Skeletal remains and skull fragments of two Bronze Age women were found at a construction site in the U.K.
Their remains were found in Kent at a building site slated for 41 homes along with animal bones, pottery and evidence of a Roman road while a required archaeological survey was being conducted, the BBC first reported.
One of the women — estimated to be about 30-35 years old — was found in a crouch-burial position, the report said. The position has been documented as early as the Later Neolithic era, or about 5500-4700 years ago, and before the early Bronze Age, according to burial archaeology experts.
Although some archaeologists study burial practices of the past through excavated remains, they’re unable to say for certain why some people were buried in certain positions.
Skull fragments discovered at the site are believed to be from another young woman from 500-400BC, the BBC reported, and will be archived by Kent County Council in a museum, along with other new findings.
Previous discoveries in England led researchers to believe that Bronze Age Britons used a variety of ways to mummify the dead, including temporarily placing them in bogs, smoking them over a fire or removing their organs after death.
These new findings of the Bronze Age remains and artifacts can offer researchers more insight into the era when humans first explored the use of metal for tools, weapons, jewelry and ceremonial purposes – and marked a time when farming became more widespread in and around Kent, a southeastern English county.
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