DRIVERS making their way through North Newnton, near Pewsey, this week have been puzzled as to why a forest of tree trunks has appeared in a field opposite Reeder's garage in the village.
This week the Gazette and Herald can reveal that the construction is the work of Channel Four's Time Team who have had the timber formation put up as the reconstruction of a "henge" that is being excavated a few miles south at Durrington Walls.
Locals were astonished to see six or seven lorry loads of tree trunks arrive in the field, part of Faulkner's Farm owned by the Nutland family, about a week ago.
Garage proprietor Mike Reeder quickly found out what was going on. He said: "I was told that the Time Team are filming a special for release some time next year.
"The timber has come from the estate of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and it has to be back there next week.
"There has been a lot of activity over there. A platoon from the Royal Engineers turned up to erect the trunks. It has been fascinating."
The henge has become a tourist attraction and many cars stop, and their occupants get out to take photographs of the construction.
The archaeology team working at Durrington Walls has been staying at the camp site behind the Woodbridge Inn and it was there that Professor Mike Parker-Pearson of Sheffield University, who is leading the dig with Professor Julian Thomas of Manchester and Josh Pollard of Bristol, explained the significance of the wooden henges.
He said: "Back in 1967 the then Ministry of Works approved a scheme to improve the A345 that meant driving a road through the largest prehistoric monument in Europe Durrington Walls.
"Thirty eight years later we have come back to the site with new questions."
The team has uncovered remains of two Neolithic timber circles dating from 2,500BC, the time when Stonehenge was being built.
Prof Parker-Pearson said: "The northern circle is the one that has been reconstructed at North Newnton. It consists of 168 posts and is 40 metres across. It is enormous."
Finds within the circle are likely to change the theory of the purpose of henges, including Stonehenge.
Within the circle, archaeologists have found more than 100 flint arrowheads and the discovery of animal bones has indicated what went on within the henges.
Professor Parker-Pearson said: "They were shooting pigs, domestic pigs, for sport. Then the pigs would be barbecued and eaten as part of the Winter Solstice celebrations.
"It was the Neolithic Christmas. Midwinter was one of the more important festivals of the year, possibly the most important."
Henges like those at Durrington Walls were deliberately made of wood so they would rot over time. Prof Parker-Pearson said: "What has interested us is that they put up the posts with the idea of letting them decay, because we have found votive offerings in the rotted out pits bones, pottery, tools.
"This was all part of what was going on at Stonehenge. These places were built in memory of people recently deceased like wooden crosses on graves."
The team firmly believe that Stonehenge and its less long-lasting fellows were not temples to sun worship but monuments to the ancestors of the builders.
This is likely to fire a lively debate within the archaeological community, but there are more surprises in store at the Durrington dig, which will be revealed in the Time Team Special next year.
Remains of the first Neolithic houses ever discovered in England have also been unearthed. They are similar in design to those found at Skara Brae in Orkney but, because they were made of wood, they have not been so well preserved.
Evidence of the use of wattle and daub walls, which continued until the Middle Ages, has also been found.
