A “house of the dead” dating from more than 5,000 years ago could contain the remains of the ancestors of people who lived around Stonehenge, archaeologists have said.

barrow

A Neolithic long barrow burial mound in a place known as Cat’s Brain is being excavated by University of Reading experts and students UNIVERSITY OF READING/PA

A Neolithic long barrow burial mound in a place known as Cat’s Brain, in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, is being excavated by experts and students from the University of Reading in the first full investigation of such a monument in the county for 50 years.

The barrow, which is in the middle of a farmer’s field halfway between the important monuments of Avebury and Stonehenge, was spotted by aerial photography and assessed by geophysical survey imagery.

It consists of two ditches flanking what may be a central building covered with a mound made of the earth…