Science News
Reconstructed Stone-Age circle in Germany catches sun's rays
By DPA
Dec 22, 2005, 8:18 GMT

Goseck, Germany - A reconstructed 'temple of the sun' in Germany caught the morning rays of the sun through its eastern gate early Wednesday, just as it is believed to have done after it was built by a lost culture 6,800 years ago.

Archaeologists say the 75-metre-diameter Goseck Circle, on a flat river plain in eastern Germany, was built to help Stone-Age priests discern the solstice, the point in the year when the days begin to become longer and farmers look forward to spring planting.

The villagers of modern Goseck and visitors from all over Germany gathered at the site for its official opening, seven months after workmen began cutting 2,300 oak poles in a nearby forest and erecting them in two concentric circles at the site.

Scientists said the gap in the fence that was aligned to the December 21 sunrise proved to be perfectly positioned, but heavy cloud in the evening made it impossible to test the sunset angle.

A powerful light lent by a German television station provided a mock sunset, to cheers from about 1,000 people crowded into the ancient circle and warmly dressed against temperatures 3 or 4 degrees above freezing.

Harald Meller, the archaeologist of Saxony-Anhalt state, said, 'This circle is a record of the first farmers and shows they had quite a lot of astronomical ability.' The site is already a tourist attraction.

A parade with flaming torches and a 'fire show' by a woman dancer added to the timeless feeling. Germans interested in primitive religion flocked to the site along with tourists curious about what sort of people inhabited central Europe so long ago.

Archaeologists cannot say what language the Stone Age farmers spoke or how they looked.

The culture is known only as that of stroke-ornamented ceramic ware, from fragments of pottery it left, and is dated to 4900 to 4650 BC. The jars and bowls had their decoration jabbed into the soft clay with a kind of fork to form zig-zag lines.

Goseck has been dubbed the German Stonehenge, though it is twice as old as the Stonehenge megalithic circle in southern England and has no stones. The original wood rotted away long ago, so new palisades, or wooden walls, were constructed in the same post-holes.