Astronomical Complex Far Older Than Stonehenge Unearthed in Sahara

Researchers have found a complex of slabs and stones in the Sahara that might be the oldest known monument built with astronomical considerations in mind--far older than England’s Stonehenge. It was constructed by nomadic cattle herders as much as 7,000 years ago in southern Egypt, and probably was intended for rituals rather than astronomical observations, archeologist J. McKim Malville of the University of Colorado at Boulder reports in today’s issue of the journal Nature.

The Egyptian stone complex, which is not circular like Stonehenge, is spread over an area 1.8 miles by 0.75 miles. It includes 10 slabs about 9 feet high, 30 rock-lined ovals, nine burial sites for cows, each under a pile of 40 to 50 rocks weighing up to 300 pounds apiece, and a “calendar circle” of stones. Various alignments are believed to indicate the summer solstice and other astronomical events.

--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II