Abstract

The Majorville complex contains solstice sun rise and set lines up to 1800 in long, marked by small cairns or large rocks. Some of the lines point to the sun's first or last flash on a horizon 20-30 km distant; others look uphill to a horizon 800-1800 in away. The uphill lines serve when a band of cloud obscures the more distant horizon. At the Majorville site we have found the distant horizon to be clear about one third of the time, but with the two levels of siting lines we find one or the other clear about half of the time. Near a solstice the sun rise and set points move along the horizon slowly; it takes nine days to move the last diameter to the solstice position. It takes three days to move the last 0.1 diameter. At Majorville one of the summer solstice rise lines runs 1.8 degrees north of the intersection of the northern slope of the Medicine Wheel Hill with the distant horizon. The sun rise occurs at this intersection on about 4 June, which provides a seventeen day countdown to the solstice. We have found five lines that mark the summer rise, two that mark the summer set, one that marks the winter rise and three that mark the winter set. Of greatest significance were the summer sun rise and the winter sun set.