New radiocarbon dating suggests that Stonehenge represents giant tombstones to the dead for centuries, perhaps for the members of a ruling prehistoric dynasty.

Research suggests that the site was initially intended to be a cemetery since the time it was built 5000 years ago. The analysis of ancient human remains which were found at the site shown that people were buried there from about 3000BC until after the first large stones were brought there in 2500 BC.

Parker Pearson, the leader of the Stonehenge Riverside project, suggested that this new finding supports the theory that Stonehenge represented the “domain of the dead” to ancestor-worshiping ancient Britons. Even though it Stonehenge was thought to be a burial ground only between 2700 and 2600 BC, the new research pointed out that there is actually a 500 years span over which burials took place.