British researchers have proposed a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge: It may have started as a giant burial ground for the elite around 3,000 B.C.

Analysis of cremated bones of 63 people excavated from the site suggests that families were buried at a circular enclosure--bigger than the monument we know today & it built some 500 years earlier.

This casts doubt on the theories that the giant stone circle was erected as a kind of astronomical calendar or observatory.

Professor Mike Parker Pearson, at University College London says the location of many of the bodies buried at the site was originally marked by bluestones.

Pearson adds that study of settlement remains found near Stonehenge show that up to 4,000 people from across Britain had travelled to the site to build Stonehenge over about 10 years.

(With files from The Associated Press)