Iron Age skull found in North East flowerbed
Submitted by vicky on Friday, 05 September 2003 Page Views: 862
Iron Age and Later PrehistoryA shocked family made a grim discovery after pulling an old skull out of a flowerbed in their back garden. Mum Carmel Healy was enjoying a peaceful afternoon's gardening when her nephew John Murray found the ghoulish relic speared on the end of his garden fork.The pair had been digging the back garden of the house in Kirklinton Road, North Shields, ready for landscaping.
Mrs Healy, 47, said: "My nephew had put his fork in to the soil to rake it though and it must have gone straight through the bone.
"The next thing we knew was that there was a skull hanging off the end of his fork when he pulled it out of the ground.
"My nephew was totally freaked out. We didn't know how it had got there or whether it was a skull from a murder, so we called the police straight away.
"I wasn't too worried by it so I picked it up and had a good look at it. Now we've named it Yoric."
Police from North Shields CID took the mystery skull down to a specialist forensic lab in Bradford to get it dated.Tests have since revealed the skull dates back thousands of years to the Iron Age and belonged to a middle-aged man.
Mrs Healy said: "We've been told that the Marden estate was built on the site of Iron Age village.
"Before they started building it back in the 1950s there had apparently been an archaeological dig.
"The expert who had looked at this skull believes it probably belonged to one of the villagers.
"We've had a good look and there don't seem to be any more bones in the garden, but they could turn up in someone else's back yard."
Following final tests it is believed the skull will be taken to the Museum of Antiquities at Newcastle University.
Philippa Walton, finds liaison officer at the museum, said: "We probably get about one person per day coming in with a find.
"It's usually Roman coins and brooches, but you don't see skulls very often, maybe just once a year.
"This is a quite a rare find, especially as it was dug up in someone's back garden.
"If anyone does discover what they think are human bones they should always call the police first."
Source: The Evening Chronicle 05/09/2003
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