(Web Desk) - Scientists have identified northern Britain’s oldest known human remains as those of a girl who died around age three, approximately 11,000 years ago.
That finding turns a few ancient fragments into one of Britain’s earliest identifiable children and a sharper sign that her burial was deliberate.
New discoveries were made inside Heaning Wood Bone Cave, a small underground chamber in northwest England near the village of Great Urswick.
Within it, scattered teeth and cranial fragments preserved the trace of an early burial. Dr. Rick Peterson of the University of Lancashire determined that the bones belonged to a very young child.
Her age could be narrowed to between 2.5 and 3.5 years, giving the burial a level of human specificity rarely possible at such depth in time.
That precision brings the discovery into focus, but it also leaves a larger question unresolved about why this child was placed in the cave at all.
Interpreting ancient clues
Tiny surviving pieces made the job difficult, because 11,000 years in cave sediment usually shreds fragile human DNA.
The team used genomic analysis, reading inherited DNA for clues, and enough signal survived to identify the child’s sex.
The researchers used radiocarbon dating, a clock built from decaying carbon, to date the burial between 9290 and 8925 BC.
“We have been able to be so specific about the age of a child whose remains are so old,” said Dr. Peterson.