WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND—According to report in Live Science, a Neolithic burial mound was spotted in a farmer’s field located halfway between the Neolithic stone monuments of Avebury and Stonehenge with aerial photographs. The top soil has been removed from what is now known as the Cat’s Brain site to reveal what looks like a central building that may have been covered by a mound, and long barrow ditches. At other long barrow sites, archaeologists have found that some of the dead would have been buried in the ditches. A few would have been left on platforms until their bones had been picked clean by birds. The skeletons were then placed in structures that looked like houses, sometimes with cow skulls. “These are the very first people to have domestic cows, and they seem quite an important species to them,” said Jim Leary of the University of Reading. The discovery offers scientists a rare opportunity to investigate a long barrow site with modern archaeological techniques. To read in-depth about Neolithic Britain, go to "Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart."
