Archaeologists find solar monument near prehistoric site
Pan Pylas
London: Thousands of people, many dressed as druids and pagans, gathered at Stonehenge in southern England to watch the sunrise on the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice.
“What few people will realize is that 5,000 years ago, on a nearby hillside overlooking present-day Bulford, people were doing exactly the same thing – venerating and celebrating the sunrise on Midsummer Day,” said archaeologist Phil Harding.
His team from British firm Wessex Archeology discovered a structure near the prehistoric stone circle that could serve as a “prototype” for the Neolithic monument.
The structure, which researchers say predates Stonehenge by about 500 years, would consist of two wooden poles 120 meters apart and aligned to point directly at the rising sun on the summer solstice and the setting sun on the winter solstice.
Team leader Harding, 76, is known in Britain for his many years of excavations for the Channel 4 TV series. Time Team. He also said the site, where a treasure trove including pottery, animal bones and a rare disc-shaped blade was uncovered, could have been the focus of large religious gatherings.
“Opportunities like this probably only come around once in a career, once in a lifetime,” Harding said. “I’m probably nearing the end of my career, but thank God I’ve still been in archeology long enough to be a part of this discovery because it’s definitely the highlight of my career.”
The findings were announced ahead of the summer solstice on Sunday, when thousands of people travel to Stonehenge each year to celebrate the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. It is the winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year, in Australia.
Stonehenge is a symbol of British culture and history and remains one of the country’s biggest tourist attractions. The World Heritage site was built gradually over the flat lands of Salisbury Plain, starting 5,000 years ago. The stone circle was built in the late Neolithic period, approximately 2500 BC.
The meaning of the site has been the subject of fierce debate. The most generally accepted interpretation is that it was a temple aligned to the movements of the sun, perfectly aligned with the summer and winter solstices.
Researchers who found the structure near Stonehenge carried out the excavation at Bulford, five kilometers from the main stone circle, as part of archaeological work to support the British Ministry of Defense’s recent program to house troops withdrawn from Germany, where the army has had a large footprint for decades. The area around Stonehenge is one of Britain’s largest military training areas and Bulford is home to a barracks.
The original excavation took place between 2015 and 2017. Their findings required many years of analysis and testing. The findings will be published in the Prehistoric Society newsletter.
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