In comparison to Stonehenge, the Durrington Walls are much bigger, much less well-known, and much more recently discovered. Stonehenge was discovered way back in 1620, but the Durrington Walls weren’t unearthed until the late 1960s. In fact, aside from ancient maps pointing to a settlement at the site, no one seems to have known it was there. As Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information describes, a highway — the A345 — was even built right through it. There’s also a little village nearby — Durrington — that abuts the northeastern edge of the plot.
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It’s only recently that researchers have dug deeper into the Durrington Walls. As recently as 2020, Wessex Archaeology described the discovery of a series of shafts dug into the earth around the circumference of the settlement, each shaft measuring about 30 feet across and 15 feet deep. These shafts were likely used for posts to mark the boundary of the site and guide people toward its interior. In 2021, The Guardian says that researchers used a technology called optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to detect the last time light touched sediment, which dated the pits to 2400 B.C.E. — right around when Stonehenge’s sarsen stones were lifted into position. Furthermore, Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information describes evidence of houses, lanes for travel, and midden pits filled with animal bones from feasting that contain teeth from creatures as far as northeast Scotland some 550 miles away.
