Humans have
marvelled at the majesty of Stonehenge for thousands of years, but the
famous landmark’s original purpose has remained a mystery.
Now, a new technique has revealed 15 previously unknown Neolithic monuments around the mysterious monument in Wiltshire.
And
one archaeologist thinks they could provide evidence that the stone
circle was at the heart of a busy heathen processional route over 4,000
years ago.
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A new technique has revealed 15 previously
unknown Neolithic monuments around Stone Henge - and could provide clues
about its original purpose
Archaeologist
Vince Gaffney, of the University of Birmingham, is involved in the
Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project – a four-year collaboration with
the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and
Virtual Archaeology in Austria.
The
team has conducted the first detailed underground survey of the area
surrounding Stonehenge, covering around four square miles (6km),
journalist Ed Caesar reported for Smithsonian.
They
discovered evidence of 15 unknown and poorly-understood late Neolithic
monuments, including other henges, barrows, pits and ditches, which
could all harbour valuable information about the prehistoric site.
In
the summer of 2009, geophysicists used magnetic sensors and
ground-penetrating radar to scan the area around Stonehenge, detecting
unknown structures.
The sensors let experts detect evidence of ancient digging and buildings by mapping variations in the Earth’s magnetic field.
Historians are not sure what purpose the Curcus
served and Professor Gaffney describes it as a 'bloody great barrier to
the north of Stonehenge'
‘This
is among the most important landscapes, and probably the most studied
landscape, in the world,’ Professor Gaffney told the magazine.
‘And the area has been absolutely transformed by this survey. It won’t be the same again.’
Professor
Gaffney believes these sites suggest Stonehenge was not an isolated
monument in an unspoilt landscape, but that there was lots of human
activity nearby.
As
long ago as 1620, diggers discovered cattle skulls and burnt coals
buried in the centre of the stone circle and around 60 years ago, carbon
dating of a piece of charcoal in a pit led scientists to believe that
Stonehenge was erected in 2,600BC.
In
2003, Mike Parker Pearson of University College London claimed that the
workers who built Stonehenge lived in a nearby settlement of Durrington
Walls, after unearthing evidence of huts, tools, and animal bones.
He also said that the stone circle was a cemetery, as well as a religious monument.
In the latest study, which took 120 days spread over four years, the experts created a new map of the Stonehenge landscape.
They
included what we think of as Stonehenge, as well as a long strip of
land called the Curcus, which ran east to west for around two miles
(3km).
It is thought the ditch barrier predates the stone circle by several hundred years.
The Curcus barrows – mass graves – to the south of the Curcus were marked as well as the 15 new finds.
It is hoped their contents will become clear with future excavation.
Historians
are not sure what purpose the Curcus served and Professor Gaffney as a
‘bloody great barrier to the north of Stonehenge.’
Some experts think it was linked to the passage of the sun and this was supported by new clues.
The team discovered gaps in the ditch including a large break in the northern side to allow people to enter and exit the Curcus.
Professor Gaffney thinks the gaps served as ‘channels though the landscape’ to enable people to move north and south.
He also found a huge pit at the eastern end of the Curcus, which is today 3ft (1metre) underground.
No-one is exactly sure why - and how- Stonehenge was built. Experts have suggested it was a temple, parliament and a graveyard
Because
it was large – 14.7ft (4.5metres) in diameter – the team thinks it was
used for rituals as a ‘marker of some kind’. It is also located on the
path of the sunrise on the summer solstice.
‘We thought, that’s a bit of a coincidence!’ Professor Gaffney said.
‘That was the point at which we thought, What’s at the other end? And there’s another pit.
‘Two
pits, marking the midsummer sunrise and the midsummer solstice, set
within a monument that’s meant to be something to do with the passage of
the sun.’
Professor
Gaffney told Mr Caeser that on the longest day of the year, the pits
form a triangle with Stonehenge, marking sunrise and sunset.
He
thinks they may have had fires burning in them and that the site was
designed to be seen in the day and night, especially at sunrise and
sunset.
‘Increasingly
we can see the area around Stonehenge as providing extensive evidence
for complex liturgical movement - which we can now understand, largely
because we know where things are,’ he said.
He also believes the building of Stonehenge was a ‘monumentalising’ of a procession.
Stonehenge is a prehistoric stone circle
monument, cemetery, and archaeological site located on Salisbury Plain,
about 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
