Wherever we dug, there were more of them. “Then, to our surprise, we realized that corpses had been dumped one on top of another. “At first we thought it was just the remains of one individual,” says Sean Wallis of Thames Valley Archaeological Services, the company that did the excavating. Excited, they began searching for items that might reveal details of daily life in the Middle Ages. Later, the archaeologists found pits full of broken pottery and food debris suggesting that people had used the henge as a medieval garbage dump millennia after it had been dug.

About 400 feet in diameter, the temple was one of the largest of Britain’s prehistoric henges, of which more than 100 have been found.

After just a few hours of digging, one archaeologist discovered the remains of a 4,000-year-old religious complex-an earthwork enclosure, or henge, built by late Neolithic tribesmen, probably for a sun-worshiping cult. John’s, archaeologists were summoned to investigate the site in January 2008. British archaeologists looking for evidence of prehistoric activity in the English county of Dorset discovered instead a mass grave holding 54 male skeletons.īefore construction could begin on new student housing at one of Oxford University’s 38 colleges, St.

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