Have you ever found a grave with a caveman in and did it have stone tools in it? Oaks and Birches Classes (Yr 3/4)

Hello Oaks and Birches Classes!

In Great Britain people occupied caves and rock shelters during the Palaeolithic (old Stone Age) period after the end of the Ice Age, and on into the early Mesolithic (middle Stone Age) period. These sites are incredibly rare and we only know of very few. Even rarer are known human burials from this time, so, sadly no, I have never found the grave of a caveman.

I have, however, excavated a Bronze Age Round Barrow (a type of prehistoric burial mound) which contained two cremation urns. Each urn contained the cremated bone of an adult and one of the urns also contained a flint (stone) blade tool. The blade was heavily burnt and had obviously passed through the cremation process. Cremated bone is good for obtaining a radiocarbon 14 date and this showed that the urns were buried around 1900 BC, so the burail was almost 4,000 years old!

Colleagues of mine from Wessex Archaeology excavated the quite famous Bronze Age Amesbury Archer a few years ago just to the north of Salisbury. He was buried with a range of finds including flints, a bronze knife, pottery vessels and even gold!

I’m including this link so you and your teachers can investigate further: www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/amesbury-archer

All the best!

Phil

Answered by:

Phil Weston

After almost 20 years in field archaeology, Phil finally hung his trowel up and he became a Cultural Heritage consultant with Arcadis. In this role Phil uses his archaeological knowledge to help major developers gain planning permission for huge infrastructure projects. He still remembers his days in the trenches fondly and his favourite sites were an Iron Age village in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire and a Neolithic henge on Anglesey.

More questions answered by Phil Weston

Have you found a stone age picture?Sophie (7)

Hi Sophie, I love Stone Age art! It is one of my favourite subjects. But alas, I have never personally found some, it is very rare after all. […]

Why do we dig in the ground? George (5)

Hi George, Archaeologists dig in the ground to find evidence of the historical and prehistorical past. The prehistoric period is so named because it all happened before people […]

What is your favourite place you have been?Summer and Immy (8)

Hi Summer and Immy, My favourite place, huh? Well, I’m going to assume you mean my favourite archaeological place. Just like many YAC members, I’ve visited loads of […]