Researchers have discovered miniature versions of Stonehenge, a massive prehistoric stone monument, around upland areas across the UK, from Cornwall to northern Scotland.
Hundreds of small stone circles and other shapes have been found scattered around upland areas across the country.
Mark Gillings, an archaeologist at Leicester University, said most of the "mini-henges" were so small - below knee height - that archaeologists had simply not noticed them until now, 'The Sunday Times' reported.
"We all focus on the giant megalithic structures like the stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury, but they were just the biggest," he said.
"People were doing the same thing on a small scale all over the place, erecting extremely small standing stones in circles, lines and other shapes," he said.
Gillings has found more than 100 such "miniliths" on Exmoor where they have survived because the land was never farmed.
"We only find them on moorland that hasn't been ploughed up but they could have been everywhere, including all over the lowlands. In Ireland we are finding hundreds of sites because they have lain buried under the peat which has protected them," he said.
Some sites, such as the Nine Maidens stone circle on Dartmoor, are easily recognised because the stones are quite large, but Gillings has found that most structures were smaller, often using stones less than 2ft high.
Gillings said that because ancient humans spent more than 1,000 years erecting standing stones and circles around Britain, there was probably no single reason.
"They will probably always be a mystery," he said.
Stonehenge located in Wiltshire, England, is one of the wonders of the world. It is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks.
