Uncovering the Past
CHLEBY, Czech Republic — New research into a prehistoric enclosure near Chleby suggests that people living in Central Europe more than 6,500 years ago constructed a monumental ritual space oriented toward the movements of the Sun and Moon.
Archaeologists led by researchers from the University of West Bohemia (UWB) say the site is among the oldest known monuments of its kind in Central Europe and predates the principal prehistoric construction at Stonehenge by more than 1,000 years.
The enclosure, built at the site of present-day Chleby, is nearly circular and measures approximately 230 meters (~755 ft) in diameter. A ditch more than 2.5 meters (~8 feet) deep surrounded the site, interrupted by 12 irregularly spaced entrances.
Those entrances have become central to the latest interpretation of the monument.
“Circular enclosures are completely unknown in our region for this period, which already makes the site exceptional. But when we began to analyze 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,” explained Petr Krištuf of the Department of Archaeology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of West Bohemia, who is leading the research.
Surveys and three-dimensional modeling identified two principal observation points. One corresponds to extreme positions of the Moon as it rises and sets along the horizon during its approximately 18-year cycle. The second links sunrise at the summer solstice with sunset at the winter solstice.
Location of Chleby in Nymburk District, Czech Republic. Relief map of the Czech Republic [derivative work Виктор_В – CCA-SA 3.0
The latter arrangement has drawn comparisons with Stonehenge, whose principal axis is similarly associated with the solstices. Dating of organic material at Chleby, however, places the Czech monument substantially earlier.
“For prehistoric farming communities, the connection between sunrise and the summer solstice symbolized a beginning, while sunset and the winter solstice represented an ending. 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,” Krištuf explained.
The findings suggest that the builders possessed detailed observational knowledge of celestial movements and incorporated that knowledge into the monument’s design. For early farming communities dependent upon seasonal cycles, the movement of the Sun and Moon could have provided both practical markers of time and a framework for ritual activity.
Archaeological evidence also points to ceremonies taking place around the entrances. Bull skulls and horns have been recovered from the enclosure’s ditch, particularly near the gateways.
“We assume that they may originally have decorated monumental gateways leading into the enclosure. The cult of the bull was an important religious symbol among the first farming communities and is known from many parts of prehistoric Europe,” said archaeologist Jan Turek of Charles University.
Image of the site. Courtesy: University of West Bohemia
The bovine remains may place Chleby within a wider pattern of Neolithic ritual practices involving cattle across prehistoric Europe, although the precise meaning of the animals to the people who used the enclosure remains uncertain.
Human remains found at the site reveal that Chleby’s significance also changed over thousands of years. Earlier investigations uncovered a collective burial associated with the Bronze Age Únětice culture containing the remains of approximately 18 individuals who appear to have been deposited gradually over an extended period.
By the Iron Age, however, the monument apparently no longer retained its earlier ritual importance.
“While Stonehenge experienced repeated periods of renewed use and is still associated, for example, with Celtic druids, the first results from Chleby suggest the opposite development. By the Iron Age, the monument appears to have definitively lost its original significance. The ditch was gradually filled in, and an ordinary settlement was established on the site of the former sanctuary,” Krištuf added.
Researchers are now turning to soil chemistry to reconstruct activities that left few or no conventional archaeological remains. Chemical signatures may help identify where people gathered, prepared or consumed food, conducted sacrifices, or handled human remains.
“In addition to artifacts and the remains of the dead, people leave chemical traces in the soil. These can help us understand how this exceptional site was used during different periods of prehistory,” said Jan Fišer of the University of Hradec Králové, who is analyzing samples from the enclosure and surrounding landscape.
The emerging picture of Chleby is therefore more complex than that of a prehistoric calendar or astronomical observation point alone. The monument appears to have combined celestial observation, seasonal cycles, animal symbolism, communal gathering, and ritual practice within a carefully constructed landscape. Nevertheless, Chleby remains unusual for its distinct entrances and the specific dual-axis alignments identified by the research team.
If the researchers’ interpretation of its alignments holds, Chleby also provides unusually early evidence that Neolithic communities in Central Europe were translating observations of the heavens into sacred architecture for ritual, and did so likely more than a millennium before similar principles became embodied in the landscape of Stonehenge.
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