Social:Egtved Girl

The Egtved Girl [ˈɛɡtvɛð] (c. 1390–1370 BC) was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved, Denmark in 1921. Aged 16–18 at death, she was slim, 160 cm tall (about 5 ft 3 in), 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 wide and 4 metres high. Only the girl's hair, brain, teeth, nails and a little of her skin remain preserved.

Burial

The barrow was excavated in 1921, and an east-western aligned coffin was found. It was transported in sealed condition to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, where it was opened and the Egtved Girl discovered.

She was buried fully dressed on an oxhide in the coffin. She wore a loose bodice with sleeves reaching the elbow. She had a bare waist and wore a short string skirt. She had bronze bracelets and a woolen belt with a large disc decorated with spirals and a spike. At her feet were the cremated remains of a child age 5–6. By her head there was a small birch bark box which contained an awl, bronze pins and a hair net.

Before the coffin was closed she was covered with a blanket and an oxhide. Flowering yarrow (indicating a summer burial) and a bucket of beer made of wheat, honey, bog-myrtle and cowberries were placed atop. Her distinctive outfit, which caused a sensation when it was unearthed in the 1920s, is the best preserved example of a style now known to be common in Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. The good preservation of The Egtved girl is due to the acidic bog conditions of the soil, which is a common condition of this locale.

Reconstruction

The outfit was reconstructed for the National Museum of Denmark by the Lejre Experimental Centre and is on display there. A reconstructed set of clothes, as well as details of the excavation, are on display in the Egtved Girl's museum at the excavation site.

Origin and Life of Egtved Girl

Frei et al. (2015) examined chemical isotopes of strontium (Sr) from The Egtved Girl's teeth, fingernails, hair & 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 (2019) later demonstrated that the Sr isotopic data obtained from the area in which The Egtved Girl's remains were found, which were used by Frei et al. for comparison with the data from The Egtved Girl's remains & personal effects had been contaminated by added Sr from agricultural lime, due to 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 Sr isotopic values in the surrounding natural environment matched those in The Egtved Girl. Thus, it is most plausible that The Egtved Girl originated from-, and spent her entire life in the Egtved area, and did not come far abroad, as proposed by Frei et al. Thomsen and Andreasen's results show that The Egtved 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.

See also

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

Gallery

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  Replica of the Egtved Girl's outfit.

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  Remains of the Egtved Girl.

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  The reconstructed barrow.

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  Egtved Girl's museum.

References

• 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.