ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered one of the largest neolithic settlements found in Britain.

The remains, some of which pre-date Stonehenge, have been found over an area the size of two football pitches at a North-East quarry.

The settlement includes at least three buildings dating from about 4,000BC -the early neolithic period -and three buildings dating from about 3,000BC -the later neolithic period.

Archaeologists said the find at Milfield, near Wooler, North Northumberland, is highly important because remains of buildings are rarely found at neolithic settlement sites in England.

Inside one of the early neolithic buildings, a human had been buried in a pit, accompanied by broken pottery and charred wood.

Hundreds of pieces of pottery, including well-made bowls and cooking pots have been found, as well as flint tools, a cereal grinding stone and a rough-out of a carved stone ball, about the size of a cricket ball, thought to be some kind of ritual object.

Knowledge of neolithic settlements and how their inhabitants lived remains a contentious issue in British archaeology.

There is debate about whether neolithic people lived a mobile existence, as their hunter-gatherer forebears are thought to have done, or whether they lived a more sedentary existence in permanent houses.

Details of the discovery, made last June at the Cheviot Quarry, owned by Tarmac, were only released yesterday.

English Heritage's Dr Jonathan Last said: ''To find the remains of so many buildings from the neolithic period grouped together is incredibly important.

''This exciting discovery offers huge potential to improve our understanding of neolithic ways of life in the North-East.

''We hope that the analysis and scientific dating of finds from the site will reveal much more about the date and function of these structures, and establish whether they were homes or ceremonial buildings.''

Dr Clive Waddington, director of the archaeological site, said: ''This is one of the most important sites of its kind to be discovered.

"It provides an exciting opportunity to further understanding of Britain's first farmers, their way of life and beliefs about the world. It gives us a unique insight into the neolithic way of life.

"There has always been debate over whether neolithic man was nomadic or lived a sedentary life.

"These buildings reveal for the first time that, in this part of the world at least, they were settlers.

"It is a big breakthrough and we have found some very interesting artefacts from the settlement."