Megaliths similar to Stonehenge found in UK

Nine new megaliths discovered in a remote part of Dartmoor, England, bears strong similarities with the famous Stonehenge.

Experts are of the opinion that the megaliths, which were recently carbon-dated to around 3500 B.C., could predate Stonehenge.

However, the stones at both sites seem to be aligned to mark the rising of the midsummer sun and the setting of the midwinter sun.

The alignment strikes as strange, as ancient Brits were not necessarily sun worshippers.

Also, another Dartmoor stone monument, called Drizzlecombe, shares the same orientation.

Archaeologist Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology, said that "huge quantities of barbecued juvenile pig bones" were found near Stonehenge.

It apparently indicates that the animals were born in the spring and killed not far from the site "for pork feasting" in midwinter.

It is speculated that the feasting was a post-funeral ritual.

"The general feeling is that the sun was symbolizing or marking the occasion, rather than being the ritual focus itself, so it probably was not sun worship," Discovery News quoted Pitts, as saying.

Pitts claims the "solstice alignment phenomenon perhaps has something to do with death."

He briefed that the setting sun and shorter days of winter would have represented the passage into the darkness of the underworld, and the reverse as the days start to lengthen again.

He said: "At Stonehenge the dark navy-colored bluestones may themselves represent ancestors or spirits from the underworld, while the big orangey-pink (before weathering) sarsens could reflect summer and light."

However, the Dartmoor megaliths, as described in a separate study in the current issue of the journal Antiquity, are lying flat after the stones in a row fell.

Luckily, the peat above and the below the stones permitted the carbon dating, which is rare in such monuments.

Tom Greeves, who discovered the Dartmoor stones at a site called Cut Hill said it was "remarkable that a previously unrecorded stone row with very large stones has been noted for the first time on one of Dartmoor's highest and remotest hills."

He added that to reach the spot, it "requires a walk of about two hours from whatever direction."

The report has been published in the latest issue of British Archaeology.