Skeletal Remains Found in Ancient Well on Cyprus

NICOSIA, Cyprus - Archaeologists in Cyprus have discovered an ancient well with the skeleton of a young woman at the bottom.

The country’s top antiquities official says it was found last month at a construction site in a village near the island nation’s southwestern coast.

After it dried up, the well was apparently used to dispose trash.

Bone fragments, stone beads and pendants’ from the island’s Neolithic period have been found at the bottom along with animal bone fragments and the poorly preserved skeleton.

Radiocarbon dating has determined the well is at least 9,000 and possibly 10,500 years old.

That was around the time migrating humans started to build permanent settlements on Cyprus.

One archaeologist says the well is “among the earliest in the world” and offers proof of the “high level of sophistication” of the island’s early Neolithic farmers.