The Bronze Age Egtved Girl came from far away, as revealed by strontium isotope¹ analyses of the girl's teeth. The analyses show that she was born and raised outside Denmark's current borders, and strontium isotope analyses of the girl's hair and a thumb nail also show that she travelled great distances the last two years of her life. The wool from the Egtved Girl's clothing, the blanket she was covered with, and the oxhide she was laid to rest on in the oak coffin² all originate from a location outside present-day Denmark. The combination of the different provenance³ analyses indicates that the Egtved Girl, her clothing, and the oxhide come from Schwarzwald ("the Black Forest") in South West Germany - as do the cremated⁴ remains⁵ of a six-year-old child who was buried with the Egtved Girl. The girl's coffin dates the burial to a summer day in the year 1370 BC.

 

It is senior researcher Karin Margarita Frei, from the National Museum of Denmark and Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen, who has analysed the Egtved Girl's strontium isotope signatures. The analyses have been carried out in collaboration⁶ with Kristian Kristiansen from the University of Gothenburg and the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management and the Centre for GeoGenetics, both University of Copenhagen.

 

The research has been possible through the support of The Danish National Research Foundation, European Research Council, the Carlsberg Foundation and L'Oréal Denmark-UNESCO For Women in Science Award.

 

The results have just been published in Scientific Reports.

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