Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument located in England, remains one of the most famous sites in the world. With so many eyes focused on this historic and mysterious landmark, it’s easy to forget the history of surrounding area, which is comprised of a complex of Neolithic and Bronze monuments, as well as an array of burial grounds. Little did anyone know, a vast stone arrangement was located less than two miles away – much to the surprise of a team of archaeologists.
THE SECRETS OF STONEHENGE
The discovery, which was announced by archaeologists on Monday, is quickly reshaping what researchers thought they knew about the area. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, which seeks to understand the Stonehenge landscape using “cutting-edge geophysical and remote sensing survey,” shed light on the historic find during the first day of the British Science Festival, according to the Huffington Post.
Up until the discovery, researchers had been utilizing non-invasive technologies to delve deeper into the landscape’s history. The same technology aided in the detection of the stone arrangement:
“Our high resolution ground penetrating radar data has revealed an amazing row of up to 90 standing stones a number of which have survived after being pushed over and a massive bank placed over the stones,” stated Wolfgang Neubauer, of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection.
The stone arrangement is roughly 4,500 years old and is suspected to be a ritual site. A row of stones, some believe to have measured up to 12 feet in length, run along the flank of another large prehistoric site, known as the Durrington Walls. According to CNET, the stones appear to have been buried underneath a bank, forming a “fence or boundary” of sorts around a seemingly important spot in Stone Age northwestern Europe.
The discovery is of particular interest as it could predate Stonehenge itself. If so, “everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be re-written.”
“What we are starting to see is the largest surviving stone monument, preserved underneath a bank, that has ever been discovered in Britain and possibly in Europe,” Vince Gaffney, leader of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project, told The Guardian. “This is archaeology on steroids.”
