Mrs. of Luttra

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Skeleton of the woman of Luttra

The wife of Luttra ( Swedish Hallonflickan ; Danish Hindbærpigen. ;. Dt raspberry girls) is a Neolithic bog body , which in a 1943 Moor the community Falköping , Province of Västra Götaland in Sweden was found. Because of the raspberries, her last meal, the young woman was nicknamed Hallonflickan , in German raspberry girl . It has been in the permanent exhibition of the Falbygdens Museum in Falköping since 1994 .

Find

The place where the Frau von Luttra was found is called “Hallonflickan”

Farmer Carl Vilhelmsson came across the hand of a skeletonized corpse at the end of May 1943 while cutting peat in the Rogestorpamossen upland moor at a depth of 120 centimeters below the surface. The Rogestorpamossen is part of the Mönarpa mossar and is located near the parish of Luttra socken in the municipality of Falköping. The site is about 50 meters east of the former railway line between Falkirk and Ulricehamn , which is now used as a cycle path. Vilhelmsson informed the local representative of the Reichsantiquaramt , senior teacher Hilding Svensson from Falköping, who inspected the find the next day and forwarded the report to the Reichsantiquaramt. The expert summoned, the archaeologist Karl Esaias Sahlström from the Swedish Geological Authority , found that an on-site investigation of the find did not make sense. He hid the find with the surrounding layers of peat and sent it to Stockholm by train . Location: 58 ° 6 ′ 47.7 ″  N , 13 ° 31 ′ 13.8 ″  E Coordinates: 58 ° 6 ′ 47.7 ″  N , 13 ° 31 ′ 13.8 ″  E

Findings

skull
Remnants of the stomach contents with raspberry seeds

In the 1940s, the find was examined under the direction of Professor Nils-Gustaf Gejvall. The body was facing north-northwest-south-southeast , with its head facing north. Only parts of the skeleton have survived from the corpse . The soft tissues were completely gone; some bones of the skeleton, especially between the skull and pelvis, are missing. The skull itself is very well preserved, only the inner nasal region is a bit more worn. The rest of the bones are in poor condition. The anthropological examination of the remains showed that it was a delicate, young woman who was short with a height of 145 centimeters during her lifetime . Neolithic women of the same age in this region were on average between 153 and 163 centimeters tall. Her legs were in a tight squat position so that her calves were against her thighs. Possibly the legs were provided with a lacing that was not preserved in the moor . In the peat layer in which the skeleton was embedded, a large amount of raspberry seeds was found in the area of ​​the stomach , which due to their location could be identified as part of the former stomach contents. Apparently the young woman consumed the fruit shortly before her death. Since raspberries could not be stored for a long period of time in the Neolithic period, the woman must have eaten them fresh. As a result, she was likely to have died in late summer , around July or August . This is a special case insofar as all the bog bodies known to date in Sweden died in the winter months . Based on the pollen analysis of the peat profile, it was initially assumed that the corpse was more than 4000 years old.

In the 1990s, the raspberry girl was examined again by Sabine Sten and Torbjörn Ahlström. It was found that the raspberry seeds came from different types of raspberry. A study of the epiphyseal plates revealed that the woman must have been at least 18 to 20 years old. Other findings such as B. the ossification of the cranial sutures and the tooth structure allow the conclusion that she was around 20 to 25 years old.

A 14 C examination showed that the woman was 1000 years earlier than assumed in the early Neolithic , between 3105 and 2935 BC. BC, died. When examining the peat samples, the remains of about two to three millimeters long freshwater snails could be detected, which indicate that the woman had been sunk in a then still open body of water that silted up later. This theory is also supported by the lack of bones that may have been dislocated after the soft tissues had decomposed in the water. It is also possible that her body sank into the muddy bottom of the water. The exact cause of death could not be clarified.

Attempts at interpretation

Arrowhead from the Rogestorpamossen

Three years before the discovery of the wife of Luttra was six feet away one in the same depth arrowhead of flint found. This led to the assumption that the woman was killed by arrow shots and then got into the water. The researchers suspected that this arrowhead had missed the woman and she was killed by a second arrow shot. However, during the further excavations neither a second arrowhead could be found nor traces of a hit on the bones were observed. There is a high probability that the arrowhead has no connection with the woman.

The close-fitting squatting position of the legs was viewed by some scientists as an indication of a sacrifice. However, the woman probably died in late summer, which speaks against the theory as a sacrifice to a fertility deity , since fertility offerings were usually made in spring. But sacrifice for other reasons could be considered. An accident or drowning was excluded based on the location . On the other hand, a homicide is possible , meaning that Luttra's wife was the victim of an act of violence. It cannot be ruled out that she was executed either .

See also

literature

  • Wijnand van der Sanden : Mummies from the moor. The prehistoric and protohistoric bog bodies from northwestern Europe . Batavian Lion International, Amsterdam 1996, ISBN 90-6707-416-0 , pp. 85 (Dutch, original title: Vereeuwigd in het veen . Translated by Henning Stilke).
  • Per Persson, Karl-Göran Sjögren: Falbygdens gånggrifter. Undersökningar 1985-1998 . 2001, ISBN 91-85952-31-1 (Swedish).
  • Torbjörn Ahlström, Sabine Sten: Hallonflickan . In: Curry Heimann (Ed.): Forntid på Falbygden, en bok till basutställningen . Falbygdens museum, Falköping 1995, ISBN 91-630-3620-7 , p. 22-25 (Swedish).
  • NG Gejvall, CH Hjortsjö, KE Sahlström: Stenålderskvinnan från Luttra i svensk antropologisk . 1952, ISBN 91-630-3620-7 , pp. 410-426 (Swedish).
  • Maria Vretemark: Färgstarka västgötska kvinnor . In: Västergötlands fornminnesförenings tidskrift . 1997, ISBN 91-85884-94-4 (Swedish).
  • Gunnar Creutz: 60 år sedan Hallonflickan hittades . In: Falbygden . No. 57 , 2003, ISSN  0347-2833 , p. 39-45 (Swedish).
  • Louise Cederschiöld, Elisabeth Iregren: Hallonflickan . In: Brottstycken: Notiser om arkeologiskt och kulturhistoriskt detective work . Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm 1982, p. 29-32 (Swedish).
  • Axel Bagge: Ett markets skeleton från gånggriftstiden . In: Fornvännen . No. 42 , 1947, pp. 248–249 (Swedish, fornvannen.se [PDF; accessed November 1, 2010]).

Web links

Commons : Ms. von Luttra  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wijnand van der Sanden : Mummies from the moor. The prehistoric and protohistoric bog bodies from northwestern Europe . Batavian Lion International, Amsterdam 1996, ISBN 90-6707-416-0 , pp. 85 (Dutch, original title: Vereeuwigd in het veen . Translated by Henning Stilke).
  2. ↑ Luttra 29: 1 - entry in the database "Fornsök" des Riksantikvarieämbetet (Swedish)
  3. ↑ NG Gejvall, CH Hjortsjö, KE Sahlström: Stenålderskvinnan från Luttra i svensk antropologisk belysning . S. 415 .
  4. ↑ NG Gejvall, CH Hjortsjö, KE Sahlström: Stenålderskvinnan från Luttra i svensk antropologisk belysning . S. 419-420 .
  5. ↑ NG Gejvall, CH Hjortsjö, KE Sahlström: Stenålderskvinnan från Luttra i svensk antropologisk belysning . S. 411 .
  6. ↑ NG Gejvall, CH Hjortsjö, KE Sahlström: Stenålderskvinnan från Luttra i svensk antropologisk belysning . S. 417 f .
  7. ^ Torbjörn Ahlström, Sabine Sten: Hallonflickan . In: Curry Heimann (Ed.): Forntid på Falbygden, en bok till basutställningen . S. 22-25 .
  8. ^ Gunnar Creutz: 60 år sedan Hallonflickan hittades . In: Falbygden . No. 57 , 2003, p. 39-45 .
  9. ↑ A. Bagge: Ett markets skeleton från gånggriftstiden . In: Fornvännen . No. 42 , 1947, pp. 249 .
personal data
SURNAME Mrs. of Luttra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raspberry girl; Hallonflickan (Swedish)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bog corpse
DATE OF BIRTH between 3125 BC BC and 2953 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH between 3105 BC BC and 2935 BC Chr.
Place of death at Falköping