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IPFS News Link • Archaeology

Hidden archeology of Stonehenge revealed in new geophysical map

• http://www.gizmag.com

The finds include images of dwellings from the Bronze and Iron Ages as well as details of buried Roman settlements never before seen.

Included in the findings are many dozens of burial mounds, including a long barrow entombment structure that dates back to a time before Stonehenge was constructed. Revealed in great detail by the team's geophysical instruments, this structure was once a very large timber building, with the current theory being that it was a sort of "preparation room" used in the grisly task of ritual defleshing of the dead before burial, which was apparently popular with the tribes inhabiting the area at that time.

Later structures built around the era that Stonehenge was taking on its well-known circular form have also been revealed by this new research, with seventeen previously unidentified ritual monuments being discovered and mapped. These types of results show that new applications of geophysical technology are adding to the understanding of archaeologists about the landscape of Stonehenge by revealing much of its largely hidden 11,000 year history.


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