Editing Amesbury Archer

{{short description|Remains of an early Bronze Age man}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Amesbury Archer
| image              = Salisbury Museum, 'The Amesbury Archer' skeleton from the Late Neolithic period - geograph.org.uk - 7047710.jpg
| image_caption      = Displayed in the Salisbury Museum
| birth_date         = c. 2340 BC
| death_date         = c. 2300 BC (aged c. 40)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Alice |title=Ancestors |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-4711-8804-6 |pages=242, 245, 246–248, 251, 255}}</ref>
| death_place        = now [[Amesbury]], [[England]], [[United Kingdom]]
| body_discovered    = May 2002
| resting_place      = [[Salisbury]], [[England]], [[United Kingdom]]
}}

The '''Amesbury Archer''' ({{Circa}} 2340 BC - {{Circa}} 2300 BC<ref name=":0" />) is an early [[Bronze Age Britain|Bronze Age]] ([[Bell Beaker culture|Bell Beaker]]) man whose grave was discovered during excavations at the site of a new housing development ({{gbmapping|SU16324043}}<ref>{{cite book |first=A. P. |last=Fitzpatrick |title=The Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen: Early Bell Beaker burials at Boscombe Down, Amesbury, Wiltshire |date=November 2013 |page=6 |isbn=978-1874350620 |publisher=Wessex Archaeology}}</ref>) in [[Amesbury]] near [[Stonehenge]]. The grave was uncovered in May&nbsp;2002. The man was middle aged when he died, estimated between 35 and 45,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Alice |title=Ancestors |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-4711-8804-6 |pages=242, 245, 246–248, 251, 255}}</ref> around 2300&nbsp;BC. He is nicknamed "the Archer" because of the many [[arrowhead]]s buried with him.<ref>Wessex Archaeology [http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/introduction.html The Amesbury Archer: Background] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815150937/http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/introduction.html |date=15 August 2016 }}</ref> The grave contained more artefacts than any other early British Bronze Age burial, including the earliest known gold objects ever found in England. It was the first evidence of a very high status and wealth expressed in a burial from that time.<ref name=":0" /> Previously, Bronze Age society had been assumed not to have been particularly hierarchical.<ref name=":0" />

The calibrated [[radiocarbon]] dates for his grave, and dating of Stonehenge, suggest the [[sarsen]]s and [[trilithon]]s at Stonehenge may have been raised by the time he was born,<ref>Pearson et al, p.&nbsp;627</ref> although a new [[bluestone]] circle may have been raised around the time of his birth.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7625145.stm |title=BBC News: Dig Pinpoints Stonehenge Origins |date=21 September 2008 |access-date=15 June 2009 |first=James |last=Morgan}}</ref>

==Burial==
The Archer's grave yielded the greatest number of [[Artifact (archaeology)|artefacts]] ever found in a British burial from the Early Bronze Age. Among those discovered were: five [[funerary pot]]s of the type associated with the [[Beaker culture]]; three tiny copper knives; sixteen barbed flint arrowheads; a kit of [[flint-knapping]] and metalworking tools, including cushion stones that functioned as a kind of portable [[anvil]], which suggests he was a coppersmith; and some boar tusks. A piece of [[Pyrite|iron pyrite]], which sparks when struck by flint to start a fire, had been well used with grooves worn along its sides.<ref name=":0" /> On his forearm was a black [[stone wrist-guard]]. A similar red wrist-guard was by his knees. With the second wrist-guard was a [[shale]] belt ring and a pair of gold hair ornaments, the oldest gold objects known from England.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Wessex Archaeology |url=http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/archer_burial.html |title=The Archer's Burial |website=wessexarch.co.uk}}</ref>

The anatomy of the Archer has been well documented, with several unusual features including [[Acromion|os acromiale]] whereby the [[acromion]] at the tip of the [[scapula]] was not fused as is usual,<ref name=":0" /> [[spina bifida occulta]] ('hidden' [[spina bifida]])<ref name=":0" /> and a missing left [[patella]].<ref name=":0" /> Research using [[oxygen]] [[isotope analysis]] in the Archer's [[tooth enamel]] has suggested that he originated from an alpine region of central Europe. An eroded hole in his jaw showed that he had had an abscess, and his missing left kneecap suggests that he had an injury that left him with a painful lingering bone infection.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Amesbury Archer {{!}} The Salisbury Museum |url=https://salisburymuseum.org.uk/collections/stonehenge-prehistory/amesbury-archer |access-date=2019-04-11 |website=salisburymuseum.org.uk}}</ref>

His skeleton is now on display at the [[Salisbury Museum]] in [[Salisbury]].

==Second burial==
A male skeleton found interred nearby is believed to be that of a younger man related to the Archer, as they shared a rare hereditary anomaly, calcaneonavicular coalition, [[ossification|fusing]] of the [[calcaneus]] and of the [[navicular]] [[tarsus (skeleton)|tarsal]] (foot bones). This younger man, sometimes called the Archer's Companion, appears to have been raised in a more local climate.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Wessex Archaeology |url=http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/relative_intro.html |title=The Archer's Companion}}</ref> The Archer was estimated to be about forty at the time of his death, while his companion was in his early twenties. The graves were discovered a short distance from the [[Boscombe Bowmen]], whose bones were excavated the following year.

==Importance of the burials==
The Archer was quickly dubbed the ''King of Stonehenge'' in the British press due to the proximity of the famous monument<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1421680/The-King-of-Stonehenge-was-archer-from-Alps.html |title=The Daily Telegraph: The King of Stonehenge was Archer from Alps |date=11 February 2003 |access-date=15 June 2009 |location=London |first=Roger |last=Highfield}}</ref> and some even suggested that he could have been involved in its construction.<ref name="The Importance of the Finds">{{cite web |publisher=Wessex Archaeology |url=http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/archer_finds.html |title=The Importance of the Finds}}</ref> However, such speculations<ref>Pearson, pp.&nbsp;75–76</ref> have been rejected by archaeologists.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/><ref>Richards, p.&nbsp;190</ref>

His is just one high-profile burial that dates from around the time of the stones' erection,<ref>Taylor, p.&nbsp;83</ref> but given the lavish nature of the grave his mourners clearly considered him important enough to be buried near to (if not in the immediate area of) Stonehenge.<ref>Pearson, p.&nbsp;76</ref> [[Tim Darvill]] regards the skeleton as possibly that of a pilgrim visiting Stonehenge to draw on the 'healing properties' of the bluestones.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/message-in-the-stones.htm |title=Current Archaeology: Message in the stones |year=2007 |access-date=9 March 2011 |first=Tim |last=Darvill}}</ref>

His grave is of particular importance because of its connections with Continental Europe and early copper smelting technology. He is believed to be one of the earliest [[Gold working in the Bronze Age British Isles|gold metalworkers in Britain]], and he provides an example of a person bringing [[Bell Beaker culture]] and its pottery directly from continental Europe.<ref name="The Importance of the Finds"/>

==DNA analysis==

The DNA of the Archer's skeleton was difficult to analyse at first and had to be omitted from a 2018 study of 226 Bell Beaker burials from across Europe, although DNA from the nearby 'Companion' was included in the study.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25738 | doi=10.1038/nature25738 | title=The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe | year=2018 | last1=Olalde | first1=Iñigo | last2=Brace | first2=Selina | last3=Allentoft | first3=Morten E. | last4=Armit | first4=Ian | last5=Kristiansen | first5=Kristian | last6=Booth | first6=Thomas | last7=Rohland | first7=Nadin | last8=Mallick | first8=Swapan | last9=Szécsényi-Nagy | first9=Anna | last10=Mittnik | first10=Alissa | last11=Altena | first11=Eveline | last12=Lipson | first12=Mark | last13=Lazaridis | first13=Iosif | last14=Harper | first14=Thomas K. | last15=Patterson | first15=Nick | last16=Broomandkhoshbacht | first16=Nasreen | last17=Diekmann | first17=Yoan | last18=Faltyskova | first18=Zuzana | last19=Fernandes | first19=Daniel | last20=Ferry | first20=Matthew | last21=Harney | first21=Eadaoin | last22=De Knijff | first22=Peter | last23=Michel | first23=Megan | last24=Oppenheimer | first24=Jonas | last25=Stewardson | first25=Kristin | last26=Barclay | first26=Alistair | last27=Alt | first27=Kurt Werner | last28=Liesau | first28=Corina | last29=Ríos | first29=Patricia | last30=Blasco | first30=Concepción | journal=Nature | volume=555 | issue=7695 | pages=190–196 | pmid=29466337 | pmc=5973796 | bibcode=2018Natur.555..190O | display-authors=1 }}</ref><ref name=Fitz>Andrew Fitzpatrick et al. [https://the-past.com/feature/family-ties-deciphering-the-dna-of-the-amesbury-archer-and-the-companion/ "Family ties: deciphering the DNA of the Amesbury Archer and the Companion"]. ''Current Archaeology'' 31 Jan 2022.</ref> Later, a successful sample was taken from the Archer and analysed. It appears that both the Archer and the Companion in the male line (Y-chromosome) had [[Eurasian nomads|Steppe ancestry]], the Archer being classified as R1b1a1b1a1a<ref>According to the most recent nomenclature.</ref> ([[haplogroup R-L151]]) and the Companion as R1b1a1b1a1a2c1 ([[haplogroup R-L21]]). The two men were not related in the 1st or 2nd degree, although a more distant relationship, such as great-grandfather / great-grandson, is possible.<ref name=Fitz />
 
A further finding was that the Archer had a greater amount of [[Early European Farmer]] ancestry ({{circa|45}}%) than the Companion ({{circa|33}}%).<ref name="NickPatterson2021">Nick Patterson et al. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04287-4 Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age] // Nature, 22 December 2021</ref>

It had already been shown<ref>Evans, J. A., Chenery, C. A. & Montgomery, J. "A summary of strontium and oxygen isotope variation in archaeological human tooth enamel excavated from Britain". ''J. Anal. At. Spectrom''. 27, 754–764 (2012) (cited in Patterson et al 2021).</ref> from strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of the Archer's 2nd premolar and 3rd molar teeth (which mineralise at different ages) that the Archer spent his childhood in Central Europe, probably in the Western Alps. By contrast the Companion appears to have been born in Wessex, but spent part of his childhood in Europe, perhaps in the same region of the Western Alps.<ref name=Fitz />

== Language ==
Although the Archer may have spoken an [[Indo-European language]], it does not follow that he spoke an early form of Irish or Welsh. The authors of a 2021 study of large-scale migration into Britain favour the view that [[Celtic languages]] were introduced by a much later influx of people from continental Europe which occurred in the Late Bronze Age between 1000 and 875 BC.<ref name="NickPatterson2021" />

==In popular culture==
The character of Arthmael in [[Mark Patton (archaeologist)|Mark Patton]]'s novel ''Undreamed Shores''<ref>{{cite book |author=Patton, M.A. |year=2012 |title=Undreamed Shores |location=Edinburgh, Scotland |publisher=Crooked Cat Publications |isbn=978-1908910417}}</ref> is based on the Archer.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mark-patton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/prehistory-and-fiction-undreamed-shores.html |author=Mark Patton |title=Prehistory and fiction: ''Undreamed Shores'' |series=Blog |website=blogspot.co.uk}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Boscombe Bowmen]]
* [[Stonehenge Archer]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite journal |last1= Parker Pearson |first1= Mike |authorlink= Mike Parker Pearson |last2= Cleal |first2=R |last3=Marshall |first3=P |last4=Needham |first4=S |last5=Pollard |first5=J |last6=Richards |first6=C |last7=Ruggles |first7=C |last8=Sheridan |first8=A |last9=Thomas |first9=J |last10=Tilley |first10=C |last11=Welham |first11=K |last12=Chamberlain |first12=A |last13=Chenery |first13=C |last14=Evans |first14=J |last15=Knusel |first15=C |last16=Linford |first16=N |last17=Martin |first17=L |last18=Montgomery |first18=J |last19=Payne |first19=A |last20=Richards |first20=M |date=August 2007 |title= The Age of Stonehenge |journal=Antiquity |volume=81 |issue=313 |pages=617–639|doi= 10.1017/S0003598X00095624 |s2cid= 162960418 |url= http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5811/1/5811.pdf }}
*{{cite book  |last=Parker Pearson  |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Parker Pearson |title=Bronze Age Britain |publisher=[[English Heritage]] |year=2005 |location=London |isbn=0-7134-8849-2}}
*{{cite book |last=Richards |first=Julian |author-link=Julian C. Richards |title=Stonehenge: The Story so Far |publisher=[[English Heritage]] |year=2007 |location=Swindon |isbn=978-1-905624-00-3}}
*{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Tim |title=[[Time Team]]: What Happened When |publisher=[[Channel 4|4 Books]] |year=2006 |location=London |isbn=1-905026-09-9}}
*{{cite journal |author=Fitzpatrick, A.P. |year=2003 |title=The Amesbury Archer |journal=Current Archaeology |volume=184 |pages=146–152}}
*{{cite magazine |author=Stone, R. |title=Mystery Man of Stonehenge |magazine=Smithsonian |date=August 2005 |pages=62–67}}
*{{cite book |author=Miles, D. |year=2005 |title=The Tribes of Britain |pages=78–82}}
*{{cite book |author=Brayne, J. |year=2016 |title=Archer, Journey to Stonehenge}}

==External links==
* [http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/archer.html Wessex Archaeology: The Amesbury Archer]
* [http://www.salisburymuseum.org.uk/galleries/index.php?Action=4&obID=15&prevID=34&oprevID=15 Salisbury Museum page on the archer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813014511/http://www.salisburymuseum.org.uk/galleries/index.php?Action=4&obID=15&prevID=34&oprevID=15 |date=13 August 2009 }}
* [http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/wales/art15028 24 Hour Museum – Amesbury Archer was an Alpine Settler Say Experts]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/unearthingmysteries_20021119.shtml BBC Radio 4 programme on the Amesbury Archer]

[[Category:23rd-century BC people]]
[[Category:Amesbury]]
[[Category:Bronze Age England]]
[[Category:History of Wiltshire]]
[[Category:Bell Beaker culture]]
[[Category:People with spina bifida]]
[[Category:English people with disabilities]]
[[Category:3rd-millennium BC births]]
[[Category:3rd-millennium BC deaths]]
[[Category:2002 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Archaeological discoveries in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category: Human remains (archaeological)]]