Archaeology & History

6,000-year-old camp unearthed at Stonehenge

By T.K. Randall
December 21, 2014

Image: Stonehenge, Wiltshire
Credit: Udit Kapoor / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The earliest settlement ever found at the site, the Mesolithic 'Blick Mead' encampment is located about a mile and a half from Stonehenge and dates back to 4,000 BC.

Archaeologists exploring the site, which is believed to have been occupied by hunter gatherers returning to the British Isles after the last Ice Age, discovered signs of feasting such as burnt flints and the remains of giant bulls called aurochs which are now extinct.

"British pre-History may have to be rewritten," said archaeologist David Jacques who made the discovery. "This is the latest dated Mesolithic encampment ever found in the UK.""Blick Mead site connects the early hunter gatherer groups returning to Britain after the Ice Age to the Stonehenge area all the way through to the Neolithic in the late 5th Millennium BC."

Concerns have been raised however concerning proposals to construct a road tunnel underneath Stonehenge with experts fearing that the project could destroy valuable archaeological evidence.

"Our only chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain's history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead," said Jacques.

Source: Telegraph

Tags: Stonehenge