Archaeologists from the University of Reading uncovered a 4,000-year-old child skeleton curled into a fetal position at Wilsford Henge near Stonehenge in the United Kingdom.
Bronze Age Child Skeleton Laid to Rest, Curled in Fetal Position
After only a month of excavations at Wilsford Henge, archaeologists from the University of Reading discovered a well-preserved human skeleton from the Bronze Age. The remains are intact and are believed to belong to an adolescent child or teenager who was living while Stonehenge was being built.
The child skeleton was small at around 1.5 meters in length and had been found in the fetal position. The archaeologists believe the skeleton had been positioned in that specific manner: head turned slightly to the right, knees drawn close to its chest and its arms crossed snugly.
What was more intriguing than the childlike position the skeleton had assumed was the amber necklace he or she had been wearing, preserved within the burial plot for thousands of years.
The Well-Preserved Skeleton Will Shed Light on Diet and Disease
The remains were found in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire in between Stonehenge and Avebury. The archaeological and anthropological communities are extremely excited about what the skeleton can reveal to us.
Dr. Jim Leary, Director of the Archaeology Field School at the University of Reading, said the skeleton will undergo analysis to determine age, gender, date of burial. Leary believes additional testing can even point to the exact village where the child had spent its short life before dying.
With this single find, we will learn more about the diets, diseases, and lifestyle of our Neolithic ancestors who witnessed Stonehenge at its height.
Archaeological excavations of Bronze Age ancient monuments
The archaeologists in the excavation studied under the direction of the University of Reading’s Department of Archaeology and came across the find through research in the Archaeology Field School.
The discovery was a part of a three-year dig focusing around the Vale of Pewsey, a historically important region near the prehistoric, iconic Stonehenge. Its aims are to fully understand the peoples who worshiped at Stonehenge and their lifestyles, both work and play.
Within the items unearthed, archaeologists have found necessary tools including flint arrowheads and blades. Perhaps the child skeleton may have been too young to use these, but decorative items have also been uncovered, such as shale and copper jewelry, a Roman brooch, and beautiful decorated pottery pieces, some of which the child may have been familiar.
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