Prehistoric megaliths Stonehenge was from the beginning a monument to the dead, British media reported on Friday.
New radiocarbon dates of human remains excavated from the ancient stone monument in southwest England suggest it was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3000 B.C. until well after the giant stones that mark the mysterious circle were being erected around 2500 B.C.
"It's now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages," said Mike Parker Pearson, archaeology professor at the University of Sheffield in England and head of the Stonehenge Riverside Archaeological Project.
Lights in nearby Amesbury set low-hanging clouds aglow over Stonehenge. The photograph is a two-page extended double-spread in an article on Stonehenge in the June 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) The pattern and relatively small number of the graves suggest all were members of a single family.
The findings provide the first substantive evidence that a line of kings ruled at least the lower portion of the British island during this early period, exerting enough power to mobilize the manpower necessary to move the massive stones from as far as 150 miles away and maintaining that power for at least five centuries, said Mike Parker Pearson.
Built between 3000 and 1600 B.C. as a temple, burial ground, astronomical calendar or all three, the stone circle is sometimes called "Britain's pyramids."
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
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