Analysis of bones that were found in the early 1990s have now been identified as the earliest known human remains from northern Britain. Teams from The University of Nottingham and Liverpool John Moores University have been working together on the project analysing bones that were found at Kents Bank Cavern on the edge of Morecambe Bay. The fragment of human bone is thought to be just over 10000 years old.
Dr Hannah O'Regan from the Department of Archaeology explains why this has been an important discovery:
"The bones from Kent’s Bank show just how important cave archaeology and museum collections can be. Caves can preserve bones which would have decayed elsewhere, and once the material is excavated museums keep them for future study. Without these, we wouldn’t have known about our earliest northerner."
Having attracted a lot of attention this story has featured on BBC Radio Merseyside, BBc North West, BBC Radio Lancashire and BBC Radio Cumbria as well as being highlighted on the BBC news website.
Posted on Friday 20th September 2013