Stonehenge breakthrough: New tests uncover Neolithic secret: ‘It’s one enormous structure’

Stonehenge: Osteoarchaeologist discusses find of human bones

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Last year, archaeologists were stunned after a new layer of the historic landscape of Stonehenge was uncovered. Deep pits were dotted across the area surrounding Durrington Walls, creating a mile-wide circle centred on the stone monument. But the discovery was heavily contested, with many experts saying they were merely natural features.

Now new tests have proved the large pits are “human-made” and date back 4,500 years.

Experts believe it was a boundary to one large sacred structure.

Professor Vincent Gaffney, an archaeologist who led the find, said science had proved that this was indeed a huge neolithic monument.

He added: “Some of the debate about the discovery and Stonehenge seemed bonkers to me.

“We’ve now looked at nearly half of them and they’re all the same. So effectively this really does say this is one enormous structure.

“It may have evolved from a natural feature, but we haven’t located that.

“So it’s the largest prehistoric structure found in Britain.”

Each of the pits found are about 10 metres wide and five metres deep.

The researchers believed they were dug by the Neolithic people who build Stonehenge.

The previously unknown subterranean ring is 20 times bigger than Stonehenge.

It is said to add to the evidence that early inhabitants of Britain, mainly farming communities, had developed a way to count, tracking hundreds of paces to measure out the pits.

It gives yet another twist to the story of the ancient monument.

Experts now believe that while Stonehenge was positioned in relation to the solstices, the boundary of pits may have had cosmological significance.

The team used groundbreaking technology to scan below the ground to detect where and when it had been disturbed.

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Dr Tim Kinnaird, from the University of St Andrews, said: “These proved beyond doubt that the pits date to around 2400BC.”

He told the Guardian about the the “exciting” findings, including “the remarkable consistency across the cores, the identification of multiple and distinct fills, the suggestion that the pits were infilled at a similar time.”

Detailed analytical work in the laboratory further confirmed that “these were not natural features”.

He added: “It’s confirmed that the [pits] are all very similar, which is fascinating.”

“If these were natural features such as sinkholes, they would be different sizes.”

Prof Gaffney hailed the technology, known as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), as “revolutionary”.

He added: “There’s a real revolution in dating technology happening with OSL.

“You date the sediments directly. Traditional dating relies on us finding a bit of bone or charcoal and then we date that.

“We don’t date the soil. OSL does that.”

The find will feature in a new Channel 5 documentary titled Stonehenge: The New Revelations, to be aired on 9 December (9pm).

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