huge monument marks the relation between the Sun and the seasons.

On the dawning of the summer solstice, the sun rises directly above the Heel Stone—a mysterious prehistoric monument whose origins, depending on interpretation, were as an ancient burial ground, an astrological observatory, even a supernatural phenomenon.

4. CHACO CANYON

In today's Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, the Ancestral Puebloan people, who were expert sky watchers, carved spiral designs into rock to track the seasons and record the passage of time.

In this canyon is a petroglyph called the Sun Dagger because of the way the Sun's wedge-shape beams strike it in midday during the summer and winter solstices.

5. NEWGRANGE

Around 3200 B.C., ancient people in Ireland built a huge mound of dirt and surrounded it with stones. Today, the knoll is called Newgrange.

For five days over the winter solstice period, a beam of sunlight illuminates a small room inside the mound for 17 minutes at dawn. The room holds only twenty people at a time.

Every year, thousands enter a lottery in hope of being one of the hundred people allowed to enter.

Source: https://www.almanac.com/content/five-ancient-sites-aligned-solstice-and-equinox

a. There is no consensus on the origin of this site.
b. This site was originally a cemetery.
c. The stone at this site works like an exact compass
d. Only small groups of people can visit this small hill
e. In this site rays of sunlight illuminate prehistoric stone carving 
f. The light of the Sun over this monument resembles an animal during a specific equinox

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Stonehenge
Image in Wikimedia Commons under CC license

What do you know about Stonehenge? Take this quiz to test yourself.

To learn more about why Stonehenge was built you can visit this site.

You can take a virtual tour of Stonehenge here.

Pregunta de Elección Múltiple

Pregunta

Watch the video about Stonehenge and for each statement choose A, B, or C.


Video by Vox  on YouTube

1. It took a thousand years...

Respuestas

a. to build Stonehenge

b. to arrive at the final version of Stonehenge

c. to make variations to Stonehenge

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

2. Standing Trilithons at Stonehenge...

Respuestas

a. are 30 meters tall

b. were propped in the 1950's

c. used to be only two before the 1950's

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

3. Bluestones...

Respuestas

a. were carried all the way to Stonehenge by people

b. weigh as much as a herd of hippopotamus

c. were geologically traced to more than 200 km away from the site

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

4. Part of the data about the chronology of Stonehenge...

Respuestas

a. comes from some organic material found at the site

b. was found in written records that Neolithic people left

c. was provided by prehistoric archaeologists

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

5. Sarsen stones...

Respuestas

a. are heavier than steel

b. had to be moved from a local site

c. were shaped uniformly with the help of stone instruments

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

6. Stonehenge...

Respuestas

a. was designed following some sort of astronomical studies

b. was built for burial purposes

c. shows a perfect alignment with the summer solstice

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

7. The people at Stonehenge...

Respuestas

a. were aware of how the earth moves and what that implied

b. appreciated the importance of the winter solstice, judging by how Stonehenge was designed

c. pilgrimaged to other monuments in order to slaughter pigs

Retroalimentación