[Ghost]

Stonehenge twin discovered stone's throw away

New wooden henge, a circular ditch that aligns with world-famous monument, deemed site's most exciting find in a lifetime

Without a sod of earth being dug up, a new henge, a circular ditch which probably enclosed a ring of timber posts and may have been used for feasting, has been discovered within sight of Stonehenge.

Professor Vince Gaffney, of Birmingham university, described the discovery of the new monument, only 900 metres away and apparently contemporary to the 5,000-year-old stone circle, as the most exciting find at Stonehenge in a lifetime.

"This finding is remarkable. It will completely change the way we think about the landscape around Stonehenge.

"People have tended to think that as Stonehenge reached its peak, it was the paramount monument, existing in splendid isolation. This discovery is completely new and extremely important in how we understand Stonehenge and its landscape.

"Stonehenge is one of the most studied monuments on Earth but this demonstrates that there is still much more to be found."

Midsummer revellers coming to Stonehenge for the solstice have probably trampled unwittingly across the grass hiding the henge.

The henge was revealed within a fortnight of an international team beginning fieldwork on the three-year Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project, which aims to survey and map 14 sq km of the sacred landscape around the world's most famous prehistoric monument, which is studded with thousands more monuments from single standing stones to ploughed out burial mounds.

Amanda Chadburn, the archaeologist responsible for Stonehenge at English Heritage, said: "This new monument is part of a growing body of evidence which shows how important the summer and winter solstices were to the ancient peoples who built Stonehenge. The discovery is all the more remarkable given how much research there has been in the vicinity of Stonehenge, and emphasises the importance of continuing research within and around the world heritage site."



The survey suggests that the henge was on the same alignment as Stonehenge, and comprised a segmented ditch with north-east and south-west entrances, enclosing internal pits up to a metre in diameter believed to have held massive timbers.

For the last fortnight curious tourists have watched scientists trundling what look like large lawnmowers around the nearby field. The geophysical equipment can peer under the surface of the earth using techniques like ground-penetrating radar, revealing structures now invisible to the human eye.

The new discovery was hidden in the landscape: nothing remains above ground.

The international team includes scientists and archaeologists from Birmingham University, Bradford, St Andrews, and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Virtual Archaeology in Austria, as well as teams from Germany, Norway and Sweden.

Professor Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, said: "This is just the beginning. We will now map this monument using an array of technologies that will allow us to view this new discovery, and the landscape around it, in three dimensions. This marks a new departure for archaeologists and how they investigate the past."


The work of other teams suggests that timber and stone monuments were separate parts of the same Stonehenge story. Professor Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist who has been excavating for many seasons at Durrington Walls, another nearby timber henge site, has already suggested that timber henges and structures were associated with feasting for the living, and stone circles with the realms of the dead.

Work continues and the team expects to uncover many more secrets in the landscape.

The discovery sharpens the disappointment of the partners working on the Stonehenge Project, an ambitious scheme which has already absorbed millions of pounds in planning work, intended to reunite the stone circle with the surrounding landscape, most of which is owned by the National Trust and leased to farmers. The plan to bury in a tunnel the traffic choked trunk road that runs within yards of the monument has been abandoned on cost grounds. Last month the government announced it was scrapping the promised £25m contribution towards a new visitor centre, replacing the present facilities damned by the parliamentary public accounts committee as "a national disgrace".

[güttsfükk]

is there no date or source to go with the discovery?

saw a documentary a few years ago where they discovered the base of a town/village right by stonehenge, about 2000 houses if i remember right.

[Ghost]

Couple of days ago mate


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10718522

[güttsfükk]

nice, one, i think it's important to put sources & dates with posts about discoveries. wish i could track down the documentary about the discovery of those homes by stonehenge, it was summer 2008 i saw it, i think the archaeological expedition was around 2007 for that discovery. but it's a fair while ago and cant really remember for sure

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by guttsfukk ↗

nice, one, i think it's important to put sources & dates with posts about discoveries. wish i could track down the documentary about the discovery of those homes by stonehenge, it was summer 2008 i saw it, i think the archaeological expedition was around 2007 for that discovery. but it's a fair while ago and cant really remember for sure

Agreed, I'm too busy thinking about my lunch

Is this what you're referring too ?

31st March 2008 Excavation Starts at Stonehenge
9th April 2008 'Breakthrough' at Stonehenge dig
29th May 2008Stonehenge 'Royal Cemetry' Claim

[güttsfükk]

nah, but i saw it in the related stories in one of your links


Stonehenge's huge support settlement
Last Updated: Monday, 5 November 2007, 09:05 GMT

Archaeologists working near Stonehenge have uncovered what they believe is the largest Neolithic settlement ever discovered in Northern Europe.

Remains of an estimated 300 houses are thought to survive under earthworks 3km (2 miles) from the famous stone rings, and 10 have been excavated so far.

But there could have been double that total according to the archaeologist leading the work.

"What is really exciting is realising just how big the village for the Stonehenge builders was," says Professor Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

Allowing four per house, he estimates there could have been room for more than 2,000 people.

Join the party

Analysis of the houses has also showed that some were higher status than others. This is the first evidence for social difference and hierarchy at the time of Stonehenge, indicating that the organisation of labour for moving and raising the stones was not egalitarian.

The settlement is buried beneath the bank of Durrington Walls, a great circular ditched enclosure.

Geophysical survey and excavation work have revealed that the ditch and bank had been constructed in large sections, probably by separate work gangs.

A find of dozens of antler picks in one section of ditch gives some idea of the size of these work parties.

"From the number of antler picks left in the bottom of one section - 57 - if you allow two people with one pick plus a team of basketeers carrying the rubble away and you've got to have the sandwich makers as well.

"This suggests a minimum team size of 200. If the 22 sections of Durrington's ditch were all dug at the same time, that's a work force of thousands."

Animal incomers

The settlement beneath Durrington Walls dates from around the time of the construction of Stonehenge's sarsen stones, about 2600 to 2500 BC.

For Mike Parker Pearson, the new evidence throws an important light on how Neolithic society worked - how people organised themselves to build mega-structures.

Apply this to Stonehenge, and he believes there were groups of about 200-400 people working under a clan head, responsible for completing individual sections of the overall monument.

"It's possible that most of Southern Britain may have been involved at one stage or another," Parker Pearson says.

Other evidence from cow and pig bones found on the site suggests that people were coming into the area on a seasonal basis.

"This was a temporary settlement," he says. "They were not doing basic daily chores, not grinding corn, not raising animals. There were no baby pigs and cows. It looks like the livestock had been brought in."

Copper clue

And there is also evidence of feasting at Durrington Neolithic village such as bones still connected together.

"This is the sort of thing you are expecting at feasting occasions - discarded but still-edible joints of meat - when everyone has got enough to eat."

The team has also found a tantalising artefact: a piece of chalk with cut marks that Parker Pearson believes was made by a copper axe.

He is not surprised at the evidence - as copper working in neighbouring parts of mainland Europe dates back to 3000 BC - but it would be the first evidence from Britain before 2400 BC.

The theory is also supported by the almost total absence of evidence of stone or flint axes in the village.

The current excavations at Stonehenge began four years ago and are part of a 10-year project.