The Lost Solstice Monument That Predates Stonehenge By 500 Years

A prototype Stonehenge has been discovered - an even older structure that may have been a first attempt at building the famous megalithic calendar. A team led by archaeologist Phil Harding, best-known for the TV series ‘Time Team’, discovered a range of artefacts at a site near Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. Excavations at Bulford uncovered pottery, animal bones, flints - and something even more telling. Signs of a structure of wooden poles were found, that line up directly with the summer solstice sun. Phil Harding joins Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet to discuss what he found and why it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Image Credits: Wessex Archaeology - https://www.wessexarch.co.uk Marijane Porter Dr Fabio Silva garethwiscombe, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons Andrew Dunn, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons -- What does the latest science actually mean for us? Each week, New Scientist editors Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet dig into the biggest stories in science alongside expert scientists, from the mysteries of consciousness to the search for dark matter, to feed your curiosity and make sense of an uncertain world. 🔔 Subscribe for new episodes: http://bit.ly/3OvFB80 🔔 For a specially discounted New Scientist digital subscription, go to https://newscientist.com/youtube ───────────────────────────── LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ───────────────────────────── 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xN0obO... 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... ───────────────────────────── MORE FROM NEW SCIENTIST ───────────────────────────── 🌐 Website: https://www.newscientist.com/ 📸 Instagram: https://bit.ly/NSYTINSTA 📘 Facebook: https://bit.ly/NSYTFB 🐦 Twitter: https://bit.ly/NSYTTW