Solstitial Orientation of the “Megaron II” House on the Gradac at Vučedol

This paper is concerned with the orientation of a building excavated at Vučedol, a third-millennium BC settlement located in modern-day Croatia which gives its name to the regional Vučedol Culture. The building, known as the “Megaron II” house, was located at the Gradac, the “acropolis” of the settlement, and it had a complicated entrance complex comprising a northern edifice and a southern construction either side of a door at its west end. This door led into an antechamber, on the far side of which another door led into the main room. This arrangement allowed the Sun’s rays to penetrate for just 60 days of the year, with the summer solstice occurring at the mid-point of this period. In this paper, it is argued that “Megaron II” may have served the Vučedol populace as an analog “device” for determining – as far as the circumstances and the quality of the “instrument” allowed – the day of the solstice, while the southern wall of the northern edifice could have served as a symbolic “barrier” to the further advancement of the Sun. These features would have been part of the rituals performed at the settlement, and their incorporation into Vučedol mythology is corroborated by the ever-present solar symbolism on Vučedol Culture ceramics. These features are here contextualised through comparisons with some other prehistoric sites where similar methods of observing the solstices were apparently used, as well as with more recent traditions.