Boscombe Bowmen
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The Boscombe Bowmen is a name given by archaeologists to a group of early Bronze Age burials found at Boscombe Down near Stonehenge in Wiltshire in the United Kingdom.
They were called Bowmen as flint arrowheads were placed in the grave, along with a boar's tusk, a bone toggle, flint tools and eight Beaker vessels, an unusually high number.
Lead isotope analysis of the men's teeth has indicated that they grew up in either modern day Wales or the Lake District but left in childhood. Given that the bluestones used in Stonehenge III came from the Preseli Hills in Wales it is tempting to associate these contemporary burials with the people who may have brought the stones to Salisbury Plain.
The grave contained a total of seven burials: three children, a teenager and three men. Analysis of the skulls implies that the men and the teenager were related to each other. The eldest man was buried in a crouched position with the bones of the others scattered around him and their skulls resting at his feet.
The Bowmen were found in 2003 during roadworks being carried out on behalf of the military contractor that operates the Boscombe Down airfield. The burials are though to be broadly contemporary with that of the Amesbury Archer, dating to around 2300 BC.
External links
- Official Boscombe Bowmen information site (http://www.boscombebowmen.com)
- Wessex Archaeology press release (http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/wiltshire/boscombe/bowmen/press_release.html)