New Stonehenge Found at the Bottom of a Lake Intrigues Historians

And now, divers have found another site deep below the surface of Lake Michigan that is eerily similar to the famous rock formation, and there are more questions than ever before.

Holley explained in an interview that he and his team were certainly not expecting to find such an enthralling archaeological site within the lake, and at first, they had no idea what they were looking at.

These circles created a similar pattern to the rock formations at Stonehenge, some 4,000 miles and an entire ocean away.

One of the first things they realized about the mammoth stones was that they likely weigh up to 3,000 pounds and yet, were undoubtedly placed into their specific formation by human beings.

But as of yet, we still have no concrete evidence to support any theory, so exactly how the ancient residents of what is now Michigan placed these 3,000-pound stones into two circles will remain a mystery.

That means this formation is one of the oldest ever found in North America, and it’s even older than Stonehenge by about 5,000 years.

However, lead archeologist Mark Holley explained that the location of the rock formation was not underwater some 10,000 years ago and that, “It would’ve been a wonderful place for people to live – near the coastline, close to resources, transportation’s easy.”

Thanks to photographs taken by scientist and diver Rob Nelson, they have found engravings on the rocks that were undoubtedly created by a human hand.

Mastodons supposedly died off about 11,700 years ago, and while depictions of them are few and far between, it was extremely common for native peoples to engrave and paint the animals they saw and hunted on rock faces.

In an episode entitled “American Stonehenge” by Discovery UK, scientist Rob Nelson met with a descendant of the ancient Anishinaabe named Hank. And Hank explained he believes these rocks were absolutely evidence that his people, or at least their ancestors, had been living in the area long before historians had previously believed.

However, Hank explained that, “[In Anishabe culture], we refer to stones as animate objects because they come from the mother, the Earth, who is alive,” and that the stones were placed for a sacred purpose.

Like its brother, Stonehenge, this awe-inspiring site will remain a mystery to modern humans for years to come.

However, while these ancient monuments share their form, they are located in entirely different parts of the world. Stonehenge is found in the UK whereas this discovery was found on the American continent thousands of miles away.

According to Britannica, there are a variety of different theories that explain the original Stonehenge’s unique function. These range from religious purposes to a place for burials, a meeting place for leaders, or even an ancient computer for tracking the stars.

In his view, the stone arrangement was helpful in predicting the timing of lunar and solar eclipses. While some consider the theory far-fetched, people of the ancient world indeed had a deeper understanding of astronomy than many would realize.

There is archeological evidence of cave paintings that recorded stars and the position of other bodies in the night sky. Evidence suggests that early humans kept track of time and turned constellations into representations of animals.

These structures in the Mesolithic period were a series of posts similarly arranged around pits. Stonehenge itself was thought to have been constructed over a long period of time, with the stones being rearranged many times throughout the process.

There have been human remains discovered at the site of the monument, with more than 50,000 fragments of cremated humans reported to have been found. (via The Guardian)

The alien theory started to become popular in the late 1960s after the publishing of the book “Chariots of the Gods?” (via Britannica) In the book, the author Erich von Däniken put forth the claim that many famous structures like Stonehenge were possibly the work of aliens. People have speculated the structure was used for landing an alien spacecraft. They posit that its strange design that we cannot understand makes sense from an alien traveler’s perspective.

As archaeologists find more examples of similar structures, there can be more work done to study them and find commonalities. Although these structures’ origins are currently shrouded in mystery, there is no telling what future discoveries could tell us.