LONDON — Scientists scouring the area around Stonehenge said Thursday they have uncovered a circular structure a few hundred yards from the world famous monument, but there’s some debate about what exactly has been found.
The survey team that uncovered it said it could be the foundation for a circle of free- standing pieces of timber, a wooden version of Stonehenge. But Tim Darvill, a professor of archaeology at Bournemouth University in southern England, believes it was more likely a barrow, or prehistoric tomb.
Darvill said the circle was one of an expanding number of discoveries around Stonehenge that “really shows how much there is still to learn and how extensive the site really was.”
The Stonehenge visible today is thought to have been completed about 3,500 years ago, although the first earthwork henge on the site was probably built more than 5,000 years ago.
Teams have been scanning the surrounding fields and pastures with magnetic and radar sensors pulled across the grass by tractors or quad bikes. The new structure was found when scans identified a cluster of deep pits surrounded by a ring of smaller holes about half a mile from Stonehenge and within sight of its standing stones.
The whole area around Stonehenge is dotted with prehistoric cemeteries — some of which predate the monument itself — and new discoveries are made occasionally.
