New Neolithic Monument Discovered Near Stonehenge Using Remote Sensing Technology

Archeologists discovered a ring of large shafts near Stonehenge using Remote Sensing Technology, marking it the largest prehistoric monument ever discovered in Britain. 

The shafts which experts believe to be more than 20 may have served as a boundary to a sacred area connected to the henge

Archeologists from universities of St. Andrew, Birmingham, Warwick, Bradford, Glasgow, and University of Wales Trinity Saint uncovered the discovery using the remote sensing technology and sampling. 

The new archeological discovery offers a significant clue about life 4,500 years ago in the Neolithic period. The discovery provides light on the large circle of shaft surrounding the ancient village, the Durrington Walls henge monument, which is 2 miles from the Stonehenge. The shafts form a 1.2 mile wide (2 km) circle measuring 10 m in diameter and 5 m in-depth, which makes it substantially larger than any prehistoric monument in Britain. 

According to Prof. Vince Gaffney, the lead researcher from the University of Radford, the recent discovery showed that Neolithic communities had the capacity and desire to record their cosmological belief systems in a manner and a scale that has not been anticipated. Stonehenge is "amongst the most studied archeological landscapes on earth." A discovery of this magnitude using new technology remarkable, Gaffney said.

Proper excavation is still required to know the nature of the pits. The study team believes that the newly discovered ring of shaft served as a boundary to delineate the difference between the Durrington and Stonehenge areas and to mark Durrington as a special place.

"Stonehenge was for the dead, Durrington was for the living," Dr. Gaffney said. The big boundary is probably meant to warn people of what they are approaching.

The pits were placed at a deliberate distance, and its position would have to be paced from a central point. This, Gaffney said, indicates that people at that time could count, making it the earliest evidence for counting modern-day Britain.

It is difficult to speculate the amount of time to create the structure, but since manual stone tools were used, a "considerable organization of labor to produce pits on this scale," Gaffney said. 

Gaffney added that the study found that the pits are massive and are nearly vertical sided. The team could not find any narrowing that implies some sort of shaft. The silts reveal relatively slow filling of the pits Indicating that the pits were cut and left open. 

Details about the lives of who built the Stonehenge has been slowly revealing over the years. This was made possible because of a partnership among several universities and research institutions called the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, which was also behind this recent discovery.

Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is strategically placed to align with the sunrise and sunset on winter and summer solstices. Many experts believe that it is a sacred site for ceremonies and rituals; a lot of questions as to why the structure was built and to what purpose it served still remain.