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An artist's impression of stone monoliths found buried near Stonehenge could have been part of the largest Neolithic monument built in Britain, archaeologists say. The 4,500-year-old stones, some measuring 15 feet in length, were discovered under 3 feet earth at the Durrington Walls "superhenge."(Photo: Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project via European Pressphoto Agency)
Stonehenge, the world-renowned circle of stone columns in southern England, may have had a brother.
A much bigger, older brother.
University of Bradford researchers announced Monday that they had discovered a monument of about 100 stones covering several acres thought to have been built around 4,500 years ago.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project used remote-sensing technologies to discover the monument, which is near Durrington Walls, also known as "superhenge." Stonehenge, which is believed to have been completed 3,500 years ago, is about 2 miles away.
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"What we are starting to see is the largest surviving stone monument, preserved underneath a bank, that has ever been discovered in Britain and possibly in Europe," Vince Gaffney, an archaeologist at Bradford University who leads the project, toldThe<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Guardian newspaper. "This is archaeology on steroids."
The evidence was found beneath 3 feet of earth. Some of the stones are thought to have stood 15 feet tall before they were toppled.
"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, director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, told CNN.
Stonehenge, believed to be about 3,500 years old, is a World Heritage Site in southern England.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: 2013 photo by Alastair Grant, AP)
"In the east, up to 30 stones … have survived below the bank whereas elsewhere the stones are fragmentary or represented by massive foundation pits," he said.
"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," Neubauer added.
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"Everything written previously about the Stonehenge landscape and the ancient monuments within it will need to be rewritten," Paul Garwood, an archaeologist and lead historian on the project at the University of Birmingham, told CNN.
The findings were announced on the first day of the British Science Festival being held at the University of Bradford.
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Beekeeper Anthony Cantrell of Burlington, Vt., discovered zombie bees in his hive in October, the first time they had been found in the eastern U.S. John Hafernik, a professor from San Francisco State University, discovered the first zombie bees in 2008. A fly called Apocephalus borealis attaches itself to the bee and injects its eggs, which grow inside the bee, Hafernik said. Scientists believe it causes neurological damage resulting in erratic, jerky movement and night activity, "like a zombie," Hafernik told the Associated Press. These aren't undead bees doomed to roam for eternity. They often die only a few hours after showing symptoms, Hafernik said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Andy Duback, AP
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