Originally described as being a natural occurrence, new findings have proven that the series of deep pits discovered near Stone Henge were man made. Together these pits form a circle spanning 2 km (1.2 miles) and form the largest prehistoric structure in Britain.
     One interpretation put forward by archaeologists is that it formed a boundary, guiding people to a sacred site, such as the Durrington Walls, among Britain's largest henge monuments, is located in the center of this circle.
     Prof Vincent Gaffney, of Bradford University, an archaeologist who headed the team that made the discovery, said science had proved that this was indeed a huge neolithic monument. "Some of the debate about the discovery and Stonehenge seemed bonkers to me," he said.
     While not all the cirlces had survived, nine of the pits were analyzed scientifically. "We've now looked at nearly half of them and they're all the same. So effectively this really does say this is one enormous structure. It may have evolved from a natural feature, but we haven't located that. So it's the largest prehistoric structure found in Britain."
     This new evidence also shines light on that the prehistoric people of Britain could count and track hundreds of paces to measure out these pits. The pits can now also be found using special remote sensing technology and then dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), which can date the last time the soils were exposed to sunlight. The tests were conducted by Dr Tim Kinnaird, of the school of earth and environmental sciences at the University of St Andrews, who said: "These proved beyond doubt that the pits date to around 2400 BCE."
     Gaffney, who has studied Stonehenge for 20 years, said: "There's a real revolution in dating technology happening with OSL. You date the sediments directly. Traditional dating relies on us finding a bit of bone or charcoal and then we date that. We don't date the soil. OSL does that."

Edited from The Guardian (23 November 2021), Mail Online (24 November 2021)