A team of archaeologists has made a significant discovery in southwest England, unearthing a 5,000-year-old structure that could be a prototype for the famous Stonehenge monument.
The Discovery
The structure, consisting of two wooden poles placed 120 meters apart, was found in Bulford, Wiltshire, just 5 kilometers from Stonehenge. According to the researchers, the poles would have aligned with the rising sun at summer solstice and the setting sun at winter solstice, similar to the stones at Stonehenge.
Phil Harding, the lead archaeologist on the project, stated that the sun was incredibly important to these prehistoric communities, and they could plot and record its midsummer rising to a high degree of accuracy. The discovery is considered one of the greatest finds of Harding’s career, and it provides new insights into the development of Stonehenge.
Significance of the Find
The discovery helps us understand Stonehenge not as a singular creation, but as part of a much longer conversation between people, the land, and the sky. The structure is believed to have been built around the same time as the first earthworks at Stonehenge, with the famous stones being added 500 years later.
Among the artifacts found at the site were pottery, animal bone, charcoal, and worked flints, suggesting that people would have congregated there to celebrate the solstices. An extremely rare disc-shaped knife was also discovered, which may have been deliberately placed as a symbolic reference to the sun disc.
Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.
