Mystery over who built Stonehenge may finally be solved after experts uncover ‘Britain’s first city’ a mile away
BRITAIN'S 'first city' was located near an ancient spring in Salisbury and its residents built Stonehenge, according to a new theory from archaeologists.
The scientists have recently unearthed over 70,000 stone tools from a site called Blick Mead, which is just a mile away from the famous stone circle.
Who is responsible for building Stonehenge is a mystery that archaeologists have longed to answer.
The monument is believed to have been constructed between 3000-2000 BC but its purpose and how prehistoric people were able to build it has baffled scholars for centuries.
Now, archaeologists are calling Blick Mead the "cradle of Stonehenge".
Professor David Jacques of the University of Buckingham told : "When you look at Stonehenge you think, ‘but where are the people?"
He : "It makes sense that if you want to find the people who built it, the obvious idea is to look for where the water is.
"At Blick Mead we found shed loads of stuff. Up until 2006 only 30 finds had ever been recovered from this period at any one site, and now we’re up to more than 70,000, so it’s been a total gamechanger.
"We’re talking about a very small area that people were coming to again and again and I think it was probably some sort of permanent settlement, so all our ideas of how hunter gatherers move around in dispersed communities needs to be revised.
"This makes Stonehenge more interesting because it gives it a longer history, linking it back to people from the Mesolithic.
"Blick Mead really is the cradle of Stonehenge."
The archaeologists think that Blick Mead's proximity to water and good pastures for cattle grazing made it the perfect location for a permanent settlement.
They think prehistoric hunter-gatherers could have lived there up to 10,000 years ago.
Evidence that the site was used long-term includes a potential ceremonial platform that could have been used for rituals and lots of cattle skulls.
A potential Mesolithic 'eco-home' was also found underneath a fallen tree at the site back in 2015.
Dating from between 4336BC to 4246BC, it's thought that the giant base of the fallen tree would have been used as the wall of the house and the roof was likely made of animal skins.
The Mesolithic, also called the Middle Stone Age, came before the Neolithic period and the Stone Age in which Stonehenge is believed to have been built.
One link between the builders of Stonehenge and Blick Mead is that lots of cattle skulls were found deliberately placed in ditches around the stone circle, suggesting they were considered to be sacred.
However, hunter-gatherers aren't known for settling in one place so the researchers think there's a chance the Blick Mead site was used as a base for sick people, children and the elderly.
The results of the recent excavations will be shown in the documentary Lost Cities with Albert Lin which airs at 8pm on Sunday’s on .
What is Stonehenge?
What you need to know about Britain's most mysterious monument
- Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire
- It's a ring of standing stones that measure around 13 feet high and seven feet wide
- Each stone weighs roughly 25 tons
- Experts say that the monument was constructed between 3000 and 2000 BC
- In 1882, it was legally protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument
- And in 1986, the site and surroundings became a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Stonehenge itself is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage
- But the land around Stonehenge is owned by the National Trust
- Part of what makes Stonehenge so mysterious is that it was produced by a culture with no written records
- Scientists regularly debate over how and why Stonehenge was built, and what it was used for
- One theory suggests Stonehenge was a sacred burial site
- Another proposes that it was used for celestial and astronomical alignments
- And some think it was an ancient place of healing
- It used to be believed that it was created as a Druid temple
- But we now know that Stonehenge predated the Druids by around 2000 years
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In other archaeology news, the face of a 1,000-year-old Viking warrior woman with a gruesome battle wound across her skull has been revealed.
Tutankhamun’s ‘cursed’ trumpet that causes ‘deadly conflict’ has arrived in the UK.
And, a lost Bronze Age stone circle used for ancient rituals has been uncovered in Gloucestershire by laser scanning.
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