Using ground-penetrating radar, some 100 stones were found at the Durrington Walls “superhenge”, a later bank built close to Stonehenge.
The Stonehenge Living Landscapes team has been researching the ancient monument site in a five-year project.
Finding the stones was “fantastically lucky”, researchers said.
The stones may have originally measured up to 4.5m (14ft) in height and had been pushed over the edge of Durrington Walls.
The site, which is thought to have been built about 4,500 years ago, is about 1.8 miles (3km) from Stonehenge, Wiltshire.
The stones were found on the edge of the Durrington Walls “henge”, or bank, an area which had not yet been studied by researchers.
Lead researcher, Vince Gaffney said the stones were “lost to archaeology” but found thanks to modern technology.
National Trust archaeologist, Dr Nick Snashall said there were “hints” the stones could be buried in the landscape.
“In the field that lies to the south we know there’s a standing stone which is now the only standing stone, now fallen, that you can go up to and touch in the whole of the Stonehenge landscape,” he said.
“It’s called the Cuckoo Stone.
“If there are stones beneath the bank… they’re probably looking at stones of pretty much the same size as the Cuckoo Stone.”
Dr Snashall added there was a “sense” of an area set aside for the living and another for the dead at Durrington Walls – and that had changed over time.
“This gives us a a whole new phase that shows us that has started within 40 years of the site going out of use, or even less than that,” he said.
The findings are being announced later on the first day of the British Science Festival being held at the University of Bradford.
Source and full story : BBC Wiltshire
The Stonehenge News Blog
StonehengeNews
