Online Journal of ArcheologyThe discovery of a series of huge Neolithic pits has been confirmed at the Stonehenge World Heritage Site following initial study several years ago.
The massive pits at Darrington Walls in Wiltshire are spaced at regular intervals, ten meters in diameter and over five meters deep.
Professor Vince Gaffney said that as a “cohesive structure” they may be “one of the largest prehistoric structures in Britain, if not the largest prehistoric structure.”
The new study was published in the Online Archaeological Journal and concluded that the pits were almost certainly man-made and more than 4,000 years old.
Historic England Archive/Heritage Images via Getty ImagesProfessor Gaffney, from the University of Bradford, explained that it would take a lot of effort to dig holes around two storeys deep in the chalk landscape.
The horseshoe-shaped pits are also associated with another monument near Larkhill.
“The circle is pretty accurate. This suggests people were measuring distances to make sure the holes were the same distance around the perimeter as the distance from the fence to the previous fence,” he said.
Professor Gaffney said it added to previous evidence that people were counting and using it.
“They write something about their cosmology, their belief systems, into the Earth itself in a very dramatic way.”
Researchers were surveying 12 square kilometers (7.4 square meters) of landscape when they discovered the giant holes.
They were no longer visible to the naked eye and were too large to realistically carry out very rapid excavations. They drilled narrow boreholes to take samples of material from the objects.
Online Journal of ArcheologyDNA extracted from the samples revealed the remains of animals, including sheep and cattle.
The samples also helped experts date the excavations.
Dr Tim Kinnaird from the University of St Andrews called it a “super hedge” and used a technique called luminescent dating: “So just before this sediment falls into the hole, it is exposed to daylight so we can date the time of construction.”
It also turned out that they remained open for 1,000 years: “So it has to do with changing cultures,” he explained.
