Stonehenge has baffled scientists for several centuries, since no one is quite sure who had put up the monument of bluestone columns in Wiltshire, England.
However, it looks like finding out who made Stonehenge would have to happen at another time. Archaeologists have just discovered that there could be more than just one monument in the vast English field, and it is only two miles away from the original structure.
According to CNN, the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project team has just confirmed that there are larger stone monuments under the Durrington Walls, which is also known as "superhenge," which is believed to be older than Stonehenge.
"Our high-resolution ground penetrating radar data has revealed an amazing row of up to 90 standing stones, a number of which have survived after being pushed over, and a massive bank placed over the stones," professor Wolfgang Neubauer revealed.
The director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Achaeology added, "In the east up to 30 stones, measuring up to size of 4.5 x 1.5 x 1 meters (14.7 x 5 x 3.3 feet), have survived below the bank whereas elsewhere the stones are fragmentary or represented by massive foundation pits."
How old are these structures? The team believes that the new "superhenge" could be 4,500 years old.
The discovery may be exciting, but it also means that previously gathered information about Stonehenge would have to be studied again. University of Birmingham archaeologist Paul Garwood, who is also the project's lead historian, confirms that there is still much to learn.
"The extraordinary scale, detail and novelty of the evidence produced by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, which the new discoveries at Durrington Walls exemplify, is changing fundamentally our understanding of Stonehenge and the world around it," Garwood said of the new "superhenge."
"Everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be rewritten," he added.
Stonehenge is believed to have been completed in 1600BC, but the new "superhenge" could suggest that the construction of the monument started before 3000BC.
