{
  "id": 6636250,
  "title": "Ancient Swedish Goths had surprisingly accurate calendars",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/ancient-swedish-goths-had-surprisingly-accurate-calendars-6636250",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-10T20:20:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ancient-swedish-goths-accurate-calendars.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2014, Swedish astrophysicist Goran Henriksson discovered that a group of ancient Goths, who lived around 2,500 years ago, had an exceptionally accurate calendar system. These northern Germanic pagans worshipped ancestors of Odin, Freyr, and Thor, and performed gruesome midwinter sacrifices every eight years if they didn't. The sacrifices began at the height of winter, approximately from February 6 to 8. Henriksson claims to have found the calendar that regulated these sacrifices, which were believed to be essential for avoiding catastrophe in the following eight years.\n\nArchaeologists found two rows of poles marking the northern limit for the rising of the full moon and the direction of the rising sun when the sacrificial cycle began. The sacrifice was timed according to a full moon that occurred between January 28 and February 26 in the Gregorian calendar. Henriksson's research, presented at the 2014 European Society for Astronomy in Culture, established the exact years of the eight-year cycle, including one that began in AD 852.\n\nThe burial mounds, located in Old Uppsala, were oriented in a way that could have been used to regulate the sacrificial calendar. The 850-meter-long row of poles was aligned with the northern limit for the rising midwinter full moon, while the 600-meter-long row was oriented toward the rising sun from February 6 to 8. The sacrifices involved one man and seven male domestic animals being sacrificed over a nine-day period, with 72 bodies hanging upside down in a holy tree.\n\nDespite their barbaric behavior, these Goths had a sophisticated understanding of the celestial sphere and natural world. Their religious beliefs and belief in an afterlife drove their pursuit of precision in calendrics, surpassing even the Catholic Church's calendar hundreds of years later.",
  "summary": "On a mostly flat plain an hour north of Stockholm lies a collection of large burial mounds dating from an ancient culture at least 2,500 years old. These people were not Vikings; they were northern Germanic Goths, pagan polytheists worshiping the precursors of Odin, Freyr and Thor.",
  "key_points": [
    "Swedish Goths had accurate calendar system in 2,500 BC",
    "Sacrificial cycle began around Feb 6-8, lasted 9 days",
    "Calendar regulated by full moon rising between Jan 28-Feb 26"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Universe Today",
        "title": "Ancient Swedish Goths Had Surprisingly Accurate Calendars",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/ancient-swedish-goths-had-surprisingly-accurate-calendars",
        "published": "2026-09-10T08:37:05.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}