Previously unknown archaeological monuments have been discovered around Stonehenge as part of an unprecedented digital mapping project that is expected to transform our knowledge of this iconic landscape forever.
The new findings are part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, which was led by the University of Birmingham in conjunction with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, is the largest project of its kind, according to a news release.
Geophysical surveys and remote sensing techniques discovered hundreds of new features which now form part of the most detailed archaeological digital map of the Stonehenge landscape ever produced.
Results of the survey, which were unveiled at the British Science Festival, include 17 previously unknown ritual monuments dating back to when Stonehenge first achieved its now iconic shape, the most significant being the Durrington Walls "super henge," found not too far from Stonehenge itself.
The ritual monument has a circumference more than 0.93 miles, making it one of the largest ritual monuments in the world.
Dozens of burial mounds have been mapped in minute detail, like a long barrow, which revealed a massive timber building, most likely used for the ritual inhumation of the dead following a complicated sequence of exposure and excarnation, according to the release.
The survey also revealed that this had an early phase when the monument was flanked with a row of large posts or stone, possibly three meters high and 60 in number.
"The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is unique at a global level," said Vincent Gaffney, British project leader, in the news release. "Not only has it revolutionized how archaeologists use new technologies to interpret the past, it has transformed how we understand Stonehenge and its landscape. Despite Stonehenge being the most iconic of all prehistoric monuments and occupying one of the richest archaeological landscapes in the world, much of this landscape in effect remains terra incognita."
The new research reveals that the area around Stonehenge is filled with previously unseen archaeological features.
Novel types of monument were also revealed, like massive prehistoric pits, some of which appear to form astronomic alignments, plus new information on hundreds of burial mounds, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlements and fields in detail never seen before, according to the release.
Results will be also be featured in a new BBC Two series called Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath.
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