3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 17
Summary
A Wessex Archaeology team said the newly disclosed Bulford site predates Stonehenge by about 500 years and may have served as a prototype for the later monument.
Two wooden poles stood 120 meters apart, aligned to the summer solstice sunrise and winter solstice sunset — the same solar pattern long linked to Stonehenge.
Bulford, 5 kilometers from the stone circle, also yielded pottery, animal bones and a rare disc-shaped knife, pointing to major religious gatherings, archaeologist Phil Harding said.
The excavation was carried out from 2015 to 2017 during defense-ministry work tied to housing troops withdrawn from Germany, with years of analysis leading to the announcement ahead of Sunday’s solstice.
The find adds weight to theories that the Stonehenge landscape was already a ceremonial center before the famous stone circle began rising around 5,000 years ago.
How did a simple wooden structure evolve over 500 years into the stone wonder we know as Stonehenge?
If this site's builders were genetically replaced, what happened to the culture that first mapped the sun near Stonehenge?
An ancient site now lies under modern housing. How do we protect priceless history that has yet to be discovered?
Bulford’s 48 Pits: The Monumental Discovery Rewriting Stonehenge’s Origins and Neolithic Rituals
Overview
A major archaeological discovery near Bulford, Wiltshire, has revealed a prehistoric structure that may be a prototype for Stonehenge. Excavated by Wessex Archaeology between 2015 and 2017, the site includes 48 pits filled with pottery, animal bones, worked flint, and charcoal. These finds suggest that large groups gathered at Bulford for ceremonial feasting linked to the solar cycle. The monument’s astronomical alignments show that people in the region observed the sun’s movements long before Stonehenge was built, offering new insight into the area’s ancient ceremonial traditions and the origins of monumental construction.