6,500-Year-Old Earthworks in Austria Are Thousands of Years Older than Stonehenge

"Around 10,000 years ago, a paradigm shift in human history began to unfold. Prior to this transitional period, which archaeologists refer to as the Neolithic Revolution -the final phase of the Stone Age-small societies were organized around hunting and gathering for sustenance. During the Neolithic period, the gradual adoption of agricultural practices forever changed the way we live. Over the next few thousand years, humans began domesticating plants and practicing animal husbandry in different parts of the world."

"The Neolithic period saw the very first civilizations. It's also when iconically old structures like Ireland's Newgrange passage tomb and England's Stonehenge complex were built, the latter of which was begun around 3100 B.C.E. and finished around 600 years later. Recently, a series of circular earthworks dating to the 5th millennium B.C.E. (5000 to 4001 B.C.E.) in Burgenland, Austria, may predate much of Stonehenge by a remarkable 2,000 years."

"At the newly excavated site, three monumental structures sit in close proximity to one another near the town of Rechnitz. The earthworks were initially discovered via aerial and geomagnetic surveys between 2011 and 2017. A total of four were found, three of which are ring-shaped structures that were previously invisible to the naked eye. Known as circular ditch systems, the structures were built in the Middle Neolithic period-sometime between 4850 and 4500 B.C.E.-making them at least 6,500 years old."

About 10,000 years ago humans shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution, enabling plant domestication and animal husbandry across regions. Reduced subsistence mobility freed time for economic, political, religious, and artistic developments and supported the first civilizations and monumental constructions such as Newgrange and Stonehenge. Stonehenge construction began around 3100 B.C.E. and concluded roughly 600 years later. A newly excavated cluster of circular ditch systems near Rechnitz in Burgenland, Austria, was discovered by aerial and geomagnetic surveys between 2011 and 2017. Three of the four earthworks are ring-shaped and date to 4850–4500 B.C.E., making them at least 6,500 years old and potentially earlier than Stonehenge.

Read at Colossal