A recent DNA analysis has revealed that a 4,000-year-old skeleton, previously thought to be a male metalworker, is actually a female. The discovery was made by researcher Tom Booth and his colleagues at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

The Upton Lovell Shaman

The skeleton, known as the Upton Lovell Shaman, was found in a barrow, a special type of burial mound reserved for high-status individuals, in southern England. The burial site contained a wide range of interesting grave goods, including axes, a gold necklace, and bone points.

The axes had traces of gold on the edge, suggesting that this person worked with gold and probably other metals such as copper and bronze. The number and variety of items made it a unique Bronze Age burial both in Britain and in Europe more widely.

The association with high status, as well as a rudimentary analysis of the size of the bones, led archaeologists to conclude that the burial belonged to a man. However, with no DNA testing available at the time, this conclusion persisted until Booth and his colleagues studied the skeleton as part of a wider ongoing genome sequencing project.

A Female Metalworker

Testing produced a female result, which was not what the researchers were anticipating. Booth tested two further samples of the skeleton to be sure, and both came back as female. This confirms that the skeleton was female and was probably a female metalworker, and specifically a gold worker, who had some kind of special status within her community.

The discovery also calls into question previous assumptions that female burials found with grave goods must have necessarily been the wives of important men. This subverts the idea that women or females in these societies couldn’t be powerful in their own right and special in their own right.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.