Stonehenge Has Another Version? Meet The 4,500-Year-Old 'Superhenge' Discovered At Durrington Walls
By Alex Cruz | Sep 08, 2015 06:23 AM EDT
Stonehenge, the famous circle of bluestones in Southwest England, reportedly has another version, only that it's bigger. Archaeologists have discovered traces of the so-called "Superhenge" less than three kilometers from the Stonehenge itself.
The Stonehenge-like structures are believed to be 4,500 years old, CNN reported. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project team said the structure was discovered beneath Durrington Walls.
Researchers said that the Superhenge was considered as one of the largest henge monuments built before Stonehenge. According to Fox News, it was found through a ground-penetrating radar on Salisbury Plain with as many as 90 large stones.
"In the east up to 30 stones, measuring up to size of 4.5 x 1.5 x 1 meters (14.7 x 5 x 3.3 feet), have survived below the bank whereas elsewhere the stones are fragmentary or represented by massive foundation pits," Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology Professor Wolfgang Neubauer said.
The hidden arrangements of the stones reportedly formed part of a C-shaped Neolitic arena, bordering a dry valley and facing straight towards the Avon River. The experts believed that Superhenge was used as a ritual arena.
Vince Gaffney, an archaeologist from Bradford University that leads the project, described their new discovery to The Guardian as archaeology on steroids, as per USA Today.
He added that the newly-discovered structure was the largest surviving stone shrine preserved below a bank in Britain, and probably in Europe.
Archaeologist and lead historian on the project at the University of Birmingham Paul Garwood said that it had changed their understanding of the Stonehedge and the world that surrounds it.
"Everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be rewritten," Garwood added.
The latest findings, from the site, will be described at the British Science Festival in Bradford on Monday, according to The Guardian.
Check out the video below, and see how amazing these structures are.
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