In 915, Stone Age individuals known as the "Vitrup Man" were found by peat cutters during harvesting, violently beaten to death and left in the Danish swamps.
His **—believed to be part of a ritualized sacrifice—occurred sometime between 3300 and 3100 BCE, at the height of the local funnelbeaker culture.
Archaeologists now have the strongest evidence that this is not where his life began.
The first indication that the Vittrup man was a Danish foreigner came from a study investigating the Mesolithic and Neolithic gene pools of Eurasia.
This suggests that the DNA of the Vitrup Man is different from other bones found in the area at the time, prompting archaeologist Anders Fischer and his colleagues at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden to investigate further.
Now, the research team has unraveled the life history of this ill-fated man, combining modern and traditional archaeological methods to read the story he wrote in his bones.
A fragment of a skull fixed to a foam bust armature, photographed on a white background. The right front of the skull is missing (orbit, right side of the nose, and maxillary).
The skull of the Vittrup man was smashed when he was beaten to death with a stick. (Stephen Freiheit Fischer et al, Plos One, 2024).
It is often surprising that a person's body can tell us about their life. The skeleton of the Vitrup man tells the story of his journey from his birthplace on the Scandinavian coast to his terrible death in Denmark 30-40 years later.
The remains include the right ankle bone of the Vitrupp man, the backbone of his left lower tibia, a broken skull, and a jawbone. It is believed that these bones came from a human because of their similar overall appearance, plus radiocarbon and stable isotope analysis. These details also encode the travel stories of the Vitrupp people.
Isotopes detected in his tooth enamel and bones reveal his coastal hunter-gatherer upbringing, eating marine mammals and fish in the cold northern climate of his childhood and depositing Scandinavian strontium, carbon and oxygen isotopes forever in his teeth.
An intact human jawbone, with most of the teeth intact, shows signs of crown wear. At least 4 teeth are missing in the anterior part. Sample taken on a seamless white background.
Teeth are worn out by chewing, and some teeth are corroded by soil chemicals. But the condition of the empty sockets at the front suggests that the teeth were lost after death – probably because the peat digger's shovel exposed the jaw to the sun. (Arnold Mikkelsen Fischer et al, Plos One, 2024).
The team found significant similarities in his DNA to those of Mesolithic people in Norway and Sweden, further confirming his origin.
We may never know why he left these shores to join a society hundreds or even 1,000 kilometers away from home – only that his journey did not end successfully.
As a teenager, the Vitrup diet shifted to farm foods, such as sheep and goats, which we now know from the molecular markers researchers found in his teeth and bones.
The funnel beaker culture was the northernmost group engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry along this geographical passage. While they eventually introduced these techniques to hunter-gatherers further north, the Vitrup man appears to have joined this agrarian society as farmers before these methods spread to his home country.
Researchers are uncertain whether his one-way commute was forced or voluntary, as his manner of death and lifestyle largely reveal his social status.
"There are many explanations possible for such drastic changes in lifestyles and geography," they wrote. ”。
He may have been an immigrant or a businessman who was integrated into equal social status like other members of the local Funnel Beaker Society. He could also have been a captive who provided labor and maritime skills to slaves. ”
In Denmark at the time, ritualized swamp sticks were common, regardless of one's social status.
"Obviously, this dubious honor was also awarded to people of non-native origin," the author concludes. ”。
The study was published in PLoS Synthesis.