Bronze Age human remains uncovered

Archaeology students from Bournemouth University have discovered a Bronze Age burial site during an excavation of a prehistoric settlement in Winterborne Kingston.

While the university’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology has been excavating the site for nearly 15 years, uncovering Iron Age skeletons and artefacts, this is the first time Bronze Age bones have been discovered there.

Dr Miles Russell, senior lecturer in Archaeology and head of Fieldwork at Bournemouth University, said: “We found an adult male in a very tightly packed grave alongside lots of collared urns which is very distinctive of the end of the Neolithic period and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, so it’s about 4,000 years old.

“This is giving us the idea that people have been living here for a significant period of time. It’s not just the period just before the Romans arrived, they were farming this landscape, growing crops and burying their dead at least four millennia ago.”

During the same dig, the team uncovered the buried remains of five Iron Age people from the Durotriges tribe, as well as bones from animals including cattle, horse, piglets, and goats in ancient storage pits on the site. Everyday items, such as ceramic pots, jewellery, and workers’ tools, including weaving combs made from deer antler, were also found.