By Sean O'Neil. The Daily Telegraph, Friday June 28 1996
CEREMONIAL totem poles, similar to those worshipped by American indians, were erected at Stonehenge by tribes of ancient Britons 5,000 years before the stone circle was built.
The 20ft pine stakes are thought to have been put in place around 8,000BC, standing for centuries 300 yards north-west of the centre of the stones in what is now the visitors' car park.
It is believed that they were monuments to gods or dead chiefs and marked a site used for sacred rituals. Archaeologists say the poles could explain why prehistoric peoples chose to build Stonehenge where they did.
They were first discovered in 1966, but were initially dismissed because scientists believed that Mesolithic people did not build such structures.
After further excavations in 1988 and independent radiocarbon dating of charcoal fragments from the site, scientists think the evidence is irrefutable.
Dr Geoffrey Wainwright, chief archaeologist at English Heritage, said: "The pits contained individual upright pine poles and a logical explanation is that they held totem poles similar to those of the north-west Pacific coast of America."
English Heritage has reconstructed an image of the totem poles in a virtual reality exhibition of Stonehenge's history and this is available on the Internet.
Andrew Lawson, director of Wessex Archaeology, said the posts offered an answer to one of the enduring mysteries of Stonehenge.
"It is difficult to say why Stonehenge is placed where it is - it is not next to the river, not the highest hill, not the deepest valley," he said. "It may well be that there was some significance to the place going all the way back to what Mesolithic peoples did there."