Europe

As thousands prepare to flock to Stonehenge ahead of summer solstice celebrations this weekend, a team from Wessex Archaeology led by Phil Harding has announced the discovery of an ancient structure that may have served as an early ‘prototype’ for the alignment with the solstice at Stonehenge. Radiocarbon dated to around 5,000 years ago, the discovery reveals evidence for the earliest known alignment with the solstice in the Stonehenge landscape, showing that ancient people were using this feat of astronomical engineering to celebrate the solstice here at least 500 years before the alignment of the stones at Stonehenge. Located 5km (3.1 miles) from Stonehenge in Bulford, Wiltshire, the site is contemporary with the earliest phase of Stonehenge when the first