Mystery of Iron Age woman with rings on her toes
Submitted by vicky on Friday, 13 August 2004 Page Views: 3568
Iron Age and Later Prehistory
"It's very strange, the last thing we were expecting to find was a burial," said Jane Downes, a senior lecturer from Orkney College and one of the archaeologists leading the excavation.
The team is piecing together the details of the mysterious subject's life, but has been baffled by the fact that the well-preserved skeleton was buried beneath the floor of the workshop, her grave covered by paving slabs on which workers of the time continued to smelt metal and produce jewellery and other objects.
"Fragments of human beings have sometimes been found within Iron Age houses, but this is a formal burial of an entire body, dressed with jewellery, within what would have been a busy workshop," Ms Downes said.
"The grave was cut through the floor and paved over with flagstones, so the people would have been well aware that the body was there while they were working.
"The pelvic bones were not in a good condition and will be cleaned and reassessed. The body has some male and some female traits. At the moment, it seems to have slightly more female traits," she added.
Although experts are to be brought in to determine the age and sex of the body, early indications suggest that it was a woman in her early twenties.
The team hopes that detailed analysis will reveal whether the person in the grave died of natural causes or met a violent end as a human sacrifice.
Ms Downes said metal working during the Iron Age was widely regarded as a magical, dangerous process. "Metal workers were either revered or reviled," she said.
"Either way, they would have had a special status as people who could take raw material from the ground, put it through complex processes and turn it into jewellery and other astonishing objects."
Archaeologists believe the esoteric and mystical nature of metal working during the Iron Age could hold the key to the reason the body was placed under the workshop floor. The corpse was found on its back, hands by its sides, knees drawn together, with a piece of decorated antler lying on its chest.
"We believe this is a unique burial," said Nick Card, from Orkney Archaeological Trust, a co-director of the dig. "We won't really know why the body was put there until we find out whether this was a natural or a sacrificial death.
"But it's tempting to think that this body was placed within the workshop to placate the gods and make sure the metal working continued to be successful."
Dr Theya Molleson, a bone expert from the Natural History Museum in London, said the grave and the body were a stunning discovery.
"Whether it is male or female is a bit of a puzzle at the moment," she said. "But the face, with its lovely clean teeth, looks more female to me.
"The most exciting discovery are the two rings on the toes, one on each foot. They turn up in many periods of history but very, very rarely."
The workshop lies close to a mysterious underground temple built inside a mound at the Mine Howe site. Twenty-nine steps lead deep into the ground to a strange cone-shaped chamber where experts believe Iron Age priests tried to contact the spirit world.
Source: The Herald 13/08/2004
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