Domain of the dead
Stonehenge served as an elite cemetery for more than 500 years
By Bruce Bower
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.
There was nothing lively about Stonehenge in its heyday, though. Ancient big-wigs used Stonehenge as a cemetery from its inception nearly 5,000 years ago until well after its large stones were put in place 500 years later, according to the directors of a 2007 investigation of the ancient site.