The discovery the face of a Bronze Age farmer
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Skeleton of a 25-30 year old man
DERSB : 5001
Skeleton of a man aged 25-35 years old, found at Liffs Low, Biggin, around 4,500 years old.
We don’t know a great deal about him except that during his life he broke his left elbow, which healed with distorted new bone growth. A decorated beaker and a stone pendant buried near him have suggested a date of around 2,500 BCE.
Across the Peak District of Derbyshire there are over 500 barrow burials from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. The smaller round barrows were built by the communities who were starting to shape the landscape through their farming practices. Liffs Low barrow is part of a roughly circular cairn about 18m by 14.5m with an average height of about 1.5m. It lies on the south-western ridges of the Derbyshire limestone plateau. An unusual feature is a fan-shaped arrangement of concentric lines of limestone slabs on the crest of the barrow which would have been highly visible against a green landscape.
The suite of artefacts found at Liffs Low is amongst the richest ever found from the later Neolithic period and includes flint and chert blades, scrapers and arrowheads, a pottery flask, an antler macehead and blades made from boars' tusks. These are held at Buxton Museum, the British Museum, Sheffield City Museum, and some have been lost. The barrow has been excavated many times. In 1943 Thomas Bateman found that the cairn contained at least one cist (stone box) with a burial accompanied by flint and antler artefacts and a pot of unusual form dating to the transition between the Neolithic and Beaker periods. In the 1930s a teenager staying with farming relatives, a Mr Bridge, found a second cist containing the skeleton called Liffs Low man, and a beaker. A further excavation was carried out in 1984 by John Barnatt, senior survey archaeologist for the Peak District National Park.
Wonders linked to these objects:
Story: Liff's Low burial
Who is buried in Liff's Low: "We gave him his weapons, and his flints and the bones and teeth that speak out of the darkness. "
(read more)Liff's Low Night Charm
Liff's Low Lullaby: do not fear the darkness as the firelight dies
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