Egtved Girl

Egtved Girl
Treetrunk coffin of the Egtved Girl at the National Museum of Denmark
Born	c. 1390 BC Present-day Egtved, Region Syddanmark, Denmark
Died	c. 1370 BC (aged 16-18) Present-day Egtved, Region Syddanmark, Denmark
Body discovered	24 February 1921
Resting place	National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Era	Nordic Bronze Age
Known for	Her well-preserved remains
Height	160 cm (5 ft 3 in)

The Egtved Girl [ˈektveð] (c. 1390 – c. 1370 BC) was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved, Denmark, in 1921. Aged 16 to 18 at death, she was slim, 160 centimetres (63 in) tall, had short, blond hair and well-trimmed nails. Her burial has been dated by dendrochronology to 1370 BC. She was discovered together with cremated remains of a child in a barrow approximately 30 metres (98 ft) wide and 4 metres (13 ft) high. Only the girl's hair, brain, teeth, nails, and a little of her skin remain preserved.

Discovery

The reconstructed burial mound at the site where the Egtved Girl was discovered

The individual who became known as the Egtved Girl was discovered on 24 February 1921 during the excavation of a Bronze Age burial mound near Egtved in Jutland, Denmark.

The burial mound measured approximately 30 metres (98 ft) in diameter and 4 metres (13 ft) high. Beneath it, archaeologists uncovered a well-preserved oak-log coffin made from a split oak trunk and aligned east to west.

Rather than opening the coffin at the excavation site, archaeologists transported it intact to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, where it was carefully examined. Inside, they found the Egtved Girl lying on an ox hide, with the cremated remains of a child aged about five to six years placed at her feet. Before the coffin was closed, she had been covered with a woollen blanket and a second ox hide.

The sealed oak coffin created conditions that preserved parts of her body and many of the organic materials buried with her. The acidic, oxygen-poor environment slowed decomposition, allowing her hair, brain, teeth, fingernails and small traces of skin to survive, together with her clothing and a variety of grave goods.

Condition

The preserved remains of the Egtved Girl at the National Museum of Denmark

By the time the Egtved Girl was excavated in 1921, most of her body had decomposed. Her hair, brain, teeth and fingernails survived, together with small traces of skin.

The conditions inside the sealed oak coffin also preserved materials that would normally decay, including her woollen clothing, the ox hides and other objects made from organic materials. The acidic, oxygen-poor environment slowed their decomposition.

Clothing and grave goods

Reconstruction of the Egtved Girl's clothing, including her woollen blouse and corded skirt, at the National Museum of Denmark.

The Egtved Girl was buried wearing a well-preserved woollen outfit. She wore a short blouse with sleeves reaching to about her elbows and a corded wool skirt. The skirt was 38 cm (15 in) long, reached to her knees and was wrapped twice around her waist. Around her waist, she wore a woven woollen sash fastened with a large circular bronze belt plate decorated with spiral patterns and a projecting point at its centre. She also wore a bronze bracelet on each arm and a small bronze earring.

Her feet were wrapped in pieces of woven woollen cloth and covered with leather shoes. Beside her head was a lidded birch bark box containing a bronze awl, bronze dress pins and a hair net made from horsehair. Other objects in the coffin included a horn comb and additional pieces of woollen textile. Near her head was also a small container holding some of the cremated remains of a child about five to six years old.

Reconstruction of the Egtved Girl's Bronze Age clothing

Another birch bark container held a fermented drink made from wheat, honey, bog-myrtle and cowberries, together with flowering yarrow. The Egtved Girl had been laid on an ox hide and covered with a woollen blanket and a second ox hide before the oak coffin was closed.

The surviving textiles have also been examined scientifically. In a study published in 2015, microscopic examination of the wool fibres found evidence of extensive selection and processing, which the researchers interpreted as indicating high-quality textiles. The researchers also used strontium isotope analysis to examine wool from her clothing and other textiles in the grave. They concluded that the raw wool used for her clothing came from outside present-day Denmark.

Reconstruction

The museum at the site where the Egtved Girl was discovered

A copy of the Egtved Girl's clothing was made at the Lejre Experimental Centre, now Sagnlandet Lejre, for the National Museum of Denmark. The reconstructed blouse and cord skirt were based on recent scientific studies of the original textiles.

The reconstruction is displayed at the National Museum alongside the original clothing and other objects from her burial.

A small museum at the place where the Egtved Girl was discovered also displays copies of her clothing, jewellery and bronze belt plate. The museum stands beside a reconstructed version of her burial mound and includes information about her discovery in 1921.

Scientific analysis

Dating

The Egtved Girl's oak coffin and its contents

The individual who became known as the Egtved Girl was a young woman who lived during the later Nordic Bronze Age, around 1390–1370 BCE. She died in her late teens, at approximately 16 to 18 years of age, and stood about 160 centimetres (63 in) tall. She had a slim build, short blond hair and well-trimmed fingernails.

Tree-ring analysis of the oak coffin has dated her burial to 1370 BCE. Based on her estimated age at death, she was probably born around 1390 BCE.

Origin

The Egtved Girl's burial mound at Egtved

Initial work by Frei et al in 2015, since contradicted, examined chemical isotopes of strontium from the Egtved Girl's teeth, fingernails, hair, and clothing, and based on these, proposed that she had likely come from the Black Forest region of Germany, but married and moved to Denmark, subsequently traveling back and forth between the two areas. However, Thomsen and Andreasen demonstrated in 2019 that the strontium isotopic data obtained from the area surrounding the grave and used by Frei et al for comparison against the remains had been contaminated by additional strontium contained in the agricultural lime used in modern farming in the Egtved area.

When Thomsen and Andreasen analyzed samples locally from places uncontaminated by modern farming, they found that the range of strontium isotopic values in the surrounding natural environment matched those in the girl. Thus, it is most plausible that she originated from and spent her entire life in the Egtved area, and did not come from far away as proposed by Frei et al. Thomsen and Andreasen's results show that the girl did live about half the year in one area – likely the river valley in Egtved – and the other half of the year in another place – likely the local plateau, perhaps in the practice of transhumance farming and seasonal pastoral movement within a small area.

In a 2019 article based on strontium isotope analysis, Sophie Bergerbrant suggests an origin of Sweden or Norway for the Egtved Girl.

See also

• Håga mound
• Haraldskær Woman
• Skrydstrup Woman
• The King's Grave

References

Bibliography

• Barber, E. W. The Mummies of Ürümchi. Macmillan, London, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04521-8.
• Hogan, C. Michael, "Girl Barrow", The Megalithic Portal, editor A. Burnham, 4 October 2007
• Michaelsen, K. K. Politikens bog om Danmarks Oldtid. Politiken, Denmark, 2002. ISBN 87-00-69328-6.

External links

• The Egtved Girl on National Museum of Denmark website.