Massive New Stone Structure found Buried Near Stonehenge

About 2 miles northeast of Stonehenge and a mere 60 meters north of Woodhenge is the site known as Durrington Walls, the largest henge known in the world.


Aerial view of Durrington Walls. Image Source: Salisbury and Stonehenge Tours

From Wikipedia:

What visibly remains of Durrington Walls today is the 'walls' of the henge monument – in fact the eroded remains of the inner slope of the bank and the outer slope of the internal ditch. This now appears as a ridge surrounding a central basin. On the eastern side the separate ditch and bank are much more discernible although badly eroded by ploughing. Originally the ditch was some 5.5m deep, 7m wide at its bottom and 18m wide at the top. The bank was in some areas 30m wide. There were two entrances through the bank and ditch – at the north western and south eastern ends. There may also have been an entrance to the south and the north east, although these may have been deliberately blocked. The henge enclosed several timber circles and smaller enclosures – not all of which have been excavated. Several Neolithic house floors have been found next to and under the eastern bank of the henge. Their density suggests that there was a very large village on the sloping river bank on this side.

The henge sits on high ground that slopes south east toward a bend in the River Avon, and is thus considerably higher at its north western side than at its south eastern edge. The south eastern entrance is roughly 60m from the riverbank.

The henge has two roads passing through it – an old toll road, and a modern banked road constructed in 1967. In the past military barracks were constructed at the north eastern end of the henge, and some houses are constructed on the western bank. The land on the western side of the toll road is owned by the National Trust, forming part of its Stonehenge Landscape property. It has free entry.

Now archaeologists from University of Birmingham's Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project, using ground penetrating radar, have discovered beneath the site's massive bank, 30 intact stones and the fragments and foundation pits of 60 more that when standing would have been about 15 feet high or roughly the same height as Stonehenge's sarsens.

From Telegraph UK:

“It’s utterly remarkable,” said Professor Vince Gaffney, of the University of Bradford. “It’s just enormous. It is definitely one of the largest stone monuments in Europe and is completely unique. We’ve never seen anything like this in the world.

“We can’t tell what the stones are made of, but they are the same height as the sarsens in the Stonehenge circle, so they may be the same kind.
“It was probably for a ritual of some sort, or it could have marked out an arena. These monuments were very theatrical. This a design to impress and empower.

“Not only does the new evidence demonstrate a completely unexpected phase of monumental architecture at one of the greatest ceremonial sites in prehistoric Europe, the new stone row could well be contemporary with the famous Stonehenge sarsen circle or even earlier.”

Here is a recreation of the stones as they would have been positioned when standing (image from University of Birmingham lbi-archpro.org...):



It seems there's no end to the discoveries being made by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project!

is the second pic above of what the radar image generates? im trying to picture this, what lies underground and get a grasp of the scale. what is above ground is quite interesting enuf, well not the great wall of china or anything but something i never heard of being near stonehenge, yet larger!

a reply to: Sovan

The project's website doesn't appear to have any composite images from the GPR data but you can see several from the magnetometry survey on the site:



They've surveyed the area around Stonehenge over the last several years using a combination of aerial photography, airborne imaging spectroscopy, laser scanning, GPR, magnetometry and electromagnetic induction, revealing dozens of new sites and uncovering all sorts of previously unknown details about Stonehenge itself.

The release was obviously timed to coincide with next week's British Science Festival in Bradford and the airing of Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath which will be broadcast on BBC Two, Smithsonian channel (US), CBC (Canada) and other stations on September 11th.

I am fascinated by Stonehenge.

I often sit and dream of going there one day.

Thanks for the heads up about the broadcast on the new Operation Stonehenge.

There is so much that we don't know about our history and I feel like we will never know.

Oceans have risen and fallen - catastrophes have happened - to the point that there are layers upon layers of earth that are hiding ancient secrets.

I love to let my wander with ideas of how it used to be.

S&F

They said that they also found the foundations of 60 or so stones that would have been the same standing size as those at Stonehenge.

Is it possible that the stones at Stonehenge presently, could have come from this earlier henge?
If so, it could upset a few apple carts, IMHO

Neat. Mankind has been stacking stones for many thousands of years. It's in us to do so. The day after my hernia surgery I was out changing the shape of my flower garden boundry, rolling rocks around. Now why did I want to be out there doing that when I was in pain. Actually kneeling on the ground rolling those rocks around made my pain go away and I do not understand why.

I dug up a row of rocks buried under the garden when rototilling and took them out and put them around the garden. After hitting about ten in a row, I noticed that there were no other rocks there. A geologist told me that they were probably put there by the glacier, which is the biggest crock I ever heard. The alignment was nearly perfectly north and south. The rest of the row is still there, but most of it has been disturbed by the tilling of the garden and when I put the road in. Someone lined them up, who knows who they were. The other row I found does not go exactly north and south though, it appears to be that they are pointing to a rock outcrop in the neighbors yard next to a big hole. I have no idea why these things are there under the ground about a foot.

When we will figure out the meaning of these?

There are many henges with concentric rings.. There must be great power held within that style of geometry..

What kind of professor says “We can’t tell what the stones are made of..."?

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
What kind of professor says “We can’t tell what the stones are made of..."?

They won't be able to do more than speculate until the stones are excavated.

Awesome find, I would love to visit one day. I have felt drawn there for many years.

originally posted by: DeviantMortal
Awesome find, I would love to visit one day. I have felt drawn there for many years.

The bad news.
You can't get within 20 feet of the stones when the exhibit is open because they make you stay on an encircling path and they charge you £25 for the privilege.

The good news
You can easily jump over the fence at night and do what you want for free as the UK doesn't have any prosecutable trespass laws as long as you don't damage anything. And like, its made of rock...

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
What kind of professor says “We can’t tell what the stones are made of..."?

One who hasn't dug them up yet...

a reply to: theantediluvian

I was halfway through writing a thread about this when I figured you might have posted one. And you have, hurray, so less effort needed from me!

What interested me was this:

Durrington Walls measures around 1,640 feet (500 meters) in diameter and is surrounded by a ditch of up to 54ft (16 meters) wide and a bank of more than three foot (1 meter) high. It is built on the same summer solstice alignment as Stonehenge. The enormous structure is believed to have formed a gigantic ceremonial complex in the Stonehenge landscape.

Superhe nge - Ancient Origins

Why build two massive structures to the same alignment within a mile apart?

“It was probably for a ritual of some sort or it could have marked out an arena,” said Professor Gaffney. “These monuments were very theatrical. This (is) a design to impress and empower.”

Could it be then, that the solstice alignment was secondary to the purpose of these structures, a necessary inclusion in any building project for either luck, protection or power?

Considering they now know the location of the first set of stones came from a place that would have been difficult to carry, it's adds to the strangeness that there are now even more.

I've never bought into the theory that these large stones spread around the globe were due to some innate human desire to build and carry large rocks. Food, sex, shelter, war, vanity are all understandable - dragging large rocks are not.

I have never seen one club devoted to dragging large rocks. And I don't know of even one religion that centered around mega stones. You would think if so many cultures had large stones at their center of worship, this would have filtered down some way to current ideas.

I've never bought into the theory that these large stones spread around the globe were due to some innate human desire to build and carry large rocks. Food, sex, shelter, war, vanity are all understandable - dragging large rocks are not..

I think your info might be a little out of date, previously it was believed that the Sarsen stones were dragged 100s of miles by tribesmen across the country to the site of Stonehenge on Salisbury plain. Nowadays it is understood that the stones were the remains of a cap of Cenozoic silcrete which once covered much of Southern England, until it was broken up by glacial action, so the tribesmen just collected them locally. The much smaller bluestones that make up the inner horseshoe were collected from Preseli in North wales, famous landing site of the Ancient English Gods the Children of Don

en.wikipedia.org...

I have never seen one club devoted to dragging large rocks. And I don't know of even one religion that centered around mega stones. You would think if so many cultures had large stones at their center of worship, this would have filtered down some way to current ideas.

Yeah I agree, but then the brick happened

I wonder if they are going to dig them up, stand them on their ends, get stone masons in to cut notches in them so they can put one on top of the other and then pretend that's how they found them just like the original stone henge?

Great find. Really amazing that the ancients had the ability to do this, surely we have lost touch with the direct power of the mind. It doesn't seem like they did it with any machinery besides some sort of mind power.

"Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move."

originally posted by: cooperton
Great find. Really amazing that the ancients had the ability to do this, surely we have lost touch with the direct power of the mind. It doesn't seem like they did it with any machinery besides some sort of mind power

Intelligence, something sadly lacking in a lot of forum posts thesedays

Oh yeah, venus project way back!!!

Looks To me Like The Flat muffler Tailpipe With The U Clamp Was Found Or Created There. Still Looking For The Structure. Probably Under The Photo Shopped Road.

originally posted by: Patshrick. Probably Under The Photo Shopped Road.

I've driven along that Photo Shopped Road about 2000 times.
You are stretching the credulity with this nonsense