AMESBURY ARCHER

'Amesbury Archer' (dubbed the "King of Stonehenge" in the British press, although there is no proven connection to the famous site) is an early Bronze Age man dating to around 2500-2100 BC, which is roughly the period when Stonehenge was built, whose grave was discovered in May 2002, at Amesbury near Stonehenge. His grave is of particular importance because of its connections with Continental Europe and early copper smelting technology. Five funerary pots of the type associated with the "Beaker culture" were found with him. His grave had the greatest number of artifacts ever found in a British beaker burial. A second male, most probably a relative, as they shared an unusual hereditary anomaly (namely that both had foot bones joined together that are usually separate) was interred nearby. The former was estimated to be about 40 at the time of his death, while the latter was in his early twenties.
Besides the beaker vessels, the grave site revealed: three tiny copper knives, more for show than for violent use; 16 barbed flint arrowheads; a kit of flint-knapping and metalworking tools, including cushion stones that functioned as a kind of portable anvil and that suggests he was a coppersmith; and some boar's tusks. On his forearm was a black Stone wrist-guard. A similar red wrist-guard was by his knees. With the second wrist-guard was a shale belt ring and a pair of gold hair ornaments (the earliest gold objects ever found in England) which may suggest he was buried with a second costume.
Research using oxygen isotope analysis in his tooth enamel identified the origin of the man as being a cool region of Central Europe. An eroded hole in his jaw showed that in life he had suffered from an abscess and his missing left kneecap that he had taken a horrific injury that left him with a painful lingering bone infection.
He is believed to have been one of the earliest metalworkers in Britain. He is nicknamed the "archer" because of the many arrowheads that were among the artifacts buried with him.
The Amesbury Archer supports interpreters who claim that the diffusion of Beaker Culture pottery was the result of population movement rather than just the widespread adoption of an artifact 'package'.

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External links

References

★ Fitzpatrick, A.P. 2003. "The Amesbury Archer" in ''Current Archaeology'' 184, pp 146-152

★ Stone, R. 2005. "Mystery Man of Stonehenge" in ''Smithsonian Magazine'' August 2005, pp 62–7.

★ Miles, D. 2005. ''The Tribes of Britain'', pp 78-82

External links

★ Wessex Archaeology: The Amesbury Archer

★ Current Archaeology - The Amesbury Archer: The Invader who Founded Stonehenge.

★ 24 Hour Museum - Amesbury Archer was an Alpine Settler Say Experts