When you purchase through links on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it function .
Two newly discovered gemstone circles , built about 5,000 year ago in what is now the SW of England , are the latest to show that Stonehenge was not the only Stone Age circle built in the region .
The novel notice , according toAlan Endacott , the sovereign archaeologist who found them , reinforce the idea that prehistoric the great unwashed constructed a " consecrated arc " of Harlan Stone circles around high domain in the area during the Neolithic time period , or New Stone Age .
The excavation team marks the extent of the newfound Metheral stone circle, which is named after the central hill on the horizon.
Endacott , who is study for a doctorate in archeology at the University of Exeter , has searched the open uplands of Devon ’s Dartmoor for decades . He used scientific techniques to confirm the discovery there earlier this yr ; and a volunteer excavation squad worked at one of the sites in September and October .
Endacott say Live Science that one of the newfound circles is like in size and expression to the cardinal part ofStonehenge , which was build around the same prison term but about 100 Swedish mile ( 160 kilometers ) to the northeastward .
depth psychology propose several stones at Stonehengecame from elsewhere ; and Endacott recall some of the builders of Stonehenge may have built the newfound Dartmoor lot as well .
Archaeologist Alan Endacott (second from left) discovered the Metheral circle and another Neolithic stone circle on Dartmoor in the southwest of England earlier this year.
" The people who build Stonehenge clearly travel farseeing distances , " he say . " It ’s possible that they had touch with people who built [ the Dartmoor circuit ] if they did n’t travel there themselves . "
Related : prehistorical henge incidentally get a line in England in search for Anglo - Saxon hermit
Endicott has named the stone lap " Metheral , " after the mound above it . It consists of about 20 " standing " stone up to 40 inches ( 1 meter ) in high spirits , place in an oval form measuring about 130 feet ( 40 m ) by 108 foot ( 33 m ) — although there is evidence there were more stone there in the past , and many of the stay stones had either fallen over or were hidden by flora , he say .
Excavations show the Metheral circle once had many more standing stones than are visible now, and that its construction was similar to the early phases of Stonehenge.(Image credit: Alan Endacott)
Stone Age “sacred arc”
The other newfound stone rophy lies about 1 international nautical mile ( 1.6 km ) magnetic north of the Metheral R-2 and Endacott has nickname it " Irishman ’s Wall , " after a local land feature .
Only about six gem survive there , and they are operose to see ; so Endacott usedresistivityandmagnetic gradiometryinstruments to map it by determining where the ground had been disturbed in the past times .
significantly , the Metheral circle lie at the northern tip of a 5 - mile - long ( 8 km ) " arc " of eight Neolithic stone circles , build in a near - perfect half - roofy to the east and south .
The other stone circle near the Dartmoor location known as “Irishman’s Wall” is now difficult to see, but Endacott thinks it was part of an entranceway into a sacred area.(Image credit: Alan Endacott)
In 2008 , Endacott unearthed aNeolithic stone circle near a hill sleep together as Sittaford Torat the southern death of the arc ; and he thinks a full ring of gem Mexican valium once stretch out between the Metheral circle and the Sittaford circle , efficaciously enclosing some of Dartmoor ’s high farming .
The Irishman ’s Wall Mexican valium , however , lie about a mile compass north of the arc . Endicott suppose it was part of an entranceway into what was regarded in Neolithic fourth dimension as a sacred surface area .
Neolithic landscape
Dartmoor is named for the River Dart , which spring up there ; and the English word " moor , " which means open highland or barren , mayhap from an Old English word for swampland .
The Confederate States of America - Mae West of England is rich in the remains of Neolithic monuments , including gemstone circuit , burial mounds and chamber tombs , as well as othermysterious structures not yet fully translate .
Endacott say the " sanctified arc " of stone circles on Dartmoor was a relatively early archaeological idea , but that his 50 - curious years of fieldwork and research hint it was much larger than previously thought .
— Why was Stonehenge built ?
— 4,000 - twelvemonth - older ' Seahenge ' in UK was built to ' extend summertime , ' archaeologist suggests
— Did Druid build Stonehenge ?
Independent archaeologistTom Greeves , an expert on Dartmoor who was not involve in the discovery , told Live Science in an email that the finds confirmed there had been dynamic Neolithic comportment in the part .
And University of Exeter archaeologistSusan Greaney , who also was not involved , told Live Science that Endacott ’s discovery show the electric potential for other archaeologic finds still to be made .
" This ' arc ' of roundabout , measure more than 8 kilometer [ 5 miles ] across , is rather extraordinary , and suggests the upland area of northerly Dartmoor it enclose was particularly peculiar to prehistorical mass , " she said in an electronic mail .
