THE LLYN Maritime Museum is giving people the opportunity to help name a skeleton they have within their collection.

The museum, in Nefyn, was able to display the skeleton thanks to grants received from Heritage Lottery Fund and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

This allowed them to be able to display the skeleton in a stone ‘cist’ grave.

The museum has selected 12 of the most popular girl’s names in 12th century Wales.

The choice of names are Angharad, Dyddgu, Ethi, Gweirful, Gwenhwyfar, Gwladus, Hawys, Madrun, Nest, Rhiannon, Senena and Tangwystl.

Jini Gwyrfai, heritage officer is at the museum, said: “Referring to her as ‘sgerbwd’ (skeleton) is annoying, as we are very conscious that she was a real person, with her own personality, name, status (or lack of it), and due to her age, deserved a bit of respect.

“We thought, let’s give her a name. It will help to personalise her, and hopefully make her a friend, rather than just an artefact.

“How does one Christen an 800-year-old female? Not by a ‘guess the name of the skeleton’ grid, not by asking around, and the curator was definitely not going to put her head on the block and choose.

“With a bit of research we found out the most popular female names around in 12th century Wales.

“We took 12 and decided on a democratic poll to decide the name.

“The naming of our skeleton is only one strand of the project to give her a final home here in our museum.

“We have already commissioned local craftsman Berno Brosschot to reconstruct the original stone cist grave under the guidance of the archaeologists, local company CRA.

“Once that is inserted in the museum, we will have a osteoarchaeologist on site to reconstruct our skeleton in her grave. We also envisage cutting edge DNA tests will reveal more information about her.

“All this knowledge about the skeleton, and also contextual information on the fascinating Age of the Welsh Princes will be displayed on information boards by our researcher, Sian Shakespear.

“Our team of volunteers, trustees and all involved in the museum are very excited about the project, which is due to be completed (Covid allowing) by early in 2022.”

• To suggest a name for the skeleton, email your name and one of the 12 names to [email protected]