Archeologist unearths Stonehenge-era burial site in 'absolutely incredible' discovery
Remains of three children were found alongside a drum, estimated to be about 5,000 years old
Archeologist Alice Beasley was not expecting her discovery to be touted as Britain's most important prehistoric art to be found in the last 100 years. Yet that's exactly what the British Museum calls the 5,000-year-old chalk drum, which Beasley and her team unearthed in 2015.
Researchers from the firm Allen Archeology made the discovery while conducting a routine excavation near the village of Burton Agnes in East Yorkshire, England.
But the ancient artifact was not the only significant finding that day.
"The context as a whole was absolutely incredible," Beasley told As It Happens host Carol Off.
"It was found … in the centre of what we call a round barrow. And in that centre was a square pit, in which we found three skeletons of quite young children. The eldest was about 12 and was holding on to the two smaller children, [aged] about three and five."
This is not the first time such an artifact has been found at children's burial sites. In 1889, chalk cylinders similar to the one unearthed in Burton Agnes were found buried alongside a child about 20 kilometres away in a village called Folkton. Radiocarbon dating at the Burton Agnes site helped date these cylinders — now known as the Folkton drums — to between 3005 and 2890 BC, nearly 500 years earlier than previously thought.
This means that the burial drums were made at the same time as the first construction phase of Stonehenge.
While the ancient objects are called drums, they're not thought to be musical instruments. According to a press release from the British Museum, these works of art could have been intended as talismans to protect the children.
Beasley said the researchers may never know what happened to the three children found at Burton Agnes, but the message of care in the manner they were buried thousands of years ago is still apparent today.
"Someone has cared enough to dig them a huge ditch, present them in a beautiful manner with very intricately and beautifully carved objects and left for the Neolithic world to see," she said.
Beasley said she hopes that future studies can reveal the relationship between these children, as well as where they grew up.
"This site as a whole will become part of the archaeological record for that area of Yorkshire and to some extent, a greater knowledge of Neolithic England."
The Burton Agnes drum will be displayed along with the Folkton drums as part of the British Museum's The World of Stonehenge exhibition, which opens on Feb. 17.
Written by Olsy Sorokina. Interview with Alice Beasley produced by Niza Lyapa Nondo.
