The people who built Stonehenge in Southern England thousands of years ago had wild parties, eating barbecued pigs and breaking pottery. This is according to recent work by archaeologists--history experts who investigate how human beings lived in the past. Archaeologists digging near Stonehenge last year discovered the remains of a large prehistoric village where they think the builders of the mysterious stone circle used to live. The village is about 4,600 years old, the same age as Stonehenge and as old as the Pyramids in Egypt. It is less than two miles from the famous ancient landmark and lies inside a massive man-made circular dirt wall, or "henge", known as the Durrington Walls. Remains found at the site included jewellry, stone arrowheads, tools made of deer antlers, wooden spears and huge amounts of animal bones and broken pottery. "These finds suggest Stone Age people went to the village at special times of the year to feast and party", says Mike Parker-Pearson from Sheffield University in England. He said many of the pig bones they found had been thrown away half-eaten. He also said the partygoers appeared to have shot some of the farm pigs with arrows, possibly as a kind of sport before barbecuing them. An ancient road which led from the village to the River Avon was also found. Here, the experts think, people came after their parties to throw dead  s in the water so the bodies would be washed downstream to Stonehenge. Parker-Pearson believes Stonehenge was like a cemetery where ancient Britons buried the dead and remembered their ancestors. The theory is that Stonehenge is a kind of spirit home to the ancestors. The recent discovery of the village within the Durrington Walls shows that Stonehenge didn't stand alone but was part of a much bigger religious site, according to Parker-Pearson.People still come to worship and celebrate at Stonehenge today. They meet there when the sun sets on the shortest day of winter and when it rises on the longest day of summer. But the days of barbecuing whole pigs there and throwing family members into the river are a thing of the past. At present, it has been attracting a great number of visitors all around the world. Here is a comment from a visitor. "I am speaking to a friend on Facebook who is heartbroken that she went there with utter love and respect for the site and that the whole Summer Solstice event was full of drunk party goers and those that had gone in a respectful, loving way were made to sit on the outside, so as not to be disturbed by the revellers." What was Stonehenge according to the text?
A village where hundreds of people once lived. A place that regularly hosted large parties. A church where local villagers would get married. A site where dead people were placed or remembered.