News Archaeology

Domain of the dead

Stonehenge served as an elite cemetery for more than 500 years

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Stonehenge, a set of earth, timber, and stone structures perched provocatively on England’s Salisbury Plain, has long invited lively speculation about its origin and purpose.

New radiocarbon measurements of burned human bones excavated earlier indicate that the famous Stonehenge site in southern England served as a cemetery for half a millennium, from around 5,000 to 4,500 years ago.
CEMETERY CIRCLE New radiocarbon measurements of burned human bones excavated earlier indicate that the famous Stonehenge site in southern England served as a cemetery for half a millennium, from around 5,000 to 4,500 years ago.