Orientations 5,000 years ago, carved into Hongshan's bedrock

"These structures looked like round, rectangular platforms with stone cladding." At the 2026 Conference on Hongshan Culture, Alexey Anatolyevich Kovalev, a research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, shared archaeological discoveries regarding ritual architecture in the Niuheliang area. He noted that multiple ritual structures excavated at Niuheliang exhibit clear spatial layouts, with orientations closely tied to solar positions, specifically pointing toward sunrise and sunset on equinoxes and other specific dates. Furthermore, the related triple concentric circular platform structure demonstrates unique ritual space features; its inner and outer ring arrangement connects to Hongshan architectural traditions and is preserved in the stone masonry techniques of Mongolian burial structures.