When it comes to the ancient and precious
gem that is the Stonehenge Landscape it
seems the harder we look the more we find.
Over the course of the last five years a team
of archaeologists from across Europe led by
Professor Vince Gaffney of Bradford
University have been carrying out a vast
geophysical survey covering almost every
blade of grass that the National Trust care
for in the Stonehenge Landscape (about
2100 acres). They’ve made dozens of new
discoveries, some of them entirely unknown
sites. But possibly the most astonishing
they’ve found is that something – in fact
possibly as many as two hundred somethings
– lie buried beneath the bank of Durrington
Walls henge.
Their surveys have revealed an arc of large
solid objects some as much as two or three
metres long. But what are they? Vince and his
Hidden Landscapes team think they’re the
remains of standing stones. If they are they
would be the remains of a stone monument
so vast that it would only be rivalled by the
great Outer Circle at Avebury. On the other
hand Professor Mike Parker Pearson and his
multi-university Stonehenge Riverside Project
think that they may be pits dug to contain
giant timber posts but then backfilled.
There’s only one way to find out - and that’s
to dig! So the Hidden Landscapes team, the
Stonehenge Riverside Project and the
National Trust have joined forces to create
an archaeological ‘superteam’.
In the first two weeks of August this
summer we will be excavating the
‘Superhenge’ to discover what the four
thousand five hundred year old secret is
that lies buried at Durrington Walls.
You can get daily updates from the trenches
when we’re digging on our FragmeNTs blog
http://ntarchaeostonehengeaveburywhs.word
press.com/blog/ or follow our progress on
the @DrNickNT Twitter feed. Better still
come and take a look for yourself.
Our crack team of volunteer guides will be
down on the dig site ready to share all of
our latest discoveries with you.
You’ll find Durrington Walls just off of the
A345 about half a mile north of the
Countess Roundabout – just follow the
signs for Woodhenge. See you there!
From Megalith 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment