The oldest human remains ever discovered in Northern Britain have now been identified as those of a young girl who lived around 11,000 years ago.
The remains were uncovered inside Heaning Wood Bone Cave near Great Urswick in Cumbria during excavations led by local archaeologist Martin Stables. The discovery provided some of the clearest evidence yet of Mesolithic burials in northern Britain.
Three years after the bones were found, an international team led by researchers from the University of Lancashire successfully extracted DNA from the remains. Their analysis showed the child was female and likely between 2.5 and 3.5 years old when she died.
"It is the first time we have been able to be so specific about the age of a child whose remains are so old and be certain that they are from a female," said lead researcher Dr. Rick Peterson.
One of Europe's Earliest Mesolithic Burials
