考古学家在英国威尔特郡的巴尔福德(Bulford)发现了一个木制结构,其排列方向精确指向夏至和冬至。该结构建于巨石阵(Stonehenge)建造前约500年,表明它可能是巨石阵对齐方式的早期雏形,并显示新石器时代的人群早在公元前3000年就开始在此聚集庆祝至日。
此发现由两处约一公尺深、半公尺宽的基坑组成,原本立有三至四公尺高的梣木木桩。发掘现场还出土了48个包含陶器、燧石工具和动物骨骼的坑洞,暗示当时曾举行过大规模的宴会与祭祀活动。
在众多出土文物中,最引人注目的是一把极为罕见的圆形燧石刀,考古学家推测其造型可能是对太阳圆盘的象征性致敬。目前该发掘区域已被重新覆盖,不对外开放。
Archaeologists have discovered a timber structure at Bulford, Wiltshire, aligned precisely with the summer and winter solstices, built 500 years before Stonehenge. This suggests the structure could be an early prototype for Stonehenge's alignment, indicating that Neolithic groups gathered there to celebrate solstices as early as 3000 BC.
The discovery consists of two pits, one meter deep and 50cm wide, which once held three- to four-meter-high ash poles. Excavations also revealed 48 pits containing pottery, flint tools, and animal bones, suggesting large-scale gatherings and feasting events took place at the site.
Among the excavated artifacts, the most remarkable is an extremely rare round flint knife, which archaeologists believe may have been shaped as a symbolic reference to the sun's disc. The excavation site has since been covered over and is not open to the public.