6000-year-old Stonehenge discovery puts tunnel project worth $3.2 billion at risk

THE most ancient discovery at Stonehenge may turn our understanding of the monument on its head — and halt a multi-billion dollar tourist tunnel project.

THE most ancient discovery at Britain’s iconic Stonehenge may turn our understanding of the monument on its head — and halt a multi-billion dollar tourist tunnel project.

News of the discovery of the oldest settlement yet found in the mystic landscape comes on the heels of an announcement by British Prime Minister David Cameron who announced plans to build a 2.9km tunnel to remove the blight of traffic from the key tourist site.

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But the new “Blick Mead” encampment, which appears to be some 6000 years old, may be in its way.

Moving monument ... A truck passes Stonehenge on the A303 road in Wiltshire, England. A 2.9 kilometre tunnel, part of a $3.2 billion upgrade to the road, is intended to eliminate the sound of traffic from the heritage site. Source: AP

The World Heritage site now appears to have been a meeting place for hunter-gatherers, among the first to return to the British Isles as glaciers retreated after the Ice Age.

Among the scattered remains so far is evidence of feasting: Scorched cutting flints and the shattered bones of aurochs — the giant cattle of the era.

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Archaeologists from the University of Buckingham say they have also found traces of possible structures — though they warn these could be destroyed if the tunnel project was to go ahead.

The discovery was made in October, about the time the results of extensive survey work in the landscape surrounding the standing stones was released.

Fragmentary finds ... University of Buckingham pictures showing some of the traces of the 4000BC encampment so far recovered. Source: Supplied

Researchers had been waiting to complete the usual reporting processes before announcing their new find, but decided to speak out early in warning.

“The PM is interested in re-election in 140 days — we are interested in discovering how our ancestors lived six thousand years ago,” archaeologist David Jacques, who made the discovery on a dig for the University of Buckingham, said in a statement released late last week.

“British pre-History may have to be rewritten. This is the latest dated Mesolithic encampment ever found in the UK.

Trash’n’treasure ... Some of the bone ‘feasting’ fragments recovered from the new Blick Mead encampment site near Stonehenge. Source: Supplied

Professor Jacques says the site proves the Stonehenge site was significant long before the construction of the standing stones began in 2600BC. It has until now been believed the area had not been populated before 3000BC.

Prominent among the ancient landscape’s features was a natural spring with a rare algae which produced colour-changing stones.

“Our only chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead,” Jacques said.