IT has guarded its secrets for thousands and thousands of years.

But now a Huddersfield scientist is hoping to discover: What DID people do at Stonehenge?

Dr Rupert Till is using cutting-edge acoustic technology to try and decode the secrets of the stones to expose aspects of Neolithic culture.

He revealed details of the research at a conference held at Bristol University.

Dr Till, an expert in music technology and acoustics at the University of Huddersfield, found that certain sounds would have been more easily produced, giving us an insight into what kind of activities would have taken place.

He carried out practical tests not at the site in Wiltshire, which is heavily-protected to protect the stones, but in the United States.

A full-size concrete replica of Stonehenge, designed as a World War I memorial, was built by American road builder Sam Hill at Maryhill in Washington.

Although the model has not previously gained any attention from archaeologists studying the original site, for Dr Till’s purposes the model was ideal. “We were able to get some interesting results when we visited the replica by using computer-based acoustic analysis software, a 3D soundfield microphone, a dodecahedronic speaker, and a huge bass speaker from a PA company.

“By comparing results from paper calculations, computer simulations based on digital models, and results from the concrete Stonehenge copy, we were able to come up with some theories about the uses of Stonehenge.

“We have also been able to reproduce the sound of someone speaking or clapping in Stonehenge 5000 years ago”

Dr Till added: “There are two main theories about what Stonehenge was used for – one is that it was a healing space, the other that it was a place of the dead.

“Both imply ritual activity, but very little is actually known about the way people sang, danced or performed rituals there because these things left no trace in the archaeological record.

“However, our research shows that there are particular spots in the site that produce unusual particular acoustic effects, intimating that perhaps a priest or a shaman may have stood there, leading the ritual.

“People may have chanted or danced to a repetitive trance rhythm, at a specific tempo that we have been able to identify”.