A ruína gigantecentral esporte aposta4 mil anos encontrada pertocentral esporte apostaStonehenge:central esporte aposta

The story…

Prehistoric monument discovered

Learn language related to…

ancient discoveries

Need-to-know language

archaeologists – people who study prehistoric buildings and objects from a long time ago

shafts – long, narrow vertical or sloping passages

pits – holes or dips in the ground

oriented – positioned; arranged

ritualistic – connected to actions performed as part of a ceremony

Answer this…

Which famous prehistoric site does this new discovery lie close to?

Watch the video online: https://bbc.in/318wNKx

Transcript

It's one of the world's most famous sights. Yet, so much about Stonehenge (in the UK) remains a mystery. But are we finally getting closer to understanding?

It's this site, two miles away, that archaeologists have been examining. An area known as Durrington Walls. Using ground-penetrating radar, they've been able to look deep into the earth and discovered what could be one of the UK’s largest prehistoric sites.

A ring of around 20 shafts, dug more than 4,000 years ago, around the time Stonehenge was built nearby.

Dr Richard Bates, University of St Andrews

These are 20-metre diameter, at least five-metre deep - sometimes even deeper, we think, shafts or pits that have been dug into the chalk and are oriented in a kind of an arc both to the south and the north of Durrington Walls. The orientation of them, and the spacing of them, would suggest that they have some organised, ritualistic reason for being there.

The task for historians now is to work out how the newly discovered outer ring of pits is connected to Stonehenge itself.

The National Trust (a British charity which looks after historic places) - has described the find as ‘astonishing’. What further secrets will it now reveal?

Did you get it?

Which famous prehistoric site does this new discovery lie close to?

It lies two miles from Stonehenge – a prehistoric stone circle in the UK.