I recently found out that the remains of a new ‘oldest northerner’ have been discovered. The Ossick Lass was a young child aged 2.5 – 3.5 years old. She was buried in Heaning Wood Bone Cave, to the north of Great Urswick (the town for which she was named in local dialect terms), on the Furness Peninsula, in Cumbria. 

Fragments of her cranium were dated to between 9290 and 8295BC. This makes her 11,000 years old and the third oldest Mesolithic burial in northwestern Europe. She has thus replaced the former ‘oldest northerner’ – a woman whose femur was found nearby in Kent’s Bank Cavern, 12.6km to the east.

She was buried with at least five perforated periwinkle shells. These belonged to the flat periwinkle (Littorina obtusata), a sea snail which is still found on the rocky shores of Britain. Its shell can be a great range of colours, varying from ‘bright yellow to olive green, orange, brown, reddish-brown and black’, making it striking choice for a ritual burial. Archaeologists are in agreement that these shells should be classed as grave goods.

To provide some context, the earliest known burials in Britain are from the Palaeolithic period. The first is the ‘Paviland Red Lady’, who was really a male hunter. He was buried in Goat’s Hole Cave, Paviland, on the Gower Peninsula, in South Wales, 33,000 years ago. He, too was buried with grave goods, which included periwinkle shells, ivory bracelets and a mammoth ivory tusk, and his skeleton was dyed with red ochre. 

The next burials are after the Dimlington Interstadial, which occurred from 31,000 to 16,000 years ago. The remains of 5 – 7 individuals from Gough’s Cave, Somerset, date back 14,700 years. Their bones yield evidence of ritual cannibalism, such as cut and bite marks, and cups fashioned from their skulls. DNA analysis shows that they belonged to a Magdalenian population. Cannibalism was part of their funerary practice and occurred at 25% of sites.

Another 4 individuals were buried in Kendrick’s Cave on the Great Orme, Llandudno, Wales, 14,000 years ago. With them were found a decorated horse jaw, flints and bear teeth with holes used for jewellery. DNA analysis shows these people belonged to a Western Hunter-Gatherer population that replaced the Magdalenian. Their burial practices show no traces of cannibalism.

These Palaeolithic burials and the early Mesolithic burials are separated by the Younger Dryas or Loch Lomond Stadial – the last cold period that made Britain uninhabitable. This took place from 12,900 to 11,700 years ago. The people who repopulated Britain were of the Western Hunter Gatherer culture. They descended from ancient populations who took refuge in southern Europe, in areas such as Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, during the Last Glacial Maximum and retreated south again during the Younger Dryas.

The earliest Mesolithic burials in Britain took place 11,000 – 10,000 years ago. The first are two individuals, an adult and a juvenile, from Worm’s Head on the Gower Peninsula, dating to 9750BC. The Ossick Lass follows at 9290BC. The most famous Mesolithic burial site is the cemetery at Aveline’s Hole, Somerset, (8750BC) where over 50 individuals were buried. There is evidence for ritual burial with grave goods including perforated animal teeth, seven ammonite shells and, once again, periwinkle shells, along with red ochre. Others include Badger Hole, Somerset (8770BC), Gough’s Cave, Somerset (8540BC), and Kent’s Bank Cave, Cumbria (8430BC). Starr Carr (9335 – 8440BC) is the best recorded Mesolithic settlement.

Gough’s Cave yielded the first near-complete skeleton, who is now known as the Cheddar Man. DNA from his skull and genetic profiling have been used to reveal his biological traits – he had dark-to-black hair and skin and striking blue eyes. 3D imaging has provided us with a portrait of his appearance. Interestingly, he was 85% Western Hunter Gatherer, 15% Magdalenian. 

The Ossick Lass, too, would have belonged to the Western Hunter Gatherer population. We can thus surmise that she had dark-to-black hair and blue eyes.

Great Urswick is close to the coast, so it seems likely that the Ossick Lass’s people ate a combination of terrestrial animals, such as red deer, elk, aurochs marine creatures including seals, fish and shellfish, and nuts, berries and plants.

The use of periwinkle shells as grave goods in the burials of the Paviland Red Lady, the Ossick Lass and the people at Aveline’s Hole is notable. Were they used because they were pretty or did they have a deeper significance? 

Flat periwinkles occupy the sublittoral zone, just below the littoral (or intertidal zone), where their primary food source is bladderwrack. They would have been quite easy to catch and also seen as liminal creatures. With their colourful shells might they have been as messengers and perhaps guides to the Otherworld, Annwn ‘Very Deep’, which lay beyond the waves?

I’m not sure, but as I write these words, I hear the laughter of a little girl who is playing with sea shells and laughing at our strange thoughts and strange ways.