Stonehenge: Experts have made a big discovery near the ancient site

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, The find was made near the famous Stonehenge monument

A team of archaeologists have made a new discovery just a short distance away from the famous monument, Stonehenge.

The group has located a ring of at least 20 prehistoric shafts, which are huge holes.

Each shaft is around 10 metres long and five metres deep and the circle they form is believed to be a whopping 1.2 miles wide.

Image source, University of St Andrews/PA Wire

Image caption, The yellow dots show where the shafts were discovered

The experts behind the project believe the shafts were created more than 4,500 years ago during a time known as the Neolithic Period, or the New Stone Age. At this time, farming in Britain grew in popularity and people settled in villages and began growing their own crops.

It's thought the shafts were created as a boundary to a sacred area connected to the henge.

Dr Richard Bates from the University of St Andrews' School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said the finding was "giving us an insight to the past that shows an even more complex society than we could ever imagine".

And Tim Kinnaird, who is based at the same school, said studying the earth in the holes was providing "a rich and fascinating archive of previously unknown environmental information",

"We can write detailed narratives of the Stonehenge landscape for the last 4,000 years," he added.