Heritage sites, Archaeological discoveries, History of Archaeology

Goseck circle

Location

Saxony-Anhalt

Country

Germany

Year of Research

1600

Culture

The circle at Goseck is the one of more than 250 carefully excavated ring-ditches in Germany, Austria and Croatia identified by aerial surveys, though the archaeologists have investigated barely 10% of them.
Previously they thought that the enclosures might have been fortifications and were puzzled by the fact that there was no sign of buildings inside the circles.
Not all the precisely laid-out Neolithic and Bronze Age European religious, calendrical or astronomical circles were stone circles of the megaliths or standing stones; Goseck ring is the one of the best preserved and extensively investigated of the many similar structures built at around the same time.
Its preservation and investigation have lead to the belief that it was a solar observatory although some archaeologists question this.
A state archaeologist Harald Meller called it a milestone in archaeological research in the first opening of the site.