Bradford archaeologists have published a new Internet Archaeology article on the massive, neolithic pit structure recently identified during geophysical survey around the Durrington Walls Henge, Wiltshire. Following the original discovery of what may be the largest Neolithic structure in Britain, archaeologists have since returned to confirm the details of the pit circle and to provide new dating and environmental information.

This work has concluded that Durrington Walls henge, itself one of the largest prehistoric enclosures in Britain, was ringed by a large structure of at least 16 massive pits, many of which measured 10 m in diameter and up to 5 m in depth. None of the features investigated, have yet to provide evidence that they were formed naturally by chalk solution. Recent work confirms that these features were likely dug and filled during the later Neolithic, with optically stimulated luminescence studies indicating a date of c. 2480 BC. The application of new sedimentary DNA studies has also provided new evidence for the plants and animals associated with the chalk landscape surrounding these features. Even within a landscape as exceptional as that surrounding nearby Stonehenge, the results of this work emphasise that these pits are a cohesive structure, which represent an elaboration of the Durrington Walls monument complex at a massive, and completely unexpected, scale.

Read the new publication at - https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.69.19

Location

Amesbury, Salisbury SP4 8LY, UK