"WEALTHY TEENAGER" HELPS SCIENTISTS LEARN ABOUT STONEHENGE
Scientists have figured out that the bones of an ancient teenager, buried near Britain’s mysterious Stonehenge monument, came from hundreds of kilometers away.
The wealthy teen was buried with a string of amber beads around his neck. He is known to researchers as “the boy with the amber necklace.”
He originally came from The Mediterranean, and was likely a tourist, visiting Stonehenge much as people do today—as a tourist destination.
The exact purpose of Stonehenge—an ancient ring of giant stones—is unknown and still puzzles scientists and entices tourists today.
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| Scientists still don't know exactly why, or how, Stonehenge was created. Image: Wikimedia Commons, Daveahern. |
Scientists knew that he had travelled far, because amber is not normally found near Britain. They used “isotope analysis” to measure certain elements in the boy’s teeth, which helped them conclude that he was from the Mediterranean.
His necklace suggests that the boy came from a rich family.
His skeleton is one of several “foreign” sets of remains. The “Amesbury Archer” is thought to have come from the foothills of central Europe, and others are thought to have come from Wales or Brittany.
Curriculum Connection
Today’s article includes a lot of words that young readers will not be familiar with. Ask your children to use semantic, syntactic, and graphophonic clues to read and understand these words.
Primary and Junior
Predict the meaning of and rapidly solve unfamiliar words using different types of cues, including:
• semantic (meaning) cues (e.g., prefixes, suffixes, base words, phrases, sentences, and visuals that activate existing knowledge of oral and written language);
• syntactic (language structure) cues (e.g., word order, language patterns, punctuation);
• graphophonic (phonological and graphic) cues (e.g., onset and rime; syllables; similarities between words with common spelling patterns and unknown words; words within words)
(OME, Reading: 3.2)
Grammar Feature
The long dash: A long dash can be used around parenthetical expressions. If the parenthetical information is in the middle, both sides of the clause have long dashes.
“The exact purpose of Stonehenge—an ancient ring of giant stones—is unknown and still puzzles scientists and entices tourists today.”
If the parenthetical information is at the end of the sentence, the long dash precedes the clause and is followed by a period.
“He originally came from The Mediterranean, and was likely a tourist, visiting Stonehenge much as people do today—as a tourist destination.”
Extensions
“The boy with the amber necklace” travelled very far to see Stonehenge—especially since he lived about 3,500 years ago. Why do you think people make such an effort to travel? Why is travelling important (or not so important) to you?
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