Image credit: © LBI ArchPro, Juan Torrejón Valdelomar, Joachim Brandtner
On September 7, researchers announced the discovery of the remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument less than 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from Stonehenge.
Using multi-sensor technologies, the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project team has revealed evidence for a row of about 90 standing stones hidden beneath the bank of the later Durrington Walls ‘super-henge’ in Britain.
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 kilometers (.93 miles) in circumference, it is surrounded by a ditch up to 17.6 meters (58 feet) wide and an outer bank 40 meters (131 feet) wide and surviving up to a height of 1 meter. The henge surrounds several smaller enclosures and timber circles and is associated with a recently excavated later Neolithic settlement.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project reveals traces of standing stones beneath Durrington Walls super-henge. Image credit: © LBI ArchPro, Juan Torrejón Valdelomar, Joachim Brandtner
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project team, using non-invasive geophysical prospection and remote sensing technologies, discovered evidence for a row of up to 90 standing stones, some of which may have originally measured up to 4.5 meters (14.8 feet) in height. Many of these stones have survived because they were pushed over and the massive bank of the later henge raised over the recumbent stones or the pits in which they stood. Hidden for millennia, only the use of cutting edge technologies has allowed archaeologists to reveal their presence without the need for excavation.
At Durrington, more than 4.5 thousand years ago, a natural depression near the river Avon appears to have been accentuated by a chalk cut scarp and then 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 and this suggests that other stones may have come from local sources.
The Cuckoo Stone
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. The latest surveys now provide evidence that Stonehenge’s largest neighbor, Durrington Walls, had an earlier phase which included a large row of standing stones probably of local origin and that the context of the preservation of these stones is exceptional and the configuration unique to British archaeology.
The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after the Stonehenge sarsen circle (in the 27th century BC), but archaeologists say the new stone row could be contemporary with or earlier than this. Not only does this new evidence demonstrate an early phase of monumental architecture at one of the greatest ceremonial sites in prehistoric Europe, it also raises significant questions about the landscape the builders of Stonehenge inhabited and how they changed this with new monument-building during the 3rd millennium BC.
Image credit: © LBI ArchPro, Juan Torrejón Valdelomar, Joachim Brandtner
Paul Garwood, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham is the principal prehistorian on the project. Garwood said:
The extraordinary scale, detail and novelty of the evidence produced by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, which the new discoveries at Durrington Walls exemplify, is changing fundamentally our understanding of Stonehenge and the world around it. Everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be re-written.
Enjoying EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Bottom line: Archaeologists announced on September 7, 2015 the discovery of the remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument less than 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from Stonehenge in England.
Read more from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1Li5r1O
Image credit: © LBI ArchPro, Juan Torrejón Valdelomar, Joachim Brandtner
On September 7, researchers announced the discovery of the remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument less than 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from Stonehenge.
Using multi-sensor technologies, the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project team has revealed evidence for a row of about 90 standing stones hidden beneath the bank of the later Durrington Walls ‘super-henge’ in Britain.
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 kilometers (.93 miles) in circumference, it is surrounded by a ditch up to 17.6 meters (58 feet) wide and an outer bank 40 meters (131 feet) wide and surviving up to a height of 1 meter. The henge surrounds several smaller enclosures and timber circles and is associated with a recently excavated later Neolithic settlement.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project reveals traces of standing stones beneath Durrington Walls super-henge. Image credit: © LBI ArchPro, Juan Torrejón Valdelomar, Joachim Brandtner
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project team, using non-invasive geophysical prospection and remote sensing technologies, discovered evidence for a row of up to 90 standing stones, some of which may have originally measured up to 4.5 meters (14.8 feet) in height. Many of these stones have survived because they were pushed over and the massive bank of the later henge raised over the recumbent stones or the pits in which they stood. Hidden for millennia, only the use of cutting edge technologies has allowed archaeologists to reveal their presence without the need for excavation.
At Durrington, more than 4.5 thousand years ago, a natural depression near the river Avon appears to have been accentuated by a chalk cut scarp and then 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 and this suggests that other stones may have come from local sources.
The Cuckoo Stone
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. The latest surveys now provide evidence that Stonehenge’s largest neighbor, Durrington Walls, had an earlier phase which included a large row of standing stones probably of local origin and that the context of the preservation of these stones is exceptional and the configuration unique to British archaeology.
The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after the Stonehenge sarsen circle (in the 27th century BC), but archaeologists say the new stone row could be contemporary with or earlier than this. Not only does this new evidence demonstrate an early phase of monumental architecture at one of the greatest ceremonial sites in prehistoric Europe, it also raises significant questions about the landscape the builders of Stonehenge inhabited and how they changed this with new monument-building during the 3rd millennium BC.
Image credit: © LBI ArchPro, Juan Torrejón Valdelomar, Joachim Brandtner
Paul Garwood, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham is the principal prehistorian on the project. Garwood said:
The extraordinary scale, detail and novelty of the evidence produced by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, which the new discoveries at Durrington Walls exemplify, is changing fundamentally our understanding of Stonehenge and the world around it. Everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be re-written.
Enjoying EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Bottom line: Archaeologists announced on September 7, 2015 the discovery of the remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument less than 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from Stonehenge in England.
Read more from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1Li5r1O
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire