The Egtved Girl (c. 1390–1370 BC) was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved,

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in 1921. Aged 16–18 at death, she was slim, tall, had short, blond hair and well-trimmed nails. Her burial has been dated by

dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atm ...

to 1370 BC. She was discovered together with cremated remains of a child in a barrow approximately wide and 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 a coffin was found in an east-west alignment. It was sealed and transported to the

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

in Copenhagen, where it was opened, revealing the Egtved Girl. In the coffin, the girl was wrapped in an ox hide. She wore a loose

bodice A bodice () is an article of clothing traditionally for women and girls, covering the torso from the neck to the waist. The term typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the ...

with sleeves reaching the elbow. She had a bare waist and wore a short string skirt. She had bronze bracelets, and a woollen belt with a large disc decorated with spirals and a spike. At her feet were the cremated remains of a child aged 5 to 6. By her head there was a small

birch bark Birch bark or birchbark is the bark of several Eurasian and North American birch trees of the genus ''Betula''. The strong and water-resistant cardboard-like bark can be easily cut, bent, and sewn, which has made it a valuable building, craftin ...

box that contained an awl, bronze pins, and a hair net. Before the coffin was closed she was covered with a blanket and an ox hide. Flowering

yarrow ''Achillea millefolium'', commonly known as yarrow () or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Other common names include old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, and thousand seal. The ...

(indicating a summer burial) and a bucket of beer made of wheat, honey,

bog-myrtle ''Myrica gale'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae, native to parts of Japan, North Korea, Russia, mainland Europe, the British Isles and parts of northern North America, in Canada and the United States. Common names include ...

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 Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. 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

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

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 The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

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 Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is e ...

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 Agricultural lime, also called aglime, agricultural limestone, garden lime or liming, is a soil additive made from pulverized limestone or chalk. The primary active component is calcium carbonate. Additional chemicals vary depending on the mineral ...

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 far abroad, 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 Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower val ...

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.

Gallery

Image:Egtved Girl.gif, Replica of the Egtved Girl's outfit. Image:Mummy with fur - The Danish National Museum.jpg, Remains of the Egtved Girl. Image:Egtvedpigensgrav.jpg, The reconstructed barrow. Image:Egtved Girls museum.jpg, Egtved Girl's museum.

Citations

References

*Barber, E. W.
The Mummies of Ürümchi
'. Macmillan, London, 1999. . *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. .

External links

{{commons category, Egtvedpigen, Egtved Girl
The Egtved Girl
on National Museum of Denmark website. 1390s BC births 1370s BC deaths 1921 archaeological discoveries 14th-century BC women Archaeological discoveries in Denmark Archaeological discoveries in Europe Archaeology of death Prehistoric objects in the National Museum of Denmark Deaths in Denmark Germanic archaeological artifacts Mummies Nordic Bronze Age Unsolved deaths