Stonehenge breakthrough
SCIENTISTS from South Yorkshire uncovered vital evidence that could help solve one of the oldest British mysteries: why Stonehenge was built.
Archaeologists at the University of Sheffield have revealed new radiocarbon dates of human cremation burials at Stonehenge indicate the monument was most probably used as a cemetery for an elite royal family.
Sheffield archaeologists Professor Mike Parker-Pearson and Professor Andrew Chamberlain believe the cremation burials could represent the natural deaths of a single elite family and its descendants, perhaps a ruling dynasty from just after 3000 BC until well after the large stones went up around 2500 BC.
Their results contradict what many archaeologists previously believed – that people had been buried at Stonehenge only before the large stones, known as sarsens, were put in place.
The findings are the result of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a collaboration between five UK universities.
Prof Parker-Pearson, from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, who is leading the project, said: "I don't think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge – it was clearly a special place at that time.
"The people buried here must have been drawn from a very small and select living population. Archaeologists have long speculated about whether Stonehenge was put up by prehistoric chiefs – perhaps even ancient 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."
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