23. 07. 10. - 12:00

Austrians find wooden Stonehenge twin

Austrian archaeologists have discovered a timber equivalent of Stonehenge less than a kilometre from the famous prehistoric monument.

A team from Vienna’s Ludwig Boltzmann Institute headed by Wolfgang Neubauer made the discovery just 900 metres from the tourism magnet near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.

Neubauer said today (Fri) the wooden monument was thought to have been built 4,500 years ago, around the same time as Stonehenge.

The scientist and his team discovered the wooden site after arriving in the United Kingdom to do research just two weeks ago. He explained it had not been necessary to dig up the ground to make the sensational discovery as scientists scanned the ground with high-end specialised devices.

Neubauer said the monument – which has a diameter of around 40 metres – could have been used as a burial site. "We will now continue to examine the area," he said.

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