Isles of Scilly Iron Age warrior was probably a woman

BBC News ^ | July 28, 2023 | Brodie Owen

[SunkenCiv]

A decades-long mystery over whether an Iron Age warrior who lived on the Isles of Scilly was a man or woman has been solved.

Archaeologists had been baffled about the identity of the prehistoric skeleton since it was discovered by a farmer on the island of Bryher in 1999.

Researchers said new analysis of tooth enamel revealed the warrior was most likely a woman...

The body said the discovery of the sword and mirror is considered to be "highly unusual" as swords were normally found with men and mirrors with women in other burials of the same period.

The single site on Bryher, discovered in a stone-walled chamber in a potato field, contained both objects and the remains of just one person.

They were re-examined by scientists in the US using a new process that looks at tooth enamel. Previous attempts to identify the remains using DNA analysis had failed due to the disintegration of the bones.

Prof Glendon Parker, from the University of California at Davis, said the team extracted traces of proteins from tiny fragments of surviving tooth enamel.

"Tooth enamel is the hardest and most durable substance in the human body," he said.

"It contains a protein with links to either the X or Y chromosome, which means it can be used to determine sex. This is useful because this protein survives well compared to DNA."

Prof Parker said the analysis revealed a 96% probability that the remains belonged to a woman.

Let us not go to that island, it is a Scilly place.

[Red Badger]

Do they have a Ministry of Scilly Walks?.................