Sun Temple Excavated in Denmark

News August 14, 2015

(Marta Bura)
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Sun Disk Denmark
(Marta Bura)

BORNHOLM, DENMARK—University of Warsaw archaeologists are joining excavations at the site of Vasagard on the Island of Bornholm. Specialists believe that some 5,500-years ago, a temple complex stood at the site that may have been used for rituals associated with sun worship. Stone disks inscribed with images of sun rays have been discovered there and the complex had an entrance that was aligned in the direction of the solstice sunrise. This summer archaeologists unearthed several ditches at the site, which may have held remains that were taken to burial chambers once they had decomposed. "In the ditches we find large amounts of pottery, animal bones and damaged stone sun discs,” archaeologist Janusz Janowski told Science and Scholarship in Poland. “The function of the latter has not been fully explained yet." To read about another discovery in Denmark, go to "Bronze Age Traveler."

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