DEVON, ENGLAND—According to a Live Science report, two stone circles estimated to be 5,000 years old have been discovered in southwestern England’s Dartmoor uplands. Alan Endacott, a doctoral student at the University of Exeter, thinks that these stone circles were part of a “sacred arc” of monuments. The first structure consists of about 20 stones standing about 40 inches tall placed in an oval shape. Endacott has named the circle “Metheral,” after a nearby hill. The second circle, named “Irishman’s Wall,” is located about a mile to the north of the Metheral circle. Only six stones from this circle remain. Endacott found them by mapping the ground with resistivity and magnetic gradiometry and determining where the earth had been disturbed. Endacott noted that the Metheral circle is placed at the northern end of an arc made up of eight Neolithic stone circles stretching some five miles. He thinks there may have once been a complete circle of monuments enclosing some of the highest land on Dartmoor. He also suggests that the Irishman’s Wall, situated to the north of the arc, may have served as an entrance to the sacred area, he explained. To read about a Neolithic monument in England’s Lake District, go to “Off the Grid: Castlerigg Stone Circle, England, UK.”

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Source: archaeology.org