Bronze Age Bone Objects Examined

News September 1, 2020

(Wiltshire Museum)
SHARE:
England Bone Instrument
(Wiltshire Museum)

BRISTOL, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that researchers from the University of Bristol radiocarbon dated Bronze Age human remains and artifacts made of human bone and examined them with micro-computed tomography. The radiocarbon dates suggest that many of the bone artifacts belonged to contemporaries of the grave occupants, while the micro-computer tomography scans revealed that some of the bone artifacts came from cremated remains, some of the bones had been exhumed after burial, and other came from bodies that were allowed to decompose on the surface of the ground. Thomas Booth of the University of Bristol said the varied treatment of the remains indicates there was no established protocol for the treatment of bodies whose bones would be preserved as keepsakes. These people may have been played an important role in the community, or they may have been family members, friends, or even enemies. The artifacts may have served as relics to remember individuals within living memory, or as aids to telling stories about them. For example, a human thigh bone that had been carved and polished into a musical instrument was recovered from a grave at a Bronze Age archaeological site near Stonehenge. To read about a Bronze Age barrow cemetery discovered in Hampshire, go to "World Roundup: England."

  • Features July/August 2020

    A Silk Road Renaissance

    Excavations in Tajikistan have unveiled a city of merchant princes that flourished from the fifth to the eighth century A.D.

    Read Article
    (Prisma Archivo/Alamy Stock Photo)
  • Features July/August 2020

    Idol of the Painted Temple

    On Peru’s central coast, an ornately carved totem was venerated across centuries of upheaval and conquest

    Read Article
    (© Peter Eeckhout)
  • Letter from Normandy July/August 2020

    The Legacy of the Longest Day

    More than 75 years after D-Day, the Allied invasion’s impact on the French landscape is still not fully understood

    Read Article
    (National Archives)
  • Artifacts July/August 2020

    Roman Canteen

    Read Article
    (Valois, INRAP)