Massive prehistoric structure found near Stonehenge
9 hours ago
Sophie Parker
Wiltshire
Internet Archaeology journal
The pits were found with geophysics, then boreholes were made to test the sediment.
The discovery of a series of huge Neolithic pits have been confirmed at the Stonehenge World Heritage Site after initial research a few years ago.
The massive pits at Durrington Walls in Wiltshire are set at regular intervals, ten metres in diameter and more than five metres deep.
Professor Vince Gaffney said that as a "cohesive structure" they could be "one of the largest prehistoric structures in Britain, if not the largest prehistoric structure".
The new research has been published in the Internet Archaeology Journal and concludes pits are almost certainly man-made and more than 4,000 years old.
Historic England Archive/Heritage Images via Getty Images
Durrington Walls sits next to Woodhenge in the Stonehenge landscape
Prof Gaffney, from the University of Bradford, explained it would have taken a lot of effort to dig the holes - around two storeys deep - from the chalk landscape.
The horseshoe-shaped pits also link to another monument near Larkhill.
"The circle is pretty accurate. It suggests that people were pacing the distances out to make sure that the pits were aligned at the same distance all the way around as the distance from the henge to the earlier enclosure" he said.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly3vgd5732o