Posted on 07/05/2010 2:28:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Blodwen is the nickname given to a Neolithic skeleton found on Little Orme in Llandudno, Conwy county, in 1891... The skeleton was discovered in a fissure by an engineer excavating quarry works, who then donated her to the museum in his home town of Bacup. Carbon dating tests carried out at Oxford University have revealed that Blodwen died around 3510 BC, aged somewhere between her late fifties and early sixties. Orthopaedic examinations show that she was about 5ft (1.52m), powerfully built, and her bone structure suggests she was accustomed to carrying heavy loads, both on her head and in her arms... with clear evidence of severe arthritis in her neck and knees. At the time of her death she was also suffering from secondary cancer... Pig bones dating from the same period found close to Blodwen's skeleton would seem to suggest that she came from a farming background... Shirley Williams, Museum Education Officer for Llandudno Museum... said: "She was found in a deep fissure on the Little Orme, and way down below her were the bones of ancient animals - hyena, rhinoceros, bear. She was found midway and above her there was a bronze age spear head but the radio carbon testing found she was actually older than the spear head." ...Adele Thackray, the field monument warden for north west Wales for Cadw... said: "During the Neolithic period we start to see a cross-over from a semi-nomadic hunter-gathering society to a more settled, pastoral way of life. The pig bones found with Blodwen seem to suggest that she was part of this new farming society, and that impression is backed up by isotope tests on her bones which show that she ate more meat and cultivated crops than fish and wild plants."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
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Late fifties, early sixties? A ripe old age for back then!
They brought it up twice in the article, but I didn’t include it. :’) It’s tough to say if that’s true or not, given the paucity of ancient remains, and practically all of the surviving remains are adults, i.e., few children. That could mean the children’s remains were, uh, lunch, or they could have been cremated, or they were given burial in ways that pretty much guaranteed they wouldn’t fossilize etc.
Or, they had very little childhood mortality, so most people died as adults. :’)
It amazes me when something like this is found in this way — looks like this one had a slip and fall injury, died in pain stuck in this slot in the rock, and was never found. OR, this spot was a place of execution, and she was pushed into it and abandoned. Either way, she didn’t just rot and then turn to dust. Amazing.
Does anyone have a picture of the Asian man walking in front of his wife while she carries the family wealth? Woman have it much to easy these days.
Sounds like it was a dangerous crack in the earth that was snagging the unwary for many centuries.
One would hope that fifty or sixty years of herding pigs would have led to her having noticed it. It’s possible that she fell in at night; or that she was carrying the pig and was distracted; or, as I said, she was thrown in as a sacrifice or punishment.
Caernarfonshire, Llandudno, Little Orme 1903
Perhaps she was in some unknown territory. A moment of inattention is all it takes. With all the pain from her arthritis and the cancer maybe she threw herself in to end it all.
Very true, she might have been on the run from raiders / invaders.
thanks!
During the Indochina wars, they switched positions because of landmines.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ksye_commercial-virginia-slims-cigarette_ads
Rather light in the chest department for those years, I got married in ‘70 and all of those things in the AD had not come along, downfall of the Republic.
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