BBC News reports that nearly 100 stone monoliths found buried near Stonehenge could be the largest Neolithic monument built in Britain, in an article 'Stonehenge researchers may have found largest neolithic site'.

Image: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute

The 4,500-year-old stones, some measuring 4.5m in length, were discovered under 1m of earth at Durrington Walls, 3km from Stonehenge. Researchers, led by Vince Gaffney of the University of Bradford, state that the monument was on an extraordinary scale, perhaps unique. The hidden monument is thought to have been a ritual site.

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes team has been creating an underground map of the area in a five-year project. Remote sensing and geophysical imaging technology has been used to reveal the stones without the need for excavation.

Although no stones have been excavated they are believed to be fashioned from sarsen blocks found locally. A unique sarsen standing stone, The Cuckoo Stone, remains in the field next to Durrington Walls.

The stones are believed to have been deliberately toppled over the south-eastern edge of the bank of the circular enclosure before being incorporated into it.

Archaeologist Nick Snashall stated that the presence of what appear to be stones surrounding the site of one of the largest neolithic settlements in Europe adds a whole new chapter to the Stonehenge story.

The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after the Stonehenge sarsen circle, but archaeologists believe the newly discovered stone row could have been put in place at the same time or even earlier.

As the Stonehenge landscape keeps revealing significant archaeological remains, the call for preservation and further exploration of the entire site gets louder.

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