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National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily </news/index.html> Thursday, October 28, 2010 MAIN </news/> ANIMAL NEWS </news/animals.html> ANCIENT WORLD </news/archaeology.html> ENVIRONMENT NEWS </news/environment.html> CULTURES NEWS </news/history.html> SPACE/TECH NEWS </news/science.html> WEIRD </news/weird.html> PHOTOS </news/photo_in_the_news.html> VIDEO <javascript:videoPlayer('http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/news/' )> Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles" James Owen in London for National Geographic News <http://news.nationalgeographic.com> June 15, 2009 Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise. A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/geopedia/Stonehenge>, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project. Stonehenge area crop circles: picture of new ceremonial site </news/bigphotos/49021910.html> Enlarge Photo </news/bigphotos/49021910.html> _ Printer Friendly </news/pf/49021910.html>

Email to a Friend </cgi-bin/email2friend.pl> What's This? </news/misc/whats_this_share.html> SHARE Digg <http://digg.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews%2Enationalgeographic%2Ecom%2Fnews% 2F2009%2F06%2F090615%2Dstonehenge%2Dtombs%2Dcrop%2Dcircles%2Ehtml&title=Huge%20P re%2DStonehenge%20Complex%20Found%20via%20%22Crop%20Circles%22&media=news> StumbleUpon <http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews%2Enationalgeographic%2E com%2Fnews%2F2009%2F06%2F090615%2Dstonehenge%2Dtombs%2Dcrop%2Dcircles%2Ehtml&tit le=Huge%20Pre%2DStonehenge%20Complex%20Found%20via%20%22Crop%20Circles%22> Reddit <http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews%2Enationalgeographic%2Ecom%2Fnew s%2F2009%2F06%2F090615%2Dstonehenge%2Dtombs%2Dcrop%2Dcircles%2Ehtml&title=Huge%2 0Pre%2DStonehenge%20Complex%20Found%20via%20%22Crop%20Circles%22> RELATED * Stonehenge Pictures in /National Geographic/ Magazine <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/stonehenge/geiger-photography> // * PICTURES: Stonehenge Builders' Village Found </news/2007/01/photogalleries/stonehenge/> // * PICTURES: Stonehenge Was ''Domain of the Dead'' </news/2008/05/photogalleries/Stonehenge-photos/> // For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing," said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London. Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region. "I think everybody assumed such monument complexes were known about or had already been discovered," added Pollard, a co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which is funded in part by the National Geographic Society. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.) *Six-Thousand-Year-Old Tombs* At the 500-acre (200-hectare) site, outlines of the structures were spotted "etched" into farmland near the village of Damerham, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge (Damerham map <http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/map-machine#s=r&c=50.94572009039417,%20-1.86 29980087280367&z=14>). (Related: "Stonehenge Settlement Found: Builders' Homes, 'Cult Houses.'" <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070130-stonehenge.html>) Discovered during a routine aerial survey by English Heritage, the U.K. government's historic-preservation agency, the "crop circles" are the results of buried archaeological structures interfering with plant growth. True crop circles are vast designs created by flattening crops. The central features are two great tombs topped by massive mounds made shorter by centuries of plowing called long barrows. The larger of the

two tombs is 70 meters (230 feet) long. Estimated at 6,000 years old, based on the dates of similar tombs around the United Kingdom <http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_unitedkingdom.htm l>, the long barrows are also the oldest elements of the complex. Such oblong burial mounds are very rare finds, and are the country's earliest known architectural form, Wickstead said. The last full-scale long barrow excavation was in the 1950s, she added. Continued on Next Page >> </news/2009/06/090615-stonehenge-tombs-crop-circles_2.html> LATEST NEWS VIDEOS </news/2010/01/100105-mars-rover-six-video.html> Video </news/2010/01/100105-mars-rover-six-video.html> Stuck Mars Rover About to Die? </news/2010/01/100105-mars-rover-six-video.html> </news/2009/12/091231-salamander-video-wcvin.html> Video </news/2009/12/091231-salamander-video-wcvin.html> Giant Salamanders Helped to Spawn </news/2009/12/091231-salamander-video-wcvin.html> </news/2009/12/091222-cross-river-gorillas-video.html> Video </news/2009/12/091222-cross-river-gorillas-video.html> Rare Gorillas Spied Feasting on Figs </news/2009/12/091222-cross-river-gorillas-video.html> VideoMore Videos in the News <javascript:videoPlayer('http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/news/' )> SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES * English Heritage <http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.1664> // * University of Bristol: Joshua Pollard <http://www.bris.ac.uk/archanth/staff/pollard/> // * Stonehenge Riverside Project <http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge> // * Damerham Archaeology Project <http://www.damerhamarchaeology.org/> // NG Store <http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/3be7/0/0/%2a/x;243490358;0-0;0;10981124;10 79-210/50;45816642/45833940/1;;~okv=;dcopt=ist;sz=210x50;tile=5;~aopt=2/0/81/0;~ sscs=%3fhttp://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/browse/category_sale.jsp?category Id=A223&addFacet=9004:A223&code=NG80590_store_housebanner>

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