Hundreds of human bones have been recovered from the bottom of the Thames River in England over the past two centuries, and a new study of these skeletons suggests that most of them date back to the Bronze and Iron Ages. This is reported by Live Science, according to UNN.
Details
In a study published in the journal Antiquity, researchers detailed their analysis of radiocarbon dating of 30 skeletons found in the Thames to find out when and why the corpses ended up in the river.
Most people - including Londoners - were quite shocked to hear that hundreds of human bones had been found in the Thames River,
According to her, skeletons “have been found quite regularly in the waters of northwestern Europe, but the Thames human bones represent a unique large accumulation.
Researchers have been studying skeletons from the Thames since the 19th century. One of the early theories was that the corpses were deposited there after a battle between the Celts and the Romans. But in the late 20th century, experts suggested that most of the bodies were found as a result of the erosion of burials on the riverbank and drowning of victims. Arthur noted:
“The main question for these human bones is how they ended up in the river.
It is noted that its first step was to obtain dozens of radiocarbon dates to better understand when the bodies were there. When the researchers combined their 30 new radiocarbon dates with 31 previous dates, they found that the bodies from the Thames were found between 4000 BC and 1800 AD - a span of nearly 6000 years. But most of them date back to the Bronze Age (2300 - 800 BC) and Iron Age (800 BC - 43 AD), and were found in the upper reaches of the river.
Now we can say with certainty that these are not just bones that gradually accumulated in the river over time. Something important really happened in the Bronze and Iron Ages,
It is noted that the exact reason for placing the bodies in the Thames is unclear, but scientists suspect that it was part of a wider trend in northwest Europe where prehistoric people deliberately placed ritually important remains in waterways. Bioarchaeologist Chris Knüsel, from the University of Bordeaux in France, explained:
“This study has advanced the argument, but the funerary origin of these remains has yet to be fully explored and demonstrated.
The scientist said that the evidence may point to another reason why the human remains ended up in the Thames: fierce clashes caused by fighting over this important river.
Violence is a particularly common theme in later prehistoric human remains from aquatic sites. We found patterns of skeletal trauma on the bones of human remains from the Thames,
It is important that the analysis of bone injuries is the goal of future research.
“Exploring how the remains of the Thames man might fit into these practices is one of the next exciting steps in the project,” Arthur added.
For reference
A hoard of 1,368 coins, most of them silver, was discovered in a pot in Worcestershire, a county in England. It was buried around 55 AD, when the Roman Empire under Emperor Nero was fighting for control of England.