Archaeologists working near Stonehenge in southern England say they have found evidence of two ancient wooden posts aligned with the sun on the summer and winter solstices. The posts themselves are long gone, but their foundation holes survived in the soil. Researchers now think the find near Bulford, about 5 kilometers east of Stonehenge, may be a prototype for the famous stone circle, which was built about 5,000 years ago.
Dr. Phil Harding of Wessex Archaeology said people were using posts to mark the solstices thousands of years ago. “These ancient people were able to determine the points on the horizon where the sun rises at midsummer and sets at midwinter,” he said. He called it a pioneering engineering and astronomical achievement, adding that what was found at Bulford predates the famous stones by about 500 years.
The two large timber posts stood around 120 meters apart on land now controlled by the British Ministry of Defence, where archaeologists have been allowed to dig since 2015. Earlier excavations at the site uncovered two circular structures of earthworks and inner ditches, plus dozens of pits dated to around 5,000 years ago, all centuries before Stonehenge was completed. Those pits contained animal bones, pottery, flint and charcoal, suggesting large groups gathered there briefly for sun-related celebrations. Dr. Matt Leivers said, “When we talk about the solstice, we are talking about religion.”
The alignment at Bulford matched sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice, just as Stonehenge is precisely oriented to the sun. Stonehenge’s construction began around 3000 BC and continued in stages for roughly 1,500 years, with the stone circle added about 2400 BC. Recent discoveries there, including evidence of ancient cremations, have led many archaeologists to think it first served as a burial site. Fabio Silva said the Bulford find shows Stonehenge was not an isolated creation, but part of a much longer tradition linking people, land and sky.
