The arc of standing stones in western Wales known as Waun Mawn is fairly run-down, which is to be expected of a monument that is more than 5,000 years old. Weather and time, however, are not entirely to blame, according to Mike Parker Pearson of University College London. He believes that the builders of Stonehenge helped themselves to Waun Mawn’s bluestones as building materials for their own monument on England’s Salisbury Plain, some 180 miles to the southeast. (See “Quarrying Stonehenge.”) Excavations by Parker Pearson’s team have demonstrated that Waun Mawn was once a complete circle of stones. The excavators found a pit at the site that still bore the imprint of a missing stone’s pentagonal base. Its dimensions matched those of one of Stonehenge’s bluestones. Parker Pearson suggests that two of Waun Mawn’s largest stones formed an entryway that would have framed the sunrise during the weeks before and after the summer solstice. This important event was also marked at Stonehenge.

Archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles of the University of Leicester points out that the stones at Waun Mawn may have also been aligned with celestial objects other than the sun or even with points on the landscape. Those relationships, however, are difficult to detect because the land and the position of stars in the sky have both changed over the millennia. Ruggles suggests that the stones marking the solstice at both Waun Mawn and Stonehenge probably indicated roughly when specific ceremonies were supposed to take place, but acknowledges that the belief systems of the stone circle builders have been lost to time. Says Ruggles, “There’s astronomy in there, but it’s part of a much more complex cosmology.”

While investigating the remains of Greek-era buildings beneath the Roman theater in the ancient city of Myra in the region of Lycia, on Turkey’s southwestern coast, archaeologists unearthed 40 intact terracotta statuettes, along with fragments of perhaps 50 more. The sculptures, which date to the second and first centuries B.C., depict Greek deities, animals, and men, women, and children performing daily activities such as riding horses and carrying water. Among the discoveries are rare statuettes of Leto and her divine children: Artemis, patron goddess of Myra, and Apollo, who was Lycia’s patron deity. Many of the sculptures still have traces of pink, blue, and red paint. “It was the biggest surprise to find such a rich and diverse collection of figurines,” says archaeologist Nevzat Çevik of Akdeniz University. He notes that the figurines, some of which appear to have been crafted locally, were probably votive objects.

From 1881 to 1890, in locations including modern Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, a number of very similar bronze bird figurines dating to the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages (ca. 1300–500 B.C.) were unearthed. For more than a century, it remained unclear how these artifacts were used, but their similarity was seen as evidence of shared cultural practices and beliefs across a large swath of Europe at this time. Now, a team studying a recently discovered bronze waterbird, perhaps a swan, from the site of Liptovský Hrádok in northern Slovakia, has determined that the artifact, and likely the other similar examples as well, was originally attached to a small chariot, filled with animal fat or vegetable oil and used as a lamp during burial rituals and ceremonial activities. These objects had not only a practical use but also great symbolic value, says archaeologist Filip Ondrkál of Charles University. This is especially the case in light of the emphasis members of these cultures placed on birds—particularly waterfowl—as conduits between water, soil, and air, making them central to prehistoric cosmology. To read more about birds in archaeology, clck here.