Mrs. von Zweeloo

The remains of the wife of Zweeloo

Scheme of the preserved body parts of Frau von Zweeloo:
skin-colored = soft tissue
white = preserved bones
red = cut marks by peat spade or possible weapon

The wife of Zweeloo is an Iron Age bog body , which in 1951 by peat cutters in Juffersveen in Zweeloo ( Netherlands was found). It is now in the Drents Museum in Assen .

Find

The discovery of a male bog corpse from a bog near Zweeloo was reported as early as 1841. According to the finder, this was only dressed in knee-length trousers tied at the waistband, and a bronze ax is said to have been lying next to the corpse. The next find report dates from 1843 and reports on a female bog corpse found around 20 years ago. Both finds are no longer preserved today. The bog body known as Frau von Zweeloo was found on December 5, 1951 by peat cutters in Juffersveen near Gelpenberg near Zweeloo. The workers notified the mayor, who in turn brought in experts who documented and recovered the find. Pollen samples were collected from the found layer and the corpse was transported to Groningen in a zinc coffin . It wasn't until 1984 that the find came to the Drents Museum.
Location: 52 ° 48 '8 "  N , 6 ° 41' 44.3"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 48 '8 "  N , 6 ° 41' 44.3"  E

description

When the corpse was recovered - before the archaeologists arrived - the skin on its front was badly damaged, while the back is well preserved. It is therefore believed that the woman was lying on her back. The woman was about 18 inches below the surface. Since the pollen analysis carried out resulted in an interruption in the natural sequence of layers at the site, it can be concluded that the corpse was lying in a pit. The skin, the skeleton and the intestines (especially the stomach , intestines , kidneys and liver ) were found, but no clothing. The woman's remains were preserved in a glycerine bath.

Findings

The skeleton

The skeleton of Mrs. von Zweeloo is almost completely preserved. However, the head has already shrunk and crumbled in the moor. Based on the skeleton, it was concluded that it was the remains of an adult woman about 35 years old and about 155 cm tall. The skeleton has some special features. Several bones on the left half of the body are significantly smaller than those on the right. This particularly applies to the humerus , shin , fibula , heel bone and pelvic bone . This asymmetry is said to be changes that only occurred after death. Another anomaly is pathological in nature: Both forearm bones are severely shortened, only about 13 cm long. The lower legs are also unusually short. It is said to be an atypical form of dyschondrosteosis . In more recent examinations of the remains in the years 2009–2011, this diagnosis could be corroborated, but not yet confirmed beyond doubt. The bones of the feet are deformed by the woman's deviating gait.

The last meal

In the stomach and large intestine of Mrs von Zweeloo, food residues could still be identified, which were examined in Groningen (W. van Zeist) and London (T. Holden). Various cereal grains were found, especially millet , wheat or rye , barley and oats , as well as remnants of knotweed , knotweed , cabbage and flax and blackberry pits . Pieces of peat moss , animal hair, the wing cover of a meal beetle and charred plant material could also be detected. The last meal probably consisted of a porridge whose main ingredient was millet, enriched with fresh blackberries. The food was probably burnt. The peat moss leaves indicate that the woman drank water with it. The blackberry discovery suggests that she died between August and October.

Parasitological examination

It has often been possible to detect infestation with intestinal parasites in bog bodies . Examples are the Tollundmann or the girl from Dröbnitz . In the case of Mrs von Zweeloo, the eggs of roundworm and whipworm could also be detected in the intestines . But she was probably only slightly infected.

Dating

In the 1950s, the bog body was identified by means of a pollen analysis around 500 BC. Dated. In contrast, the ¹⁴ C dating of two samples revealed a death date between 60 BC. BC and 80 AD or between 75 and 155 AD, i.e. in each case in the Roman Iron Age.

The wife of Zweeloo should not be confused with the so-called Princess of Zweeloo from the 5th century, whose remains were found in 1952 in a nearby burial ground .

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 (Dutch, original title: Vereeuwigd in het veen . Translated by Henning Stilke).
• Alfried Wieczorek (Ed.): Mummies. The dream of eternal life . Accompanying volume to the exhibition "Mummies - the dream of eternal life". Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-8053-3779-3 , p. 307-308 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wijnand van der Sanden : Men en moeras: veenlijken in Nederland van de bronstijd tot en met de Romeinse tijd . In: Archeologische monografieën van het Drents Museum . No. 1 . Drents Museum, Assen 1990, ISBN 90-70884-31-3 , p. 48-52 .
2. ^ Wijnand van der Sanden : Men en moeras: veenlijken in Nederland van de bronstijd tot en met de Romeinse tijd . In: Archeologische monografieën van het Drents Museum . No. 1 . Drents Museum, Assen 1990, ISBN 90-70884-31-3 , p. 70, fig. 24 .
3. ^ Van der Sanden: Mummies from the Moor , p. 91.
4. ^ Wieczorek, p. 307.
5. ↑ van der Sanden: Mummies from the Moor , p. 135.
6. ↑ ^{a b} van der Sanden: Mummies from the Moor , p. 141.
7. ↑ Raffaella Bianucci, Don Brothwell , Wijnand van der Sanden , Christina Papageorgopoulou, Paul Gostner, Patrizia Pernter, Eduard Egarter Vigl , Frank Maixner, Marek Janko, Dario Piombino-Mascali, Grazia Mattutino, Frank Rühli, Albert Zink: A possible case of dyschondrosteosis in a bog body from the Netherlands . In: Journal of Archeology in the Low Countries . No. 4-1 . Amsterdam University Press, October 2012, ISSN  1877-7023 , pp. 37–64 ( jalc.nl [PDF; 14.6 MB ; accessed on November 18, 2012]).
8. ^ Van der Sanden: Mummies from the Moor , p. 116.
9. ^ Van der Sanden: Mummies from the Moor , p. 118.
10. ^ W. van Zeist: On the dating of a bog body . In: Koninklijke Nederlandse Botanische Vereniging (Ed.): Acta botanica Neerlandica . No. 1 . North-Holland Publishing, 1952, ISSN  0044-5983 , p. 546-550 .
11. ^ Van der Sanden: Mummies from the Moor , p. 191.

Web links

• Drens Museum Assen. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on December 1, 2011 (Dutch, currently no information on the find).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )