A MIGHTY female warrior from the ancient history of the East Riding is to feature in a major TV documentary, to be screened tonight.

The Wetwang Woman, a forerunner of Boadicea, was unearthed, complete with chariot, on a chalk hill in the East Riding village in April last year.

Her burial chamber is thought to be about 2,400 years old, and will be featured in BBC2's Meet The Ancestors, as she is hailed as only the second female charioteer to be found intact by archaeologists.

Presenter Julian Richards said: "The Wetwang burial chamber was in clay on top of a chalk hill.

"This led to a much better presentation of the remains."

The programme uses reconstructions to chart the life of the Wetwang Woman, who is thought to be an important figure in Iron Age history.

On first finding the body, experts first thought it could have been that of the infamous warrior queen Boadicea, but they later found the Wetwang woman lived nearly 300 years before Boadicea's time. She is believed to have been about 40 years old when she died, and someone of considerable clout, due to the fact that she was buried in her finery, with food for the afterlife also provided for her.

The programme also tells how the find enabled experts to recreate the woman's chariot. For many years, historians had been baffled by the means in which Iron Age warriors such as the Wetwang Woman built their war machines.

Antony Spence, of the British Museum, believes the woman had some connection with the pagan gods.

He said the burial site presented "significant new information", and added: "She may have been a high priestess or noblewoman."

At the time of the discovery, David Miles, English Heritage's chief archaeologist, said: "This is one of the most significant and exciting Middle Iron Age burials ever found in Britain.

"The person in the grave was clearly very important and was buried with a rite that is almost exclusive to East Yorkshire, and has links to the Continent.

"It could help us solve the mystery of who these people were, and why they buried their dead in a way different to other Iron Age Britons."

* Meet the Ancestors is on BBC2 tonight at 9pm.

Updated: 09:43 Tuesday, February 19, 2002