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Post by Admin on Feb 17, 2024 0:12:36 GMT
Vittrup Man was born along the Scandinavian coast before moving to Denmark, where he was later sacrificed, according to a study published in PLOS ONE by Anders Fischer of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and colleagues. Vittrup Man is the nickname of a Stone Age skeleton recovered from a peat bog in Northwest Denmark, dating to between 3300–3100 BC. The fragmented nature of the remains, including a smashed skull, indicates that he was killed in a ritualistic sacrifice, a common practice in this region at this time. After a DNA study found Vittrup Man's genetic signature to be distinct from contemporary, local skeletons, Fischer and colleagues were inspired to combine additional evidence to reconstruct the life history of this Stone Age individual at an unprecedented resolution. Strontium, carbon and oxygen isotopes from Vittrup Man's tooth enamel indicate a childhood spent along the coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Corroborating this, genetic analysis found a close relationship between Vittrup Man and Mesolithic people from Norway and Sweden. Additional isotope and protein analysis of the teeth and bones indicate a shift in diet from coastal food (marine mammals and fish) in early life to farm food (including sheep or goat) in later life, a transition that happened in the later teen years. End of life for Vittrup Man. Credit: Anders Fischer (contents) and Niels Bach (drawing), CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) These results suggest that Vittrup Man spent his early years in a northern foraging society before relocating to a farming society in Denmark. It isn't clear why this individual moved, though the authors suggest he might have been a trader or captive who became integrated into local society. Mysteries remain about Vittrup Man, but this detailed understanding of his geographic and dietary life history provides new insights into interactions between Mesolithic and Neolithic societies in Europe. The authors add, "To our knowledge, this is the first time that research has been able to map a north European inhabitant's life history in such a high degree of detail and in such high distance of time." More information: Vittrup Man–The life-history of a genetic foreigner in Neolithic Denmark, PLoS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297032 Journal information: PLoS ONE journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0297032
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Post by Admin on Feb 24, 2024 20:48:42 GMT
Abstract The lethally maltreated body of Vittrup Man was deposited in a Danish bog, probably as part of a ritualised sacrifice. It happened between c. 3300 and 3100 cal years BC, i.e., during the period of the local farming-based Funnel Beaker Culture. In terms of skull morphological features, he differs from the majority of the contemporaneous farmers found in Denmark, and associates with hunter-gatherers, who inhabited Scandinavia during the previous millennia. His skeletal remains were selected for transdisciplinary analysis to reveal his life-history in terms of a population historical perspective. We report the combined results of an integrated set of genetic, isotopic, physical anthropological and archaeological analytical approaches. Strontium signature suggests a foreign birthplace that could be in Norway or Sweden. In addition, enamel oxygen isotope values indicate that as a child he lived in a colder climate, i.e., to the north of the regions inhabited by farmers. Genomic data in fact demonstrates that he is closely related to Mesolithic humans known from Norway and Sweden. Moreover, dietary stable isotope analyses on enamel and bone collagen demonstrate a fisher-hunter way of life in his childhood and a diet typical of farmers later on. Such a variable life-history is also reflected by proteomic analysis of hardened organic deposits on his teeth, indicating the consumption of forager food (seal, whale and marine fish) as well as farmer food (sheep/goat). From a dietary isotopic transect of one of his teeth it is shown that his transfer between societies of foragers and farmers took place near to the end of his teenage years. Introduction Vittrup Man (Fig 1) is the popular archaeological name for the severely fragmented Neolithic skeleton of a 30–40 years old male, who was found in a peat bog in Northwest Denmark (Fig 2). His remains were recovered in 1915 during peat cutting together with a wooden club, a ceramic vessel and bovine bones (SI.1 in S1 File). In 2014 he was incorporated into a large genomic project investigating the Mesolithic and Neolithic gene pools of Eurasia [1]. The realisation that this individual had a genetic profile different from his local contemporaries led to the current study. We present and combine data on genetic ancestry, physical appearance, geographic origin, dietary history and cultural environment. New genetic evidence relating to the Vittrup individual is gained through merging and re-analysis of data that were published separately (Coutinho et al. 2020 [2]; Allentoft et al. 2022 [1]). By using a combination of bioarchaeological methods and traditional archaeological approaches we gain insight into a European Stone Age individual’s life-history at unprecedented resolution. The dramatic changes in geography and cultural environments revealed, adds decisive new dimensions to a generations-long discussion on population history, migration and interaction in Scandinavia during the local Middle Neolithic [3–14]. Our results involve further attention to a millennial-long relationship in European prehistory between farmers of southern origin and hunter-fisher-gatherers of northern genetic ancestry.
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Post by Admin on Mar 12, 2024 22:56:53 GMT
Fig 2. Southern Scandinavia with the location of humans and areas mentioned in the text. Dots mark individuals with published genome-wide data and a 14C date referring to the epoch of the Funnel Beaker Culture, c. 3900–2800 cal. BC. Data from [1, 2]. Map data from www.naturalearthdata.com. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297032.g002Material–The human skeletal remains Physical characteristics The human remains found in the bog of Vittrup include a right ankle bone (talus), the shaft of a lower left shin bone (tibia), a fragmented skull and a jawbone (mandibula) (Figs 1, 3 and 4; SI.1 in S1 File). All of the remains are thought to be from one and the same individual. This is supported by multiple radiocarbon dates and stable isotope analyses conducted on the different skeletal elements as well as the preservation, general appearance and dimensions of the bones. We, therefore, present the remains as a single individual: Vittrup Man.
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Post by Admin on Mar 14, 2024 19:19:33 GMT
Material–The human skeletal remains Physical characteristics The human remains found in the bog of Vittrup include a right ankle bone (talus), the shaft of a lower left shin bone (tibia), a fragmented skull and a jawbone (mandibula) (Figs 1, 3 and 4; SI.1 in S1 File). All of the remains are thought to be from one and the same individual. This is supported by multiple radiocarbon dates and stable isotope analyses conducted on the different skeletal elements as well as the preservation, general appearance and dimensions of the bones. We, therefore, present the remains as a single individual: Vittrup Man. Fig 3. Left lower leg bone and right ankle bone. Like the cranial fragments and the lower jawbone these two bones are coloured brown from millennial deposition in the Vittrup mire. Arrows mark where material was taken for 14C analysis and dietary isotope measurements. Photo: Marie Louise Jørkov. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297032.g003Fig 4. The jawbone of Vittrup Man. Several of the teeth are corroded due to soil chemical processes. All are clearly worn as a result of chewing. The character of the root impressions (alveolar sockets) from the front teeth indicate that these were lost after death–possibly when the jaw was brought to the light of day by a peat digger’s spade. Photo: Arnold Mikkelsen. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297032.g004Based on the cranial sexual dimorphic features, the skull and lower jawbone are determined to be of a male. These features include a sloping forehead, rounded margins of the eye sockets and a pronounced lower forehead (glabella). The mastoid process behind the ear opening is large and drop-shaped, and the muscle attachment sites on the temporal bone, as well as the occipital, are very pronounced. The jawbone also displays male characteristics including square chins, angled lateral ends of the lower jawbone (ramus) and marked muscle attachments. The osteological sex is confirmed by genetic analysis. The bone of the skull is extremely dense and measures as much as 10.1 mm in thickness. However, the morphology of the inner and outer table and the middle layer (diplöe) appears normal. Similar bone dimensions and density characterises Late Mesolithic skulls from Denmark, Norway and Sweden [15–18], and seem also to be represented in skeletons associated with the Pitted Ware Culture [19 Grab 31]. In contrast, Funnel Beaker Culture associated humans, coeval to Vittrup Man, have significantly thinner skulls.
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Post by Admin on Mar 16, 2024 23:56:05 GMT
Age and health The size and features of the skull and lower leg bone suggest that this is an adult individual. The 16 teeth available for our study all represent permanent dentition. They display significant wear of enamel and dentine on especially premolars and first molars (SI.2 in S1 File). The enamel is flaky on several teeth in the lower jaw. Still, it is evident that a minimum of one tooth in the upper jaw and four teeth in the lower jaw (Fig 4) have moderate calculus deposits (Fig 1; SI.2 and SI.3 in S1 File). Based on our visual inspections of the remaining dentition no caries lesions can be reported.
Due to the lack of other skeletal elements, age at death can only be assessed from cranial suture closure and tooth wear. Large individual variation applies to the former approach. Stressing this methodological ambiguity, we judge 30–40 years to be a reasonable estimate and consider the low end of this range the most likely [20, 21]. Age determination based on attrition and chipping of teeth is complicated since it is strongly correlated to the dietary regime (SI.2 in S1 File)—which, according to our isotopic analyses, changed significantly for this individual at a time when most of his permanent dentition was already fully developed.
The outer surface of the cranial vault, more specifically on the top of the head, on the forehead and on the back of the head displays small diffused porosities with rounded margins, characteristic of porotic hyperostosis. This condition is nonspecific but has been associated with anaemia and infection [22]. The rounded appearance of the porosity margins suggests that the condition wasn’t active at the time of death. Bone porosity in the lower jawbone can also be observed at the attachment sites for the chin muscles and sporadically next to the dentition (Fig 4 and SI.2.1 in S1 File).
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