An enigmatic structure that likely dates back thousands of years to the Bronze Age has been discovered in an English national park, archaeologists have revealed.
The structure appears to be a cist—a coffin-like, stone-built box or burial camber that was used to hold the bodies of the dead in prehistoric times, experts said.
It was spotted two years ago in Dartmoor National Park, an upland area located in the county of Devon, southwest England, local broadcaster Radio Exe reported.
The structure, which could potentially be around 4,000 years old, became visible thanks to the effects of erosion on the peat in which it lies. The rarity of cist finds like these from Bronze Age Britain (around 2300–800 B.C.) means the Dartmoor find could be significant, with the potential to provide insights into the life of Devon's inhabitants during this period, according to archaeologists.
"We have every potential for this to be something quite special," archaeologist Lee Bray told a Dartmoor National Park Authority meeting, according to Radio Exe.
"We don't know for certain if this is a cist, but it certainly looks like one. All the evidence we have points to it being a cist from the early Bronze Age."
Further investigations will be required to determine the true nature of the discovery and what—if anything—the possible cist contains. The fact that the peat around the find is waterlogged means that any artifacts or clothing inside it may could still be preserved.
The park authority has earmarked £90,000 (around $114,000) for an excavation of the site. Such an undertaking would begin by conducting a laser-scanning survey to determine exactly what lies in the ground, followed by an attempt to remove the structure.
This would be challenging and costly because the structure could weigh more than 600 pounds. In addition, the site is located far from any roads, so a helicopter may be needed to airlift it away.
"It's so exciting. We can't not do it," park authority chair Pamela Woods said in the meeting. "We are enthralled by this."
The exact location of the site has not been revealed due to the "highly sensitive" nature of the project and the risk of the site being tampered with before it can be examined properly, a Dartmoor National Park spokesperson told Newsweek.
The discovery could turn out to be as significant as a cist that was found in another area of the national park in the 1990s, emerging from the side of an eroding mound of peat. Known as the Whitehorse Hill cist, it was eventually revealed to be the burial chamber of a young woman who died around 1700 B.C.
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