In the UK, Gloucestershire City Council Archaeological Surveyors conducted an aerial lidar survey and discovered an ancient stone circle that turned out to be a previously unknown Bronze Age monument.
The opening is reported by BBC News. An unusual and clearly man-made ring stone structure was discovered by archaeologist John Hoyle several years ago in Dean Forest, one of the oldest forests in England.
He suggested that the found object is the remains of a gun mount from the Second World War. However, subsequent research allowed the object to be dated. It turned out that it was erected between 2500 and 1500 BC.
It was not possible to obtain more information from the ground excavations. And then archaeologists made an aerial survey using lidar - a relatively new technology that allows you to scan the area.
The resulting images helped to identify the mysterious object, as well as determine its size. It turned out that this is the so-called ring pyramid - presumably a place for carrying out ritual ceremonies, which is a stone circle.
Similar ancient structures have already been found in other counties of England, but this is the first ring pyramid discovered in Gloucestershire. Its diameter is about 25 meters. The pyramid is surrounded by a five-meter strip of white rubble. Also, at least ten white stones were installed along its perimeter, the height of each of which did not exceed one meter.
“No one knows exactly what the ring pyramids were used for,” says John Hoyle. - Some of them were found near the graves. The remains of charcoal are often found in such places, which hints at the carrying out of rituals associated with fire."
Author: Denis Peredelsky
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