Stone Age skeletons discovered in a peat bog in northwestern Denmark have been analyzed, revealing the life and death of ancient humans in astonishing detail.
The skeleton, known as the “Wittrup Man,” belongs to a person who died between 3300 and 3100 BC. He was named after the small town of Wittlap, 250 km northwest of Copenhagen, near where the skeleton was discovered in 1915.
Along with the skeleton, there were also wooden clubs, ceramic vessels, and cow bones.
A new analysis of the body is published in a magazine. Pro Swan.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study that has been able to map the life history of northern European populations in such detail and over such a long period of time,” the authors write.
They show that the Wittlap people had different genetic characteristics from people who lived in the area at the same time. The authors found that his DNA had more in common with people of the Mesolithic (Mesolithic) period in Sweden and Norway.
The Scandinavian Mesolithic period lasted from approximately 14,500 to 5,900 years ago.
The authors note that he may even have come from the coast of Norway, near the Arctic Circle.
The isotope discovered during Wittrup Mann’s childhood was spent along the coast of Scandinavia. Vittrup is located 140 km west of modern-day Gothenburg in Sweden, separated from Denmark’s Jutland peninsula by the Kattegat Sea.
Further analysis of isotopes and proteins in his teeth indicates that Wittrup Mann’s diet shifted from a coastal diet (marine mammals and fish) to a farm diet (such as sheep and goats) during his childhood. Ta. The change occurred in his late teens.
It is unclear why Wittlap Mann was moved. Even if small islands were a staging area, he would have had to travel at least 75 kilometers across the open sea by boat.
What prompted such a journey?
The authors are not sure, but write that “two main scenarios may explain his life.”
One is that he was participating in an exchange for flint moving north from Jutland to Scandinavia. Previous archaeological discoveries seem to suggest an interconnected relationship between Denmark and Scandinavia, with “precious artifacts moving north and humans moving south,” the authors note.
“Another possibility is that he was probably taken prisoner in the far north of the Scandinavian west coast,” they write, and spent several years of his life, when his physical strength was at its peak, “as a prisoner of war and a source of labor.”
The fragmented remains also include a crushed skull. This suggests that Wittrup Man met his end through a ritual sacrifice. Or he could have been the victim of a feud or murder.
He was 30-40 years old when he died.
