Archaeologists believe that the stone monuments were erected about 4,500 years ago.
The ancient stone circle near the village of Alford turned out to be one of the oldest Neolithic monumental structures in Scotland. Like the famous Stonehenge, the stone circle near Alford has a large "recumbent" stone lying on its side near the southwest of the circle. Usually a "lying" stone is surrounded by two vertical stones - but in the stone circle at Alford one of them fell. Archaeologists believe that the stone circle was built by Neolithic people in the area between about 4,500 years ago, making it about 500 years younger than Stonehenge.
These ancient sites, also known as dolmens, can only be found in northeastern Scotland and parts of Ireland, although many thousands of stone circles without lying stones can be found throughout Britain and Europe. Archaeologists are still debating whether these dolmens were used for astronomical observations such as determining the sunrise in midwinter - an important date for early agricultural communities. Most dolmens in Scotland are located on an elevated position with a wide view of the surrounding landscape.
The distribution of dolmens in the north-east of Scotland also coexists with another unusual form of Neolithic art - the mysterious carved stone balls. Archaeologists are unsure what the stone balls were used for or how they relate to the lying stone circles. But it is noteworthy that these balls are mainly in the same region as the dolmens and date back to about the same era: about 5,000 years ago.
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Vasily Zhozhev