Luttra Woman

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Luttra Woman
A skull with a hole below the left eye socket
The Luttra Woman's skull with a hole below the left eye socket, likely caused by a long-term infection of the bone tissue[1]
Died3928–3651 BC[2]
Present-day Mönarpa mossar [sv] near Luttra, Sweden
Body discovered20 May 1943
58°06′48″N 13°31′14″E / 58.11333°N 13.52056°E / 58.11333; 13.52056
Resting placeFalbygden Museum [sv], Falköping, Sweden
Other namesHallonflickan (Raspberry Girl)
EraEarly Neolithic[2]

The Luttra Woman is a skeletonised bog body[a] from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated 3928–3651 BC) that was discovered near Luttra, Sweden, on 20 May 1943. The skull had been preserved well, but some bones of the skeleton, in particular many of those between the skull and the pelvis, were missing. The skeleton was assessed as that of a young female. She was deemed short for a Neolithic woman of the region, with an estimated height of 145 cm (4 ft 9 in). Because her stomach contents showed that raspberries had been her last meal and she was estimated to have been in her early to mid-twenties at her death, she was nicknamed Hallonflickan (Swedish: [ˈhalɔnflɪkːˌan] ⓘ; lit. 'Raspberry Girl'). As of 2015, she was the earliest-known Neolithic person from Western Sweden.

No trace of injuries or fatal diseases was found on her remains. She appeared to have been tied up and placed in shallow water at her death or soon afterwards. Axel Bagge, an archaeologist who assisted at the initial investigation of her remains, suspected that she had been deliberately drowned as either a human sacrifice or the victim of a witch execution. Her skeleton has been part of a permanent exhibition titled Forntid på Falbygden (Prehistory in Falbygden) at the Falbygden Museum [sv] in Falköping, Sweden, beginning in 1994. The exhibition was later supplemented by a bust of her reconstructed using forensic methods.

Discovery[edit]

A skeleton lying upright, with some of its bones missing and its detached skull rolled over so that the chin pointing straight up
The Luttra Woman, displayed in the position in which she was discovered; Falbygden Museum, Sweden

Carl Wilhelmsson, a man from the neighbouring Kinneved parish [sv],[4] noticed one of the hands of the skeleton at a depth of 1.2 m (4 ft) below the surface whilst cutting peat in Rogestorp—a raised bog that was part of a bog complex known as Mönarpa mossar [sv] in Falbygden, near Luttra—on 20 May 1943.[1][5] Wilhelmsson reported to the police, who dismissed any possibility of a prosecutable crime because they assumed that, since the body had been found at such a depth in a bog, it had to be very old.[6] Falbygden, a rural area in southwestern Sweden with a mostly agrarian economy,[7] was one of the places in the country where human and animal skeletal remains of prehistoric origin were often found, which were well-documented during the 1920s to the 1950s when peat cutting was frequent. The bones tended to be preserved in Falbygden owing to its bedrock of limestone.[8]

Luttra Woman is located in Sweden
Luttra Woman
class=notpageimage|
Location of the discovery site in Sweden

Wilhelmsson informed the local representative of the Swedish National Heritage Board, teacher and archaeologist Hilding Svensson [sv].[9] Svensson inspected the find the next day[10] and forwarded a discovery report to the Board, requesting an expert's assistance.[1] The Board dispatched geologist and archaeologist Karl Esaias Sahlström [sv; no] and palynologist Carl Larsson, both of whom were from the Geological Survey of Sweden.[11] Upon arrival, they found that the skeleton lay upright, with the skull detached and rolled over so that the chin and foramen magnum pointed straight up.[12] A protruding segment of the skeleton had been cut through during Wilhelmsson's peat cutting; nevertheless the skull had remained in its discovery position.[13] Sahlström decided that a thorough in situ investigation was not feasible, so he had the entire block of peat in which the skeleton was partially embedded cut out, placed on a Masonite board and sent—along with a few loose bones they had found in the bog—in a wooden box to the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm by train.[1][2][6] After the museum received the box, osteologist and anthropologist Elias Dahr [sv] excavated the skeleton from the peat block it was buried in.[2]

Three years prior to the discovery, an arrowhead made of flint had been found in the same bog, about 6 m (20 ft) north from where the skeleton was found, at the same depth; however researchers could not determine if the arrow and the skeleton had been simultaneously placed in there.[1]

Studies[edit]

The Luttra Woman's found bones
(remaining as of 2023)
Type Weight Ref.
Cranium 446 g (15.7 oz) [14]
Mandible 52 g (1.8 oz) [14]
Humerus (Right) 114 g (4.0 oz) [14][15]
Clavicle 18 g (0.6 oz) [14]
Scapula #1 42 g (1.5 oz) [14]
Scapula #2 31 g (1.1 oz) [14]
Radial bones 42 g (1.5 oz) [14]
Ulnas 49 g (1.7 oz) [14]
Hip bone (Right) 93 g (3.3 oz) [14][15]
Femurs 313 g (11.0 oz) [14]
Fibula 21 g (0.7 oz) [14]
Tibia 40 g (1.4 oz) [14]

The initial examination of the skeleton was done by Dahr after his excavation.[16] Axel Bagge, an archaeologist who assisted at Dahr's examination, was the first to report the discovery in 1947, in the Swedish academic journal Fornvännen.[13][17] A more thorough physical anthropological investigation was conducted by Sahlström, osteologist Nils-Gustaf Gejvall [sv] and anatomist Carl-Herman Hjortsjö, the result of which, including a detailed description of the remains, was published in 1952.[16] After their investigations the skeleton has undergone a few more by other researchers: among them archaeologist Sabine Sten [wikidata] and osteologist Torbjörn Ahlström [wikidata] in the 1990s and Ahlström again in the 2010s.[1][16]

Only parts of the skeleton had been preserved; the soft tissues had completely disintegrated and some bones, in particular many of those between the skull and the pelvis, were missing.[13] The skull had been preserved well, with only the inner nasal region partially gone. The conditions of the rest of the bones were not as good.[16] A pollen analysis dating showed that the corpse was a bit more than 4,000 years old. As of 2017, the radiocarbon dating method has been used on the skeleton three times: the first two agreed with the pollen analysis result but the third, done using accelerator mass spectrometry in 2015, yielded the range of 3928–3651 BC, which is the early or middle period of the Early Neolithic—making her the earliest-known Neolithic person from Western Sweden to that point.[2]

The Luttra Woman's stomach contents consisting of raspberry seeds

Dahr assessed the skeleton as that of a young female.[16] Gejvall estimated the body as a woman of 20–25 years but later Sjögren et al. disagreed, proposing in 2017 that the more appropriate age category would be that of 15–20 years.[15] There was only a lump of small yellow-brown seeds where her stomach had been; which were identified as those of European red raspberries (Rubus idaeus).[1] She had eaten a large serving of raspberries just before her death, which meant that she died in late summer, July or August.[13] Because of her last meal and estimated age, she was nicknamed Hallonflickan (Swedish for 'Raspberry Girl').[1][b]

She was small in stature with an estimated height of 145 cm (4 ft 9 in); Gejvall stated in a 1960 monograph that it was the shortest for a woman of her age group among Sweden's Neolithic remains he could recall.[18] In Dahr's study of the remains from a Stone Age settlement on Gotland, the largest of Sweden's islands,[19] the average height of the women of the same age category was 153 cm (5 ft 0 in).[18] The isotopes of strontium and oxygen ratios of tooth enamel from one of her molars was analysed and the results indicated that she was probably born and grew up in present-day Scania, the southernmost region of Sweden, and travelled to present-day Falbygden in a later period of her life.[20][c] Researchers have tried to extract DNA from the skeleton; they have not yet been successful as of January 2023 because the bones had been too affected by the bog environment for DNA profiling.[1]

Cause of death[edit]

Artist's impression of the supposed human sacrifice ritual during which the Luttra Woman was drowned; Gunnar Creutz, Falbygden Museum

Her skull had a hole below the left eye socket, likely due to a long-term infection of the bone tissue; otherwise no trace of injuries or diseases was found on her remains. Her legs were in a tight squatting position so that her calves rested against her thighs.[1] It was probable that her legs had been tied up and the materials used to bind her had not been preserved in the bog.[13] Sahlström noted that the skull's imprint on the peat block indicated that she had been placed with the forehead down; Dahr agreed that she had been lying on her stomach.[23] She seemed to have been placed in shallow water at her death or soon afterwards, and remained undisturbed in the restrained position until the discovery in 1943.[24][d] Bagge suspected that she had been deliberately drowned, proposing the hypothesis that she was the victim of either a human sacrifice ritual or a witch execution.[26] According to Ahlström and Sten, some of the Early Neolithic remains in Denmark bore indications that similar sacrifice rituals had been practiced there.[23] An alternative explanation was that the bindings had been for a water burial of the Luttra Woman's corpse, after her death by another cause.[24]

Exhibition and reconstruction[edit]

The 1945 text Tio tusen år i Sverige (Ten thousand years in Sweden), a guidebook to the Swedish History Museum's exhibition of prehistoric and other archaeological finds, did not mention the Luttra Woman although her remains were included in the exhibition at the time.[1] In the early 1970s, the skeleton was removed from the display and placed in the museum's storage facility under the inventory number SHM 23163.[1][27] The skeleton was loaned to the Falbygden Museum [sv], Falköping,[28] and available for public viewing again in 1994; since then it has been part of the museum's permanent exhibition titled Forntid på Falbygden (Prehistory in Falbygden).[1] The exhibition was later supplemented by a reconstructed bust of her, created by Oscar Nilsson, an archaeologist and model-maker trained in sculpture. He had worked on commissions from museums to reconstruct Swedish remains from various periods—such as the Barum Woman (c. 7th millennium BC), the Granhammar Man [sv] (9th century BC), Estrid (11th century) and Birger Jarl (13th century)—through forensic methods that were used to identify crime victims from their remains.[1][6]

To create the bust of the Luttra Woman, Nilsson had her skull CT scanned at the Karolinska Institute, a research-led medical university in Stockholm. Based on the scanned data, he had an exact replica of the skull 3D printed in polyvinyl chloride, on which he manually attached dozens of sticks to indicate her estimated facial soft tissue thickness. He moulded facial muscles and a thin layer of skin in clay, adding them to the replicated skull and sculpted more detailed facial features on the clay skin.[1] Nilsson told an interviewer that the skeleton seemed "very feminine" to him; he shaped her face accordingly and gave her a narrow nasal bridge, resulting in a distinctly modern appearance rather than that of a stereotypical Stone Age woman.[29] Since her DNA had not been extracted, Nilsson had to assume her hair and eye colour.[6]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The term bog body encompasses human remains with soft tissue and/or hair preserved in a bog and skeletal remains "which can reasonably be assumed to have been deposited [in a bog] as a complete body".[3]
  2. ^ Nils-Gustaf Gejvall [sv] stated in his 1960 English-language monograph Westerhus: Medieval Population and Church in the Light of Skeletal Remains that the Luttra Woman was "nowadays usually known under the name of "The Raspberry Girl" (Hallonflickan) [...]".[18]
  3. ^ Strontium is incorporated in the bone and the teeth due to its similarity to calcium, and the distribution of the isotopes of strontium tends to vary significantly from one geographical location to another, which is why the strontium signature of an individual in their calcified structures can help determine the region they came from.[21] Strontium incorporated in a developing tooth in particular does not change, partly because there is no blood supply to dentine or tooth enamel.[22]
  4. ^ Mönarpa mossar [sv] would have been, at least partly, shallow lakes during the Neolithic times.[25]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Jensen, Cecilia (2021). "Historien om Hallonflickan" [Story of the Raspberry Girl] (in Swedish). Falköping: Falbygdens Museum. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 101. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  3. ^ Van Beek, Roy; Quik, Cindy; Bergerbrant, Sophie; Huisman, Floor; Kama, Pikne (2023). "Bogs, bones and bodies: the deposition of human remains in northern European mires (9000 BC–AD 1900)". Antiquity. 97 (391). Cambridge University Press: 120–121. doi:10.15184/aqy.2022.163. S2CID 255655694.  This article incorporates text by Roy van Beek, et al. available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
  4. ^ Jacobsson, Josef (6 September 1983). "Kring ett intressant fynd från gånggriftstiden: Hallonflickan från Luttra" [About an interesting find from the Middle Neolithic: Raspberry Girl from Luttra] (PDF). Falköpings Tidning [sv] (in Swedish). Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2023 – via Kinneveds hembygdsförening. [...] Carl Wilhelmsson från Ledsgården i Slutarp [...]
  5. ^ Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 99–100. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  6. ^ a b c d Tjäder, Agneta (2022). "Hallonflickans död gäckar forskarna" [Raspberry Girl's death baffles researchers]. Kvällsstunden [sv] (in Swedish). No. 12. Tidningshuset Kvällsstunden AB. p. 3. ISSN 0023-5822. Archived from the original on 24 September 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  7. ^ Fabech, Charlotte (1994). "Society and landscape. From collective manifestations to ceremonies of a new ruling class (Abb. 50–59)". In Keller, Hagen [in German]; Staubach, Nikolaus [in German] (eds.). Iconologia sacra: Mythos, Bildkunst und Dichtung in der Religions- und Sozialgeschichte Alteuropas [Iconologia sacra: Myth, Pictorial Art and Poetry in the Religious and Social History of Ancient Europe]. Arbeiten zur Frühmittelalterforschung [Works on Early Mediaeval Studies]. Vol. 23. De Gruyter. p. 135. doi:10.1515/9783110846119. ISBN 3-11-013255-9.
  8. ^ Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 98–99. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  9. ^ Jacobsson, Josef (6 September 1983). "Kring ett intressant fynd från gånggriftstiden: Hallonflickan från Luttra" [About an interesting find from the Middle Neolithic: Raspberry Girl from Luttra] (PDF). Falköpings Tidning [sv] (in Swedish). Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2023 – via Kinneveds hembygdsförening. Carl Vilhelmsson [sic] [...] ringer till Riksantikvariens ombud i Falköping överlärare Hilding Svensson.
  10. ^ Jacobsson, Josef (6 September 1983). "Kring ett intressant fynd från gånggriftstiden: Hallonflickan från Luttra" [About an interesting find from Middle Neolithic: Raspberry Girl from Luttra] (PDF). Falköpings Tidning [sv] (in Swedish). Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2023 – via Kinneveds hembygdsförening. Fyndplatsen ligger på Rogestorps mosse [...] och nästa dag infinner sig Hilding Svensson.
  11. ^ Bagge, Axel (1947). "Ett märkligt skelettfynd från gånggriftstiden" [A remarkable skeletal find from the Middle Neolithic] (PDF). Fornvännen. Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research (in Swedish). Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities: 248. ISSN 0015-7813. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023 – via DiVA (open archive). [...] som omedelbart ombesörjde sakkunnig undersökning, nämligen av fil. doktor K. E. Sahlström och pollenanalysexperten geologen Carl Larsson, båda från Sveriges geologiska undersökning.
  12. ^ Bagge, Axel (1947). "Ett märkligt skelettfynd från gånggriftstiden" [A remarkable skeletal find from the Middle Neolithic] (PDF). Fornvännen. Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research (in Swedish). Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities: 248. ISSN 0015-7813. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023 – via DiVA (open archive). Hon ligger egendomligt nog framstupa, skallen, som lossnat från halsen, har rullat framåt, så att hakan och nackhålet peka rakt upp och ansiktet bakåt kroppen.
  13. ^ a b c d e Bagge, Axel (1947). "Ett märkligt skelettfynd från gånggriftstiden" [A remarkable skeletal find from the Middle Neolithic] (PDF). Fornvännen. Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research (in Swedish). Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities: 248–249. ISSN 0015-7813. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023 – via DiVA (open archive).
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Rogestorps mosse (SHM 23163)" [Rogestorp bog (SHM 23163)]. Swedish History Museum (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  15. ^ a b c Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 103. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  16. ^ a b c d e Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 102. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  17. ^ Gunnarsson, Tim-Kristoffer (2020). "Hur vi tolkar ritual — om tolkningen av arkeologiskt material som ritualiserat" [How we interpret rituals — on the interpretation of archaeological materials as ritualised] (PDF) (in Swedish). Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg. p. 21. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023 – via Gothenburg University Publications Electronic Archive. [...] Axel Bagge (1947), som var först med att rapportera om fyndet av den sedermera så kallade Hallonflickan, [...]
  18. ^ a b c Gejvall, Nils-Gustaf [in Swedish] (1960). Westerhus: Medieval Population and Church in the Light of Skeletal Remains. Monografier utgivna av Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien [Monographs published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities]. Vol. 43. Lund: Håkan Ohlssons Book Printing [sv]. pp. 47–48. OCLC 1012246268. Retrieved 24 September 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  19. ^ "OECD Territorial Reviews: Gotland, Sweden". OECD. Archived from the original on 16 August 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2023. Gotland is Sweden's largest island [...]
  20. ^ Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 109–111. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  21. ^ Steadman, Luville T.; Brudevold, Finn; Smith, Frank A. (1958). "Distribution of strontium in teeth from different geographic areas". The Journal of the American Dental Association. 57 (3): 340–344. doi:10.14219/jada.archive.1958.0161. ISSN 0002-8177. PMID 13575071.
  22. ^ "Strontium-90 In Teeth". The British Medical Journal. 2 (5422): 1411. 5 December 1964. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5422.1411. S2CID 20157450.
  23. ^ a b Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 105–106. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  24. ^ a b Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ahlström, Torbjörn; Blank, Malou; Price, T. Douglas; Frei, Karin Margarita (2017). "Early Neolithic human bog finds from Falbygden, western Sweden: New isotopic, osteological and histological investigations". Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (19). Germany: Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University: 118. doi:10.12766/jna.2017.4. ISSN 2197-649X.
  25. ^ Sjögren, Karl-Göran (2003). "Mångfalldige uhrminnes grafvar…" Megalitgravar och samhälle i Västsverige ["Diverse memorial tombs..." Megalithic tombs and society in West Sweden] (PDF) (PhD). GOTARC Series B. Archaeological Theses no. 27 (in Swedish). Institutionen för arkeologi, University of Gothenburg. p. 58. ISBN 91-85952-91-5. ISSN 0282-6860. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2023 – via Gothenburg University Publications Electronic Archive.
  26. ^ Bagge, Axel (1947). "Ett märkligt skelettfynd från gånggriftstiden" [A remarkable skeletal find from the Middle Neolithic] (PDF). Fornvännen. Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research (in Swedish). Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities: 249. ISSN 0015-7813. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023 – via DiVA (open archive). Det ligger då nära till hands att tänka på en offerhandling — såvida det inte här liksom bevisligen under långt senare tidsskeden helt enkelt varit fråga om avrättning genom dränkning i kärrmark av en »häxa» eller niding, [...]
  27. ^ "Inventarienummer SHM 23163" [Inventory number SHM 23163]. Swedish History Museum (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  28. ^ "Benpost 123220. SHM 23163" [Bone item 123220. SHM 23163]. Swedish History Museum (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023. sk. Hallonflickan, utlån till Falköpings museum
  29. ^ Tjäder, Agneta (2022). "Hallonflickans död gäckar forskarna" [Raspberry Girl's death baffles researchers]. Kvällsstunden [sv] (in Swedish). No. 12. Tidningshuset Kvällsstunden AB. p. 3. ISSN 0023-5822. Archived from the original on 24 September 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2023. Skelettet var mycket feminint, så jag formade hennes ansikte i den andan och gav henne en smal näsrygg. Hon hade ett fullt "modernt" utseende, inte alls grovt, som man gärna föreställer sig att människorna hade på stenåldern.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luttra_Woman&oldid=1181102641"