Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – The oldest human remains discovered in Northern Britain have been identified as belonging to a young female, following their discovery three years ago in a Cumbrian cave.
The 11,000-year-old bones were excavated from Heaning Wood Bone Cave in Great Urswick, Cumbria, by local archaeologist Martin Stables. These remains offer significant evidence of Mesolithic burials in the region.
View facing west over the surface of the deposits in the main chamber at the start of the current fieldwork, showing the paint markings made by Mr Redshaw (photo by Martin Stables). Credit: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (2026). DOI: 10.1017/ppr.2025.10077
Recently, an international team led by archaeologists from the University of Lancashire successfully extracted enough DNA from the bones to determine that they belonged to a female child aged between 2.5 and 3.5 years old.
““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 in a press release.
The team has established that these remains represent the third oldest Mesolithic burial found in North West Europe, providing some of the earliest evidence of human activity in Britain following the last Ice Age. Additionally, recently uncovered jewelry from the same site, including a perforated deer tooth and several beads has been carbon dated to approximately 11,000 years ago.
“Dating the jewellery to the same time frame as the remains provides more evidence that this was a deliberate burial and opens up conversations about the significance of cave burials during this period,” added Rick.
A fragment of maxilla (upper jaw and face) of the ‘oldest Northerner’. Credit: University of Lancashire
“Modern hunter-gatherer groups often see caves as a gateway into the spirit world, and this may be why we see so many caves used for burial by Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in northern Europe.”
Local archaeologist Martin Stables led the excavations at the site. As a native of Great Urswick, he was particularly interested in ensuring that the Mesolithic girl’s remains were given a name that would connect her to her final resting place.
He chose to call her the ‘Ossick Lass,’ which means ‘Urswick girl’ in the local dialect. Martin is a self-taught archaeologist, motivated by his passion for uncovering and understanding the prehistoric history of his village.
“It’s nearly 10 years since I started the excavations in July 2016 and I couldn’t have envisaged the journey I have undertaken. It’s as if I’ve went back in time to 9,000 BC.
Perforated shell beads from Heaning Wood Bone Cave. Credit: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (2026). DOI: 10.1017/ppr.2025.10077
In doing so I travelled through the Bronze and Neolithic Ages, discovering some of those that lived then and what they left behind. Ultimately, reaching the Mesolithic Period has obviously become the highlight of the excavation and something that’s particularly poignant to myself. Effectively, I was the first to bear witness to the obviously caring burial of someone’s child that occurred over 11,000 years ago.
The publication of this research paper is an important stage, that in due course, allows us to reveal further information about this unique site of national importance. My journey continues, but in the present as this is just the beginning and there is much more we plan to tell,” Martin Stables said.
Earlier discoveries of human remains in Britain have primarily come from southern England and Wales, as glaciations in the past have made such finds rare in northern regions. Prior to this recent discovery, the oldest known human remains from northern Britain were a 10,000-year-old burial found at Kent’s Bank Cavern in 2013.
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The latest findings include 11,000-year-old remains uncovered by a university team, who also established that at least eight individuals were deliberately buried within the same cave.
These burials span three distinct prehistoric periods: around 4,000 years ago during the Early Bronze Age; approximately 5,500 years ago in the Early Neolithic; and about 11,000 years ago at the beginning of the Mesolithic period. This evidence provides valuable insight into ancient burial practices and population continuity across different eras in prehistoric Britain.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society Journal.
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer