About 5,200 years ago, a man's life ended violently in a peat swamp in northwestern Denmark. Now, researchers have used advanced genetic analysis to tell the unexpected story of “Vittrup Man,” the oldest known immigrant in Danish history.
Bog bodies, the uniquely preserved “accidental mummies” discovered in northern Europe, have long intrigued researchers, but a new study claims to be the first time experts have mapped the life history of the deceased to such a degree.
The man's remains were discovered in a peat bog in Vittrup, Denmark, during peat cutting in 1915. His right ankle, lower left tibia, jaw, and fragmented skull were found next to a wooden club. Researchers estimate that he died after being hit in the head at least eight times with the wooden club sometime between 3100 BC and 3300 BC
Scientists analyzed the remains of Vittrup Man in a recent study published in the journal Nature on the genetic prehistory of Denmark who sequenced the genomes of 317 ancient skeletons. Some of the same researchers decided to conduct an individual study of Vittrup Man after his DNA revealed that he was genetically distinct from the rest of the Danish Stone Age population. A study detailing the new findings was published Wednesday in PLOS One magazine.
“I wanted to make an anonymous skull talk (and) find the individual behind the bone. The initial result was 'almost too good to be true', which made me apply additional and alternative methods. The result was this surprising life story,” said study lead author Anders Fischer, project researcher in the department of historical studies at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and director of Sealand Archaeology, in an email.
What the team discovered in reconstructing the life of Vittrup Man is shedding light on the movements and connections between different Stone Age cultures.
A Stone Age migrant
The research team, eager to uncover as many clues as possible about Vittrup Man's life, analyzed tooth enamel, tartar and bone collagen using cutting-edge analytical methods.
The combined detection of specific chemical elements in his enamel, such as strontium, nitrogen, carbon and oxygen, as well as an analysis of proteins from his teeth and bones, revealed how Vittrup Man's diet changed from hunter-gatherer to farmer before he died. between 30 and 40 years old.
Vittrup Man was probably born and raised along the coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula, perhaps within the cold climates of Norway or Sweden. He was genetically closer to people from these regions and had darker skin than Stone Age communities in Denmark.
In Scandinavia, Vittrup Man likely belonged to a northern hunter-gatherer community who enjoyed a diet of fish, seals, and even whales, suggesting that hunters had vessels that allowed them to fish in the open sea.
And then something caused a drastic change in his life, and at the age of 18 or 19, Vittrup Man was in Denmark and supported himself on a farmer's diet, eating sheep and goat meat.
Their journey to an agricultural peasant society in Denmark “indicates an extensive boat journey,” the study authors said. Vittrup Man's long-distance movements were unusual, “but may say something about the ongoing exchanges between Danish farmers and northern hunter-gatherers,” said study co-author Karl-Göran Sjögren, a researcher in the department of historical studies. from the University of Gothenburg.
Why Vittrup Man made such a long journey is unknown, but researchers have some theories. It is possible that he was a captive or slave who became part of local society in Denmark. Or Vittrup Man was a merchant who settled in Denmark.
Archaeologists knew that flint axes were traded from Denmark to the Arctic Circle in Norway, said study co-author Lasse Sørensen, head of research into ancient Danish and Mediterranean cultures at the National Museum in Copenhagen.
“The study adds a concrete flesh-and-blood person to this discovery,” said Sørensen.
Studying Vittrup Man helped researchers gain insights into genetics, lifestyles and ritual practices that can be traced back to Stone Age societies, Sjögren said.
“Vittrup Man is a migrant — the first known undisputed first-generation immigrant from Denmark and the region,” Fischer said. “To our knowledge, this is the first time that scientists have been able to map the life history of a person from northern Europe in such detail in such a distant past.”
Death in the swamp
Vittrup Man had “a remarkable life course before he was killed and thrown into the swamp,” said Fischer, who has researched Stone Age cultures for more than 40 years. He is particularly interested in how Denmark changed from a hunter-gatherer culture to an agricultural one about 6,000 years ago.
Why did Vittrup Man end up with his skull crushed in a peat swamp? The exact answer will never be known, but researchers believe he was killed as a sacrifice, which was a common practice in the region at the time.
“Wetlands seem to have had a special role in religious life in northern Europe at that time,” Fischer said. “Vittrup Man was killed in an unusually brutal way. Other humans were killed by arrows or strangled with a rope.”
“Perhaps we should understand him as a slave who was sacrificed to the gods when he was no longer suitable for hard physical work,” study co-author Kristian Kristiansen, professor of archeology at the University of Gothenburg, said in a statement.
But it's also possible that Vittrup Man was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Based on archaeological evidence alone, it is difficult to distinguish this from someone who was killed in a conflict, or robbed and killed,” said Roy van Beek, associate professor in landscape archeology at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, for email. “That he may have been a 'slave' or held captive is quite speculative in my opinion, but the authors also show some reservations there.”
Van Beek was not involved in this study, but co-authored research published in the journal Antiquity on the wealth of information that bog bodies provide about prehistoric life.
“In my opinion, this is a fascinating study that shows the enormous contribution that innovative bioarchaeological methods can make to improving our knowledge about prehistoric societies, including important aspects such as population history, migration and ways of life,” said van Beek after read the new study.
“Our study in Antiquity shows that the lives of thousands of prehistoric and early-historical humans ended in bogs across Northern Europe, and studies like this show the incredible scientific potential they have. And this is just one individual — we’re just scratching the surface!”
Source: CNN Brasil
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