A REMARKABLE archaeological discovery at the back of an antique shop has revealed that a South Bucks town could be as many as 4500 years old.

History group Archaeology in Marlow has been keeping tabs on a dig carried out on Marlow High Street which has thrown up some startling results including Bronze Age pottery.

but enthusiasts are most excited by new data which suggests two skeletons found in the pit date back to around 2030 BC – more than 3000 years before the first recorded mention of Marlow in the history books.

AIM’s John Laker said: "The 46 page report has now been published, revealing that two young individuals were buried in Marlow around 4,500 years ago!

"Local historians will know that the earliest recording of the town of Marlow dates from 1015AD, where it is referred to as Merelafan in the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici.

"It looks like people lived in Marlow well before Anglo-Saxon times and that Marlow was a ‘des res’ around 4,500 years ago!"

The dig at the back of Buckingham Antiques on Marlow High Street was carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology, now MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) Northampton, after being commissioned by Talmage Homes.

An area of approximately 200 sq.m. was opened up within which a pit dating to the mid 12th century contained a pile of approximately 250 re-deposited bones from a much earlier date.

Among the remains was a piece of Bronze Age beaker pottery, which was probably from a pot buried with the bones, as well as medieval finds from the 12th-14th centuries.

The two skeletons found in the hole were children around 10-12 years old, which experts thought might have been buried in the 12th century as part of a burial mound on the site.

But after sending the remains to the USA to be radiocarbon dated, archaeologists were shocked to discover the skeletons went back a lot further than first thought.

More information on the report can be found at www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk