Rewrite Stonehenge history, say archaeologists discovering "super-henge" of new stones

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Tantalising evidence of ancient earthworks near Stonehenge adds new chapter to history

Archaeologists using multi-sensor technologies just three kilometres from Stonehenge say they have discovered a “super-henge”, built around 4,500 years ago and surrounded by a huge ditch and outer bank.

Monumental early architecture has been uncovered at Durrington Walls, the largest neighbour of the World Heritage Site, where the earthwork enclosure was previously known to have been built a century after the Stonehenge sarsen circle, during the 27th century BC.

“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,” says Professor Wolfgang Neubauer, of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology.

“In the east up to 30 stones have survived below the bank, whereas elsewhere the stones are fragmentary or represented by massive foundation pits.

“This discovery of a major new stone monument, which has been preserved to a remarkable extent, has significant implications for our understanding of Stonehenge and its landscape setting.

“This new evidence demonstrates a completely unexpected phase of monumental architecture at one of the greatest ceremonial sites in prehistoric Europe. The new stone row could well be contemporary with the famous Stonehenge sarsen circle or even earlier.”

Paul Garwood, the University of Birmingham archaeologists who is the main prehistorian on the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, says the scale and detail of the evidence is “extraordinary”.

“It is changing fundamentally our understanding of Stonehenge and the world around it,” he believes.

“Everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be re-written."

Dozens of stones were revealed without being excavated, according to the findings produced at the launch of this year’s British Science Festival.

“These latest results have produced tantalising evidence of what lies beneath the ancient earthworks at Durrington Walls,” says Nick Snashall, of Historic England.

“The work of the Hidden Landscapes team is revealing previously unsuspected twists in its age-old tale. The presence of what appear to be stones, surrounding the site of one of the largest Neolithic settlements in Europe, adds a whole new chapter to the Stonehenge story.”

The super-henge

• Durrington Walls is one of the largest known henge monuments measuring 500m in diameter and thought to have been built around 4,500 years ago.
  
  
• Measuring more than 1.5 kilometres in circumference, it is surrounded by a ditch up to 17.6 metres wide and an outer bank of around 40 metres wide, surviving up to a height of a metre.
  
  
• The henge surrounds several smaller enclosures and timber circles and is associated with a recently excavated later Neolithic settlement.
  
  
• At Durrington, a natural depression near the river Avon appears to have been accentuated by a chalk cut scarp more than 4,500 years ago, then been delineated on the southern side by the row of massive stones.
  
  
• Essentially forming a C-shaped ‘arena’, the monument may have surrounded traces of springs and a dry valley leading from there into the Avon.
  
  
• Although none of the stones have yet been excavated a unique sarsen standing stone, The Cuckoo Stone remains in the adjacent field. This suggests that other stones may have come from local sources.
  
  
• Previous intensive study of the area around Stonehenge had led archaeologists to believe that only Stonehenge and a smaller henge at the end of the Stonehenge Avenue possessed significant stone structures.

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art536204-rewrite-stonehenge-history-durrington-walls