14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers writing in a recent issue of the Journal of Quaternary Science detail how, after closely analyzing a fossilized human leg bone discovered in Britain's northern regions, they reached the conclusion that it is at least 10,000 years old.
The scientists explain that, ever since the bone was discovered back in the 1990s, they suspected that it must be incredibly old. However, it took a while for them to carry out radiocarbon analysis and pin down its exact age.
Sources tell us that the fossilized human leg bone was found inside the Kents Bank Cavern on the north side of Morecambe Bay. The researchers who discovered it also came across fossilized horse and elk remains.
Because it was discovered inside a cave, the bone is regarded as evidence that, thousands of years ago, people living in these northern areas followed a very precious ritual when burying their dead.
As archaeologist Ian Smith at Liverpool John Moores University puts it, “Previous cave burials of humans from around this date have been in southern England, with later dates further north.”
“However, the date of this human femur is contemporary with the earliest post-glacial human bones from caves in the south suggesting similar ritual behavior in both Cumbrian and Somerset caves at the same time.”
By the looks of it, this bone is the oldest human remain to have ever been discovered in Britain's northern regions. Scientists suspect that it belongs to an adult who lived in the area at the end of the last Ice Age.
“The earliest evidence for humans [in the north of Britain] after the end of the last Ice Age is stone tools,” Dr. Dave Wilkinson at the Liverpool John Moores University explained.
“Now we actually have one of the people as well,” he went on to say.
Presently, the researchers studying the fossilized human leg bone cannot say for sure whether it belongs to a man or a woman. However, they are confident that future investigations will help them find an answer to this question.