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There can be no doubt that the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist was derived from Jewish, Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian traditions of sun veneration and sun baking methods. The custom seems to have been widespread in the middle east, an example being the Babylonian practice of offering to their gods a number of different kinds of cakes/bread ( akalu). The Hebrew term for showbread, Lehem ha Panim, is exactly translated by the Assyrian phrase akal pânu, which refers to the Babylonian cake/bread offerings. The Israelites were of course prisoners in Babylon for many decades. The immediate and obvious parent of the Christian Eucharist was the Israelite ritual of baking “showbread” in their temple. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"106741","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"466","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"610"}}]] Table of Showbread, in a full-size

Readers will probably know that Stonehenge’s design highlights the longest and shortest days of the year, but it is not always understood that its strange configuration was designed to enable every day and every month in the year to be counted and tracked by its resident timekeepers. The passage of time was very important to prehistoric people. Farmers needed to be able to identify propitious days for sowing, harvesting, trading and religious festivals. As the Old Testament said: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven.” Located at the meeting point of ancient trackways, the Stonehenge calendar was as important to the time regulation of prehistoric England as Greenwich time is today. When

The following essay is an extract from Stone Circles Explained by Stephen Childs, in which the author offers some original theories regarding the purpose of stone circles. Covering sites from around the world, including Gobekli Tepe, Stonehenge and Avebury, the book theorizes on the various reasons for why prehistoric stone circles were built. Here Childs will be exploring the Neolithic Gobekli Tepe site in Turkey, proposing that this famous site served the funereal needs of a wide area. Understanding the 11,000-Year-Old Monumental Gobekli Tepe Gobekli Tepe is located in Turkey, close to the Syrian border and to Harran, the traditional homeland of Abraham. Like some other sites in the area it is reckoned to be about 11,000 years old –

The following essay is extracted from “ Stone Circles Explained” by Stephen Childs. This book offers some alternative and less explored theories of the purpose of stone circles. Not all stone circles fit neatly into the explanations outlined in this essay, but some fit quite well! Stonehenge and Gobekli Tepe, for example, served other purposes which are detailed in the author’s book. But considering the sheer number of stone circles that exist, especially in northern Europe, this theory could explain the purpose of some. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"90107","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"630","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"552"}}]] The Maypole dance, believe or not, also has connections to the explanation of stone circles. This colour drawing of a traditional Maypole dance is from 1882. ( Archivist / Adobe Stock) “Stone Circles Explained”: The