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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7337292.stm

 

Page last updated at 10:42 GMT, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 11:42 UK

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'Breakthrough' at Stonehenge dig

By Rebecca Morelle

Science reporter, BBC News

 

 

 

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Professor Darvill explains what is happening at the Stonehenge dig

 

Archaeologists carrying out an excavation at Stonehenge say they have

broken through to a layer that may finally explain why the site was

built.

 

The team has reached sockets that once held bluestones - smaller

stones, most now missing or uprooted, which formed the site's original

structure.

 

The researchers believe that the bluestones could reveal that

Stonehenge was once a place of healing.

 

The dig is the first to take place at Stonehenge for more than 40

years.

 

The team now needs to extract organic material from these holes to

date when the stones first arrived.

 

 

 

Professor Geoff Wainwright explains why the dig is taking place

Professor Tim Darvill, of Bournemouth University, who is leading the

work with Professor Geoff Wainwright, president of the Society of

Antiquaries, said: " The first week has gone really well. We have

broken through to these key features.

 

" It is a slow process but at the moment everything is going exactly to

plan. "

 

The two-week excavation is being funded by the BBC and filmed for a

special Timewatch programme to be broadcast in the autumn.

 

Professors Darvill and Wainwright say that finding out more about the

history of the bluestones could be key to solving the mystery of why

the 4,500-year-old landmark was erected.

 

They believe that the bluestones, which were transported 250km (150

miles) from the Preseli Hills in Wales to the Salisbury Plain in

Wiltshire, were brought to the site because the ancient people

believed they had healing properties.

 

Professor Geoffrey Wainwright said the site could have been a

" Neolithic Lourdes " .

 

The giant sarsen " goal posts " , which came from about 20km (12 miles)

away, were thought to have arrived much later.

 

As well as reaching the bluestone sockets, the archaeologists have

also unearthed a whole host of other finds as they have peeled back

the layers of the 2.5m-by-3.5m (8.2ft-by-11.5ft) trench.

 

These include a beaker pottery fragment, Roman ceramics and ancient

stone hammers.

 

 

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain