LONDON — Experts puzzling over the remains of an ancient warrior found in a 2,000-year-old grave off the coast of Britain have concluded the buried person was female.
Mystery has surrounded the Iron Age figure interred on Bryher, one of the Scilly Isles southwest of mainland Britain, since it was discovered in 1999. The grave contained a sword and shield, items traditionally associated with male burials, as well as a mirror, which was typically buried alongside women.
Tooth enamel indicated with a 96% probability the person was female, according to a study published Thursday in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The grave, which is dated from BC 100 to BC 50, offers a rare glimpse into ancient British life, and suggests that women may have taken an active part in military raids before the tribal warrior queen Boudicca led a fierce uprising against the Roman colonization of Britain in AD 60.
“Our findings offer an exciting opportunity to re-interpret this important burial. They provide evidence of a leading role for a woman in warfare on Iron Age Scilly,” said Sarah Stark, a human skeletal biologist at Historic England, which funded the study, in a statement.
“Although we can never know completely about the symbolism of objects found in graves, the combination of a sword and a mirror suggests this woman had high status within her community and may have played a commanding role in local warfare, organizing or leading raids on rival groups.”
The body was so decomposed that DNA testing was inconclusive — only an dark outline of the skeleton in the soil was visible during the excavation. The new analysis was only possible due to pioneering biomolecular analysis techniques at the University of California.
“Tooth enamel is the hardest and most durable substance in the human body,” Glendon Parker, a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California at Davis, said in a statement.
“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.”
Other graves could be re-examined using the same process, he added.
Little is known of the Celtic people who lived in Britain before the Roman occupation, but archaeologists believe the main form of warfare was surprise attacks on enemy settlements.
Mirrors had both symbolic and practical value to warriors: they were used to signal to allies and coordinate attacks, as well as communicate to the supernatural world, Historic England said.
The Bryher grave is the only one in western Europe to have both a mirror and a shield. The items are on display at the Isles of Scilly Museum on the island of St. Mary’s.
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