A 3,500-year-old early Bronze Age man has been discovered near Hollingbourne – and now he’s ‘speaking’ to scientists.

Archaeologists unearthed the man, believed to have been in his teens or early 20s, next to a field called No Mans Acres, which lays just on the border of Harrietsham.

His complete skeleton – thought to date back to about 1,500BC – was found in a 3ft-deep barrow.

Dr Paul Wilkinson, of the Kent Archaeological Field School, who led the investigation, said: “In a way, he’ll be now talking to us over thousands of years as scientists at the University of Kent examine his remains to establish his age and how he died.

“His teeth will also give a clue as to what part of the world he came from.

“When the tests are completed we will return him to the earth in exactly the same spot where we discovered him.

“He was buried in the classic crouch position normally associated with the early Bronze Age. His legs were up to his chin and his hands up to his chest.”

There were no signs he suffered injury or trauma.

The excavation of the circular burial ground site, about the width of a football pitch, took place last month with a team of 30 people.

Peter Brown, chairman of the Harrietsham History Society said: “This is the third important discovery in our area in two years and with further investigations planned in the near future it promises to be a very exciting time.”

The location is just a mile away from where an ancient neolithic ceremonial site, the size of Stonehenge, was discovered on the North Downs at Harrietsham, dating back to 2,500BC – the end of the Stone Age.

It was also found by Dr Wilkinson and his team in October last year on a tract of land called the Holmesdale, near the Pilgrims Way.