The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #163442 Message #4126611
Posted By: Rain Dog
18-Nov-21 - 10:22 AM
Thread Name: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
Something slightly different.
Some friends of mine were having an extension built on there late 19th century property. During the work a skeleton was found underneath part of the property.
The local archaeological tean were called in. That was about 2 years. They recently updated my friends as follows:
According to our bone specialist:
‘The available evidence combines to suggest that the bones recovered relate to a single individual. The skeleton represented is of a relatively tall, adult male, aged 25–35, although the attrition of the molars could indicate slightly younger age.‘
There was nothing to indicate why he died but I think we may presume ‘natural causes’....This seems to be how long many people in the prehistoric past actually lived.
Having got the bones looked at, we selected a good, solid leg bone and sent it off to Queens University, Belfast for radio carbon dating. This individual died some where between 2467 and 2204 BC (mostly like date, 2351BC) – so well over 4000 years ago. This places our man in the Early Bronze Age, during what archaeologists call the Beaker Period – towards a 1000 years before Dover’s famous Bronze Age boat.
We have also been working on the pieces of broken pottery found with the bones and have had some success in identifying it as the remains of a Beaker - the typical pot of the period (perhaps a beer tankard). Interestingly, another one of these Beaker pots came up near Connaught Park during the 19th century, but that got lost in the War.
Here is a link to
Dover Bronze Age Boat
Which was mentioned above.