Updated: Nov 8, 2022 The "Boy with the Amber Necklace," as he is known to archaeologists, was found in 2005, about 5km south-east of Stonehenge, England on Boscombe Down.
The remains of the teenager were discovered next to a Bronze Age burial mound, during roadworks for military housing. "He's around 14 or 15 years old and he's buried with this beautiful necklace," said Professor Jane Evans, head of archaeological science for the British Geological Survey. "The position of his burial, the fact he's near Stonehenge, and the necklace all suggest he's of significant status." Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Wessex Archaeology, backed this interpretation: "Amber necklaces are not common finds," he told BBC News in remarks made to the news organization. "Most archaeologists would say that when you find burials like this... people who have these rare and exotic materials are people of some importance." "The position of his burial, the fact he's near Stonehenge, and the necklace all suggest he's of significant status." Tooth enamel forms in a child's first few years, so it stores a chemical record of the environment in which the individual grew up.
Chemical tests on the young lad's teeth indicate that the boy with the amber necklace grew up around the Mediterranean Sea.
The bones belong to the teenager who died 3,550 years ago, while visiting Stonehenge.
At the time of the young boy's visit Stonehenge was already at least 1500 years old.
The boy's virtually intact skeleton was discovered at Boscombe Down, a mile from Stonehenge, by Wessex Archaeology during a housing development.
The scientists' conclusion; that the boy with the amber necklace hailed from the Mediterranean caused a great deal of excitement and got a lot of peoples' attention.
The boy with the amber necklace quickly began to take on larger than life attributes.
He is proof that Stonehenge attracted tourists and and pilgrims millennia ago.
He is an example of a family that quite possibly not only knew of the existence of the mysterious circle of stones, but actually understood what they were meant to be used for.
He has also been held up as part of a cast of characters that thought nothing of making their way over a long and perilous distance to be part of something larger than themselves.
While some of the clues to the boy's origins came from his preserved remains, quite a bit of evidence was extracted from the Baltic amber beads around his neck.
The style of the beads was not all in keeping with other amber beads that have been found in the Stonehenge vicinity---they were of the type made exclusively in the Mediterranean region during the Bronze Age.
The amber beads also played an integral role in developing the hypothesis concerning the wealth of his family or tribe.
Those amber beads found on the boy where the sole reason he was declared part of an extremely well-to-do family.
Only people of wealth in that far away time would have had the means to possess that particular style of beads.
It also suggests that this particular family or clan had the means to own slaves.
Some of these slaves were most likely used as bodyguards, allowing the boy to wear his treasure in public places and to be able to travel freely while adorned in such opulence.
Perhaps the boy and his family came to Stonehenge for a healing of the body or the soul.
Many people think of Stonehenge as a place of healing.
Or perhaps the family came such a great distance to take part in rites having to do with sun worship or purification.
Stonehenge has long been associated with the idea of a cyclical calendar complete with astrological signs and signals. "At the time when the boy with the amber necklace was buried, there were really no new technologies coming into Britain...
We need to turn to look at why groups of people - because this is a youngster - made these long journeys.
Fitzpatrick speculated: "They may have been travelling within family groups... they may be coming to visit Stonehenge because it was an incredibly famous and important place, as it is today.
But we don't know the answer." The teenager is believed to have been part of a wealthy group that travelled 1,600 miles from southern Europe to Britain, taking in the stone circle along the way.
His find is thought to be important because it is likely he was too young to travel on his own and was probably part of a larger family group.
He is the third ancient foreigner to be found near the World Heritage Site in the last few years, but the other two were grown men thought to be tradesman or warriors.
His discovery further suggests that the stone circle would have been a place of pilgrimage or sightseeing akin to a medieval cathedral as long as 4,000 years ago. "They may have come to Britain for different reasons, but Stonehenge would have been well known across Europe – rather like a medieval cathedral," said Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, part of Wessex Archaeology who made the find. "They may have come to trade but visited Stonehenge along the way.