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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

An ancient whistle was crafted from a human thigh bone

Prehistoric people kept the bones of relatives and friends for generations as relicts.
Inhumation Sk 6 from Windmill Fields, Ingleby Barwick, North Yorkshire, disarticulated remains.

A grave in northern England held the remains of a woman who lived thousands of years ago — and the skulls of two people who had died some years earlier. Credit: T.J. Booth & J. Brück/Antiquity Pub.

Ancient Britons modified the bones of people in their communities and kept these relicts close at hand, often saving pieces of skeleton for decades after a person’s death, according to an analysis of artefacts from dozens of prehistoric sites.

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Nature 585, 163 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02509-9

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