Mystery of the 3,000 Year Old Girl from Egtved Denmark - Life in the Bronze Age

The Egtved Girl was buried in Egtved, Denmark 1370 BC. Famous for her well-preserved grave, she has become an icon for the Danish Bronze Age and the object of continuous archaeological study. The latest groundbreaking research has revealed that the she was not local from the Egtved area but instead grew up far from present day Denmark, and travelled long distances in her short life. The Egtved Girl is thus directly linked to the trade and alliance networks that existed across Europe and the Middle East in the Bronze Age. This is the Egtved Girl’s fascinating story and bring new perspectives to understanding her identity and social role in the Bronze Age.

The Egtved Girl is an iconic female from the Early Nordic Bronze Age (1700 – 1100 BC). She was buried in a mound in Egtved, Denmark in the year 1370 BC, and has since she was found in 1921 personified the Danish
Bronze Age. The Egtved Girl died as a young woman and
her death has remained an enigma. Her burial has been studied for nearly 100 years and continues to reveal new dimensions of Bronze Age life. New scientific methods have recently been developed making it possible to follow the young woman’s movements from her early childhood years
to her death and following burial.

A grave is revealed…
The original investigation - The story begins in February 1921 when
farmer Peter Platz in Egtved was removing a burial mound from his field. This was not illegal at the time and thankfully he stopped when he discovered something unusual – a large coffin made from an oak log.
Believing it was an old grave of importance he stopped the work and wrote a personal letter to the National Museum in Copenhagen.
When senior archaeologist Thomsen arrived in Egtved to inspect the find he was not disappointed. It was indeed an oak coffin burial from the Early Bronze Age This was the first oak-coffin grave to be discovered in Denmark in over three decades. In the previous century several other oak-coffin burials from the Early Bronze Age had been discovered, many of them showing remarkable conditions of preservation. At the site in Egtved, the lid of the coffin was carefully lifted. The inside of the coffin was exactly as when it had been sealed over 3000 years ago. Nothing was touched on this preliminary inspection, and the coffin was transported via train to the National Museum in Copenhagen. Here it was to be investigated by archaeologist Thomas Thomsen in close collaboration with the
conservators Gustav Rosenberg and Julius Raklev (Thomsen 1929; Glob 1970). It is this professional excavation and following con-
servation that is the reason why scientists still today, after almost 100 years, can carry out groundbreaking research on the Egtved
Girl.
At the National Museum the excavation began. A cowhide had been placed as lining in the coffin with the hair towards the body. Under it a big woven blanket had been placed covering the dead. Everything organic in the grave was well preserved and coloured brown due to the acidic and waterlogged conditions in the coffin.
Underneath the blanket the remains of a
young woman was revealed. She had loose
shoulder length hair, cut short at the front.
Under her hair, the brain was still in place
and the last enamel of her teeth preserved.
A small container made of bark was placed
near her head. Inside were several personal
grave goods; a bronze awl with a wooden
handle, a hair net, a few cremated human
bones and some organic material (moss,
heather, wool and a leaf).

In 1991, the Egtved Girl’s coffin was dated
using the method of dendrochronology
(year ring dating) as the big oak-log was
well suited for the purpose. The results
revealed that the massive oak tree was
felled in 1370 BC to make the coffin. It is
presumed that this must have happened the
same year as she was buried. The
results added to the Egtved Girl’s fascinating story with such a precise dating of a
moment in time that allows us to come very
close to an event that happened on a summer’s day 3.386 years ago. The Egtved Girl
and the exact time of her death has become
a rare window to the distant past.
As the scientific methods continues to
develop the Egtved Girl remains uniquely
interesting to study as her burial is so well
preserved that it allows for returning re-
search with renewed focus.
The latest chapter in the Egtved Girl’s
story is research based on isotope analysis
and has revealed that the Egtved Girl was
in fact not from Egtved in present day
Denmark but instead born and raised 800
– 1000 km from this place where she was
buried in her mound.

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