Avebury (G-B) : Mysterious wooden circles are 800 years older
Phoebe Weston
New radiocarbon dating has revealed that vast wooden palisades at Avebury, Wiltshire, are more than 800 years older than experts previously thought.
When first discovered 30 years ago, experts thought they were built in 2,500 BC - making them the same age as the Stonehenge just 20 miles down the road.
The strange wooden enclosures stretched over more 2.5 miles (4km) and used more than 4,000 trees - suggesting that mysterious rituals were taking place in this region far earlier than previously thought.
Researchers, who radiocarbon dated the remains of the structures which were built in Avebury say the timber palisades were burnt down to create huge rings of fire
These strange wooden enclosures stretched over more than four kilometres and used more than 4,000 trees. They are 800 years older than the current stones at Avebury (pictured, stock image) which were built in 2,500BC
'The date of 3300BC puts the palisades in a completely different context; it’s the end of the early neolithic, when there’s a blank in our knowledge of the big monuments of the time', Alex Bayliss, a carbon-dating expert from Historic England told the Times.
'They are two really massive circles of timbers', she said.
'One of the hypotheses is that one could have been for women and the other for men to use for rituals.'
The circles were erected just a few centuries after people started farming.
'We have an entirely new kind of monument that is like nothing else ever found in Britain', said Dr Bayliss.
Experts believe the two structures were built at a similar time and were far too large to be used to fence in animals.
Researchers say the timber palisades were intentionally burnt down in order to create huge rings of fire, but very little is known about their use, according to the paper published in British Archaeology.
There is no record of the site being occupied until after 2,000 BC - by which time the wooden enclosure would have no longer existed.
WHAT DID THEY FIND?
When the wooden palisades were first discovered 30 years ago experts thought they were built in 2,500 BC - at the same age as the Stonehenge just 20 miles down the road.
These strange wooden enclosures stretched over more than four kilometres and used more than 4,000 trees - suggesting that mysterious rituals were happening far earlier than previously thought.
Researchers say the timber palisades were intentionally burnt down in order to create huge rings of fire but very little is known about their use, according to the paper published in British Archaeology.