Astonishing feat of prehistoric civil engineering discovered near Stonehenge

[Innula Zenovka]

Vast neolithic circle of deep shafts found near Stonehenge

Exclusive: prehistoric structure spanning 1.2 miles in diameter is masterpiece of engineering, say archaeologists

www.theguardian.com

Four thousand five hundred years ago, the Neolithic peoples who constructed Stonehenge, a masterpiece of engineering, also dug a series of shafts aligned to form a circle spanning 1.2 miles (2km) in diameter. The structure appears to have been a boundary guiding people to a sacred area because Durrington Walls, one of Britain’s largest henge monuments, is located precisely at its centre. The site is 1.9 miles north-east of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, near Amesbury, Wiltshire.

Prof Vincent Gaffney, a leading archaeologist on the project, said: “This is an unprecedented find of major significance within the UK. Key researchers on Stonehenge and its landscape have been taken aback by the scale of the structure and the fact that it hadn’t been discovered until now so close to Stonehenge.”

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[Maitimo]

Another Stonehenge mystery has recently been solved. We've known for a while that the smaller "bluestones" in the outer ring came from south Wales, but the source of the stone for the large central sarsen-stoness wasn't confirmed until a core sample originally taken in 1958 was returned last year after being missing for decades. Testing of the core revealed it to be a match with outcrops in the Marlborough Downs, about 15 miles north of the Henge.

Mystery of origin of Stonehenge stones solved

 

[Soen Eber]

I wonder what people thousands of years from now will think of the A303 & A344?




Or will they instead still be planning for a new tunnel site and expansion of the A344?

 

[Maitimo]

I wonder what people thousands of years from now will think of the A303 & A344?

They probably won't even exist by then. The only things made in the 20th century that will still exist in the 30th is plastic trash.

 

[danielravennest]

They probably won't even exist by then. The only things made in the 20th century that will still exist in the 30th is plastic trash.

Concrete foundations are pretty durable, even if the buildings above them have rotted. Rome is lousy with stuff that has survived more than a thousand years.

I used to live down the street from St John the Divine in Manhattan. The structure is mainly stone, including arches made of 3x5x10 ft granite blocks. Even if the building is abandoned and the roof rots, the stones will still be there for a long long time. It was started in 1892, but mainly built in the 20th century. It is still not done, hence the local name of "St. John the Unfinished".