THE bones of six people dating back almost 4,500 years have been unearthed by archaeologists in an astonishing new find near Amesbury.

The remains were found in one grave, about half a mile from that of the Amesbury Archer - the Early Bronze Age man dubbed the King of Stonehenge by the media after his bones were discovered just a year ago.

His body was found buried along with some 100 various objects, including pottery, arrowheads, and gold.

The latest discovery is that of four adults and two children who lived around 2,300BC, approximately the same time as the Archer. Their grave contained four pots in the Beaker style that is typical of the period, some flint tools, one flint arrowhead and a bone toggle for fastening clothing.

Archaeologists say the grave is unusual for this period and place in that it has such a large number of people buried in it.

The bodies were excavated in earlier this month by archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology based at Salisbury, and QinetiQ the science consultancy company, during the digging of a trench for a new water pipe.

Radiocarbon tests will be done to find out more precise dates for the burials. It is possible the bones are those of people from different generations, as the grave seems to have been reopened to allow further burials to be made. The bones of the earlier burials were mixed up but those of the later burials, a man and a child, were undisturbed. The grave, about three miles from Stonehenge, had survived by good luck - the trench for an electricity cable had already cut through part of it, and the Wessex Water trench that led to the discovery had just missed the other side.Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology said: "This new find is really unusual. It is exceptionally rare to find the remains of so many people in one grave like this in southern England.

"The number of beaker pots in the grave, four, is only exceeded by the grave of the Amesbury Archer, where there were five."

The grave is fascinating because we are seeing the moment when Britain was moving from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age, around 2,300BC.

"The large number of bodies placed in this grave is something more commonly found in the Stone Age, but the Beaker style pottery is found in Bronze Age burials."