Archaeologists have squared the circle at Avebury stones

IT IS one of the greatest marvels of prehistoric Britain, the largest stone circle in Europe and a sacred meeting place for our ancestors.

But an archaeological survey at Avebury in Wiltshire has suggested the Neolithic monument had even more unusual beginnings. In fact, the huge circle started out life as a 100ft square, archaeologists now believe, after discovering through the use of radar a mysterious box-shaped enclosure of giant stones in the middle of the henge.

Henge monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury are always round. It is the first time a square monument has been found.

“In a landscape of circles, we’ve suddenly got a square and lines,” said Dr Mark Gillings, a reader in archaeology at the University of Leicester. “It’s very strange, and it shows there had been 1,000 years of jiggery-pokery.”