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[Mike Williams]

Humans probably always noticed the movement of the sun across the sky, and celebrated the extremes of its rising and setting on the days of the solstices, but it is only when people began to build monuments during the Neolithic, about 3,000 BC, that we have clear evidence of the importance of these times.

Stonehenge is perhaps the best known of all the Neolithic monuments and is generally associated with the summer solstice, but this may have more to do with modern use of the site rather than ancient practice. New research at adjacent Durrington Walls reveals a Neolithic village, although the makeshift nature of the houses suggests that people did not live there all year round but only visited at special times. These were clearly rowdy occasions, as the copious remains of butchered pigs attest, and sumptuous feats were definitely on the menu. But the remains tell us something else. Most of the pigs were around eight or nine months old. Assuming that they had been born in the early spring months, people were eating them around the winter and not the summer solstice. Since these same people almost certainly held ceremonies at the neighbouring stone circle at Stonehenge, it suggests that it was first and foremost, a winter monument.

Walking towards the stones from the avenue that winds up from the river, the setting sun of the midwinter solstice bisects the circle as it sinks across the plain and into the underworld of night. Perhaps this was the most auspicious and dangerous times for these communities and a great monument and attendant celebration was necessary to ensure that the sun returned the next morning and, with it, the lengthening days that promised new life and the continuation of their world.

It may also be significant that a timber circle contained within Durrington Walls was aligned to the rising sun at midwinter (as were the ‘walls’ themselves). If people returned to the village after watching the sun set at Stonehenge, they did not have far to go to see it rise. Maybe this was the dichotomy they sought: death at Stonehenge and life at Durrington Walls.

The dichotomy of life and death may also be evident within burial tombs, most famously at Newgrange in Ireland. Here, a shaft of sunlight from the midwinter sunrise pierces the passage to the burial chamber and lights the interior. Was this a way of symbolically bringing the dead back to life or a means of making their transition to the afterlife smoother. At another tomb, the Clava cairns in Scotland, it is the setting sun at midwinter that enters the tomb and lights the interior. Clearly, the meaning of the attendant symbolism was more complex than a single site can reveal.

The Dorest Cursus, a ceremonial route running 10 kilometres across the land, was orientated so that anyone observing the setting sun on the midwinter solstice from within the western terminal of the earthworks would observe the glowing disc descend behind (or, in their eyes, perhaps within) a round barrow located on an adjacent ridge. It must have made a powerful spectacle.

Similarly, at Long Meg and her Daughters, a stone circle in Cumbria, the outlying stone called Long Meg delineates the position of the setting of the midwinter sun for anyone situated within the circle. Like the Dorset Cursus, people had to be included and allowed into a sanctified space for the event for it to be truly appreciated.

The inclusion of a special few, whilst excluding others (and this would have been especially pressing within the tombs, assuming the living witnessed the event at all) may hint at the politics of power that surrounded the solstice. An attitude that is prescient of all that has happened since, when the returning sun, has to many, become the returning son.

[Anew]

Hi Mike,

Some items, opinions, (and speculation ), to consider :

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This ambitious phase has been radiocarbon dated to between 2600 and 2400 BC,[13] slightly earlier than the Stonehenge Archer, discovered in the outer ditch of the monument in 1978, and the two sets of burials, known as the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen, discovered 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) to the west. At about the same time, a large timber circle and a second avenue were constructed 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) away at Durrington Walls overlooking the River Avon. The timber circle was orientated towards the rising sun on the midwinter solstice, opposing the solar alignments at Stonehenge, whilst the avenue was aligned with the setting sun on the summer solstice and led from the river to the timber circle. Evidence of huge fires on the banks of the Avon between the two avenues also suggests that both circles were linked, and they were perhaps used as a procession route on the longest and shortest days of the year. Parker Pearson speculates that the wooden circle at Durrington Walls was the centre of a 'land of the living', whilst the stone circle represented a 'land of the dead', with the Avon serving as a journey between the two.[14]

~ from Wikipedia on Stonehenge, (3 II)

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Although there is evidence of some early Neolithic activity at the site, most of the structures seem to have been built in the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age. At some point around approximately 2600BC, a large timber circle was constructed. It is now known as the Southern Circle. The circle was oriented southeast towards the sunrise on the midwinter solstice and consisted of four large concentric circles of postholes, which would have held extremely large standing timbers. A metalled avenue was also constructed on a slightly different alignment – towards the sunset on the summer solstice – that led to the River Avon. This feature is similar to the Stonehenge Avenue. A large timber post lay on this orientation, about as far away from the circle as the Heelstone is from Stonehenge.

~ from Wikipedia on Durrington Walls

Stonehenge can indeed be interpreted as a temple for both winter and summer solstices, (and i think a good deal more) ; and the winter solstice sunset at Stonehenge, (through the stones), is now held to have been particularly dramatic . In addition to what is mentioned above, i interpret the northwestern gap in Durrington Walls, (visible in the linked plan), to indicate that this temple had an orientation toward the summer solstice sunset, which, with its orientation also toward the winter solstice sunrise, would make the two temples complimentary at both solstices . (A German example of a ring with complimentary orientations ~ both to the winter solstice ~ is Goseck circle) .

The information about the age of the pigs at slaughter is useful, and i agree it would support their consumption in connection with the winter solstice, as you suggest . However, this difference may be contextual ~ as differing rites could have been observed for the two solstices ~ possibly involving feasting for the winter's, and fasting for the summer's . Here, the following might be considered :

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Reindeer in northern Europe are drawn to the fly agaric's euphoric effects. The Siberian people would note the intoxicated behaviour of such animals and slaughter them to get the same effects from eating the meat.

~ from ShamanicJourney.com

If the above is true, and if the Amanita muscaria was a part of their worship, it seems possible the pigs were used as a (detoxifying) vehicle for the toadstool's active compounds . Late fall may also have been closer to the toadstools' local season than late spring ; allowing a supply to be gathered and used relatively fresh :

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Though generally encountered in autumn, the season can vary in different climates: fruiting occurs in summer and autumn across most of North America, but later in autumn and early winter on the Pacific coast.

~ from Wikipedia on Amanita muscaria ; which adds, "It may appear in fairy rings".

For the summer solstice, if transcendental states were a part of their worship, fasting and drumming may have been the preferred vehicle . Fasting would have been more practical during the warmer summer months, (than in winter), particularly if a long walk outside was involved .