Archaeologists investigating a vast prehistoric enclosure in the Czech Republic say the 6,500-year-old monument may have functioned as a ceremonial sanctuary aligned with important movements of the Sun and Moon — more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge.
The almost circular monument near Chleby measures approximately 230 metres in diameter and was surrounded by a ditch more than 2.5 metres deep. Most unusually, archaeologists have identified 12 irregularly spaced entrances around its perimeter.
Researchers led by the University of West Bohemia (UWB) believe the positioning of those entrances was deliberate, creating sightlines that allowed prehistoric communities to observe significant astronomical events.
The discovery makes Chleby one of the oldest known monumental ritual sites of its kind in Central Europe.
“Circular enclosures are completely unknown in our region for this period, which already makes the site exceptional,” said Petr Krištuf of the Department of Archaeology at UWB’s Faculty of Arts, who is leading the research.
“But when we began to analyse the positioning of the entrances in detail, it became clear that their arrangement was not random. Their geometry creates a system that made it possible to observe the most significant moments of the solar and lunar cycles.”
Entrances may have tracked the heavens
Archaeologists have identified two principal observation points within the enclosure.
One appears to have been connected with the Moon’s most extreme positions on the horizon during its roughly 18-year cycle.
The second creates an alignment between sunrise at the summer solstice and sunset at the winter solstice.
That arrangement has an intriguing parallel at Stonehenge, whose principal axis is famously associated with the solstices.
But dating of organic material from Chleby indicates that the Czech monument was constructed more than a millennium earlier.
“For prehistoric farming communities, the connection between sunrise and the summer solstice symbolised a beginning, while sunset and the winter solstice represented an ending,” Krištuf said.
“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.”
The findings suggest that sophisticated astronomical observations were being incorporated into monumental architecture by some of Europe’s early farming communities thousands of years before the best-known phases of construction at Stonehenge.
Bull skulls may have decorated monumental gateways
The astronomical alignments are not the only evidence that Chleby held ceremonial importance.
Archaeologists discovered bull skulls and horns inside the ditch, particularly around the enclosure’s entrances.
Researchers believe some may originally have been displayed on monumental gateways leading into the sanctuary.
“We assume that they may originally have decorated monumental gateways leading into the enclosure,” said archaeologist Jan Turek, who is participating in the research on behalf of Charles University.
“The cult of the bull was an important religious symbol among the first farming communities and is known from many parts of prehistoric Europe.”
The discoveries raise the possibility that entering Chleby was itself a carefully orchestrated experience, with visitors passing through monumental gateways decorated with cattle remains before entering the circular ceremonial space.
Combined with the astronomical orientation of the entrances, the evidence suggests the enclosure was far more than a defensive or domestic structure.
Human remains discovered in ditch
Human bones have also been found within the monument.
Previous investigations uncovered a later burial associated with the Bronze Age Únětice culture containing the remains of approximately 18 people.
Rather than being interred in a single event, the individuals appear to have been placed there gradually over time, suggesting that the ancient monument continued to hold significance long after its original construction.
The site’s function, however, appears to have changed substantially over the millennia.
While Stonehenge underwent repeated phases of construction and reuse, preliminary evidence from Chleby suggests its ritual importance eventually disappeared.
“By the Iron Age, the monument appears to have definitively lost its original significance,” Krištuf said.
“The ditch was gradually filled in, and an ordinary settlement was established on the site of the former sanctuary.”
The transformation would have been dramatic: a landscape once dominated by an enormous ceremonial enclosure eventually became a place where people simply lived.
Chemical traces could reveal what happened inside
Researchers are now turning their attention to the ground itself for evidence of activities carried out at Chleby.
Jan Fišer of the University of Hradec Králové is analysing soil samples collected from the enclosure and surrounding landscape.
The technique could identify chemical signatures produced by human activities even where conventional archaeological evidence has disappeared.
“In addition to artefacts and the remains of the dead, people leave chemical traces in the soil,” Fišer said.
“These can help us understand how this exceptional site was used during different periods of prehistory.”
Such analysis could potentially help researchers distinguish areas used for particular activities and reconstruct how the monument’s function changed over thousands of years.
Monument predates Stonehenge by more than 1,000 years
At approximately 6,500 years old, the Chleby enclosure predates the major construction phases of Stonehenge by more than a millennium.
The comparison does not mean the two monuments were directly connected. Instead, researchers say similarities in their astronomical orientations show that prehistoric communities were incorporating observations of celestial cycles into monumental ceremonial landscapes far earlier than Stonehenge.
The enormous diameter of the Chleby enclosure, its 12 carefully positioned entrances, evidence of bull symbolism and subsequent human burials together point towards a site that held considerable importance for generations of prehistoric communities.
Its discovery is now offering archaeologists a rare glimpse into the beliefs of some of Central Europe’s earliest farmers — people who appear to have transformed a 230-metre-wide section of the landscape into a monumental place where architecture, ritual and the movements of the heavens converged.
Sources : Západočeská univerzita
