The Stonehenge Archer is the name given to a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

man whose body was discovered in the outer ditch of Stonehenge. Unlike most burials in the Stonehenge Landscape, his body was not in a barrow, although it did appear to have been deliberately and carefully buried in the ditch. Examination of the skeleton indicated that the man was local to the area and aged about 30 when he died.

Radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and c ...

dating suggests that he died around 2300 BCE, making his death roughly contemporary with the

Amesbury Archer The Amesbury Archer is an early Bronze Age (Bell Beaker) man whose grave was discovered during excavations at the site of a new housing development () in Amesbury near Stonehenge. The grave was uncovered in May 2002. The man was middle aged ...

and the

Boscombe Bowmen The Boscombe Bowmen is the name given by archaeologists to a group of early Bronze Age people found in a shared burial at Boscombe Down in Amesbury () near Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. Discovery The burials were found in 2003 during roadwor ...

buried 3 miles away in Amesbury. He came to be known as an archer because of the

stone wrist-guard Early Bronze Age stone wrist-guards are found across Europe from around 2400-1900 BC and are closely associated with the Beaker culture and Unetice culture. In the past they have been variously known as ''stone bracers'', ''stone arm-guards'' an ...

and a number of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

arrowheads An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as s ...

buried with him. In fact, several of the arrowheads' tips were located in the skeleton's bones, suggesting that the man had been killed by them. His body was excavated in 1978 by Richard Atkinson and John G. Evans who had been re-examining an older

trench A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit). In geology, trenches result from ero ...

in the ditch and bank of Stonehenge. His remains are now housed in the

Salisbury Museum The Salisbury Museum (previously The Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum) is a museum in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. It houses one of the best collections relating to Stonehenge and local archaeology. The museum is housed in The King's Ho ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

References

Bibliography

* Chippendale, C, ''Stonehenge Complete'' (Thames and Hudson, London, 2004) * English Heritage Guidebooks: "Stonehenge" (English Heritage 2005)

External links

Salisbury Museum page on the archer

Encyclopædia Britannica short video documentary (takes a short time to load)

Details and a theory about the Stonehenge Archer
{{coord, 51.0645, -1.8001, display=title Bronze Age England History of Wiltshire Indo-European archaeological sites Stonehenge

See also

References

Bibliography

External links