The Amesbury Archer: The King of Stonehenge?

Page 1 of 8

• 1. An Early Bronze Age grave
• 2. The Amesbury Archer
• 3. Symbols of status
• 4. Grave contents
• 5. The Archer's companion
• 6. King of Stonehenge?
• 7. A European élite
• 8. Find out more
• Print entire article

An Early Bronze Age grave

In the spring of 2002 what started as a routine excavation was undertaken in advance of the building of a new school at Amesbury in Wiltshire. By the end of the excavation the richest Bronze Age burial yet found in Britain had been discovered. The Bronze Age man discovered there had been buried not far from the great temple of Stonehenge. He was a man who owned and could work the new and magical metals of gold and copper. And he had come from what is now central Europe, perhaps around the Alps. Was he a king of Stonehenge?

'Early Bronze Age pottery showed that they were over 2,500 years older than the Roman graves.'

On the site of the proposed new school there was a small Roman cemetery but, it seemed, little else. In the far corner of the site, though, there were two features that looked different. Had they been caused by trees being blown over? Or were they something else? They certainly did not look like Roman graves.

Excavation work started on a Friday morning, and the reason for the difference between the Roman graves and the two other features rapidly became clear. The features were indeed graves, but the Early Bronze Age pottery in one of them showed that they were over 2,500 years older than the Roman graves. And the grave with the pottery was unusually large.

Next