Parker Pearson now believes that Stonehenge was the "Domain of the Dead," where the ancient people, whose identity remains unknown, came together in somber ceremonies during summer to honor the dead.
Durrington Walls, in contrast, was the "Domain of the Living," where raucous parties to celebrate life and fertility were held.
At the winter solstice, he said, people would gather again to inter their dead, perhaps flinging their ashes off a 12-foot cliff into the nearby River Avon.
The cremated remains dated by Parker Pearson's team were excavated in the 1950s and have been stored in the nearby Salisbury Museum. Remains from an additional 49 burial sites were excavated in the 1920s but were reburied because researchers thought they were useless.
The remains had not been radiocarbon-dated until now because only recently has a new technique been devised for use on burned bones.
One set of remains, from the so-called Aubrey holes or pits surrounding Stonehenge, has been dated to 3030 BC to 2880 BC, about the time when the ditch and bank monument was first cut into Salisbury Plain.
A second, taken from the ditch surrounding Stonehenge, dates from 2930 BC to 2870 BC. A third, that of a woman about 25 years old, dates from 2570 BC to 2340 BC, the time when the first stones were being raised at the site.
Few objects were found with the remains, Parker Pearson said. One significant discovery, however, was a mace made of stone. Such maces have long been a symbol of authority in Britain, and even now Parliament has its own mace.
The team believes there are 150 to 240 burial sites scattered around Stonehenge, with the largest number dating from the last stages of the site's use. Both the small number and its increase over the centuries -- as the number of offspring would have multiplied -- suggest that all came from a single family of rulers, said archaeologist Andrew Chamberlain of the University of Sheffield, a member of the current excavation team.
Other new evidence also suggests that the site was funereal in purpose. On the cliff overlooking the river, researchers have discovered a series of postholes that are architecturally the same as those found in the houses at Durrington Walls but much larger.
These poles, the team believes, supported elevated platforms where the dead were placed so their bones could be stripped of flesh by weathering, a practice that was common throughout much of the world.
