4,500-year-old Neolithic hall recreated near Stonehenge

English Heritage has revealed a seven-metre-high reconstruction of what could have been a 4,500-year-old Neolithic hall at Stonehenge, offering visitors an idea of ​​how prehistoric builders lived.

The project is in the final phase of construction and was built entirely by hand, over the course of nine months, by a team of more than 100 volunteers. O Kusuma Neolithic Hall will open to the public this summer, before becoming an educational space for schools.

According to , the structure is based on the archaeological plan of an anomaly known as Durrington 68a “square-in-a-circle”-shaped building discovered about two miles away, near Woodhengeanother Neolithic monument.

The project forms the first phase of an educational expansion by English Heritage. In addition to the hall, it is planned, by the end of 2026, to open a new learning center that will house the Clore Discovery Lab and the Weston Learning Studio.

“The organization’s objective is to double its educational capacity to approximately 100 thousand students per year over the next five years,” he said. Ioan Keendirector of learning and interpretation at English Heritage. Keen added that the site and its new resources will be completely free to any educational or youth group.

To Sarah Davis e James Humphreytwo of the volunteers, the project was a transformative experience, leading them to reflect on the enormous human effort required of the original builders.

“The hall is not just a complement to the Stonehenge experience for both visitors and students. By using historically rigorous techniques and materials in its construction, we are also able to develop a deeper understanding of the daily lives of the Neolithic people who came to Stonehenge and settled in the region,” he concluded Matt Thompsonresponsible for English Heritage collections.