More than 800,000 people trek out to the windswept Salisbury Plain each year to take in the wonder that is Stonehenge—but that may be the result of a competition some 4,500 years ago. Because a mere two miles away from Stonehenge have been found the remains of an enormous contemporaneous timber circle whose construction was likely never completed—and whose remains were carefully hidden.
As first reported by The Independent, the ring is more than 1,600 feet (500 meters) in diameter, and featured 200-300 timber posts. The posts themselves were large, reaching 20-23 feet (6-7 meters) in height and around two feet (60 cm) in diameter. They were sunk about five feet (1.5 meters) into the ground, leaving being the post holes that were discovered by archaeologists today. However, its construction appears to have been halted somewhat abruptly around 2460 BCE.
Durrington Walls excavation
The circle was found at an archaeological complex called Durrington Walls, which is just to the northeast of Stonehenge. Originally discovered using indirect sensing techniques, archaeologists believed it to be a site of a buried stone ring, but being originally composed of wood doesn’t make it any less significant—in fact, the Durrington Walls ring is the largest ancient monument of its kind in all of Great Britain.
Discovery points towards religious shift
But more than that, the fact that it was so close to Stonehenge right as it was expanded by the addition of its smaller ring with massive stones and as another important prehistoric religious complex was expanded at nearby Avebury indicates it came about in a time of great religious change. Its lack of completion, then, indicates there was likely a dramatic shift in the local religious or political climate.
“The new discoveries at Durrington Walls reveal the previously unsuspected complexity of events in the area during the period when Stonehenge’s largest stones were being erected – and show just how politically and ideologically dynamic British society was at that particularly crucial stage in prehistory,” Dr. Nick Snashall, the senior National Trust archaeologist for the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, told The Independent.
Durrington Walls excavation
In fact, the construction didn’t just come to an abrupt halt; the ring was totally dismantled, with the posts being lifted vertically from their holes and likely being used in other parts of the Durrington Walls complex. Then, the post holes were purposely filled in with blocks of chalk and then were covered over by a bank of chalk rubble—lending a good amount of weight to the idea that someone was trying to hide the site. With Stonehenge left untouched, it has led to even a little speculation of a competition between the two sites—and a clear loser.
Of course, as of yet, there is no clear indication of whether the site at Durrington Walls was buried by those trying to erase their own past, or by an outside group trying to assert their own cultural dominance—but archaeologists hope to dig up the truth.
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Image credit: Rex
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