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This paper investigates the land- and sky-scapes surrounding the dolmens of Costa da Morte (Coast of Death), Galicia. Having uncovered previously that the location of megalithic monuments in this coherent area of the south-eastern side of the European Atlantic Façade connects to complex topographical features, we now show how this chosen topography connects to astronomical phenomena. We will see how the detailed shape of the horizon coincides with specific risings and settings of the Sun and Moon, providing further support for the notion that the creators of these monuments selectively drew upon a variety of features found in their natural world.

This paper presents a study of free-standing Bronze Age megalithic monuments across western Scotland: Argyll, Lochaber, Kintyre, and the isles of Mull, Coll and Tiree. The original project was designed to unearth the locational choices of their builders, the reasons for these choices, and what they reveal about the belief systems of these societies. Using statistical analyses and 2D and 3D GIS, it will be demonstrated that vision is the main force behind locational decisions. The GIS analyses revealed that the builders chose a particular horizon shape, defined by qualities of distance, direction and relative apparent height as viewed from the monument (altitude). Significantly, approximately half the sites have the same locational variables as all the sites considered on the isles of Coll and Tiree (labelled ‘classic sites’: Higginbottom et al. in J Archaeol Method Theory 22:584–645, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-013-9182-7), while the other half are the topographical reverse (‘reverse sites’), where the major ‘astronomical show’ differs due to the topographical differences between the site types. It is relevant to note that landscapes that block views of particular major astronomical phenomena in the south are significantly more common at reverse sites than at classic sites. Specific results pertaining to individual areas will also be highlighted. It will be seen that the interplay between the astronomy and the topographical choices of the builders at each site highlights possible cosmological ideologies that can be observed and that were shared across western Scotland., This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement SHoW No 800236.

This paper investigates the extended landscapes surrounding dolmens in the area of Costa da Morte (Coast of Death), Galicia. Having previously uncovered that the megalithic monuments in this coherent area of the south-eastern side of the Atlantic Façade are visually situated in relation to complex topographical variables, we now reveal our investigations into the connections between the chosen topography of these same sites combined with astronomical phenomena. We will see how the detailed shape of the horizon coincides with specific risings and settings of the Sun and Moon, providing further support for the notion that the creators of these monuments selectively drew upon variables found in their natural world that included astronomical bodies.

By c. 3000 BCE, in the late Neolithic, there had been a significant change in the way people materialized their cosmology across Scotland with the introduction of free-standing stones that continued to be erected almost until the end of the Bronze Age (Burl, 1993, 2000). Significantly, a series of astronomical patternings have been empirically verified for many Bronze Age monuments that were erected in the latter Bronze Age (Higginbottom et al., 2000, 2001, 2015). Further, two series of complex landscape patternings associated with the monuments and their orientations have been identified (Higginbottom et al., 2015; Higginbottom and Clay, in press). However, when and where these patterns were first associated with standing-stone structures was unknown. Through innovative statistics and software we show that visible astronomical-landscape variables found at Bronze Age sites on the inner isles and mainland of western Scotland were actually first established in stone nearly two millennia earlier, likely with the erection of two of the earliest dated British 'great circles': Callanish on the Isle of Lewis and Stenness on the Isle of Orkney. In particular, we introduce our new statistical test that enables the quantitative determination of astronomical connections of stone circles. It is seen that whilst different standing-stone monuments were created over time (Burl, 1993, 2000; Higginbottom et al., 2015) with a mixture of landscape variables (Higginbottom et al., 2015), we nevertheless see that highly relevant landscape markers and other aspects remained unchanged through these years. This suggests that there is some continuity of this cosmological system through time, despite the various radical material and social changes that occurred from the late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age (Lynch, 2000; Mullin, 2001; Owoc, 2001).

Focussing on the earliest periods of intensive monument building in prehistoric Scotland (3000–1000 bc), this study identifies how humans chose and made places that were important to them. It examines how monuments and the natural environment were used to create landscapes embedded with cultural meaning and remembrance. This project addresses a gap in knowledge about prehistoric Scotland, namely the lack of understanding of the place that many hundreds of free-standing stones (F-SS) in circles, rows, pairs or on their own, had for their creators, especially the smaller monuments. This work with its special focus on the islands of Coll and Tiree goes some way to rediscover the perceptions and decisions made by people in the past about their monumental landscape.

With the introduction of free-standing stones in Britain during the Late Neolithic, there was a significant change in the lithification of people's cosmology. Such monuments continued to be erected across Britain almost until the end of the Bronze Age. It has been empirically verified that for many Bronze Age monuments erected in Scotland between 1400-900 BC, there is a common set of complex landscape and astronomical patternings. However, when and where these patterns were first introduced through standing-stone structures was unknown. Here we show that the visible astronomical-landscape variables found at Bronze Age sites on the inner isles and mainland of western Scotland were first established nearly two millennia earlier, with the erection of the first standing-stone 'great circles' in Britain: Callanish and Stenness of Scotland.

Observations of the motor behavior of 22 infants were made by 8-hour daily video recording of nursery school activity over 11 days. Recorded object-oriented manipulating or holding actions were scored as the number of movements made by each hand separately and together, by each child, each day, and the average duration of hand activity. For the group, the right hand made significantly more movements than the left, and the duration of right-hand use was longer than the left. Although individual differences in frequency of hand use were reliably consistent, they were not for movement duration. The results show that data from spontaneous object manipulation can be a highly reliable and valid means of assessing differences in hand usage.