6000-Year-Old Tomb Complex Discovered

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "National Geographic reports that a 6000-year-old tomb complex on 200 hectares (500 acres) has been discovered on the Salisbury Plain just 24 km (15 miles) from Stonehenge. The site has come as a surprise to the archaeologists who had thought that the area had been studied in such depth that few discoveries of such magnitude remained. The site, fully 1000 years older than Stonehenge, has been called 'Britain's oldest architecture.'"

crop mark != crop circle

[QuantumG]

Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.

Umm.. Crop marks [wikipedia.org], not crop circles [wikipedia.org].

Surprised?

[Sardak]

The site has come as a surprise to the archaeologists who had thought that the area had been studied in such depth that few discoveries of such magnitude remained.

If they believed a few remained, why are they so surprised to find one of them?

Re:Surprised?

[Bigjeff5]

Oh the subtleties of the english language.

Well said sir!

Re:Surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

"If they believed a few remained, why are they so surprised to find one of them?"

BECAUSE only a few remain. D'oh!

If there are only a few lottery tickets with a top prize, and you drew one, would you describe your condition as 'surprised'? Or would you say that statistically it had to be drawn so this is not an unusual event....

Re:Hyperbole

[smoker2]

"A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. The term generally refers to any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. The word is used in a broad sense to encompass a number of such types of places of interment or, occasionally, burial ..." Link [wikipedia.org]

Anyway, the bodies ARE buried under ground. The ground is piled up over the tombs. Or does grass grow in the air ?

This is the remains of Neolithic barrows

THESE ARE ...!