A SUSPECTED burial chamber on Dartmoor dating back to the Bronze Age is to be excavated.

Dartmoor National Park Authority will spend £90,000 unearthing the site.

Experts believe the latest cist - an ancient coffin or burial chamber - could be as significant a find as Whitehorse Hill.

Discovered in 2011, Whitehorse Hill turned out to be the burial chamber of a woman from around 1700 BC.

Members voted unanimously to set aside the money to excavate the site.

Archaeologist Dr Lee Bray said this latest cist, the location of which has not been revealed so as to prevent it being tampered with, was discovered about two years ago as the peat eroded around it.

Dr Bray said: ‘We have every potential for this to be something quite special.

‘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.’