New
Digital Map Reveals Stunning Hidden Archaeology of Stonehenge
September 10, 2014 by Jewish Business News
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 ‘super henge’, Durrington Walls.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, led by the
University of Birmingham in conjunction with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for
Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, is the largest project of
its kind.
Remote sensing techniques and geophysical surveys have
discovered hundreds of new features which now form part of the most detailed
archaeological digital map of the Stonehenge landscape ever produced. The
startling results of the survey, unveiled in full at the British Science
Festival, include 17 previously unknown ritual monuments dating to the period
when Stonehenge achieved its iconic shape. Dozens of burial mounds have been
mapped in minute detail, including a long barrow (a burial mound dating to
before Stonehenge) which revealed a massive timber building, probably used for
the ritual inhumation of the dead following a complicated sequence of exposure
and excarnation (defleshing), and which was finally covered by an earthen
mound.
The project has also revealed exciting new – and completely
unexpected – information on previously known monuments. Among the most
significant relate to the Durrington Walls ‘super henge’, situated a short
distance from Stonehenge. This immense ritual monument, probably the largest of
its type in the world, has a circumference of more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93
miles).
A new survey reveals that this had an early phase when the
monument was flanked with a row of massive posts or stones, perhaps up to three
metres high and up to 60 in number – some of which may still survive beneath
the massive banks surrounding the monument. Only revealed by the cutting-edge
technology used in the project, the survey has added yet another dimension to
this vast and enigmatic structure.
Work also revealed novel types of monument including
massive prehistoric pits, some of which appear to form astronomic alignments,
plus new information on hundreds of burial mounds, Bronze Age, Iron Age and
Roman settlements and fields at a level of detail never previously seen. Taken
together, these results – which will be featured in a major new BBC Two series
titled Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath – show that new technology is
reshaping how archaeologists understand the landscape of Stonehenge and its
development over a period of more than 11,000 years.
In the year marking the centenary of the First World War,
the new Stonehenge map even impacts on our knowledge of that momentous event.
Surveys have produced detailed maps of the practice trenches dug around
Stonehenge to prepare troops for battle on the western front, as well as maps
of RAF/RFC Stonehenge – one of Britain’s first military airbases used by the
Royal Flying Corps between 1917 and 1920.
British project leader Professor Vincent Gaffney, Chair in
Landscape Archaeology and Geomatics at the University of Birmingham, said: ‘The
Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is unique at a global level. Not only has
it revolutionised how archaeologists use new technologies to interpret the
past, it has transformed how we understand Stonehenge and its landscape.
‘Despite Stonehenge being the most iconic of all
prehistoric monuments and occupying one of the richest archaeological
landscapes in the world, much of this landscape in effect remains terra
incognita.
‘This project has revealed that the area around Stonehenge
is teeming with previously unseen archaeology and that the application of new
technology can transform how archaeologists and the wider public understand one
of the best-studied landscapes on Earth.
‘New monuments have been revealed, as well as new types of
monument that have previously never been seen by archaeologists. All of this
information has been placed within a single digital map, which will guide how
Stonehenge and its landscape are studied in the future.
‘Stonehenge may never be the same again.’
Professor Wolfgang Neubauer, Director of the Ludwig
Boltzmann Institute, said: ‘Developing non-invasive methods to document our
cultural heritage is one of the greatest challenges of our time and can only be
accomplished by adapting the latest technology such as ground-penetrating radar
arrays and high-resolution magnetometers. The developments of the Ludwig
Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI
ArchPro) offer Europe the opportunity to carry out fundamental archaeological
research at a scale and precision never previously attempted.
‘No landscape deserves to benefit from a study at this
level of detail more than Stonehenge. The terabytes of digital survey data
collected, processed and visualised by LBI ArchPro provide the base for the
precise mapping of the monuments and archaeological features buried in the
subsurface or still visible in the landscape surrounding Stonehenge. After
centuries of research, the analysis of all mapped features makes it possible,
for the first time, to reconstruct the development of Stonehenge and its
landscape through time.’
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is a collaboration
between the University of Birmingham; Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for
Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, Vienna and its
international partners; University of Bradford; University of St Andrews;
University of Nottingham; and the ‘ORBit’ Research Group of the Department of
Soil Management at the University of Ghent, Belgium.
The project operates under the auspices of the National
Trust and English Heritage.
Dr Nick Snashall, National Trust Archaeologist for the
Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Site, said: ‘Using 21st-century
techniques, the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes team have transformed our
knowledge of this ancient, precious and very special landscape. Their work has
revealed a clutch of previously unsuspected sites and monuments showing how
much of the story of this world-famous archaeological treasure house remains to
be told.’
Dr Heather Sebire of English Heritage, Curator of
Stonehenge, said: ‘This is such an exciting project. The surveys will help us
form an understanding of possible new sites which have not been recorded before
but which will need further investigation.’
