Pre-Stonehenge burial complex found in England

[Vekseid]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090615-stonehenge-tombs-crop-circles.html

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.

A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.

For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing," said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region.

"I think everybody assumed such monument complexes were known about or had already been discovered," added Pollard, a co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which is funded in part by the National Geographic Society. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Six-Thousand-Year-Old Tombs

At the 500-acre (200-hectare) site, outlines of the structures were spotted "etched" into farmland near the village of Damerham, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge

...

Apparently not all crop circles are caused by pranksters. Interesting.

[Oniya]

In this case, the 'crop circles' manifested as areas where the vegetation didn't grow as high or vigorously, due to the shallow soil beneath it (a result of having the walls just below the surface).  This is actually a common way that archaeologists can locate ruins that are not too deeply buried.

Prankster (or otherwise unexplained) crop circles consist of the vegetation being bent 90 degrees just above the surface of the ground.  In the case of the prankster versions, this is accomplished with the use of wooden planks being pressed down on the crop.