The Amesbury Archer
With all that's been said and written about the mysteries of Stonehenge over the years, you might think the area has lost its ability to surprise. But that's not the case ... Thanks to a burial site that was discovered near the circle. The grave contains a skeleton, jewelry and knives ... All dating back to the Bronze Age.
The man in the grave is being called the Amesbury Archer. The Amesbury Archer is the most well-furnished Beaker burial thus far found in Britain. Beaker burials have often been considered 'rich' if they contain four or five objects, one of which is of copper or bronze, or of gold.
It is the number of finds, around 100, their early date within the Early Bronze Age, the quality of some of them, and above all the associations between them that is particularly important. All the finds are of well-known types that form the Beaker 'package' that is found across much of central and western Europe.
In a British context the gold earrings (or perhaps tress ornaments) are rare, with only half a dozen other findspots known. The association of three tanged knives - almost certainly of copper rather than bronze - is without parallel, as is the number of Beakers from a single burial. The range of arrowheads, bracers, flints, and spatula are amongst the largest groups of archery equipment found together. These make the find of international significance.
All the items have been removed from the grave to be studied by archeologists, who are hoping to understand what life was like in Britain during the Bronze Age.
Radicarbon dating has yet to take place but the types of object in the grave all date to the second half of the third millennium. The date may be nearer to 2,500 years before the birth of Christ (cal. BC) than 2,000; say 2,300 BC. This makes the grave 4,300 years old.
Experts from Wessex Archaeology digging on the site of a new school and housing estate near Amesbury, Wiltshire were amazed to find the grave of a Bronze Age archer.
The Wessex team were on the site for just seven weeks, excavating what they thought was a Roman graveyard. The Amesbury Archer is 4300 years old. It is the richest burial of this date ever found in Britain. Amesbury is 5km south east of Stonehenge.
When he died, the Amesbury Archer was 35-50 years old. His mourner's buried him on his left hand side with his face to the north, and with his legs bent. His grave was large and sub-rectangular in shape and may have had a timber lining. Buried alongside him were the accoutrements of a hunter, and symbols of status. There is no sign that the grave was covered by a barrow.
Some of the objects found in the grave hint how he was dressed or adorned when he was buried. On his forearm there was a slate wristguard to protect the arm from the recoil of an archers longbow. Next to the wristguard was a bone pin that may have held a piece of clothing such as a leather cloak or mantle. Partly covered by his torso was a tanged copper knife which may have been worn in a sheath on the chest .
Within touching distance of the mans face were two Beaker pots, a red deer spatula used for working flints, boars tusks, a cache of flints, and another smaller tanged copper knife. Some or all of these finds are likely to have been in a small bag or container. The flints included scrapers, arrowheads, other tools, what may be a strike-a-light, and flakes that may have been blanks for arrows.
Behind the man's back lay another Beaker, more boars tusks, another cache of flint tools and flakes. Next to them was a whetstone.
Scattered through the grave but at a slightly higher level were 16 barbed and tanged arrowheads. The height at which the arrowheads were found hint that they were lying over the body rather than having been placed on the floor of the grave.
Two more Beakers lay at the man's feet. By his knees there was another wristguard, another small tanged copper knife, a shale beltring, and two gold 'basket earrings.' These finds suggest that some pieces of costume were placed in the grave by the body rather than on it. Only the non-organic objects survive. The leather wood, and human flesh has long since decayed.
The Archer's burial lies about 5 km south-east of Stonehenge. Stonehenge was built over many hundreds of years and was almost a thousand years old when the Amesbury Archer was born.
Around 2,300 BC massive stones were brought from Wales and also from nearer to Stonehenge to build the stone circle.
The Amesbury archer shows for the first time that there were individuals of great wealth and importance who lived and died near Stonehenge at this time. Was there a link between this man and the building of the stone circle?
