Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Ancient skeleton unearthed in Lochaber

Post Thumbnail

Archaeologists excavating a burial site in a remote area of Lochaber have found the remains of a person who is believed to have died more than 3,600 years ago.

The body, which dates back to around 1650BC, was discovered to be curled up in the foetal position.

It is not yet known whether the remains are that of a man or a woman.

The Ardnamurchan Transitions team, which includes Cambridge professor John Robb, began working on a mound, which they called Ricky’s Cairn, at Swordle on the north coast of the Ardnamurchan peninsula in 2010.

Local historian Jon Haylett said: “They knew it contained a Bronze Age cist, part of which they have excavated finding a skull which was dated to 1650BC.

“The rest of the cist is now being excavated by Professor John Robb, of Cambridge University, who is an expert on bones, which is just as well as he is currently revealing the bones of the rest of the body, curled up in the foetal poison on his or her side.”

The team, which visits the area every year, is also working on a nearby neolithic chambered cairn called Cladh Aindreis, where they have permission from Historic Scotland to excavate part of the area.

Mr Haylett explained that the cairn had a long tail of rocks which runs away from Cladh Aindreis towards the north north west.

He said: “They have permission to remove the topsoil and expose the structure of the tail in what will be the largest excavation they’ve carried out in their years of coming here.

“They are allowed to move any rocks which are evidently not ‘in situ’, but they cannot excavate the structure without further permission from Historic Scotland.

“This is a shame as they have already exposed what is probably a small cist in which there is a good possibility that there may be a burial.”

There will be a talk on their work, called The Ardnamurchan Transitions Project: Fleshing out the past through the material remains, at Kilchoan Community Centre tomorrow from 7.30pm to 8.30pm and an open day, including site tours, is to be held at the site on Sunday.

In 2011, the same team found the Viking boat burial at Swordle Bay, the first finds from which were recently displayed at the British Museum.