Archaeologists believe they have confirmed that a vast circle of enormous pits near Stonehenge was carved by Neolithic people, following a new analysis using multiple scientific techniques.
The so-called Durrington pit circle, first announced in 2020, consists of about 20 massive pits arranged in a ring more than a mile wide, centred on the Neolithic sites of Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. Some pits measure 10 metres across and 5 metres deep, requiring remarkable planning, labour and engineering skill.
Early reactions to the discovery were divided, with some researchers questioning whether the pits were natural features rather than human-made structures more than 4,000 years old.
A new study, published in Internet Archaeology, concludes they were unquestionably excavated by humans. The research team, led by Prof Vincent Gaffney of the University of Bradford, used a blend of geophysical techniques never combined in this way before to analyse the pits without launching an enormous excavation.
Electrical resistance tomography was used to measure depth, while radar and magnetometry revealed shape. To prove human involvement, researchers extracted sediment cores and used techniques including optically stimulated luminescence (dating soil by its last exposure to sunlight) and sedDNA, which recovers traces of ancient plants and animals from soil layers.
These analyses found repeating soil patterns across the site that, according to Gaffney, could not have formed naturally. “We think we’ve nailed it,” he said, calling the structure “extraordinary”.
The pits are believed to date from the late Neolithic period. Their purpose remains uncertain, but Gaffney suggested they may reflect a belief in an underworld or a cosmological boundary marked into the landscape.
He said that if the circle is indeed a planned monument, it represents a monumental act of inscribing belief and worldview onto the land “in a way we haven’t seen before.”
