Perhaps the most striking neolithic monument in northern Europe is Stonehenge, on Britain's Salisbury plain. It is usually pictured as standing in splendid isolation, but in fact the stone monument was part of a vast complex of structures -- causeways, mounds, enclosures, etc. -- that had obvious ritual significance [map here]. The plain also was a major population center. Archaeologists have recently discovered and are currently excavating a neolithic settlement beneath the enclosure known as "Durrington Walls," only two miles away from Stonehenge. The settlement was perhaps the largest in northern Europe at the time and consisted of several hundred houses.
Read the BBC report here.
