音江環状列石, Archaeological site in Sapporo, Japan
Otoie Stone Circle is a prehistoric archaeological site featuring carefully placed stones arranged in geometric patterns across a circular layout. The stones sit on gently rolling terrain in northern Hokkaido, and the site includes explanatory markers to help visitors understand what they are seeing.
The stone arrangements date back to between 1000 and 300 BCE, a period when early communities were establishing themselves in this region of Japan. The way people moved and positioned these heavy stones reveals something about their engineering skills and social organization at that time.
The way the stones are arranged tells us how people here once organized their lives around what they saw in the sky. Today, visitors can still sense how important these patterns were for the community that built them.
The site is reachable by car from Sapporo and has parking available at the entrance. Wear comfortable walking shoes since the ground is uneven and the best views come from moving around the different areas of the site.
More than 600 stones were placed here in patterns that reflect the positions of stars during different seasons of the year. This precise arrangement suggests that ancient people here had knowledge about the sky that often surprises modern visitors.
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