* Astronomy

The location of the dig site at which archaeologists discovered the ancient settlement is at Durrington Walls. It is located approximately 1.8 miles East-North-East of StoneHenge. Experts say it is likely that the dwellers of this place transported their dead via the River Avon to StoneHenge, which may have been used as a funeral site.


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Latitude: 51°11'30.65"N Longitude: 1°47'7.65"W

Recent excavations of Salisbury Plain in southern England have revealed at least two other large stone formations close by the world-famous prehistoric monument. One of the megalithic finds is a sandstone formation that marked a ritual burial mound; the other, a group of stones at the site of an ancient timber circle.
The new discoveries suggest that many similar monuments may have been erected in the shadow of Stonehenge, possibly forming part of a much larger complex.
The findings were part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a joint initiative to explore the land around the iconic monument. Led by Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University, the project involves six English universities.
The first monument—a 2.8-meter-long sarsen stone—was found lying in a field next to the River Avon, 3.2 kilometres east of Stonehenge, which is located near the modern-day city of Salisbury. The riverside sarsen—large sandstone blocks that occur naturally in southern England—had been stood upright, like the blocks that form the main structure of Stonehenge.
A team lead by Colin Richards of Manchester University and Joshua Pollard of Bristol University found the hole that originally held the stone, dug between 2500 and 2000 BCE, as well as human remains and artefacts that date to the same period.
The partially cremated remains of two people were buried next to the stone. One was a large male whose unburned vertebrae suggest he was at least 182 centimetres tall.

"Seemingly he was so big they weren't able to cremate him properly. The unburnt bone is the product of that poor process of cremation" - Joshua Pollard.

Stone knives and arrowheads, a piece of limestone carved into the shape of a megalith, two pottery bowls, and a rare rock crystal were also unearthed near the burial site. The rock crystal find is the earliest known example from Britain and possibly came from as far away as the Alps.
Archaeologists have suggested that other prehistoric burials in the area were connected to mainland Europe. Such a connection ties in with theories that Stonehenge was an important pilgrimage destination or a place where people travelled in the hope of miracle cures. The megalithic burial site could also support theories that link Stonehenge and other standing stones to ancestor worship and commemorating the dead.
Pollard's team also found new evidence for stone settings at Woodhenge, a site 2 kilometres northeast of Stonehenge where a timber circle was constructed in about 2200 BCE. Excavations in the 1920s hinted a stone monument may once have been present at the site.

"We were able to confirm last summer that there had been standing stones — some very considerable stones — at Woodhenge" - Joshua Pollard.

While only fragments of the formation were found, the holes the stones were set in suggest the blocks stood up to 3 meters  tall. The team also found evidence for two phases of stone settings that probably came after the timber circle had rotted.

"Four smaller stones were replaced by two much bigger sarsen settings. So it goes from a timber monument to being a megalithic monument, albeit not on the same scale as Stonehenge" - Joshua Pollard.

 What happened to the stones at Woodhenge remains a mystery, though one possibility is that they were added to Stonehenge.
The research team says there is evidence from old maps and ancient sources for other similar monuments near Stonehenge.

"There may have been many smaller megalithic settings across this landscape. I think it's extremely likely there would have been other standing stones" - Joshua Pollard.

"Particularly to the east" -  Julian Thomas, professor of archaeology at Manchester University.

Such monuments would have had an important connection to Stonehenge. The stones and artefacts buried alongside the satellite monuments may have also played a symbolic role in spreading the authority of Stonehenge into the wider landscape.

Source: National Geographic News

They got the date wrong by some 3,000 years, but the oldest detailed drawing of Stonehenge, apparently based on first hand observation, has turned up in a 15th century manuscript.

The little sketch is a bird's eye view of the stones, and shows the great trilithons, the biggest stones in the monument, each made of two pillars capped with a third stone lintel, which stand in a horseshoe in the centre of the circle. Only three are now standing, but the drawing, found in Douai, northern France, suggests that in the 15th century four of the original five survived.
In the Scala Mundi, the Chronicle of the World, Merlin is given credit for building Stonehenge between 480 and 486, when the Latin text says he "not by force, but by art, brought and erected the giant's ring from Ireland". Modern science suggests that the stones went up from 2,500 BC, with the bluestone outer circle somehow transported from west Wales, and the double decker bus-size sarsen stones dragged 30 miles across Salisbury plain.

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Stonehenge was a place of healing and not a place for the dead, according to a scholar who attributes its powers to its Welsh origins.
Professor Timothy Darvill shed new light yesterday on the purpose of the ancient stone circles of Stonehenge.
The academic says the basis for his findings is found in the Preseli Mountains in West Wales, where he and colleague Professor Geoffrey Wainwright have found bluestones used in the construction of Stonehenge's stone circles 155 miles away.
Stonehenge was erected between 3000BC and 1600BC. There has always been intense debate over the reason it was built, with theories ranging from human sacrifice to astronomy.
But Prof Darvill believes the thousands of solstice revellers who visit the monuments on the longest day of each year to mark the arrival of summer are celebrating in error.

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