Authorities in Israel have announced the discovery of an ancient human settlement in Jerusalem which is thousands of years old. The historic site was found while authorities were doing roadwork.
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered an ancient settlement which dates back as far as 7,000 years, they announced on Wednesday. They are calling it the oldest discovery of its kind in the area.
"This is the first time we found architecture of this kind in Jerusalem itself," said Ronit Lupu, director of excavations for Israel's Antiquities Authority. "We are talking about an established society, very well organized, with settlement, with cemeteries."
The excavation exposed two houses with well-preserved remains and floors containing pottery vessels, flint tools and a basalt bowl. Lupu said these items are representative of the early Chalcolithic period, which began around 5,000 BC.
In the Chalcolithic period, humans were "still using stone tools, but began to create high-level ceramics and for the first time, copper tools as well," said Lupu.
Small settlements from the period have been discovered in parts of Israel and Jordan, but only a few remnants had previously been unearthed in Jerusalem.
"Now in the new dig we found remnants of a village, an established village," said Amnon Barzilai, the head of the authority's prehistory branch.
"Now we can know that even in the periods prior to the First and Second Temples, even in the Chalcolithic period, it was an inhabited area," he said.
The Chalcolithic period is considered by some to be a bridge between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. A lack of archaeological evidence of this period in Jerusalem had long puzzled many researchers.
For Lupu, the discovery is closure to a long quest for this type of settlement in Jerusalem. "For years in Jerusalem we had a feeling - we knew it was there somewhere but never found it. But here we found it," she said.
The site was discovered while authorities were doing roadwork in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, and there are no current plans to expand the 50 square meter (500 square foot) dig site.
'Hidden' Stonehenge revealed
Stonehenge, it turns out, is just the tip of the iceberg. Researchers have used digital mapping technology to reveal scores of significant ancient monuments beneath the stone formation.
Image: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Casting Stonehenge in a whole new light
"It's not yet another find from Stonehenge, it's a fundamental step forward in the way we understand it," said Vincent Gaffney, a University of Birmingham professor who led a four-year study on the mysterious rock formation and newly found treasures beneath it. The result, released this week, is a digital map outlining newly discovered ancient formations - all buried beneath the Stonehenge site.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
'Terra incognita'
Stonehenge has long baffled scientists, and most of the area around it is "terra incognita," as Professor Gaffney put it. During the study, his team from the University of Birmingham, together with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna, discovered 17 previously unknown ritual monuments which may be roughly as old as Stonehenge itself.
Image: University of Birmingham
Seeing the unseen
What may resemble cells under a microscope are in fact digital maps of the newly discovered ritual monuments found around the Stonehenge area. Researchers used magnetometers, ground-penetrating radar arrays, electromagnetic induction sensors, earth resistance surveys, and terrestrial 3D laser scanners to map the location.
Image: University of Birmingham
Technology meets history
The four-year project is the largest of its kind thus far. Here, a researcher is pictured using a motorized magnetometer, which allowed for unprecedented spatial representation of the subterranean realm.
Image: University of Birmingham
Super henge
At the Durrington Walls site, inhabited some 4,500 years ago, a so-called super henge was among the discoveries. It was a massive ritual monument, measuring more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles) in circumference. Experts say it also may have been lined with up to as many as 60 three-meter-high stones, similar to Stonehenge. Some of those stone may still be intact under the ground.
Image: University of Birmingham
Wooden remains
A massive ancient timber building, referred to as a long barrow, was discovered and mapped in detail. It is thought to have been used for burial ceremonies in ancient times, including the ritual inhumation of the dead, and was likely covered by a mound of earth.
Image: University of Birmingham
Long barrow
The wooden burial construction, the frame of which is pictured here from above, is likely older than Stonehenge, which experts say was constructed between 3000 and 2000 BC.
Image: University of Birmingham
Non-invasive research
"Developing non-invasive methods to document our cultural heritage is one of the greatest challenges of our time," said Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the participating Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, adding that only the latest technology makes it possible. Here, a researcher is operating a ground-penetrating radar.
Image: University of Birmingham
11 millennia in one place
The subterranean images also revealed prehistoric pits, hundreds of burial mounds, and settlements from the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman times. The data gives researchers new insights on the surrounding area, spanning a time frame of over 11,000 years. The field work took 120 days, spread over four years.
Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Ancient mystery
President Barack Obama visited Stonehenge on September 5, 2014. Stonehenge is thought to have been built during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, between 3000 and 2000 BC. It was likely used as a burial site and for religious ceremonies. With no written documents from the period, not much is known. That has led to sundry theories tied to the stones - some involving supernatural influences.
