4,500-year-old ‘timber circles’ discovered in Portugal

4,500-year-old ‘timber circles’ discovered in Portugal

Excavations in Portugal have uncovered 4,500-year-old circular structures that were once used for ancient ritual services.

The Bronze Age monument, known as ‘wood circles,’ has a diameter of 20 meters and resembles the famous Neolithic Stonehenge, but it is entirely made of wood.

The entrance is timed to coincide with the rising of the sun during the summer months and the winter solstice, and it is the first of its kind in the country. Archaeologists discovered the unique structure while excavating the Perdigões complex in the Évora district.

In Portugal, 4,500-year-old circular structures have been excavated that were once used for ancient ceremonial services. The Bronze Age monument is called ‘wooden circles’ and has a diameter of 20 meters and resembles the famous Neolithic Stonehenge

Wood circles were typically built in the late Neolithic to the Bronze Age and consisted of an upright wooden beam placed in the ground to form a circle. The complexes were used for ceremonies, but also as a meeting place.

They have been found in the British Isles and in the US, and the latest discovery now adds Portugal to the list.

The Perdigões archaeological site, in the Evora district of southern Portugal, covers about 40 hectares and has been an ongoing project for 20 years.

The entrance is aligned with the rising of the sun in the summer months, as well as during the winter solstice and is the first of its kind discovered in the country

António Valera, head of the excavation, said LiveScience that the wooden circles were probably built between 2800 BC and 2600 BC – at the time when the Stonehenge took shape.

Valera and his team are still excavating the massive structure, but have found a number of artifacts, including potter’s fragments and animal remains.

Perdigões is made up of many concentric ditches built and inhabited some 1,500 years ago that are located in a natural amphitheater.

The area corresponds to the rising sun during both the summer and winter solstices.

Other Timber Circles just miles from Stonehenge in Avebury, Wiltshire, were recently determined to be eight years older than previously believed.

When they were first discovered 30 years ago, experts thought they were built in 2500 BC – making them the same age as Stonehenge, just 20 miles away.

The strange wooden fences stretched for more than 2.5 miles and used more than 4,000 trees – suggesting that mysterious rituals took place in this region much earlier than previously thought.

Archaeologists discovered the unique structure while excavating the Perdigões complex in the Évora district

The date of 3300 BC places the stockades in a very different context; it is the end of the early Neolithic, when there is a blank in our knowledge of the great monuments of the time, ”Alex Bayliss, a radiocarbon dating expert from Historic England told the Times.

“They are really two huge circles of wood,” she said.

“One hypothesis is that one could have been for women and the other for men to use for rituals.”

The circles came into existence only a few centuries after the people started farming.

“We have a whole new kind of monument that has been found like nothing else in Britain,” said Dr. Bayliss.

Experts believe that the two structures were built in the same time and were far too large to be used to fence in animals.