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Luttra Woman
Neolithic bog body from Sweden From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Luttra Woman is a skeletonised bog body[a] discovered in a peat bog in Falbygden near Luttra, Sweden. The remains were found on 20 May 1943 by a peat cutter. The skull was well-preserved, but some bones of the skeleton, particularly many between the skull and the pelvis, were missing. Osteological assessment identified the remains as those of a young female. The presence of raspberry seeds in her stomach contents, together with an estimated age of early to mid-twenties at death, led to her being nicknamed Hallonflickan (Swedish: [ˈhalɔnflɪkːˌan] ⓘ; lit. 'Raspberry Girl'). Radiocarbon-dated to 3928–3651 BC, she was, as of 2015[update], the earliest known Neolithic individual from Western Sweden. In a study, her estimated height of 145 cm (4 ft 9 in) was deemed short for a Stone Age woman of the region.
Several anthropological studies have reported no evidence of injuries or fatal diseases on her remains. Researchers concluded that she had likely been bound and placed in shallow water at or shortly after her death. Axel Bagge, an archaeologist who took part in the initial examination, proposed that her death may have resulted from deliberate drowning, either as a human sacrifice or as the consequence of a witch execution. An alternative interpretation suggested that the bindings were part of a water burial ritual performed after her death from unrelated causes. 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, the museum added a forensic bust reconstruction to the display.
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Discovery
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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 being notified, police investigators determined that the depth of the remains indicated antiquity, ruling out the possibility of a prosecutable crime.[5] Falbygden, a rural area in southwestern Sweden known for its agricultural economy,[6] was an archaeological site for prehistoric human and animal remains. Between the 1920s and 1950s, local antiquarians documented many such finds, often uncovered during the expansion of peat extraction in the area. Many of these remains in Falbygden were relatively well-preserved, aided by the region's carbonate-rich bedrock, which enhanced the natural preservation process.[2]: 98–99
The discovery site shown within Sweden
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] The Board dispatched geologist and archaeologist Karl Esaias Sahlström, along with palynologist Carl Larsson, both from the Geological Survey of Sweden.[9]: 248–249 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 Following delivery, 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]
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Studies
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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 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][b]
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] She 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 [c] 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]
Cause of death
The Luttra Woman's skull shows a perforation below the left eye socket, likely the result of a chronic bone infection rather than trauma. The studies have reported no evidence of injuries or fatal diseases on her remains. At the time of discovery, 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.[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 these researchers to have been placed in shallow water at or shortly after her death, remaining undisturbed in this restrained position until the discovery.[2]: 118 Mönarpa mossar would have been, at least partly, lakes during the Neolithic times.[15] 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
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Exhibition and reconstruction
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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 museum expanded the exhibition 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]
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, and manually affixed dozens of markers to the replica to indicate the estimated soft tissue thickness. He then moulded facial muscles, and added a thin layer of clay skin onto the replica for the finer details of her facial features.[1] Nilsson remarked in an interview that the skeleton appeared distinctly feminine to him; he shaped her face accordingly, incorporating a narrow nasal bridge, which reportedly resulted in "a fully modern appearance" rather than the stereotypical visage of a Stone Age woman.[19] In the absence of DNA analysis, he was compelled to make assumptions regarding her hair and eye colour.[5]
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See also
- List of bog bodies
- Nordic Stone Age – Time period in Scandinavia
- Prehistoric Sweden (c. 12000 BC – c. 800 AD)
References
External links
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