Discovery of massive Neolithic structure near Stonehenge

7 December 2021

SEES staff, Prof Richard Bates, Dr Tim Kinnaird, and Dr Aayush Srivastava, and SEES alumina, Dr Alex Finlay (now at Chemostrat Ltd) are part of the research team that discovered a new massive Neolithic structure near Stonehenge, that will feature in a TV documentary broadcast on Discovery Science and Channel 5. The documentaries will chronicle the astonishing discovery of the Durrington Pits, a ring of prehistoric ‘shafts’ up to 10m across and 5m deep just a few miles away from Stonehenge. The mysterious construction, 20 times bigger than Stonehenge and possibly the largest Neolithic structure in the world, has been dated to 2400-2500BC and appears to delineate a boundary around the ‘super-henge’ at Durrington Walls and the famous site at Woodhenge.

 
Tim Kinnaird used a technique called optically-stimulated luminescence to date when sediment at the base of the pits were last exposed to daylight, dating construction to around 2400BC. And, further revealed similarities across six of the pits, with multiple and distinct fills, that infilled at comparable times. This suggests that these features are not natural. Or, that if they were originally natural, that they’d be modified by Neolithic people.  
 
Richard Bates said: “Seeing what is unseen! Yet again, the use of a multidisciplinary effort with remote sensing and careful sampling is giving us an insight to the past that shows an even more complex society that we could ever imagine. Clearly sophisticated practices demonstrate that the people were so in tune with natural events to an extent that we can barely conceive in the modern world we live in today.”
 

Lead archaeologist on the project Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University of Bradford, said: “The recent work confirms that the circle of shafts surrounding Durrington walls is without precedent within the UK. It further demonstrates the significance of Durrington Walls Henge, the complexity of the monumental structures within the Stonehenge landscape, and provides a new insight into how the massive monuments at Durrington and Stonehenge were interlinked, in ways, and at a scale, that we had never previously anticipated.”