A prehistoric ritual enclosure has been discovered near Chleby, Czech Republic. Built around 6,500 years ago, it is one of Central Europe’s oldest monuments, 1,000 years older Stonehenge. It is the only circular enclosure from the period found in the region.
The structure consists of a circular ditch about 750 feet in diameter and eight feet deep. Irregularly spaced along the ditch were 12 entrances leading to the center of the circle. The spacing of the entrances was not random; their locations made observations of significant moments in solar and lunar cycles possible.
Archaeologists have identified two main observation points. One is associated with the Moon’s extreme positions on the horizon during its approximately 18-year cycle. The other connects sunrise at the summer solstice with sunset at the winter solstice. A similar arrangement is known from Stonehenge. However, according to the research team’s latest findings, the Chleby structure is significantly older. “For prehistoric farming communities, the connection between sunrise and the summer solstice symbolized a beginning, while sunset and the winter solstice represented an ending. The same principle can be seen along Stonehenge’s main axis. We can now see that the sanctuary at Chleby was designed similarly. Still, more than a thousand years earlier, as we have established from the dating of organic material,” [University of West Bohemia archaeologist and research leader] Petr Krištuf explained.
The enclosure likely had a perimeter wall made of wood posts, and animal bones found inside the ditch suggests the 12 entrances were adorned with the skulls and horns of bulls. Bulls held great religious significance as symbols of strength and virility to the early farming communities of Europe.
The enclosure appears to have continued to be considered a sacred space well into the Bronze Age. The remains of 18 people from the Bronze Age Únětice culture were buried there, not in a single event but over a period of time. That changed come the Iron Age.
“While Stonehenge experienced repeated periods of renewed use and is still associated, for example, with Celtic druids, the first results from Chleby suggest the opposite development. By the Iron Age, the monument appears to have definitively lost its original significance. The ditch was gradually filled in, and an ordinary settlement was established on the site of the former sanctuary,” Petr Krištuf added.
Soil samples have been taken from the enclosure. They are now being analyzed for trace elements that will provide new information about how the space was used over the centuries.
* This article was originally published here
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