The builders of Stonehenge five millennia ago revered the long cycles of time. Their monument measured the annual rhythms of the sun from equinox to equinox and the subtle 18.6-year oscillations of the rising moon. Through a hundred generations, they revised and recalibrated their circles of earth and stone to bind their lives with celestial time. A world away, under the tropical sun, Mayans identified their place in time within expansive overlapping patterns of days. Their Long Count calendar encompassed cycles that stretched 5, 000 years, from the primordial origins of life to the imponderable beginnings of a new era. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 49 Jenny Odell The acclaimed author in search of lost time. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Half a Notion A reassessment of ambivalence. Arts & Culture Issue 35 Object Matters A timely history of the alarm clock. Arts & Culture Issue 50 Close Knit Close Knit: Meet the weavers keeping traditional Egyptian tapestrymaking alive. Arts & Culture Issue 50 The Old Gays Inside a Californian TikTok “content house” of a very different stripe. Arts & Culture Issue 50 New Roots The Palestinian art and agriculture collective sowing seeds of community.
Arts & Culture Issue 50 Close Knit Close Knit: Meet the weavers keeping traditional Egyptian tapestrymaking alive.
Arts & Culture Issue 50 The Old Gays Inside a Californian TikTok “content house” of a very different stripe.
Arts & Culture Issue 50 New Roots The Palestinian art and agriculture collective sowing seeds of community.
