<< News >> Bones examined in settler mystery
Submitted by coldrum on Friday, 16 September 2005 Page Views: 1598
DiscoveriesCountry: Scotland County: AberdeenshireInternal Links:
The lives of what are thought to be the first prehistoric settlers in north-east Scotland are to be examined in a Europe-wide research programme. Aberdeen University is sending 23 skeletons from its collection to Sheffield University where they will be analysed with the latest technology.
The research will concentrate on a little-known race of Bronze Age settlers called the Beaker People. It is thought they may have introduced metalwork to Britain 4,000 years ago.
They may also have built many of the country's stone circles, including Stonehenge. The race got its name from the clay pots or beakers they buried with their dead, suggesting an early belief in the afterlife.
Researchers believe they sailed into Scotland across the North Sea from Scandinavia.
Senior curator Neil Curtis said he hoped to find out a lot of detail about individual lives.
He said: "The people who were alive then were buried in graves a bit like the one we have in Marischal Museum, in which the body was laid curled up, as if asleep, with a beaker next to it.
"Often in the past we've looked at the pots and tried to work out what they're like, what styles they are, how they compare with other ones, but this time we're actually going to find out more about the people."
Source: BBC News
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