A rescue mission is underway after a housing developer ran into a bunch of Iron Age and Roman materials, and to their surprise, a Bell Beaker archer burial. Hat tip, Mandy Chamberlain!
Several odd pits surround the grave, one included a vessel, and other some sort of cooking pit. It appears that the grave does not contain human remains, or at least did not survive in the acidic soil.
The story linked from Mandy [Worcesternews] The actual developer, Redrow Homes, posted some additional information [here].
This story, connecting 2000 year old Irish musical instruments to those used today in South India is a must read:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160513100848.htm
Very interesting. He hypothesizes that Irish horns had detachable mouthpieces which would make it unusually modern. If true, it might suggest Irish horns were tune-able or could change key.
DeleteIt would be interesting to see an oliphant (olifant) appear in a Neolithic or Early Bronze Age context. In fact, carved elephant tusk do occur in Iberia in the Chalcolithic, and now it has my interest.
The horn itself is more directly descended from the medieval olifant hunting horn...