The prehistoric remains of a woman discovered about a year ago on the Isle of Wight have been gifted to the Isle of Wight Museum. The skeletal remains were discovered in March 2015 by two brothers, Hubert and Graham Smyth, while they were string-mooring their boat at low tide on Fishbourne Beach. Normally the skeleton would be under the waterline when the tide is high, but this time it was lying in silt. Graham who is a radiographer carefully lifted one of the bones and identified it as a human radius, so they immediately called the police. Once the police removed the skeleton from the silt they saw the skull was almost complete and most of the other bones were also there. The Isle of Wight Coroner Caroline Sumeray was summoned and a pathologist identified the bones as ancient. According to radiocarbon dating the bones date to 28-90 AD, from the late Iron Age.

The Coroner’s investigation apart from determining whether the woman had died recently also focused on whether they were from a washed-away graveyard nearby. Now, after about a year the results of the radiocarbon dating have been issued and after consulting the Ministry of Justice, Island coroner decided the remains should form part of the Isle of Wight Council’s archaeology collection where they will be appropriately and ethically stored.