Luttra Woman | |
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Died | 3928–3651 BC [2] : 101 Present-day Mönarpa mossar near Luttra, Sweden |
Body discovered | 20 May 1943 58°06′48″N13°31′14″E / 58.11333°N 13.52056°E |
Resting place | Falbygden Museum , Falköping, Sweden |
Other names | Hallonflickan (lit. 'Raspberry Girl') |
Era | Early Neolithic [2] : 101 |
The Luttra Woman is a skeletonised bog body [lower-alpha 1] from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated 3928–3651 BC) that was discovered near Luttra, Sweden, on 20 May 1943. The skull was well-preserved, but some bones of the skeleton, particularly many between the skull and the pelvis, were absent. Osteological assessment identified the remains as those of a young female. Her estimated height of 145 cm (4 ft 9 in) was distinctly short for a Stone Age woman of the region. The presence of raspberry seeds in her stomach contents, coupled with an estimated age of early to mid-twenties at death, led to her being nicknamed Hallonflickan (Swedish: [ˈhalɔnflɪkːˌan] ; lit. 'Raspberry Girl'). As of 2015 [update] , she represented the earliest known Neolithic individual from Western Sweden.
Multiple anthropological studies revealed no evidence of injuries or fatal diseases on her remains. She appeared to have been bound and placed in shallow water at or shortly after her death. Axel Bagge, an archaeologist who collaborated on the initial examination of her remains, hypothesised that she had been deliberately drowned, either as a human sacrifice or as the victim of a witch execution. Since 1994, her skeleton has been part of the permanent exhibition Forntid på Falbygden ('Prehistory in Falbygden') at the Falbygden Museum in Falköping, Sweden. In June 2011, a forensic reconstruction of her bust was incorporated to augment the display.
On 20 May 1943, whilst cutting peat in Rogestorp—a raised bog within the Mönarpa mossar bog complex in Falbygden near Luttra—Carl Wilhelmsson, a resident of the neighbouring Kinneved parish , [4] discovered one of the skeleton's hands at a depth of 1.2 m (4 ft) below the surface. [1] [2] : 99–100 Upon Wilhelmsson's notification, police investigators determined that the depth of the remains in the bog indicated antiquity, thereby excluding the possibility of a prosecutable crime. [5] The rural area of Falbygden in southwestern Sweden, characterised by its agricultural economy, [6] had emerged as an archaeological site for prehistoric human and animal remains. The period between the 1920s and 1950s saw extensive documentation of such discoveries by Swedish antiquarians, coinciding with increased peat extraction activities in the region. The remains in Falbygden were often relatively well-preserved, aided by the region's carbonate-rich bedrock, which enhanced the natural preservation process. [2] : 98–99
Wilhelmsson informed the local representative of the Swedish National Heritage Board, teacher and archaeologist Hilding Svensson . [7] Svensson inspected the find the following day and forwarded a discovery report to the Board, requesting expert assistance. [1] [8] In response, the Board dispatched geologist and archaeologist Karl Esaias Sahlström , along with palynologist Carl Larsson, both from the Geological Survey of Sweden. [9] : 248–249 Upon arrival, they observed that the skeleton was in an upright position, with the detached skull rolled in such a manner that the chin and foramen magnum were oriented directly upwards. [9] : 248 A segment of the skeleton had been inadvertently cut through during Wilhelmsson's peat extraction; nevertheless, the skull remained in its discovery position. [9] : 248–249 Sahlström, deeming a thorough in situ investigation impractical, arranged for the entire peat block containing the partially embedded skeleton to be excised. The block was placed on a Masonite board and, along with several loose bones found in the bog, was transported by train to the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm in a wooden box. [1] [5] [2] : 101 Upon receipt, osteologist and anthropologist Elias Dahr excavated the skeleton from the peat block. [2] : 101
Three years prior to this discovery, a flint arrowhead had been unearthed in the same bog, approximately 6 m (20 ft) north of the skeleton's location and at an equivalent depth. However, researchers were unable to determine whether the arrowhead and the skeleton had been deposited contemporaneously. [1]
The Luttra Woman's extant bones (as of 2023 [update] ) | ||
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Type | Weight | Ref. |
Cranium | 446 g (15.7 oz) | [10] |
Mandible | 52 g (1.8 oz) | [10] |
Humerus (Right) | 114 g (4.0 oz) | [2] : 103 [10] |
Clavicle | 18 g (0.6 oz) | [10] |
Scapula #1 | 42 g (1.5 oz) | [10] |
Scapula #2 | 31 g (1.1 oz) | [10] |
Radial bones | 42 g (1.5 oz) | [10] |
Ulnas | 49 g (1.7 oz) | [10] |
Hip bone (Right) | 93 g (3.3 oz) | [2] : 103 [10] |
Femurs | 313 g (11.0 oz) | [10] |
Fibula | 21 g (0.7 oz) | [10] |
Tibia | 40 g (1.4 oz) | [10] |
The skeleton underwent its initial examination by Dahr following excavation. [2] : 102 Axel Bagge, an archaeologist who collaborated on Dahr's examination, first reported the discovery in 1947 in the Swedish academic journal Fornvännen . [9] : 248–249 [11] A subsequent, more comprehensive physical anthropological investigation was conducted by Sahlström, osteologist Nils-Gustaf Gejvall , and anatomist Carl-Herman Hjortsjö; their findings, including a detailed description of the remains, were published in 1952. [2] : 102 In the intervening years, the skeleton has been subject to further scrutiny by additional researchers, notably archaeologist Sabine Sten and osteologist Torbjörn Ahlström during the 1990s, with Ahlström revisiting the study in the 2010s. [1] [2] : 102
Only portions of the skeleton had been preserved; the soft tissues had completely disintegrated and some bones, particularly many between the skull and the pelvis, were absent. [9] : 248–249 The skull was well-preserved, with only the inner nasal region partially degraded. The condition of the remaining bones was less favourable. [2] : 102 Pollen analysis dating indicated that the bones were slightly older than 4,000 years. As of 2017 [update] , radiocarbon dating had been employed on the skeleton three times: the first two analyses corroborated the pollen analysis result, whilst the third, conducted using accelerator mass spectrometry in 2015, yielded a range of 3928–3651 BC. This places the remains in the early or middle period of the Early Neolithic, establishing her as the earliest known Neolithic individual from Western Sweden at that time. [2] : 101
Dahr assessed the skeleton as that of a young female. [2] : 102 Gejvall initially estimated the individual to be a woman aged 20–25 years; however, Sjögren et al. later proposed in 2017 that an age range of 15–20 years was more appropriate. [2] : 103 Where her stomach had once been, a cluster of small yellow-brown seeds remained, subsequently identified as those of European red raspberries (Rubus idaeus). [1] The substantial quantity of raspberries consumed shortly before death suggested that the individual likely died in late summer, in July or August. [9] : 248–249 This final meal, along with her estimated age, led to her being nicknamed Hallonflickan, Swedish for 'Raspberry Girl'. [1] [lower-alpha 2]
Gejvall described her facial features as elegant and proportionally balanced, noting the consistency between her slender frame and the refined contours of her skull and jaw. [1] The individual was characterised by short stature, with an estimated height of 145 cm (4 ft 9 in). In a 1960 monograph, Gejvall remarked that this was the shortest stature he had encountered in Swedish archaeological material. He referenced Dahr's study of remains from a Stone Age settlement on Gotland, Sweden's largest island, where the average female height was estimated at 153 cm (5 ft 0 in)—a figure Gejvall considered distinctly short—as a point of comparison. [12] Analysis of strontium and oxygen isotope ratios in the tooth enamel from one of the Luttra Woman's molars indicated that she likely originated from present-day Scania, the southernmost region of Sweden, before relocating to the Falbygden area later in life. [2] : 109–111 [lower-alpha 3] Attempts to extract DNA from her remains have been unsuccessful as of January 2023 [update] , due to the degradation of the bones by the bog environment. [1]
The skull exhibited a perforation below the left eye socket, likely resulting from a chronic bone infection; otherwise, her remains bore no traces of injuries or diseases. Her legs were positioned in a tight squatting posture, with the calves resting against the thighs. [1] Bagge surmised that her legs had been bound, though the binding materials had not been preserved in the bog environment. [9] : 248–249 Sahlström noted that the skull's imprint on the peat block suggested a prone position; Dahr concurred, concluding she had been lying face down. [2] : 106 She appeared to have been placed in shallow water at or shortly after her death, remaining undisturbed in this restrained position until the 1943 discovery. [2] : 118 [lower-alpha 4] Bagge postulated that she had been deliberately drowned, proposing the hypothesis that she was the victim of either a human sacrifice ritual or a witch execution. [9] : 248–249 Ahlström and Sten noted that some Early Neolithic remains in Denmark bore indications of similar sacrificial practices. [2] : 106 An alternative explanation posited that the bindings were part of a water burial ritual for the Luttra Woman's corpse, following her death from unrelated causes. [2] : 118
The 1945 text Tio tusen år i Sverige ('Ten Thousand Years in Sweden'), which accompanied the Swedish History Museum's exhibition of prehistoric and archaeological finds, did not mention the Luttra Woman, despite her remains being part of the exhibition at that time. [1] In the early 1970s, the skeleton was removed from display and placed in the museum's storage facility under the inventory number SHM 23163. [1] [16] In 1994, the skeleton was loaned to the Falbygden Museum in Falköping and made available for public viewing. Since then, it has been part of the museum's permanent exhibition Forntid på Falbygden ('Prehistory in Falbygden'). [1] [17] The exhibition was expanded in June 2011 with a reconstructed bust of her, created by Oscar Nilsson, an archaeologist and model-maker trained in sculpture. [18] He had worked on commissions from museums to reconstruct Swedish remains from various historical periods—such as the Barum Woman (c. 7th millennium BC), the Granhammar Man (9th century BC), Estrid (11th century), and Birger Jarl (13th century)—using forensic methods originally developed to identify crime victims from their remains. [1] [5]
External image | |
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The reconstructed bust of the Luttra Woman, by Oscar Nilsson [18] |
To create the bust of the Luttra Woman, Nilsson arranged for her skull to be CT scanned at the Karolinska Institute, a research-focused medical university in Stockholm. Utilising the scanned data, he commissioned a full-scale replica of the skull to be 3D printed in polyvinyl chloride. Nilsson then manually affixed dozens of markers to the replica to indicate the estimated facial soft tissue thickness. Subsequently, he moulded facial muscles and a thin layer of clay skin onto the replica, sculpting the finer details of her facial features. [1] In an interview, Nilsson remarked that the skeleton appeared distinctly feminine to him. He shaped her face accordingly, incorporating a narrow nasal bridge, which resulted in what he described as "a fully modern appearance", rather than the stereotypical visage of a Stone Age woman. [19] In the absence of DNA analysis, Nilsson was compelled to make assumptions regarding her hair and eye colour. [5]
The Tollund Man is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BCE, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, near Silkeborg on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The man's physical features were so well preserved that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim. Twelve years before his discovery, another bog body, Elling Woman, was found in the same bog.
A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BC and the Second World War. The unifying factor of the bog bodies is that they have been found in peat and are partially preserved; however, the actual levels of preservation vary widely from perfectly preserved to mere skeletons.
Falköping is a locality and the seat of Falköping Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 16,350 inhabitants in 2010.
Falbygden is a geographical area, centered at the town of Falköping in Västergötland, in southwestern Sweden, and covered mostly by farmland. Most of the area belongs to Falköping Municipality and the west part of Tidaholm Municipality. In medieval times the area belonged to the hundreds Frökind, Gudhem, Vartofta, and Vilske. It is known for its geology, flora and megalithic culture.
Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1943.
The Egtved Girl was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved, Denmark in 1921. Aged 16–18 at death, she was slim, 160 centimetres (63 in) tall, had short, blond hair and well-trimmed nails. Her burial has been dated by dendrochronology to 1370 BCE. She was discovered together with cremated remains of a child in a barrow approximately 30 metres (98 ft) wide and 4 metres (13 ft) high. Only the girl's hair, brain, teeth, nails and a little of her skin remain preserved.
The Windover Archeological Site is a Middle Archaic archaeological site and National Historic Landmark in Brevard County near Titusville, Florida, United States on the central east coast of the state. Windover is a muck pond where skeletal remains of 168 individuals were found buried in the peat at the bottom of the pond. The skeletons were well preserved because of the peat. In addition, remarkably well-preserved brain tissue has been recovered from 91 skulls from the site. DNA from the brain tissue has been sequenced. The collection of human skeletal remains and artifacts recovered from Windover Pond represent among the largest finds of each type from the Archaic Period. It is considered one of the most important archeological sites ever excavated.
The Girl of the Uchter Moor, also known as Moora, is the name given to a female Iron Age bog body discovered in 2000 in marshland near Uchte, Germany. The remains include vertebrae, hair and skull pieces. The studies of the body began in 2005. The radiocarbon dating performed at the University of Kiel showed that Moora had died between 764 and 515 BC. Despite common Iron Age burial practices, the body was not cremated. All the body parts are estimated to have been found except for one scapula.
The Bocksten Man is the remains of a medieval man's body found in a bog in Varberg Municipality, Sweden. It is one of the best-preserved finds in Europe from that era and is exhibited at the Halland Museum of Cultural History. The man had been killed and impaled to the bottom of a lake which later became a bog. The bog where the body was found lies in Rolfstorp in Halland County, about 24 kilometres (15 mi) east of Varberg on the west coast of Sweden, close to the most important medieval road in the area: the Via Regia. In 2006, he was reconstructed to show what he may have looked like when he was alive, and it was displayed in the museum alongside the original skeleton.
Lindow Woman and Lindow I are the names given to the partial remains of a female bog body, discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss, near Wilmslow in Cheshire, England, on 13 May 1983 by commercial peat-cutters. The remains were largely a skull fragment, which was missing its jaw, but with soft tissue and hair attached. The remains were subsequently dated to the Roman period. The remains became more technically known as Lindow I after the discovery of other remains in the same bog, which were identified as Lindow Man or Lindow II in 1984 and Lindow III in 1987.
The Haraldskær Woman is the name given to a bog body of a woman preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark, and dating from about 490 BC. Workers found the body in 1835 while excavating peat on the Haraldskær Estate. The anaerobic conditions and acids of the peat bog contributed to the body's excellent preservation. Not only was the intact skeleton found, but so were the skin and internal organs. Scientists settled disputes about the age and identity of this well-preserved body in 1977, when radiocarbon dating determined conclusively that the woman's death occurred around the 5th century BC.
The Koelbjerg Man, formerly known as "Koelbjerg Woman", is the oldest known bog body and also the oldest set of human bones found in Denmark, dated to the time of the Maglemosian culture about 8000 BC. His remains are on display at the Møntergården Museum in Odense, Denmark.
Huldremose Woman, or Huldre Fen Woman, is a female bog body recovered in 1879 from a peat bog near Ramten, Jutland, Denmark. Analysis by Carbon 14 dating indicates that she lived during the Iron Age, sometime between 160 BCE and 340 CE. The mummified remains are exhibited at the National Museum of Denmark. The elaborate clothing worn by Huldremose Woman has been reconstructed and displayed at several museums.
Stoneyisland Man is the name given to a bog body discovered in the Stoneyisland Bog, Gortanumera, County Galway, Ireland on 13 May 1929.
In many areas of Scandinavia, a wide variety of items were deposited in lakes and bogs from the Mesolithic period through to the Middle Ages. Such items include earthenware, decorative metalwork, weapons, and human corpses, known as bog bodies. As Kaul noted, "we cannot get away from the fact that the depositions in the bogs were connected with the ritual/religious sphere."
The Gerum Cloak is a nearly intact brown wool cloak dating from 360 – 100 BC that was found in a peat bog on Gerumsberget plateau, Vastra Gotaland, Sweden in 1920. The cloak is oval shaped and has a few small holes in it, mainly around the bottom edge. The biggest of these holes was made by Johan Fredrik Klasson with his shovel when he was digging in the bog and found the cloak. The cloak is notable not only for its age and how well it was preserved, but for the Houndstooth pattern in which it was woven.
The Barum Woman, formerly known as The Bäckaskog Woman (Bäckaskogskvinnan), is one of the best-preserved skeletal finds in Sweden from the Maglemosian culture of the Mesolithic. She was found in 1939 in Barum and is now in the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.
Carl-Herman Hjortsjö, born Carl-Herman Hirschlaff, was a Swedish anatomist, physician, and physical anthropologist. His contributions to historical osteology were instrumental in establishing it as an academic field in Sweden.
Axel Ivar Bagge was a Swedish archaeologist, who made numerous contributions to the research of the Stone Age remains in Scandinavia.
[...] Carl Wilhelmsson från Ledsgården i Slutarp [...]
Carl Vilhelmsson [ sic ] [...] ringer till Riksantikvariens ombud i Falköping överlärare Hilding Svensson.
Fyndplatsen ligger på Rogestorps mosse [...] och nästa dag infinner sig Hilding Svensson.
[...] Axel Bagge (1947), som var först med att rapportera om fyndet av den sedermera så kallade Hallonflickan, [...]
sk. Hallonflickan, utlån till Falköpings museum
Skelettet var mycket feminint, [...] Hon hade ett fullt "modernt" utseende, [...](Subscription required.)