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The Beaker Folk |
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Kings of Stonehenge?
In southern England the Stone Age people had, for generations, built great temples which archaeologists call henges. These were sacred spaces defined by a great circular ditch and an earthen bank. Inside this 
This is what the Amesbury Archer probably looked like
© Jane Brayne |
space were circles of timber posts and sometimes circles of standing stones.
The most famous henge is Stonehenge. It has more stones, all of which came from afar, than at any other henge and design is more elaborate. Who could have organised this work?
In May 2002 archaeologists found the richest Beaker age burial ever found in Britain, the Amesbury Archer. Indeed it is one of the richest ever found in Europe, and the grave is only a few kilometres from Stonehenge, dating to about the time that the stone circles were built.
The mourners of the old man, he may have as old as 45, buried with him the largest number of beakers, copper knives, and arrowheads ever seen in Britain, and the gold hair ornaments buried with him are the oldest to be found in Britain. A metalworker's tool buried with him shows that he is the earliest metalworker yet to have been unearthed in this country.
This was sensational news. But archaeologists were astonished to discover that the chemical fingerprint of the enamel on the man's teeth showed that he had grown up in what is now known as central Europe.
Here, for the first time, was someone who archaeologists could say might have brought the magical skills of metalworking to Britain, a person who they could say was of the Beaker Folk. In his hands and in his head this man had the knowledge that would have made him an alchemist. Was it for this reason that his mourners gave him the richest burial of his time?
Words: Dr Andrew P Fitzpatrick
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