The bones of a Neolithic man discovered in a Danish peat bog more than a century ago reveal that he was a brutally murdered immigrant. To solve a 5,000-year-old cold case, researchers studied everything from dental plaque to DNA. They concluded that “Wittrup Man,” as researchers call him, may have been an itinerant flint trader who had been victimized by hostile locals.
In 1915, peat miners discovered a small number of human and cow bones at the bottom of a ditch near the village of Vittlap in northern Denmark. After discovering a ceramic pot and a wooden club, the diggers contacted the local history museum about the artifacts. These two objects of his, dated to around 3800-3500 BC, were soon taken to the National Museum of Denmark and displayed, but the bones remained largely unstudied during his first century.
two Recent the study However, analysis of the genomes of people who died during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods of European prehistory shows that Wittrup Mann lived between 3300 and 3100 BC and had a different genetic profile than his local contemporaries. It became clear that he had.Wittrup Mann’s full analysis was published Wednesday (February 14) in the journal Pro Swanrevealing a life history that includes migration, changes in diet, and early death in lands far from the original home.
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Who is Vitlap Mann?
All that remains of Wittlap Man are his right ankle bone, his left lower shin, a fragmented skull, and a jaw with 16 teeth. The bones suggest he died at about 30 to 40 years old, the researchers wrote in the study.
According to a research team led by Anders Fischer, an archaeologist at the Department of History at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, Wittlap Mann was born at a time when the population of Northern Europe was largely rural. But when the team analyzed dietary proteins trapped in his plaque and elemental variations in his bones and teeth, they suggested that he probably came from a fisher-hunting group from the northern Scandinavian coast near the Arctic Circle. Ta.
Plaque forms on all human teeth, but if it is not brushed or removed, it hardens into tartar, which is rich in DNA and proteins and contains information about your diet. It can be stored for thousands of years. Wittrup Mann’s calculations revealed that he consumed fish such as cod and sea bream, as well as whale meat, dolphin meat, and mutton.
But by the time Wittlap Mann was a teenager, his diet included more terrestrial and freshwater foods, according to analysis of carbon isotopes in his teeth. Analyzing isotopes (variants of elements) from different bone and tooth tissues gives researchers clues about changes that occur over a person’s lifetime.
Changes in Wittlap Mann’s diet coincided with geographic changes. A comparison of strontium and oxygen isotopes in one of his premolars and one of his wisdom teeth revealed that he probably migrated to a rural village at some point before age 12.
It is unclear why Wittrup Mann moved, but Fischer and his colleagues suggested that he may have been looking for flint axes and agricultural products in exchange for household goods he brought from his homeland. Another theory is that he may have been captured and possibly enslaved by a hostile group.
In any case, Wittrup Man met an unfortunate end. “The fragmented state of the skull was the result of at least eight blows, which split the skull into several parts. There was no sign of healing, and the trauma was clearly fatal,” researchers wrote in the study. It is written in the paper.
An oval fracture in his skull indicates that a blunt force was applied by a hard, rounded object, perhaps similar to a maple club found in a peat bog. This discovery led researchers to speculate that Wittrup Mann “could have been the victim of a feud or murder,” but previous archaeological discoveries suggested that “it is more likely that he was the victim.” “It’s expensive,” he said.
“The site appears to have been occasionally used for sacrificial activities during the Neolithic period,” Fisher told Live Science via email, but “the specific deity of that period and region is unknown. ”. Rather, Fisher said, people were likely seeking goodwill from unknown spirits or gods by sacrificing valuables such as cattle or humans.
Alexis BoutinA bioarchaeologist at California’s Sonoma State University who was not involved in the study told Live Science in an email: ), while also shedding unique light on hunting, regional migration and interaction, and ritualized sacrificial practices. ”