Goseck circle
Archaeology » Heritage sites» 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.