Archaeologists have discovered the hidden remains of a massive series of prehistoric monoliths, some of which are up to 15 feet large, roughly one mile from the site of Stonehenge in the UK.
According to BBC News, the 4,500-year-old stones may have been part of the largest Neolithic monument ever built in the country, and were found beneath three feet of soil at the Durrington Walls “superhenge” near the site of the iconic monument in Witshire, England.
Researchers working with the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes team, which has been creating an underground map of the area as part of an ongoing five-year project, told the British news outlet that the monument was unique and on “an extraordinary scale.”
Geophysical imaging technology and remote sensing equipment have been used to located more than 90 stones without the need to excavate them, and experts believe that the site had been used for Neolithic rituals. The stones are believed to have been fashioned from sarsen blocks.
Exact purpose of the stones remains unclear
“It’s truly remarkable,” lead researcher Vince Gaffney from the University of Bradford said to NBC News. “We don’t think there’s anything quite like this anywhere else in the world. This is completely new and the scale is extraordinary.” Fellow archaeologist Nick Snashall added that the discovery “adds a whole new chapter to the Stonehenge story.”
Gaffney and his colleagues believe that the monoliths may have been used for religious rites or for rituals associated with the solstice. The stones are located in a circular enclosed surrounded by a ditch and bank, and at nearly a mile across, it is believed to be the largest earthwork of its kind in the UK. Some of the stones appear to have been pushed over to be preserved.
“These things are theatrical. They’re designed to impress and impose; to give the idea of authority to the living and the dead. It really does create a massive impression,” Gaffney said. He added that the monoliths “had significance. These are special places. Societies are mobilized, as with the great cathedrals, to create these things”
While the research team is unsure exactly why the stones were placed, part of Durrington Walls is aligned with the rising sun on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. This may be of some significance, the archaeologists said. Furthermore, this discovery suggests that there may be other, similarly-sized buried stones may be found nearby, Snashall told NBC News.
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Feature Image: A digital simulation of the Durrington Walls site. (Credit: LBI ArchPro, Juan Torrejón Valdelomar, Joachim Brandtner)
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