Solstice-aligned 5,000-year-old monument ‘once in a lifetime find’, say archaeologists

Phil Harding (left) and Matt Leivers, seen here at Stonehenge, have hailed their discovery as further evidence of religious worship at the site. Photograph: Wessex Archaeology/PA

A 5,000-year-old monument that was aligned with the summer and winter solstices and may have served as a prototype for the later solar alignment at Stonehenge has been discovered close to the famous neolithic site, in what archaeologists have described as a “once in a lifetime” find.

The structure at Bulford, 5km (3 miles) from the world heritage site in Wiltshire, has been carbon dated to around 3000BC, the same time as the earliest phase of construction at Stonehenge and 500 years before its huge trilithon stones were carefully placed to line up with the midsummer and midwinter sun.