5,600-Year-Old Ceremonial Center Found Near Stonehenge, Built 1,000 Years Before Stone Circle was Erected

Picture people 5,650 years ago gorging on huge amounts of beef, smashing large decorated bowls that may have held broth or other liquids and possibly smashing human skulls. They apparently did all this at a newly discovered ritual center near Stonehenge, built about 1,000 years before the stone circle was constructed.

Archaeologists found human skull fragments from one person among the detritus in the 950-meter (1,038-yard) concentric circle that makes up the outer ring of the segmented ditches of the complex. They believe there are probably other skull fragments among the objects in the circles.

So far archaeologists have excavated just about 100 meters (328 feet) of the outer ring, about 17 percent, says an article in The Independent about the discovery in the Independent. Archaeologists have found the fragments of about 200 bowls and the leg bones of dozens of head of cattle. The circular formation is about 200 meters (656 feet) in diameter.

These prehistoric circular ditches, called “causewayed enclosures” because they are crossed by causeways, are common in England, where there are the remains of about 70. They are also found in Europe, including in Germany and Denmark.

A causewayed enclosure at Combe Hill, England (CC by SA 2.0 / Simon Carey)