There’s more to Stonehenge than we’d ever imagined. A team of researchers, working together under the “Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project” at Birmingham University in the U.K., has debunked the long-held presumption that Stonehenge stood in stark solitude. Instead, it was merely the centerpiece—the focal point—of highly complex system of ritual monuments. The team’s survey of the Stonehenge’s grounds reveals 17 new chapels as well as hundreds of other archaeological features that probably bustled with activity thousands of years ago.

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Vince Gaffney, head of the project, and his team spent four years scrutinizing the landscape with magnetometers, radar, and other tools that could help detect buried structures. Their results indicate that these peripheral sites were intimately connected with Stonehenge, coming together to form an almost kaleidoscopic ceremonial experience.