Glossy black board binding with white title on the spine, and title and half head image on the front board.

F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feel and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

On the July 10, 1834, William Beswick excavated a barrow on his land in Gristhorpe, North Yorkshire, England. What he found gave him quite the surprise. Beswick discovered a coffin in the shape of a scooped-out oak tree. Inside the coffin was something special – the skeleton of a Bronze Age man, known today as the Gristhorpe Man.

When Beswick made his discovery members of the Scarborough Philosophical Society, which consisted of doctors and other learned members of society, were also present . Seeing that the skeletal remains of the Gristhorpe Man were so fragile, they made an attempt to preserve them. Filling a laundry copper with horse glue, the bones were boiled for eight hours. Thanks to them, the skeleton is still complete today. Unfortunately the process they used to conserve the bones has rendered the study of DNA or the use of collagen from the body for dating purposes impossible.

The Gristhorpe Man, his coffin and his grave goods were donated to the Scarborough Philosophical Society, and displayed at the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough. A monograph of the discovery was written by William Crawford Williamson, the 17-year-old son of the museum’s first keeper, John Williamson. This piece of work included drawings of the skull and grave goods, as well as details regarding the method of preservation and the coffin dimensions.