Stone Age Posts Near Stonehenge Marked Solstices Before the Stones
Ancient wooden posts aligned with the solstices predate Stonehenge itself, suggesting the site served as a temporary religious monument first.
Evidence of two ancient wooden posts aligned with the summer and winter solstices has been discovered near Stonehenge in southwest England. The posts have rotted away, and only traces of the postholes survive. But archaeologists say the structure predated Stonehenge, and they think it was a temporary religious monument until a permanent one was built. They even suggest it may have been a Stonehenge prototype.
Analysis suggests that ancient people used the posts to mark the summer and winter solstices, Phil Harding, an archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology who is leading the project, noted at a news conference on Wednesday, June 17. The discovery points to a long tradition of solstice observation at the site, stretching back well before the iconic stone circle was ever erected.