The megalithic complex of Stonehenge, located in Wiltshire, is one of the most visited sites in the United Kingdom with around one million tourists each year and also one of the most mysterious and iconic places in the world .
Now, thanks to the ” Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project” at the University of Birmingham (UK), a new mystery has been solved: the archaeological wealth of Stonehenge is much greater than previously thought. With remote sensing techniques and geophysical studies, scientists have managed to locate a large number of archaeological monuments unknown until now and that surround the famous semicircle of Stonehenge, which in reality, was also a perfect circle.
The new virtual map shows the most detailed landscape of Stonehenge ever seen . It contains 17 ritual monuments, dozens of burial mounds, as well as new types of monuments including prehistoric giant wells and information on the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and later Roman settlements.
The prehistoric monument of Stonehenge, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, is therefore uncovered thanks to new technologies that are allowing us to understand the mysterious landscape of Stonehenge after more than 11,000 years .
“The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is unique worldwide. Although Stonehenge is the most iconic of all prehistoric monuments and occupies one of the richest most important archaeological landscapes in the world, much of this landscape, indeed, remains unknown. This project has shown that the area around Stonehenge is full of unprecedented archeology and that the application of new technology can transform how archaeologists and the general public understand one of the most studied landscapes on Earth ”, says Vincent Gaffney, study leader.
