Warren Field

{{Short description|Archaeological site in Aberdeenshire, Scotland}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox ancient site

|name = Warren Field

|alternate_name =

| area =

|location = OS NO7397396777

|region = Aberdeenshire

|coordinates = {{coord|57.061295|-2.430772|display=inline,title}}

|type = Mesolithic site

|epochs = Mesolithic

|cultures =

|excavations = 2004 onwards

|archaeologists =

|public_access =

|condition =

|website =

}}

Warren Field is the location of a Mesolithic calendar monument built about 8,000 BCE.

{{cite web

|url =https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-23286928

|title = 'World's oldest calendar' discovered in Scottish field

|date =14 July 2013

|work=BBC

|publisher =

|accessdate = 15 July 2013

}} It includes 12 pits believed to correlate with phases of the Moon and used as a lunisolar calendar. It is considered to be the oldest lunisolar calendar yet found.{{cite news| url=https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/impact/our/news/items/beginning-of-time.aspx | work=University of Birmingham | title=The Beginning of Time? | date=18 November 2019}}{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-23286928 | work=BBC News | title='World's oldest calendar' discovered in Scottish field | date=2013}}{{cite news| url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130715-worlds-oldest-calendar-lunar-cycle-pits-mesolithic-scotland/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718061637/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130715-worlds-oldest-calendar-lunar-cycle-pits-mesolithic-scotland | url-status=dead | archive-date=18 July 2013 | work=Roff Smith, National Geographic | title=World's Oldest Calendar Discovered in U.K. | date=July 15, 2013}} It is near Crathes Castle, in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It was originally discovered from the air as anomalous terrain by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. It was first excavated in 2004.

The pits align on the southeast horizon and a prominent topographic point associated with sunrise on the midwinter solstice (thus providing an annual astronomical correction concerning the passage of time as indicated by the Moon, the asynchronous solar year, and the associated seasons).{{cite journal | url =http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue34/gaffney_index.html| title =Time and a Place: A luni-solar 'time-reckoner' from 8th millennium BC Scotland|journal=Internet Archaeology| author=V. Gaffney|accessdate = 16 July 2013|display-authors=etal |doi=10.11141/ia.34.1 |quote=In doing so the monument anticipates problems associated with simple lunar calendars by providing an annual astronomic correction in order to maintain the link between the passage of time indicated by the Moon, the asynchronous solar year, and the associated seasons.|doi-access=free}} The Aberdeenshire time reckoner predates the Mesopotamian calendars by nearly 5,000 years. It was also interpreted as a seasonal calendar because the local prehistoric communities, which relied on hunting migrating animals needed to carefully note the seasons to be prepared for a particular food source. The Warren Field site is particularly significant for its very early date and that it was created by hunter-gatherer peoples, rather than sedentary farmers usually associated with monument building.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

File:Warren Field 1a.jpg| author=V. Gaffney|accessdate = 16 July 2013|display-authors=etal |doi=10.11141/ia.34.1|doi-access=free}}]]