The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project has unveiled a groundbreaking digital map that reveals numerous previously unknown archaeological features surrounding Stonehenge, including 17 new ritual monuments and extensive burial mounds. This project utilized advanced remote sensing techniques and geophysical surveys, significantly enhancing our understanding of the area, particularly the Durrington Walls 'super henge', which is now recognized as the largest of its kind globally. The findings include a major prehistoric stone monument located less than 3 kilometers from Stonehenge, further enriching the archaeological narrative of this iconic site.
PREREQUISITESArchaeologists, historians, and researchers interested in prehistoric monuments, as well as anyone seeking to understand the technological advancements in archaeological mapping and their impact on historical interpretations.
Ground penetrating radar and remote sensing technology have been around for decades, and have gotten much better.A host of previously unknown archaeological monuments have been discovered around Stonehenge as part of an unprecedented digital mapping project that will transform our knowledge of this iconic landscape -- including remarkable new findings on the world's largest 'super henge,' Durrington Walls.
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Remote sensing techniques and geophysical surveys have discovered hundreds of new features which now form part of the most detailed archaeological digital map of the Stonehenge landscape ever produced. The startling results of the survey, unveiled in full at the British Science Festival, include 17 previously unknown ritual monuments dating to the period when Stonehenge achieved its iconic shape. Dozens of burial mounds have been mapped in minute detail, including a long barrow (a burial mound dating to before Stonehenge) which revealed a massive timber building, probably used for the ritual inhumation of the dead following a complicated sequence of exposure and excarnation (defleshing), and which was finally covered by an earthen mound.
The project has also revealed exciting new -- and completely unexpected -- information on previously known monuments. Among the most significant relate to the Durrington Walls 'super henge', situated a short distance from Stonehenge. This immense ritual monument, probably the largest of its type in the world, has a circumference of more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles).
The remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument have been discovered less than 3 kilometres from Stonehenge. Using cutting edge, multi-sensor technologies the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project has revealed evidence for a large stone monument hidden beneath the bank of the later Durrington Walls 'super-henge'.