Francis Pryor on henges and alignments

One of the topics talked about a lot in this programme was the importance of ritual sites and special alignments. Prehistory specialist Francis Pryor had this to say:

What's the importance of alignment?
'Most people know that Stonehenge is lined up with the sunrise and there are all sorts of alignments that occur with prehistoric monuments. It looks like this particular monument is lined up with the sun rising between a slot on the horizon. It has been suggested in the past that this is connected with some sort of Stone-Age astronomy, but that's not what the general thinking is now.'

So what's the general consensus about what these monuments were for?
'The modern view of these celestial alignments is that they were a way of linking the sun, moon and earth into the natural order of things – almost a way of linking the religion of the time with the natural world and the world of the ancestors. Imagine it as a way of reinforcing the social structures that were present here at the time. If you think of ceremonies that may have occurred here, conducted by leaders of the social group, they would have personally been seen by their group as connected to the whole natural order of things.'

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