A 5,000 year old tale of how a woman and three children may have made the ultimate sacrifice is set to be told with the help of two scientists from Bradford University.

Archaeologists Dr Paul Budd and Janet Montgomery have been helping get to the heart of a mystery dating back to the time that Stonehenge was still in its construction stages.

And using the latest technology, the duo have overturned some widely held assumptions about our Neolithic ancestors.

The modern detective story which will be seen by millions of television viewers tonight on the BBC 2 series Meet the Ancestors, surrounds the chance discovery of an almost perfectly preserved set of Stone Age skeletons, belonging to a woman in her 30s and three children, aged six, nine and 10 in a field near Salisbury.

But, as Dr Budd explained, as the archaeologists dug further into the past, they unearthed some eerie details.

"The group were all found in a crouched position and because of the strangeness in the way they were buried, it is assumed it was a ritual burial.

"There is no pathology to say how they died. They may have become ill or it is possible they may have been ritually sacrificed."

The remains were found huddled together at the bottom of a pit within the perimeter of a circle cut into the chalky ground and it was the geology of that ground that has allowed Dr Budd and his PhD student, Ms Montgomery, to reach their conclusions.

The pair have been looking at minute traces of metals found in the teeth of the group.

Lead and strontium exist in the soil in different concentrations according to the geology and both become locked into the bones and teeth when digested.

Millennia later, Dr Budd and Ms Montgomery were able to use the pattern they create to piece together a map of their travelling habits.

It revealed that the woman was probably born around 50 miles away from where she was buried and the children - only one of which DNA testing has found to be definitely hers - were born in different areas.

The finds challenge modern beliefs, said Dr Budd.

He said: "The presumption has been that people were fairly static, but we have found out there was this scale of movement.

"She must have walked on foot, possibly with three very young children in tow for some considerable distance."

The research will continue to answer many of the unsolved mysteries found at the site, said Dr Budd.

"We have to say that we don't know it all."

The story is set to unfold on tonight's edition of Meet The Ancestors on BBC2 at 9pm which is entitled the Ultimate Sacrifice.

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