Archaeologists Taken Aback by Discovery of Burial Site Older Than Stonehenge, 'Possibly Served as a Prototype'

Stonehenge is an iconic monument for archaeologists worldwide. It has been determined as one of the oldest buildings in the world and has given researchers many insights regarding the architectural styles followed by ancient communities. Archaeologists were taken aback when they discovered an even older structure on a prehistoric Dorset burial site, stated the University of Exeter. Findings regarding this structure were published in Antiquity journal. 

The structure has been named Flagstones, and recent analysis has dated the construction back to about 3,200 years B.C. The monument was uncovered in the 1980s amidst the construction of the Dorchester bypass. The structure was described as a 100m diameter circular ditch comprised of some intersecting pits. At present, half of the monument is underneath the bypass, while the remaining portion is beneath a house called Max Gate. All the objects found from Flagstones have been preserved at Dorset Museum.

The dating was valuable because before the advanced radiocarbon analysis, the structure was believed to have been built two centuries later. The site contained several artefacts, human remains, charcoal, and red deer antlers.  Analysis of the architecture as well as of all the aforementioned items indicated that Flagstones possibly served as a prototype for later monuments like Stonehenge.

Researchers were intrigued by the monument because it had features of both the architecture that came before it and the designs that were realized after it. The dating results were also surprising. "Flagstones is an unusual monument; a perfectly circular ditched enclosure, with burials and cremations associated with it," said Dr Susan Greaney, a specialist in Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in Exeter’s Department of Archaeology and History. "In some respects, it looks like monuments that come earlier, which we call causewayed enclosures, and in others, it looks a bit like things that come later that we call henges. But we didn’t know where it sat between these types of monuments – and the revised chronology places it in an earlier period than we expected."

The similarities the monument shared with Stonehenge initially caused the experts to assume that it was built around 2900 B.C. like the latter. The enclosure pit in Flagstones was found to comprise of around four burials. One of them was of a cremated adult, while the other three were of children who had not yet undergone cremation. Three further partial cremations were located in other areas of the monument. 

The study combined radiocarbon dating with available archaeological information and concluded that activities like the digging of pits happened around 3650 B.C. in the monument. After some centuries, the circular ditched enclosure was incorporated. The burials appeared to have taken place sometime after 3200 B.C. These revelations have posed a lot of further questions not only about Flagstones but also about other ancient monuments. "The chronology of Flagstones is essential for understanding the changing sequence of ceremonial and funeral monuments in Britain," said Dr Greaney. "The ‘sister’ monument to Flagstones is Stonehenge, whose first phase is almost identical, but it dates to around 2900 B.C. Could Stonehenge have been a copy of Flagstones? Or do these findings suggest our current dating of Stonehenge might need revision?"

The findings also indicate a connection to other prominent sites like Llandygái ‘Henge’ A in Gwynedd, Wales. Such links imply that Neolithic communities across Britain were in contact with each other.