Bronze Age 'Shaman' Was a Female Metalworker, DNA Confirms
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- Ancient DNA analysis of a 4,000-year-old skeleton at Wiltshire Museum revealed the Upton Lovell Shaman was female, overturning the long-held depiction of the individual as a bearded male metalworker and spiritual leader dating to about 1,800BC.
- The grave, discovered in 1801 about 10 miles west of Stonehenge, contained stone axes, metalworking tools (flints, scribes, a touchstone), fossil sponge cups, and an elaborate ceremonial cloak adorned with pierced animal bones.
- The skeleton showed arthritis in the right wrist but not the left, consistent with lifelong metalworking tool use, and gold traces on stones suggest the individual crafted gold ornaments with bone, wood or copper cores.
- Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute analyzed two additional bones — a tooth and a toe — confirming consistent results and ruling out a second skeleton; the individual stood 165cm (5ft 4in), tall for a Bronze Age woman and robustly built.
- The findings are unveiled in 'We Go Way Back,' an ancient DNA exhibition opening 16 July at the Francis Crick Institute that examines how genetic techniques illuminate the movements and lives of ancient people.
- Prof Mary Beard said ancient DNA helps correct assumptions about sex and gender roles, noting skeletons' sex was often assigned based on grave goods rather than biology — a practice the Upton Lovell case directly challenges.
- Wiltshire Museum director David Dawson called the discovery 'smoking gun evidence of a female metalworker,' noting metalworking was 'the space science of its day' in a Britain defined by its valuable tin and copper deposits.
Why it matters: DNA analysis has rewritten the biography of one of Britain's most significant Bronze Age burials — replacing centuries of gendered assumption with biological proof that a woman held high-status metalworking and ritual authority around 1,800BC, anchoring the Francis Crick Institute's new exhibition on ancient genomics.
