Dig uncovers Stonehenge people's settlement

British archeologists have discovered evidence of more than two dozen houses belonging to the ancient people who built Stonehenge, a find likely to open an important chapter in the study of one of the world's most famous monuments.

The settlement, about 2 miles north of Stonehenge at a site called Durrington Walls, apparently housed hundreds of people and dates to around 2600 BC, the same period when the iconic stone blocks were erected at Stonehenge. At a news conference yesterday, the archeologists said they have also uncovered a large stone boulevard that served the houses, and have determined that nearby ruins are a circle of timbers that echoes many of the features of Stonehenge itself.

The discovery suggests a striking new portrait of Stonehenge as just one part of a broader, interconnected religious site devoted to honoring ancestors and celebrating the cycle of life and death symbolized by the seasons. Durrington Walls, the archeologists said, was a place for the living, and is littered with animal bones from midwinter feasts. From there, they suggest, people may have walked to the river Avon on the stone boulevard, traveled down the river, and then up a similar boulevard to Stonehenge, whose great blocks probably served as a permanent memorial to those who lived before.

"This is one of the biggest discoveries to come out of Britain in a long, long time," said Brian Fagan, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the work. "It may be the most important discovery, in terms of the meaning of Stonehenge, ever."

The settlement of at least 33 homes, the largest of the time period ever found in Britain, represents a success for an ambitious new effort to understand the meaning of Stonehenge, which is about 100 miles west of London. The Stonehenge Riverside Project, formed by a consortium of British universities, began digging in the area around the monument in 2003, and plans to continue its work for several more years.

In 2005, the team found signs of a dwelling and what appeared to be part of a road, according to Mike Parker Pearson, who directs the project and is an archeologist at Sheffield University. Last year, he said yesterday, they discovered that the home was just one of perhaps dozens, and that the road was bigger and more important than they realized -- some 90 feet wide, and 560 feet long.

The road connects the Avon River with a circle made of timber that mirrored the massive blocks of Stonehenge, according to Julian Thomas of Manchester University, one of the project's leaders. The existence of the timber circle has been known for decades, but the team developed an extensive map of the site and did additional excavation.

The sites appear to be linked by astronomical symbolism. The timber circle is aligned with the sunrise at the winter solstice. The flint-lined Durrington road is aligned with the sunset at summer solstice. This complements Stonehenge: Its road is aligned with the summer solstice sunrise; and three of its stones frame the winter solstice sunset. The sun was probably a central symbol in the religion of the ancient builders , Parker Pearson said, representing the cycle of life and death.

The dwellings at Durrington were littered with debris, including animal bones, flints, and broken pots. The debris suggests it was the site of large midwinter feasts. The team analyzed pigs' teeth found at the site , learning that the animals were about 9 months old when slaughtered, suggesting they were killed in winter. And the sheer amount of bones suggested conspicuous consumption, Parker Pearson said.

"People were here to have a good time," he said.

After feasting, the people may have walked down the road, which ended in a riverside cliff, perhaps dropping their dead into the cold waters of the Avon, Parker Pearson suggested. Some were carried to Stonehenge , where cremated remains have been dated to the same period.

The team excavated eight homes, but they have evidence of about 25 additional homes, possibly more. Each was about 16 feet square, with a clay floor and central, oval fireplace . The floor plans are very similar to houses found in the Orkney Islands, off Scotland, that date to the same period, Parker Pearson said. Each home had signs of box beds against the walls, and some kind of cupboard on the wall facing the door.

The team also found two other houses on a higher terrace on the western part of the Durrington site that overlooks the main settlement, according to Thomas. Unlike the other homes, the remains of these buildings were not littered with bones and debris. These may have belonged to community leaders or priests, or they may have served as shrines. Little is known about the people who lived during that era, who left no known written records.

Thomas and Parker Pearson said the findings suggest a dualistic interpretation of the broader Stonehenge site. Durrington, with its homes and timber circle, was a place for the living. Stonehenge, with its stone monuments, was a place for the dead. The impermanence of wood, they suggest, would have been seen as a metaphorical contrast to the permanence of stone. The entire site would have represented the cycle of life and death.

This interpretation is based on archeological evidence linking the two sites. Some researchers are likely to question the speculation about the thoughts of people who lived more than four millennia ago. But Curtis Runnels, a professor of archeology at Boston University who was not involved in the work, said he finds the ideas convincing.

"While some people might knit their brows, it strikes me as a fairly coherent and well-told story," said Runnels, also editor of the Journal of Field Archaeology.

Gareth Cook can be reached at cook@globe.com.