Stonehenge served as burial ground during the 500 years while it was being built

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Stonehenge served as burial ground during the 500 years while it was being built


By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 5:44 PM on 29th May 2008



The riddle of Stonehenge, a puzzle that has captured the imagination of historians and scientists for centuries, may finally have been solved.

Archaeologists have new evidence that the monument was built as a cemetery for influential Stone Age Britons - and could even have been the burial ground for a long forgotten prehistoric royal family.

The findings come from the first radiocarbon dating of charred human teeth and bones discovered at the site in the 1950s.



Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings for several hundred years, the recent dig has found

The tests show that the bones were buried around 3000BC - the same time that Stonehenge was being created on Salisbury Plain.

The riddle of Stonehenge as intrigued historians for nearly 2,000 years.
More is known about the origins of the Moon that the world's most famous stone circle.

Some say the monument - with its careful alignment to the midsummer solstice - was a giant calendar or observatory. Others insist it was a temple of healing - or a massive cathedral to some long forgotten gods.

Now a team led by Prof Mike Parker Pearson, of Sheffield University, argue that it was temple of the dead, and used as a cemetery for at least 500 years.


Archaeology students Steve Bush, right, and Sam Ferguson sieve through earth at Stonehenge

He said: "I don't think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge it was clearly a special place at that time. One has to assume anyone buried there had some good credentials.

"The people buried there must have been drawn from a very small and select living population.

"Archaeologists have long speculated about whether Stonehenge was put up by prehistorical chiefs, perhaps even royalty, and the new results suggest that not only is this likely to have been the case, but it also was the resting place of their mortal remains."

The first phase Stonehenge, built in 3000 BC, was a ditch and bank, dug out with animal bones and deer antlers, which enclosed a circle of 56 holes. The holes could have housed wooden posts, but no traces have ever been found.

Around 2600 BC, the site was transformed when 82 huge bluestones, some weighing four tons, were brought from Pembrokeshire, Wales, 200 miles away and placed in two circles inside the earthworks.

And 150 years later, the ancient Britons mined giant "sarsen" 50 ton stones at Marlborough, cut them to shape and rolled them on sledges and tree trunks 25 miles south to Stonehenge. The bluestones were dug up and repositioned, and the sarsens added – creating the “modern” Stonehenge.


Steve Bush is silhouetted amongst the stones while he works on the dig at Stonehenge

Over the years, archaeologists have discovered the remains of 52 human burials in the ditch surrounding the stones. Most were dug up in the 1920s and reburied. But three were removed in the 1950s and kept at nearby Salisbury Museum.

Prof Pearson carried out radiocarbon tests on the three sets of remains.
The earliest pile of burned bones and teeth was dated to between 3030 and 2880BC - roughly the time when Stonehenge's ditch was being built.
A second burial, found in the ditch, was from a man and was dated to 2930 - 2870BC. The most recent burial was a woman in her mid 20s and dates to 2570 to 2340BC - the peak of Stonehenge, when the first giant sarsen stones were going up.

Previously, scientists believed that the bones were far more recent, and buried at the site hundreds of years after it was created.

Little is known about the people creators of Stonehenge - farmers living at the end of the stone age and the start of the Bronze Age. They lived in villages made from wattle and daub houses - a mixture of chalk and plaster, and used pottery.

Prof Parker Pearson - whose study is featured in the June issue of National Geographic Magazine - believes that up to 240 people could be buried within Stonehenge.

Later this year, the monument will reveal more secrets. Archaeologists have been working on the inner circle in the last few months to get the most accurate date yet as to when the first stone circle was built.

The team carrying out this year's dig believe the site was a centre of healing - and that Stonehenge's creators believed the Welsh bluestones had magical powers. They believe the human remains belong to sick people who come to the site.

The latest findings are the result of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a collaboration between five UK universities, which is funded by the National Geographic Society and the Arts and Humanities Research Council with support from English Heritage.


Stonehenge served as burial ground during the 500 years it was being built | Mail Online