People from far away buried at Stonehenge
Yet another mystery concerning 5,000-year-old, iconic Stonehenge in England has been solved. Close to the large rocks, archaeologists discovered remains of cremated bodies, which are just as old, causing them to believe that the monument was built in honour of the dead. Nobody knew to whom the charred bones belonged, but the question has now been answered due to new analyses made by English archaeologists.
The dead bodies were cremated, before the bones were buried, and so, it is impossible to extract usable DNA from them. Instead, the scientists compared different versions (isotopes) of the strontium element. The make-up of strontium isotopes varies from one place to another, and so, we all carry a type of fingerprints that show where we have been living for the past 10 years. The bone analyses revealed that 10 of the 25 buried people very likely come from Preseli Hills in Western Wales, 220 km from Stonehenge. The other 15 are from the local area. The new result demonstrate, how far people of the British Isles travelled 5,000 years ago.