The Stonehenge Archer ( 2330 BC - 2300 BC) is the name given to a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

man whose body was discovered in the outer ditch of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

. Unlike most burials in the

Stonehenge Landscape The Stonehenge Landscape is a property of The National Trust, located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. The estate (formerly known as Stonehenge Historic Landscape and before that as Stonehenge Down) covers surrounding the Neolithic m ...

, his body was not in a barrow, although it did appear to have been deliberately and carefully buried in the ditch. Examination of the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

indicated that the man was local to the area and aged around 30 when he died.

Radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic matter is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

dating suggests that he died around 2300 BCE, making his death roughly contemporary with the

Amesbury Archer The Amesbury Archer ( 2340 BC - 2300 BC) is an early Bronze Age (Bell Beaker) man whose grave was discovered during excavations at the site of a new housing development () in Amesbury near Stonehenge. The grave was uncovered in May 2002. ...

and the

Boscombe Bowmen The Boscombe Bowmen is the name given by archaeologists to a group of early Bronze Age (Bell Beaker) people found in a shared burial at Boscombe Down in Amesbury () near Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. Discovery The burials were found in 2003 ...

buried 3 miles away in

Amesbury Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settl ...

. He came to be known as an archer because of the

stone wrist-guard Early Bronze Age stone wrist-guards are found across Europe from around 2400-1900 BC and are closely associated with the Beaker culture and Únětice culture. In the past they have been variously known as ''stone bracers'', ''stone arm-guards'' ...

and a number of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

arrowheads An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, or sometimes for special purposes such as signaling. ...

buried with him. In fact, several of the arrowheads' tips were located in the skeleton's bones, suggesting that the man had been killed by them. His body was excavated in 1978 by Richard Atkinson and John G. Evans who had been re-examining an older

trench A trench is a type of digging, excavation or depression in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a swale (landform), swale or a bar ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or trapping ...

in the ditch and bank of Stonehenge. His remains are now housed in the

Salisbury Museum The Salisbury Museum (previously The Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum) is a museum in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. It houses one of the best collections relating to Stonehenge and local archaeology. The museum is housed in The King's Hou ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

References

Bibliography

* Chippendale, C, ''Stonehenge Complete'' (Thames and Hudson, London, 2004) * English Heritage Guidebooks: "Stonehenge" (English Heritage 2005)

External links

The Stonehenge Burials

Encyclopædia Britannica short video documentary (takes a short time to load)

Details and a theory about the Stonehenge Archer
{{coord, 51.0645, -1.8001, display=title Bronze Age England History of Wiltshire Stonehenge Human remains (archaeological) 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths 1978 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in the United Kingdom

See also

References

Bibliography

External links