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Engineers working for Highways England may have inadvertently damaged a 6,000-year-old platform which may hold the key to answering the question: Why was Stonehenge built in the first place? <\/p>\n
Preparatory drilling of a three-meter-deep hole (10ft) through a man-made platform of flint and animal bone at the Blick Mead site, roughly a mile from the standing stones at Stonehenge, has caused uproar among the archaeological community working in the area and studying one of mankind\u2019s enduring mystery structures.<\/p>\n
Blick Mead is part of the Stonehenge and Avebury UNESCO<\/a> world heritage site. Archeologists were already concerned about the possibility that the works could cause the local water table to drop, damaging artefacts and remains in the area.<\/p>\n The stone platform that, reportedly damaged during the drilling, contained the hoof prints of an aurochs, a type of giant prehistoric cow which is now extinct.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a travesty. We took great care to excavate this platform and the aurochs\u2019 hoofprints,\u201d<\/em> David Jacques, professor of archaeology at the University of Buckingham, who discovered the site 12 years ago, said<\/a> of the reported damage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe hunters considered this area to be a sacred place even before Stonehenge. These monster cows \u2013 double the size of normal cattle \u2013 provided food for 300 people, so were revered.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n It may be that there are footprints here which would be the earliest tangible signs of life at Stonehenge. If the remains aren\u2019t preserved we may never be able to understand why Stonehenge was built.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Highways England is scheduled to meet with the archaeological team led by Jacques on Thursday, but has denied any wrongdoing or accidental damage caused by its operations.<\/p>\n
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