Decades-long mystery over 2,000-year-old grave in England stumped experts — until now

Off the southwest coast of England sits Bryher, part of the Isles of Scilly. A quaint island, Bryher is home to Hillside Farms — a family-owned farm that focuses on produce and animal products.

But despite its appearance, Hillside Farms is the source of a mystery that has stumped archaeologists for nearly 25 years.

In 1999, a prehistoric stone coffin was unearthed on the farm. The Iron Age grave — dating to about 100 B.C. to 50 B.C. — was filled with human bones and an assortment of metal objects, including a sword, shield and mirror, making it “the most richly furnished burial in the region,” according to a new study led by Historic England and published July 27 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Since it was discovered, experts have tried to answer a pressing question: Was a man or woman buried at the site?

The goods found buried with the corpse, specifically the weapons and the bronze mirror, have been “considered to have oppositional gender associations,” experts said, but a lack of well-preserved human remains prevented scientists from determining the person’s gender.

That is until now, according to the study.

Using dental enamel left among the grave’s remains, scientists say they have determined the person buried in the ancient grave was a woman, a July 27 news release from Historic England said.

Here’s what to know about the discovery.

Determining the gender

Previous attempts at identifying the gender of the person buried were unsuccessful, basically because of the poor state that the bones are in, according to experts.

The new study took a different approach, using tooth enamel, Glendon Parker, a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California at Davis, said in Historic England’s release.

“Tooth enamel is the hardest and most durable substance in the human body. It contains a protein with links to either the X or Y chromosome, which means it can be used to determine sex,” Parker said. “This allowed us to calculate a 96% probability that the individual was female. Given the degraded state of the bones, it’s remarkable to get such a strong result.”

Wear on the teeth recovered from the site suggests that the woman died around the ages of 20 to 25, scientists said in the study.

A rich collection of grave goods

The Bryher burial was found in a pit lined with stone slabs, which is characteristic of Iron Age burials in southwestern England, according to the study. The corpse was on its right side in the grave.

Alongside the skeletal remains, buried goods were also recovered, including the bronze mirror, a nearly 3-foot long iron sword in a copper sheath, a wooden and/or treated-hide shield, a copper-alloy brooch and spiral ring, a shattered tin object and evidence of a sheep-skin or fleece, experts said.

Women leaders during the Iron Age

Experts said the discovery of the gender not only tells them more about the individual, but it gives greater insight into gender roles in Iron Age Britain.

“Although we can never know completely about the symbolism of objects found in graves, the combination of a sword and a mirror suggests this woman had high status within her community and may have played a commanding role in local warfare, organizing or leading raids on rival groups,” Sarah Stark, a human skeletal biologist at Historic England, said in the group’s news release.

Warfare, especially in the form of raiding, was pervasive in small, Iron Age societies, according to the study. Experts argue that the sword and shield likely indicate that because of this, societies relied on all able-bodied people to provide protection.

Mirrors, too, are associated with warfare, scientists said.

There is evidence that the use of mirrors for personal appearance began in the late Iron Age, but there were no accompanying cosmetic artifacts found at the Bryher grave to indicate that the bronze mirror was used for this purpose, the study said.

Because mirrors can reflect light, they could have been viewed as powerful object for rituals, according to the study. They were also used to reflect light as a means of communication and signaling over long distances.

“This could suggest that female involvement in raiding and other types of violence was more common in Iron Age society than we’ve previously thought,” Stark said.

This story was originally published July 27, 2023 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Decades-long mystery over 2,000-year-old grave in England stumped experts — until now."

Moira Ritter

mcclatchy-newsroom

Moira Ritter covers real-time news for McClatchy. She is a graduate of Georgetown University where she studied government, journalism and German. Previously, she reported for CNN Business.