Avebury stone circle is hiding a bizarre ‘secret SQUARE’ that could have been a sacred pagan site
BRITAIN'S oldest - and arguably most mysterious - relic appears to have been keeping a secret from us.
Archaeologists were shocked to discover a "secret square" monument hiding within the famous stone circle at Avebury - a marvel that predates Stonehenge.
It is thought the standing stones that form a square once circled a seven-metre obelisk weighing more than 100 tons which could date back almost 5,000 years, scientists found.
The 30m-wide square is buried under Avebury henge - the world's largest stone circle that measures 330m across and was built during the Neolithic period between 2850 BC and 2200 BC.
Pagan monuments like Stonehenge are typically round - and this is the first square design of its age to have been found.
Archaeologists now believe the square may have commemorated the location of an early Neolithic house, possibly part of a founding settlement, which became the centre of the sacred pagan meeting spot - some of which still remains today.
A British team used a combination of soil resistance survey which measures the flow of electricity and ground-penetrating radar which uses radar pulses to picture what was beneath the soil.
Dr Mark Gillings, from the University of Leicester, said: "We discovered something really weird.
"In a landscape of circles, we’ve suddenly got a square and lines.
"Slap bang in the middle of this monumental structure you’ve got a Neolithic house.
"It’s very strange and it shows that before we got the structure we see today there had been 1,000 years of jiggery-pokery."
Dr Joshua Pollard, from the University of Southampton said: "Megalithic circles are well known from the time when Avebury was built during the late Neolithic (3rd millennium BC), but square megalithic settings of this kind are highly unusual."
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The henge can still be seen today as a huge circular bank and ditch, surrounding parts of the Wiltshire village.
It originally comprised about 100 huge standing stones.
The new research took place inside the southern inner circle in an area excavated by archaeologist and marmalade magnate Alexander Keiller in 1939.
Keiller uncovered the existence of a curious angular setting of small standing stones close to a single huge upright known since the 18th century as "the obelisk", but the outbreak of war left the feature only partially investigated.
It was wrongly considered by Keiller to be a medieval cart shed.
Dr Nick Snashall, an archaeologist with the National Trust, which looks after Avebury, said the discovery, 80 years in the making, had been worth waiting for.
"The completion of the work first started by Keiller in the 1930s has revealed an entirely new type of monument at the heart of the world's largest prehistoric stone circle, using techniques he never dreamt of.
She hinted that more secrets may be uncovered soon, adding that it "goes to show how much more is still to be revealed at Avebury if we ask the right questions".
The research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The incredible discovery follows Druids and Wiccans favourite day of the year - the summer solstice, celebrated at Stonehenge in midsummer, which this year will take place on June 21.
Hundreds of mysterious 2,000-year-old stone circles were recently discovered deep in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
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