Archaeologists probing one of Scotland's most studied prehistoric landscapes have spotted something they weren't really looking for. A geophysical survey of Machrie Moor, on the Isle of Arran, has turned up signs of a previously unknown circular monument hidden under peat—one that may once have been made of stone or timber, à la Stonehenge. Historic Environment Scotland's team detected a ring of 12 pit-like magnetic anomalies spanning about 92 feet, Live Science reports, with gaps suggesting there may originally have been 14 posts or stones. The find joins six known ceremonial circles at Machrie Moor, a Neolithic-Bronze Age ritual landscape active roughly 3500 to 1500 BC.
One existing circle, long reconstructed with seven or eight stones, may also have once had 14, the new survey indicates. The circles there tend to line up with a notch in nearby Machrie Glen where the midsummer sun rises, hinting at an astronomical role. The buried ring hasn't been excavated, and researchers say there's no current evidence of surviving stone—which means the structure could have started as timber, as others at the site did, before later transformations that sometimes included human burials. They're hoping to learn more. "The tools we use to learn about what's underground are constantly developing," said a Historic Environment Scotland official, "and we can learn more and more about our buried history without disturbing the earth and potentially damaging archaeological remains."
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