High Tech Revelations About Stonehenge and Other Nearby Buried “Monuments”

“The two (6,000-year-old) Cursus pits are aligned with (4,500-year-old) Heel Stone at Stonehenge on the Summer Solstice dawn and sunset.”

– Prof. Vince Gaffney, Ph.D., U. K.’s Univ. of Birmingham

Reposted March 4, 2024 – September 29, 2014 Birmingham, West Midlands County, England –
The U. K.’s University of Birmingham announced on September 10, 2014, that “a host of previously unknown archaeological monuments have been discovered around Stonehenge as part of an unprecedented digital mapping project that will transform our knowledge of this iconic landscape — including remarkable new findings on the world’s largest ‘superhenge,’ Durrington Walls.”

Yellow squares map the 17 previously unknown “ritual monuments” from 4,000-5,000 years ago. Map by Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, University of Birmingham, U. K.

Remote sensing techniques such as deep ground penetrating radar, magnetometers and other high tech gear were used over a four year investigation to look below the ground around Stonehenge in Wiltshire County, England.

Deep ground penetrating radar (GPR) above, magnetometers and other high tech gear were driven over a 5-square-mile region around Stonehenge (background) in the University of Birmingham investigation to produce a digital map of underground discoveries.

The startling results of the survey include 17 previously unknown “ritual monuments” dating to the period when Stonehenge is estimated to have been fully formed at least 4,500 to 5,000 years ago.

In addition to those yellow squares in the above map that represent the underground monuments, three more large surface structures have been more detailed: the 3-kilometers-long (1.87 miles) Cursus that is astronomically linked to Stonehenge; the 500-meter-wide (1,640 feet) Durrington Walls carved like a huge bowl in the soil and limestone; and equally mysterious Woodhenge.

Concrete pillars mark Woodhenge's original postholes discovered from the air in 1925 during an archaeological survey 2 miles northeast of Stonehenge. At the centre of the rings was a crouched inhumation of a child, which Cunnington interpreted as a dedicatory sacrifice. Image by UNESCO World Heritage — Concrete pillars mark Woodhenge’s original postholes discovered from the air in 1925 during an archaeological survey 2 miles northeast of Stonehenge. At the centre of the rings was a crouched inhumation of a child, which Cunnington interpreted as a dedicatory sacrifice. Image by UNESCO World Heritage.

[ Editor’s Note: Wikipedia: “The Woodhenge site was first identified in 1925 during an aerial archaeology survey 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of Stonehenge. Woodhenge consists of six concentric oval rings of postholes, the outermost being about 43 by 40 metres (141 by 131 ft) wide. They are surrounded first by a single flat-bottomed ditch, 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) deep and up to 12 metres (39 ft) wide, and finally by an outer bank, about 10 metres (33 ft) wide and 1 metre (3.3 ft) high. With an overall diameter measuring 110 metres (360 ft), the site had a single entrance to the north-east.

Further comparisons between Woodhenge and Stonehenge are that both have entrances oriented approximately to the midsummer sunrise, and the diameters of the timber circles at Woodhenge and the stone circles at Stonehenge are similar. Over 40 years after the discovery of Woodhenge, another timber circle of comparable size was discovered in 1966. Known as the Southern Circle, inside of what came to be known as the huge 500-meter-diameter Durrington Walls henge enclosure, located only 70 metres (230 ft) north of Woodhenge.”]

One of the discoveries called Durrington Walls carved into limestone is 500 meters across with a circumference 5 times that of Stonehenge. Even more intriguing is a long rectangular mound called the Cursus after the ancient Roman race tracks. It appears to be 6,000 years old, older than Stonehenge, and yet there is an extraordinarily precise astronomical alignment between the Cursus on the Summer Solstice and the Heel Stone at Stonehenge.

The leader of the University of Birmingham high tech investigation, Prof. Vince Gaffney, says that the term “monument” is applied to “structures that are not for domestic or agricultural uses, but probably associated with rituals and shrines, but something different.” The earliest phases of structure found below ground with the high tech equipment show that some underground timber post residues are 9,000 B. C. — nearly the same age as Gobekli Tepe in Turkey carbon dated to 10,000 B. C., or 12,000 years ago.

Interview:

Vince Gaffney, Ph.D., Prof. of Landscape Archaeology and Geomantics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England: “The earliest phases of structural cultural archaeology on the site are 9,000 B. C. at Stonehenge. Several massive timber posts were set up and they would have been probably something like totem poles in the limestone chalk. Chalk is a soft rock with a very thin topsoil, so most of the monuments we looked at are only 60-70 centimeters (about 2 1/2 feet) below the ground surface. They’re dug into very soft chalk and soil forms very slowly over this, so it never has a big depth of coverage.

A magnetometer is wheeled across ground near Stonehenge. The grey-colored insets are examples of very ancient “monument footprints” about 2.5 feet below the ground surface.

We do have some features that go up to 3 to 4 meters (13 feet) deep, but they are on the larger-scale monuments. Durrington Walls superhenge has ditches that deep.

WHY IS IT THAT IN 5,000 YEARS THAT THERE WOULD BE THIS MUCH SOIL DEPOSITED IN, LET’S SAY THAT AREA OF ENGLAND THAT HAS LIMESTONE THROUGHOUT. WHY DO THINGS THAT ARE ONLY 4,000 OR 5,000 YEARS OLD GET COVERED AT ALL?

Earthworms. Darwin did one of his greatest studies on the archaeological sites and it’s entitled, “The Formation of (Vegetable) Mould, Through the Action of Earthworms.” It’s a classic paper. Everyone asks, ‘Where does the soil come from?’ It comes from earthworms digesting vegetable mould and effectively turning it into soil. That’s how it works.

The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations On Their Habits, 1st Edition, 1881, Charles Darwin on earthworms. It was his last scientific book, and was published shortly before his death. Darwin calculated that there were 53,767 earthworms recycling away per acre. He carried out experiments indoors, where the earthworms worked the soil inside pots in a worm-littered room. — *The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations On Their Habits*, 1st Edition, 1881, Charles Darwin on earthworms. It was his last scientific book, and was published shortly before his death. Darwin calculated that there were 53,767 earthworms recycling away per acre. He carried out experiments indoors, where the earthworms worked the soil inside pots in a worm-littered room.

Nothing sinks, except in special circumstances. You know, if you have an earthquake, land can sink. If you have glacial re-adjustment, as happened in the North Sea, land can sink. But in this period and in these areas, nothing is sinking. There’s just millions and billions of earthworms eat up vegetable matter and they create soil on top.

WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING WITH GROUND PENETRATING RADAR, ARE YOU FLYING PLANES OVER? OR ARE YOU DOING IT ON THE GROUND? HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?

It’s all done with motorized arrays using quad-bikes and tractors.

SO YOU’RE STAYING ON THE SURFACE OF THE GROUND AND DRAGGING?

Yeah.

IS IT BECAUSE MAGNETOMETERS FROM THE AIR ARE TOO EXPENSIVE?

I’m sure it would be, but it wouldn’t be very useful either because you get the greatest resolution the closer you are to the target. So you get better images being as close as possible to whatever you are surveying. You get even better images if you strip off all the topsoil and run along the archaeology or the geology.

WOULD YOU EXPLAIN FOR A GENERAL AUDIENCE THE TYPES OF TECHNOLOGIES THAT YOU ARE USING, HOW YOU APPLY THEM AND WHAT THEY DO DIFFERENTLY?

Right. Magnetometers look at variations in the Earth’s magnetic field. If you burn something, quite often that changes the iron compounds from non-magnetic to magnetic variance — just by burning. And pottery, for instance, or pottery kilns just jump out of the data because of the amount of modification of the iron compounds. But also, different densities of soil, for instance, also affects the local magnetic field. So, if there is a ditch full of soil, you may be able to see it because of a change in the magnetic field from something that has 20 centimeters of soil to something that has a meter of soil. It merely measures what is there.

Things like Earth’s resistance in electrical imaging involve putting a current through the ground and looking at the impedance of the current between the probes. If you have soil, you get a different response in terms of electrical impedance compared to a stone wall because the current is likely to pass through a ditch faster just full of soil than a wall made of stone. Stones would be a high resistance feature and the ditch would be a low resistance feature.

But, the resolution that you can get from that depends on how close the probes are. Ground penetrating radar — that is different. It sends down a radar wave. It measures the reflectance and the reflectance varies according to the nature of whatever is underneath and it can go down very large depths according to the antenna that you use. But then again, you lose resolution.

WHY WOULD SO MUCH OF THIS BE COVERED THAT YOU ARE INVESTIGATING AND REVEALING WHILE STONEHENGE HAS BEEN SITTING THERE ABOVE GROUND?

Because most of these features were cut into the geology, so they are going to fill up first.

MEANING THEY WERE IN THE GROUND?

Yeah. When soil forms, there are two processes that are going on. One is soil formation and the other is soil erosion and there is a balance. Soil doesn’t form forever. Wind takes it away. Water takes it away.

I’M LOOKING AT LUDWIG BOLTZMANN’S MAP SHOWING THESE AREAS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING AS ‘NEW MONUMENTS.’ WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF ‘MONUMENT’ IN YOUR WORK? AND WHAT IS EXACTLY UNDERGROUND IN ALL OF THESE NEW PLACES IDENTIFIED AS MONUMENTS?

The term ‘monument’ in this case is applied to structures, which we do not see as being domestic or agricultural — probably associated with rituals and shrines, but something different.

SO ARE THEY MOSTLY IN STONE?

Most of these are either simple ditches or large pits that may have held posts. Some of them may have had stones. But, you know, people take stones quite a lot and use them for other things. So we’ve got small stones — unlike those you see in the big Stonehenge. Stonehenge, everyone viewed it with a certain degree of sanctity, even during the Christian period.

Astronomical Links Between
Cursus and Durrington Walls?

17 red dots above identify 17 “new monuments” that were found by deep ground penetrating radar, magnetometers and other high tech equipment at an average depth of about 2.5 feet. The long straight track known as the Cursus is 3 km long (1.87 miles) and about 150 feet wide, astronomically linked to Stonehenge that is 729 meters (2,392 feet) south of the Cursus. Additionally, the huge round, or C-shaped Durrington Walls carved into the limestone (upper right corner) is 500 meters (1,640 feet) across — with five times the circumference of Stonehenge. Map by Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, University of Birmingham, U. K.

LOOKING AT THIS LUDWIG BOLTZMANN MAP AND SEEING WHERE DURRINGTON WALLS AND CURSUS ARE IN RELATIONSHIP TO STONEHENGE AND REALIZING THAT THERE IS THIS VERY LARGE C-SHAPED STRUCTURE THAT GOES BACK ABOUT 5,000 YEARS AND HAS SOME BIG STONES UNDERNEATH. THEN AT CURSUS, THERE IS THE LONG, STRAIGHT TRACK.WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RELATIONSHIP WOULD BE BETWEEN THE STRUCTURES UNDERGROUND AT DURRINGTON WALLS AND CURSUS WITH STONEHENGE THAT IS ABOVE GROUND?

Stonehenge is a very unique monument. It’s built of stone, some of which is absolutely immense and must have come from probably the Marlborough Downs, 35 miles away. The blue stones came from South Wales from the Preseli Mountains a very, very long way away. That structure (Stonehenge) is unique. Nothing else is to be compared with it.

Astronomer Gerald Hawkins, in his 1973 book Stonehenge Decoded, described the 4,500-year-old enigma as a “stone computer” used to calculate solar, lunar and other astronomical cycles. Stonehenge is 97 feet in diameter and its large middle sarsen sandstones weigh 50 tons each and range from 20 to 24 feet high. Their source is unknown, but speculation has been the Marlborough Downs 35 miles away. The perimeter bluestones, some of which are made of dolerite, an igneous rock, are speculated to have come from the Preseli Hills, 150 miles (240 km) away in in Wales.

Preseli Hills in Wales are 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Stonehenge.

The link between the Cursus and Stonehenge is defined by the position of the new pits we found inside the Cursus.

[ Editor’s Note: Cursus was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman athletic courses, hence the Latin name cursus, meaning “course”. Cursus monuments are now understood to be Neolithic structures and represent some of the oldest prehistoric monumental structures of the British Isles; cursus may have been of ceremonial function.]

The two (6,000-year-old) Cursus pits are aligned with (4,500-year-old) Heel Stone at Stonehenge on the Summer Solstice dawn and sunset— and you will see it directly from Stonehenge straight down the first part of the Avenue and it goes straight to the pit that is 5 meters across at the east end of the Cursus. The west end of the Cursus has a similar pit and that aligned from the Heel Stone at Stonehenge is on the Summer Solstice sunset.

So, dawn and sunset on the Solstice – that’s what links the Cursus with Stonehenge and the movement of the Sun.

PROFESSOR GAFFNEY, WHAT IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN STONEHENGE AND THE CURSUS?

About 729 meters (2,392 feet).

IS THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SUN AT STONEHENGE TO CURSUS THE ONLY ASTRONOMICAL RELATIONSHIP THAT YOU HAVE FOUND IN THIS AREA THAT YOU’VE BEEN INVESTIGATING?

The only one we’ve been interested at the moment. There are other astronomical alignments within Stonehenge to do with the moon.

Durrington Walls Is 500 Meters Across,
5 Times Bigger Than Stonehenge

4,600 to 5,000 years ago, a large timber circle was constructed here and carved like a bowl into the soft limestone. Its orientation was southeast towards the sunrise on the midwinter solstice before there was any village habitation. The construction of Stonehenge, Durrington Walls and 6000-year-old Cursus before any domestic human presence indicates this 5-square-mile region of Wiltshire, England, has had mysterious importance and function for at least six millennia.

WHAT ABOUT DURRINGTON WALLS AND THE LARGE C-SHAPED OR BOWL-SHAPED STRUCTURE THAT IS MADE FROM THE SCARP ABOVE GROUND AND THEN GOES DOWN BELOW GROUND AND IS 5,000 YEARS OLD. IS THERE AN ASTRONOMICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DURRINGTON WALLS AND CURSUS OR ANY OF THE REST OF THIS AREA?

There’s an avenue coming out of the later phases of Durrington Walls, which appears to be linked to Midwinter Solstice. Large stones are found underneath Durrington Walls superhenge bank. That’s about 500 meters across — five times the circumference of Stonehenge. It’s immense! But we can’t date those stones directly unless they were excavated. But the bank and ditch at Durrington Walls is dated by finds underneath it at the Stonehenge riverside village, which is about 2,500 B. C.

Now that suggests the Stonehenge is later at the end of the period when Stonehenge is getting to its full form. But the large stones found under Durrington Walls pre-date that part of Stonehenge. But we can’t tell whether they (Durrington Walls stones) predate Stonehenge by one day, or 100 years or 1,000 years. We just don’t know that.

We know they (stones) are underneath the bank and we know the approximate date of that bank. But we can’t tell what the dates of these stones are yet.

UNDER DURRINGTON WALLS THEN COULD THERE BE ANOTHER CIRCLE OF STONES LIKE STONEHENGE?

Underneath the banks, probably not. But there are circular wooden arrangements inside Durrington Walls — two of them at least. And there is a third wooden structure, which is immediately to the south, which is Woodhenge. My current feeling is that the large stones relate to an earlier monument, which is of a type we have not previously seen.”

See: Earthfiles Archive below for many other ancient Earth mysteries

More Information:

For further information about mysterious ancient Earth archaeology, please see Earthfiles Archive such as:

08/23/2012 —Updated – Part 1: Western Electric Engineer Worked 700 Feet Underground At “Dark Pyramid” in Alaska
08/10/2012 —Updated Part 1: Is There A Large Pyramid Underground Between Mt. McKinley and Nome, Alaska?
07/02/2012 —Part 6: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe, Turkey – Was Underground Cappadocia Another Escape from Catastrophe?
06/28/2012 —Part 5: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe, Turkey – Another Artificial Covering Over Mount Nemrut
06/26/2012 —Part 4: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe, Turkey – Interview with Geologist Robert Schoch
06/21/2012 —Part 3: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe – Buried to Escape Incoming Comets? Meteorites? Huge Solar Flares?
06/18/2012 —Part 2: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe – Odd Pillar Creatures, Bizarre Totem and Mouthless Man
06/16/2012 —Part 1: Mysterious 12,000-Year-Old Gobekli Tepe
05/06/2012 —Updated: Malta’s 6,000-Year-Old Hypogeum – Built to Alter Minds with Sound?
09/30/2011 —Part 2: Interviews with Scientists Studying Mysterious, Ancient Stone Circles in Middle East Visible Only from Air
10/01/2010 —Gobekli Tepe: 12,000 Years Old and Rewriting Human History
02/26/2010 —Mysterious Bronze Age Europoid Mummies in Western China
04/20/2005 —Outer Space Impact At Serpent Mound, Ohio, 256 Million Years Ago
09/24/2003 —Part 1 – Update On Deep Water Megalithic Stones and Structures Near Western Cuba
11/02/2002 —Update on 6,500-Year-Old Astronomical Stone Circle and Megaliths in Nabta, Egypt
07/06/2002 —Stonehenge 4th of July Formation Echoes Hackpen Hill 1999 4th of July Spiral
12/01/2001 —1200 B. C. – What Caused Earthquake Storms, Global Drought and End of Bronze Age?
11/19/2001 —Update on Underwater Megalithic Structures near Western Cuba
06/16/2001 —Beyond Stonehenge with Astronomer Gerald Hawkins