This is Siambr Gladdu Tinkinswood (English: Tinkinswood Burial Chamber). Located in the Vale of Glamorgan, this burial chamber is believed to be around 6,000 years old, dating to 4,000 B.C. This makes it roughly a thousand years older than Stonehenge.
The dolmen (essentially a “portal tomb” with two or more large rocks with an even larger one for a roof, the “capstone”) was the most popular structure of the neolithic age. The capstone weighs more than 40,000 kg (just under 6,300 stone) and would have required the strength of around 200 men to lift.
The site was excavated in 1914 and 920 human bones were discovered. Of course, as the name implies, Siambr Gladdu Tinkinswood was a burial chamber, meaning the deceased were buried and likely for the purpose of ancestor veneration. Further excavation began at the site (now owned by Cadw) in 2011.
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