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6000-Year-Old Tomb Complex Discovered

Posted by samzenpus on from the nobody-knows-who-they-were-or-what-they-were-doing dept.

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "National Geographic reports that a 6000-year-old tomb complex on 200 hectares (500 acres) has been discovered on the Salisbury Plain just 24 km (15 miles) from Stonehenge. The site has come as a surprise to the archaeologists who had thought that the area had been studied in such depth that few discoveries of such magnitude remained. The site, fully 1000 years older than Stonehenge, has been called 'Britain's oldest architecture.'"

4 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:crop mark != crop circle by Celeste+R · · Score: 4, Informative

    Crop marks can indeed be shaped into looking like circles, but they're not the crop circles most people think of.

    Yes, these are man-made, but they're certainly not attributed to UFO's, decorative burning, prank helicopter slash-and-burns, or hoaxes of the same sort.

    Crop circle-like is an accurate way to describe it. They're not crop circles (per the popular definition), but they are similar. Accordingly, the article is more accurate than it could be if it said "crop circle formations", even if the terminology can be further improved.

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  2. google maps link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here it is on Google Maps... you can see a faint circle where the mound is located.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=damerham&sll=38.892091,-77.024055&sspn=0.487938,1.045761&ie=UTF8&ll=50.937232,-1.873689&spn=0.003086,0.00817&t=h&z=18

    1. Re:google maps link by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Informative

      And here it is on Bing - with the circles just barely visible: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=50.937445~-1.874886&style=h&lvl=18&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=50.937232%2C-1.873689&encType=1. (You'll have to zoom in.)
       
      Which shows how hard these things are to discover - different light angles and ages and types of crops change the visibility greatly.
       
      I know there are some UK [aerial photography] sites as well - any links from them?

  3. Re:Surprised? by consonant · · Score: 2, Informative
    They didn't believe that "a few" remained - the prevailing belief was that "few" were left to be discovered, which translates to "practically nothing".

    Linky.

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