Maeshowe and the winter solstice: ceremonial aspects of the Orkney Grooved Ware culture

Abstract

A generation ago, enquiries into the astronomical and mathematical knowledge of the standing stone-erectors of prehistoric Britain dealt largely with statistical patterns. Since then, the great passage grave at Newgrange, eastern Ireland, has proved to be engineered to address the midwinter sunrise. It is time once more to look at another great chamber tomb, Maeshowe in northernmost Scotland, with these concerns in mind.