Archaeologists Baffled By A 2,000-Year-Old Skeleton Found In Scotland With Its Brain Scooped Out And Its Bones Turned Into Tools
The second individual, Individual 2, was a juvenile male who was approximately fifteen years old when he died.
The radiocarbon dates obtained from the skeletal remains of both individuals placed them in the period between roughly 50 BCE and 70 CE — spanning the transition from the late Iron Age to the period immediately following the first century CE.
The original archaeological report produced after the 2000 excavation described the burial and noted that the bones showed evidence of post-mortem modification.
The marks and damage visible on the bones were attributed to animal gnawing — a reasonable conclusion given that the site had clearly been disturbed by rabbits before archaeological excavation, and that animal activity is a common cause of post-mortem bone damage in burial contexts.