<< Text Pages >> Greylake Mesolithic open-air cemetery - Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature in England in Somerset
Submitted by MikeAitch on Thursday, 11 August 2011 Page Views: 8549
Natural PlacesSite Name: Greylake Mesolithic open-air cemeteryCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 1.987 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Somerset Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
Nearest Town: Bridgwater Nearest Village: Middlezoy
Map Ref: ST393335
Latitude: 51.097578N Longitude: 2.868226W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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External Links:
Recent radiocarbon dating of two skulls that were found at a sand quarry in Greylake nature reserve has revealed them to be 10,000 years old, making them the oldest cemetery yet discovered in the UK, according to Somerset county council. The skulls were found in 1928 and are held in the Blake Museum in Bridgwater.
The dating was done by a team investigating the archaeology of the Somerset Levels as part of the 'Lost Islands of Somerset' project.
They came from the remains of five bodies discovered in 1928 at the sand quarry in Greylake, which is part of a raised island of hard rock above the surrounding Levels and Moors floodplain.
Somerset County Councillor Christine Lawrence, Cabinet Member for Community services said: "Somerset's wonderfully rich heritage plays a big part in attracting visitors. I'm delight that this project has thrown new light on to these exciting finds."
This internationally important discovery shows that by around 8,300 BC Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) hunter-gatherers were burying their dead on the island. All the other human remains from this early period in Britain have been found in caves such as Aveline's Hole in Somerset, which is the largest Mesolithic burial ground in the UK.
Dr Richard Brunning, from Somerset County Council's Heritage Service who is leading the Lost Islands of Somerset Project, said: "This was amazing news and was just the result we were hoping for. It shows that a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer group was operating from the island and burying its dead there. Such open air cemeteries are extremely rare in Europe and this is the only one known from the UK."
Flint tools were also found in large numbers on the site in the 1950s suggesting that it was used as a long-term camp site. More analysis will be carried out on the skulls and the tools to shed light on how this ancient community lived and died.
Source: Somerset County Council
More, with a photo at BBC News
[I have estimated the location of this find based on the high ground shown on the 1:25000 OS map from Streetmap, which would presumably have formed the island referred to - MegP Ed]
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