THEORIES about the purpose of Stonehenge are never in short supply. Now the first carbon-dating evidence from human remains unearthed there suggests that the imposing megalithic monument was a place to bury and commemorate the dead.
Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, UK, and his team analysed the cremated remains of three humans uncovered at the site in southern England. They were part of 52 sets of remains revealed by excavations during the 1920s, though the rest were reburied.
The team dated the oldest to around 3000 BC, when construction of the monument began. The most recent of…
