Neolithic ‘halls of the dead’ found in Herefordshire

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Published: August 2, 2013 at 11:08 am

The remains of two Neolithic halls have been discovered by archaeologists working on Dorstone Hill, near Peterchurch in Herefordshire. The ‘halls of the dead’, which are thought to have been built between 4000 and 3600 BC, were found within prehistoric burial mounds by teams from the University of Manchester and Herefordshire Council and are believed to have been used to store corpses.

Professor Julian Thomas, from the University of Manchester, said: “[This find is of] huge significance to our understanding of prehistoric life. These early Neolithic halls are already extremely rare, but to find them within a long barrow is the discovery of a lifetime”.

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