Ancient graves and mysterious enclosure discovered at Stonehenge ahead of tunnel construction

[Judi Lynn]

By Tom Metcalfe - Live Science Contributor 3 hours ago

Archaeological work ahead of the construction of a controversial road tunnel beside Stonehenge has led to the discovery of ancient graves, including one with the remains of a baby dating back more than 4,500 years; a strange earth enclosure; and prehistoric pottery, among other buried treasures.

Some of the finds may have been used by people who built the mysterious Neolithic monument, and all of the discoveries show that the region was inhabited by different ancient peoples for thousands of years.

"Collectively, [the finds] allow us to build up an ever-more-detailed picture of what people were doing and how they were living in the area around Stonehenge," Matt Leivers, a consultant archaeologist for Wessex Archaeology, told Live Science.

Before breaking ground on the $2.4 billion project to move a nearby highway underground, U.K. authorities have tasked Wessex Archaeology with making a thorough investigation of the land above it. To do this, archaeologists walked the fields and created trenches and pits to test for archaeological remains and artifacts along the 2-mile-long (3 kilometers) strip where the road tunnel is planned, Leivers said in an email. The team was guided by surveys from the air and used geophysical survey equipment to look for land disturbed by digging and structures in the distant past.

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