  By c. 3000 BC, 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. These were erected almost until the end
of the Bronze Age (Burl 2000, 1993). Significantly, a series of astronomical
patternings have been empirically verified for many Bronze Age monuments that
were erected between 1400-900 BC (Higginbottom et 14 al. 2013, 2003, 2001,
2000). Further, two series of complex landscape patternings associated with the
same monuments and their orientations have been identified (Higginbottom et al.
2013 & Higginbottom 'in preparation' - Bronze Age megalithic monuments on the
isle of Mull). 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 nearly two millennia earlier, with the erection of the first
'great circles' in Britain: 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 2000, 1993; 22 Higginbottom et al. 2013; Sheridan &
Brophy 2012) with a mixture of landscape variables (Higginbottom et al. 2013),
there are nevertheless highly relevant aspects that 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 26 2001; Owoc 2001).
