Tourists visiting Wiltshire since the Bronze Age

Tests carried out on the Bronze Age skeleton of a teenage boy found near Stonehenge indicate that he originated from the Mediterranean. The levels of oxygen and strontium present in the skeleton’s teeth were tested, the levels of which differ depending on what kind of climate a person has grown up in. The levels in the boy’s teeth indicate he was from a warmer climate than that of Britain and would most likely have travelled with a larger family group from the Mediterranean.

The discovery of the boy is an important one as it is the third ancient, foreign skeleton discovered around Stonehenge, suggesting that the site was a place of pilgrimage and sightseeing as far back as 1550BC, when Stonehenge would already have been over 1,500 years old.