New radiocarbon dates establish 6,000-year time span for human remains pulled from River Thames

[Still Waters]

Chronology efforts led by researchers at Natural History Museum, London, and Historic England have produced 30 new dates for human remains pulled from the River Thames, establishing a chronological framework that spans nearly 6,000 years.

Hundreds of human skeletal remains have been recovered from London's lower Thames over the past two centuries. They have long challenged scholars due to the difficulty of determining a precise chronology.

In the study, "Human remains from the River Thames: new dating evidence," published in Antiquity, the research team reports that roughly half of 61 dated individuals derive from the Bronze and Iron Ages and suggest a connection to watery deposition practices observed in northwest Europe during later prehistory.

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-radiocarbon-dates-year-span-human.html