Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:19:15.304Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Nigel Melton ,
Janet Montgomery ,
Christopher J. Knüsel ,
Cathy Batt ,
Stuart Needham ,
Mike Parker Pearson ,
Alison Sheridan ,
Carl Heron ,
Tim Horsley  and
Armin Schmidt
...Show all authors
Nigel Melton*
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Janet Montgomery
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Christopher J. Knüsel
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QE, UK
Cathy Batt
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Stuart Needham
Affiliation:
Honorary Research Fellow, Archaeology & Numismatics, National Museum Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff, UK
Mike Parker Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield S1 4ET, UK
Alison Sheridan
Affiliation:
National Museums Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, UK
Carl Heron
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Tim Horsley
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, 1109 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1079, USA
Armin Schmidt
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Adrian Evans
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Elizabeth Carter
Affiliation:
Vibrational Spectroscopy Facility, School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, NSW, Australia
Howell Edwards
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrobiology & Extremophile Research, Division of Chemical & Forensic Science, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Michael Hargreaves
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrobiology & Extremophile Research, Division of Chemical & Forensic Science, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Rob Janaway
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Niels Lynnerup
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3, DK-2200, Copenhagen, Denmark
Peter Northover
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Begbroke Science Park, Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Oxford OX5 1PF, UK
Sonia O'Connor
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Alan Ogden
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Timothy Taylor
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Vaughan Wastling
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Andrew Wilson
Affiliation:
Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely anchored in history. This research team shows how.

Keywords

GristhorpeEarly Bronze Agelog-coffin burialsélite statusradiocarbon datingstable isotopemetallurgy
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 325 , September 2010 , pp. 796 - 815
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ashbee, P. 1960. The Bronze Age round barrow in Britain. London: Phoenix House.Google Scholar
Aufderheide, A.C. & Rodrígues-Martín, C.. 1998. The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blackman, J., Allison, M.J., Aufderheide, A.C., Oldroyd, N. & Steinbock, R.T.. 1991. Secondary hyperparathyroidism in an Andean mummy, in Ortner, D.J. & Aufderheide, A.C. (ed.) Human paleopathology: current syntheses and future options: 291–6. Washington (DC) & London: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., Van Der Plicht, J. & Weninger, B.. 2001. Wiggle matching radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 43: 381–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brothwell, D.R. 1981. Digging up bones: the excavation, treatment and study of human skeletal remains (third edition). London: British Museum (Natural History); Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cameron, E. 2003. The dagger: hilt and scabbard, in Baker, L., Sheridan, J.A. & Cowie, T.G., An Early Bronze Age ‘dagger grave’ from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 133: 85–123.Google Scholar
Chenery, C.A., Müldner, G., Evans, J., Eckhardt, H., Leach, S. & Lewis, M.. 2010. Strontium and stable isotope evidence for diet and mobility in Roman Gloucester, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 150–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colt-Hoare, R. 1812. The history of ancient Wiltshire: volume 1. London: W. Miller.Google Scholar
Darling, W.G., Bath, A.H. & Talbot, J.C.. 2003. The O & H stable isotopic composition of fresh waters in the British Isles 2: surface waters and groundwater. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 7(2): 183–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J.B. & Thurnam, J.. 1865. Crania Britannica: delineations and descriptions of the skulls of the early inhabitants of the British islands, together with notices of their other remains: volume 2. London: Printed for the subscribers.Google Scholar
De Angelis, L.M., Gutin, P.H., Leibel, S.A. & Posner, J.B.. 2002. Intracranial tumours: diagnosis and treatment. London: Martin Dunitz.Google Scholar
Drenth, E. & Lohof, E.. 2005. Mounds for the dead: funerary and burial ritual in Beaker period, Early and Middle Bronze Age, in Louwe Kooijmans, L.P., van den Broeke, P.W., Fokkens, H. & van Gijn, A.L. (ed.) The prehistory of the Netherlands: volume 1: 433–54. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, H.G.M., Montgomery, J., Melton, N.D., Hargreaves, M.D., Wilson, A.S. & Carter, E.A.. In press. Gristhorpe Man: Raman spectroscopic study of a Bronze Age log-coffin burial. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. DOI 10.1002/jrs.2593.Google Scholar
Elgee, H.W. & Elgee, F.. 1949. An Early Bronze Age burial in a boat-shaped wooden coffin from north-east Yorkshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 15: 87–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J.A., Montgomery, J., Wildman, G. & Boulton, N.. 2010. Spatial variations in biosphere 87Sr/86Sr in Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London 167: 1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, A.G. 1993. Bronze Age world system cycles. Current Anthropology 34(4): 383–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, C.A.I. 2003. Geoarchaeology in action: studies in soil micromorphology and landscape evolution. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
French, C.A.I., Allen, M.J. & Lewis, H. (ed.) 2007. Prehistoric landscape development and human impact in the Upper Allen Valley, Cranborne Chase, Dorset. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Frisancho, A.R. 1993. Human adaptation and accommodation. Ann Arbor (MI): University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Fully, G. 1956. Une nouvelle méthode de détermination de la taille. Annuaire de Médecine Légale 35: 266–73.Google Scholar
Gabra-Sanders, T., Cressey, M. & Clarke, C.. 2003. The scabbard, in Cressey, M. & Sheridan, J.A., The excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 133: 47–84.Google Scholar
Gerloff, S. 1975. The Early Bronze Age daggers in Great Britain and a reconsideration of the Wessex culture (Prähistorische Bronzefunde 6: 2). Munich: Beck.Google Scholar
Glob, P.V. 1973 (trans. 1983). The mound people: Danish Bronze-Age man preserved. Translated by Bulman, J.. London: Paladin.Google Scholar
Greenwell, W. 1877. British barrows. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Grine, F.E., Jungers, W.L., Tobias, P.V. & Pearson, O.M.. 1995. Fossil Homo femur from Berg Aukas, Northern Namibia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 97: 151–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grinsell, L.V. 1941. The boat of the dead in the Bronze Age. Antiquity 15: 360–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gülacara, F.O., Susini, A. & Klohn, M.. 1990. Preservation and post-mortem transformations of lipids in samples from a 4000-year-old Nubian mummy. Journal of Archaeological Science 17: 691–705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafson, G. & Koch, G.. 1974. Age estimation up to 16 years of age based on dental development. Odontologisk Revy 25: 297–306.Google ScholarPubMed
Harding, A.F. 2000. European societies in the Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harland, N. 1932. Letter to F. Elgee dated 28th February 1932. Frank Elgee Archive, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 23 Clarendon Road, Leeds LS2 9NZ, UK.Google Scholar
Henshall, A.S. 1968 Scottish dagger graves, in Coles, J.M. & Simpson, D.D.A. (ed.) Studies in ancient Europe: 273–95. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Hutchins, J. 1767. Archaeology: part I. Gentleman's Magazine: 94–5.Google Scholar
Iscan, M.Y. & Loth, S.R.. 1986. Estimation of age and determination of sex from the sternal rib, in Reichs, K.J. (ed.) Forensic osteology: 68–89. Springfield (IL): Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Jay, M. & Richards, M.. 2007. The Beaker People Project: progress and prospects for the carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopic analysis of collagen, in Larsson, M. & Parker, M. Pearson (ed.) From Stonehenge to the Baltic: living with cultural diversity in the third millennium BC (British Archaeological Reports International series 1692): 77–82. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Jay, M., Parker Pearson, M., Richards, M., Nehlich, O., Montgomery, J., Chamberlain, A. & SHERIDAN, A.. In press. The Beaker People Project: an interim report on the progress of the isotopic analysis of the organic skeletal material, in Allen, M.J., Gardiner, J., Sheridan, A. & McOmish, D. (ed.) The British Chalcolithic: place and polity in the later third millennium (Prehistoric Society Research Papers 4). Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Jensen, J. 1998. Manden i kisten, hvad bronzealdererens gravh�emte. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Jim, S., Ambrose, S.H. & Evershed, R.P.. 2004. Stable carbon isotopic evidence for differences in the biosynthetic origin of bone cholesterol, collagen and apatite: implications for their use in palaeodietary reconstruction. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 68: 61–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knüsel, C.J. 2000. Activity-related skeletal change, in Fiorato, V., Boylston, A. & Knüsel, C.J. (ed.) Blood red roses: the archaeology of a mass grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461: 103–18. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. & Larsson, T.B.. 2005. The rise of Bronze Age society: travels, transmissions and transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, A.A., Luz, B. & Kolodny, Y.. 1987. Variations in oxygen isotope compositions of human teeth and urinary stones. Applied Geochemistry 2: 367–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mchenry, H.M. 1992. Body size and proportions in early hominids. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87: 407–431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maron, D.R. 2007. The Bronze Age tree trunk coffin from Gristhorpe, East Yorkshire: curation, scholarship, and new research agenda. Unpublished MSc dissertation, Bradford University.Google Scholar
Meindl, R.S. & Lovejoy, C.O.. 1985. Ectocranial suture closure: a revised method for the determination of skeletal age based on the lateral-anterior sutures. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 68: 57–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melton, N.D., Montgomery, J. & Knüsel, C.J. (ed.) Forthcoming. Gristhorpe Man: a life and death in the Bronze Age (Yorkshire Archaeological Society Occasional Monograph Series).Google Scholar
Montgomery, J. 2002. Lead and strontium isotope compositions of human dental tissues as an indicator of ancient exposure and population dynamics. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Bradford University.Google Scholar
Montgomery, J., Budd, P. & Evans, J.. 2000. Reconstructing the lifetime movements of ancient people: a Neolithic case study from southern England. European Journal of Archaeology 3(3): 407–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, J., Evans, J.A., Powlesland, D. & Roberts, C.A.. 2005. Continuity or colonization in Anglo-Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice, and status at West Heslerton. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 126(2): 12–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Montgomery, J., Evans, J.A., Chenery, S.R., Pashley, V. & Killgrove, K.. Forthcoming. ‘Gleaming, white and deadly’: the use of lead to track human exposure and geographic origins in the Roman period in Britain, in Eckardt, H. (ed.) Roman diasporas: archeological approaches to mobility and diversity in the Roman Empire. Portsmouth (RI): Journal of Roman Archaeology.Google Scholar
Mortimer, J.R. 1905. Forty years researches in British and Saxon burial mounds of East Yorkshire. London: A. Brown & Sons.Google Scholar
Mowat, R.J.C. 1996. The log-boats of Scotland. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Needham, S. 2004. Migdale-Marnoch: sunburst of Scottish metallurgy, in Shepherd, I.A.G. & Barclay, G. (ed.) Scotland in ancient Europe: the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Scotland in their European context. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Needham, S. 2005. Transforming Beaker culture in north-west Europe: processes of fusion and fission. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 71: 171–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, S. 2009. Encompassing the sea: ‘Maritories’ and Bronze Age maritime interactions, in Clark, P. (ed.) Bronze Age connections: cultural contact in prehistoric Europe: 12–37. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Needham, S. Forthcoming. A revised classification for British Copper and Early Bronze Age daggers and knives, and classification of Early Bronze Age dagger and knife pommel-pieces, in Woodward, A. & Hunter, J. (ed.) Ritual in Early Bronze Age gravegoods.Google Scholar
Northover, P. 2007. Analysis and metallography of the Gristhorpe Dagger. Report No. R3005 prepared for Oxford Materials Characterisation Service.Google Scholar
Norton, W.T. 1981. Formation, structure and biochemistry of myelin, in Siegel, G.J., Wayne, A.R., Agranoff, B.W. & Katzman, R. (ed.) Basic neurochemistry: 63–92. Boston: Little Brown.Google Scholar
O'brien, W., Northover, J.P. & Stos, S.. 2004. Lead isotopes and circulation, in O'Brien, W. (ed.) Ross Island: mining, metal and society in early Ireland (Bronze Age Studies 6): 538–51. Galway: Dept. of Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., Needham, S. & Sheridan, J.A..Forthcoming. Bronze Age tree-trunk coffin burials in Britain, in Melton, N., Montgomery, J. & Knusel, C. (ed.) Gristhorpe Man: a life and death in the Bronze Age.Google Scholar
Petersen, F. 1969. Early Bronze Age timber graves and coffin burials on the Yorkshire Wolds. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 42: 262–7.Google Scholar
Phillips, B. 1856. Untitled communication. Archaeological Journal 13: 183–4.Google Scholar
Randsborg, K. & Christensen, K.. 2006. Bronze Age oak-coffin graves: archaeology and dendro-dating (Acta Archaeologica 77). Copenhagen: Blackwell Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Raxter, M.H., Auerbach, B.M. & Ruff, C.B.. 2006. Revision of the Fully technique for estimating statures. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 130: 374–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rohl, B. 1996. Lead isotope data from the Isotrace Laboratory, Oxford: archaeometry data base 2, galena from Britain and Ireland. Archaeometry 38: 165–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohl, B.M. & Needham, S.P.. 1998. The circulation of metal in the British Bronze Age: the application of lead isotope analysis (British Museum Occasional Paper 102). London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Rowley-Conwy, P. 2007. From Genesis to prehistory: the archaeological Three Age System and its contested reception in Denmark, Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ruff, C.B. 2000. Body mass prediction from skeletal frame size in elite athletes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 113: 507–517.3.0.CO;2-F>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruff, C.B., Scott, W.W. & Liu, A.Y.-C.. 1991. Articular and diaphyseal remodeling of the proximal femur with changes in body mass in adults. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 86: 397–413.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Savory, H.N. 1980. Guide catalogue of the Bronze Age collections. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Shepherd, I.A.G. 1973. The v-bored buttons of Great Britain. Unpublished MA dissertation, Edinburgh University.Google Scholar
Shepherd, I.A.G. 2009. The v-bored buttons of Great Britain and Ireland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 75: 335–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stig Sørensen, M.L. 1997. Reading dress: the construction of social categories in Bronze Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology 5(1): 93–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treherne, P. 1995. The warrior's beauty: the masculine body and self-identity in Bronze-Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology 3(1): 105–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trotter, M. 1970. Estimation of stature from intact limb bones, in Stewart, T.D. (ed.) Personal identification in mass disasters: 71–83. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Wastling, V.J. 2006. Gristhorpe Man: a modern assessment of an Early Bronze Age tree trunk burial. Unpublished MSc dissertation, Bradford University.Google Scholar
Whitley, J. 2002. Objects with attitude: biographical facts and fallacies in the study of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age warrior graves. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 12(2): 217–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, W.C. 1834. Description of the tumulus, lately opened at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough. Scarborough: C. R. Todd.Google Scholar
Williamson, W.C. 1872. Description of the Tumulus opened at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough. Scarborough: S. W. Theakston.Google Scholar
Williamson, W.C. 1896. Reminiscences of a Yorkshire naturalist. London: George Redway.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, A., Hunter, J., Ixer, R., Maltby, M., Potts, P.J., Webb, P.C., Watson, J.S., & Jones, M.C.. 2005. Ritual in some early Bronze Age grave goods. Archaeological Journal 162: 31–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worsaae, J.J.A. 1843 (trans. 1849). The primeval antiquities of Denmark. Translated and applied to the illustration of similar remains in England by Thoms, W.J.. London: John Henry Parker.Google Scholar