Discovery of ‘superhenge’ deepens Stonehenge mystery

According to the researchers, they found the monument, which has about 100 stones, built about 4,500 years ago. The monument, also known as “superhenge”, has been found near Durrington Walls.

Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University of Bradford, said the “truly remarkable” find is the most important to emerge so far from the Hidden Landscapes project, which is mapping previously unknown archaeological features buried in the Wiltshire countryside. Some of the stones are as tall as 15 feet.

The team behind the project is using remote sensors and “geophysical imaging technology” to uncover evidence of the stones without the need for any excavation equipment. The missing stones might have been the ones used to form the Stonehenge, while the stones left in place were most likely broken during the moving process, Neubauer explained.

Each year thousands of Druids and Pagans gather at the World Heritage site located in Whilshire, England for the Spring Equinox, summer solstice and winter solstice to watch the sun rise above the stones.

The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after Stonehenge, a ring of standing stones believed to have been erected between 3000 and 2000 B.C.

The super-henge was constructed at the site of a natural depression in the landscape near the river Avon that was surrounded by a chalk scarp, or sharply edged hill. “What we are starting to see is the largest surviving stone monument, preserved underneath a bank, that has ever been discovered in Britain and possibly in Europe”, he said.

Archaeologists announced on Monday that they’ve discovered the remains of another prehistoric stone monument less than two miles from Stonehenge and it’s completely reshaping how researchers understand the history of the area. Around 30 stones up to 4.5 metres long are buried there, and the surveys suggest there were at least 90 originally.

British researchers have come across another Stonehenge formation about 2 miles from the famous Stonehenge site. The large stones in the monument are lying on their sides. As part of the project, “experts from many different fields and institutions have been examining the area around Stonehenge revealing new and previously known sites in unprecedented detail and transforming our knowledge of this iconic landscape”. The Independent adds another quote from him, that “the burying of the stones in Neolithic times nearly certainly represented a significant social and ritual change”.