Irish archaeoastronomer Paul Griffin has announced the confirmation of the world's oldest known solar eclipse recorded in stone, substantially older than the recordings made in 2800 BC by Chinese astronomers. This finding was made at the world's oldest lunar eclipse tracking multi cairn site at the Loughcrew Cairn L Megalithic Monument in Ireland, and corresponds to a solar eclipse which occurred on November 30, 3340 BC, calculated with The Digital Universe astronomy software.
Cairn L Front Elevation
The possibility of an eclipse was first discovered in 1999 by Mr. Griffin and posted to his web site in 2000. Subsequent improvements in astronomical software has indicated that this eclipse obscured nearly 100% of the solar disc and was visible in the late afternoon just before sunset.
The Irish Neolithics used a 4044.5 day lunar eclipse cycle which is broken up into 365 days x 11 years + 29.5 days (synodic lunar month). This is also similar to a Tritos/Nova Lunation combination of one Tritos cycle of 3986.63 days and two nova lunations of 29.53 days each, yielding a total of 4045.69 days.
The Irish Neolithic astronomer priests at this site recorded events on 3 stones relating to the eclipse as seen from that location. This is the only eclipse that fits these petroglyphs out of 92 solar eclipses tracked by the discoverer.
A stone pillar inside the cairn is shown in the photograph below, taken on November 3th, 1980 AD when the Sun had just risen above the horizon, at an azimuth of 116.5 degrees. This was witnessed by Martin Brennan and Jack Roberts in their book "The Stones of Time". Brennan states that the sun would strike the pillar directly on November 8th of every year at sunrise, at an azimuth of approximately 119.25 degrees.
This holds true in current times, but due to precession, the alignment in 3340 BC was slightly different. The next morning after the eclipse (December 1, 3340 BC), the Sun would have fully emerged above the horizon by 8:02. At that moment, the Sun's azimuth was 119 degrees, which meant that it would have beamed directly onto the pillar. The pillar may have been placed in its location to commemorate the event of the Sun's reappearance the next morning.
Deposited charred bones from approximately 48 individuals under a stone basin inside the monument attest to a possible human sacrifice to "save" the Neolithic "sky God" (Sun) from dying as it descended to the "underworld" at the horizon, with 15% of its surface still "eaten away". See the book "Loughcrew The Cairns, A Guide", by Jean McMann, page 35.
http://www.astronomy.ca/3340eclipse/(Ok I feel a bit better now)
