The Upton Lovell Shaman, a bronze age individual who has been depicted in museum exhibits as a bearded spiritual leader and metalworker, was female, an ancient DNA analysis has revealed. The 4,000-year-old skeleton, along with the extensive collection of stone axes, metalworking tools and the remains of an elaborate ceremonial cloak found in the grave, is viewed as among the most significant bronze age burials in Britain.
The artefacts date to about 1,800BC, a time when the ability of metalworkers to transform lumps of rock into molten metal would have given them a special – possibly even spiritual – position in society. Such roles, many had assumed, would have been reserved for men, but this narrative has been turned on its head by the latest analysis.
“It completely tears up previous assumptions,” said David Dawson, director of the Wiltshire Museum, which holds the remains. “It’s a fantastic revelation of the position of women in society. We’re so used to the assumption of men do everything, men are the leaders, men are the metalworkers. Here we have smoking gun evidence of a female metalworker. And metalworking was the space science of its day.”
The grave, first discovered in 1801 in the village of Upton Lovell, about 10 miles (16km) west of Stonehenge, contained the almost complete skeleton, with pierced animal bones arranged around the neck and the legs, suggestive of a ceremonial cloak and, possibly, a bone necklace. [...]
The grave also contained what has been described as a battle axe, made from greenstone brought from Cornwall. “Whether that was for fighting or for stunning an animal before it becomes your hog roast, we can’t be sure,” said Dawson.
A secondary grave, containing a skeleton in an upright seated position, was previously assumed to be the shaman’s wife, although this skeleton has been lost. [...]
A detailed analysis of the bones suggested that the individual would have been tall for a bronze age woman (165cm or 5ft 4in) and robustly built. There was also evidence of arthritis in the right (but not left) wrist, suggestive of having repeatedly used the metalworking tools she was buried with for much of her life.
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