Archaeologists Discover Stonehenge's Timber Twin

London (July 23) - Stonehenge,that ancient and mysterious circle of giant   obelisks   on England's Salisbury Plain, may once have had a  nearby wooden "twin," according to a pioneering new archaeological survey.

"The idea of finding something as significant and dramatic as this monument, so close to Stonehenge is just brilliant,"Harry Chapman, an archaeologist   at  the University of Birmingham and a member of the team that made the discovery, said."It will completely change the way we think about Stonehenge and the surrounding landscape."

The discovery of the timber henge (a term used to describe any British circle ritual site dating from 3,000to 2,000 B.C.) was made by a multinational team of archaeologists, who started surveying the land around Stonehenge two weeks ago with sensors that provide a high-definition 3-d view of what's under the ground. "Every time you excavate, you damage the site by moving material," Chapman says. "With the technology we use, such as ground-penetrating radar, there's no need to dig.

The sun rises behind Stonehenge in southern England on June 21. Nearby is so-called Woodhenge a monument once composed of six rings of wooden posts enclosed by an earthen embankment.

A week after they started examining the area, the team spotted what appeared to be a circle of 24 post holes under the ground, less than 3,000 feet to the northwest of Stonehenge. The ring measured about 82 feet in diameter - just 17 feet less than Stonehenge - and was enclosed by an inner ditch and possibly an outer bank.

"The post holes are up to a meter in diameter, which suggests that the timbers they'd have held would have been at least 10 feet high,"Chapman says. He adds that the towering structure  was likely built "about 4.500 years ago,on the basis  of  comparing it with other sites." That's approximately the same time that Stonehenge's world-famous trilithons  - a prehistoric structure with two upright stone blocks supporting a third placed across the top - were erected.

Curiously, the newly discovered monument mirrors a similar henge some 4,270 feet southeast  of Stonehenge, which was first uncovered in 1937. Like the newly discovered site, that circle overlooks the ancient stone structure  and has two entrances . All three henges appear to have been deliberately aligned.

The latest find throws into question previous assumptions about  Britain's most famous ancient monument. "Many interpretations have traditionally  placed  Stonehenge at the center of the site of isolation," Chapman says.  "But, what we're seeing is that Stonehenge, when it entered its very grand phrase, wasn't the only structure in the area. It was surrounded by other complex structures, that may have been used much like medieval cathedrals ." So instead of being the focus of all the ancient folks' attention, Stonehenge was likely just one - admittedly impressive - part of the religious landscape.

As the ancient Britons didn't record their thoughts, we'll likely never know exactly why they built Stonehenge and its smaller siblings. But Chapman says the latest discovery offers an insight  into their beliefs.He suggests that the "wood and stone" circles may have been placed close together  as two materials  had intertwined "symbolic meanings" for Neolithic Brits. That ties in  with the thinking of Mike Parker Pearson, a Shetfield University archaeologist and henge expert, who has suggested that the wooden structures might have been associated with feasts for the living, while stone circles were realms of the dead.

The discovery of the new wooden henge is likely just the first of many surprise  discoveries to come from Chapman and his fellow archaeologists. By 2014, they intend to have scanned about 5 square  miles of land around Stonehenge, which will then be collated into a detailed map.

"I  think in the next four (4) years, we're going to have quite a different understanding of Stonehenge ," Chapman Says." And we'll have a better understanding of the people who built it."