The Bronze Age Burials at Stonehenge

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

Today we’re talking all about science, Stonehenge and what we know about a massive migration into Britain at the start of the Bronze Age some 4,500 years ago: the Steppe migration. For years the details of this incredibly important event have been hotly-debated. But recently, a huge new study has analysed the remains of several hundred individuals buried in Britain and dating to this time period, hoping to uncover more about the nature of this migration.

Among the remains that were studied included a series of bronze age burials discovered around Stonehenge. So what did the results of the study reveal? How did this migration affect the Neolithic British population that already inhabited this island? And how did these new people perceive ancient monuments such as Stonehenge?

To talk through the study and its results, with a particular focus on certain bronze age burials around Stonehenge, Dr Selina Brace returned to the show. An ancient DNA specialist, Selina works at the Natural History Museum and previously appeared on the Ancients podcast for the hit episode ‘Cheddar Man: Science and the Skeleton’.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's
0:18.0	podcast where we are talking all about Stonehenge, Science and the early Bronze Age populations
0:24.5	of Britain. We're going to be talking all about the beaker people and a huge migration that came
0:31.2	to Britain in the early Bronze Age in the Chalcolific period. We're going to be looking through
0:37.6	the lens of burials discovered and analysed in the area around the ancient historic monument
0:44.5	that is Stonehenge. We're going to be looking at these Bronze Age burials and what they can tell us
0:50.0	about the whole nature of this huge migration how it affected the local British
0:55.7	Neolithic population and also how it affected Stonehenge and that monument's importance to the
1:02.8	people in Britain, to the people who lived in that area of our island. Now to talk through this,
1:08.6	I was delighted to get back on the show Dr. Salina Brace. Salina she is an ancient DNA specialist
1:15.7	from the Natural History Museum. She's been on the podcast once before to talk all about
1:21.1	Shedder Man. She is a legend and it was wonderful a couple of weeks back to head over to Salinas
1:27.6	and interview her in person about this incredible topic. So without further ado to talk all about
1:34.2	Stonehenge, Science and the early Bronze Age populations in Britain. Here's Salina.
1:40.2	Salina thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's my pleasure to be here.
1:46.4	Thanks for inviting me to a stand. Very welcome. We're meeting in person as well this time. Our last
1:50.7	podcast on Shedder Man was a huge hit. Now got you on again for this other topic. I mean, Stonehenge
1:56.4	and this got this quite strong through the burials around it, this strong Neolithic Bronze Age connection.
2:02.4	Yeah, no, I mean Stonehenge is always just a fascinating monument, isn't it? I mean when you think
2:07.9	about it, I think it's arguably the most famous prehistoric monument that we have. I mean, I guess
2:14.3	we better give some credit to the pyramids, but it's still a very, very famous monument. Someone
2:19.2	would imagine at the time it must have packed a pretty heavy punch there and two. And let's set the
	...

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