Nigel ,
if it’s actual Julian calendar dates for the solstice then it becomes interesting .These days it’s 21-22 Dec. but because of the very small differences in the Julian calendar year (365.25) and the Tropical year(365.24219) (the time from one solstice to the next ,there are fancier more accurate definitions but that’s the basic ) it means that the solstice date in 2500 bc fell on 8 th January .