A Swedish-Danish team of researchers from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) using genetic analysis discovered the life story and violent death of the Vittrup Man, whose remains were found more than a century ago in a Danish swamp, according to a publication by the House of Studies.
The skeleton of this Stone Age human who died between 3,300 and 3,100 BC. C. They discovered him in Denmark in 1915 and named him Vittrup Man in honor of the small town northwest of Copenhagen, in whose pebbles he rested.
Next to him they found a wooden club, a ceramic vessel and cow bones.
In new research published in the journal Plos One, the group of specialists performed DNA analysis and examined both the enamel and tartar of his teeth to learn more details about his life.
Thus, they detected that as a child he had eaten marine mammals and fish, which indicates that he lived on the coast. However, from the age of 18 or 19 his diet changed and he began to eat agricultural products.
This modification in the dietary pattern was accompanied by a change in the region of residence. Indeed, paleontologists came to the conclusion that he may have been born in an area of present-day Norway or Sweden and belonged to a community of northern hunter-gatherers. However, before the age of 20 he moved to the territory of what we know today as Denmark.
“Its genome differed markedly from the rest of the Stone Age Danish population and, genetically, it was closely related to contemporary peoples living on the Scandinavian Peninsula, in what is now northern Norway and Sweden. That’s why we decided to study its origins and life history in detail,” explained archaeologist Anders Fischer, a member of the work team.
The analysis of oxygen and strontium isotopes (an element found in both food and water and which is absorbed by the teeth during childhood) of the man’s teeth allowed us to establish that the Vittrup Man did not come from the area. geographical location in which it was found.
In addition, they discovered that he died violently, receiving about eight blows to the head, between the ages of 30 and 40.
«The Vittrup Man is an example of a common ritual practice in this period. The murder weapon may be the club that was found with him when peat cutters found his skeleton in Vittrup, north of Jutland, more than 100 years ago,” says archeology professor Kristian Kristiansen.
Despite the new revelations, the questions of how he ended up in Denmark and why he was beaten to death remain unanswered. Scientists hypothesize that he may have been captured or enslaved by a local community.
“Neither their way of dying nor their lifestyle allow us to draw definitive conclusions about their social position,” the study concludes.