‘SUPER-HENGE’ DISCOVERED
Neolithic stones near Stonehenge
A huge ritual monument that dates from the time of Stonehenge has been discovered hidden under the bank of a nearby Stone Age enclosure in southwestern England.
Durrington Walls, a roundish “super-henge” has long puzzled archeologists because one side is straight while the rest of the structure is curved. As early as 1810, historian Richard Colt Hoare claimed its shape had been left “much mutilated” by centuries of agriculture.
Now ground-penetrating radar has found that the straight edge is actually aligned over a row of 90 standing stones, which once stood about 4½ metres high and formed a C-shaped arena that has not been seen for thousands of years.
The stone line is likely to have marked a ritual procession route and is thought to date from the same time as the sarsen circle at Stonehenge.
Archeologists believe the stones were pushed over and a bank built on top, but they are still trying to work out exactly why they were built. Nothing exists like it in the Neolithic world.
“It’s utterly remarkable,” said Vince Gaffney, of the University of Bradford, northern England. “It’s just enormous. It is definitely one of the largest stone monuments in Europe and is completely unique. We’ve never seen anything like this in the world.
“We can’t tell what the stones are made of, but they are the same height as the sarsens in the Stonehenge circle, so they may be the same kind. It was probably for a ritual of some sort, or it could have marked out an arena. These monuments were very theatrical. This a design to impress and empower.
“Not only does the new evidence demonstrate 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.”