Mystery Of The Vittrup Man – Bog Body Of A Foreigner In Neolithic Denmark

Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com – The Vittrup Man, a bog body, was unearthed in 1915 in the Northwestern region of Denmark. The remains, which were significantly damaged, were found during a peat-cutting operation along with a wooden club, ceramic vessel, and bovine bones. This Neolithic man was estimated to be between 30 to 40 years old at the time of his death. All evidence points towards him being subjected to ritualistic sacrifice – a prevalent practice in this region during that era.

To the left you can see the cranial remains of Vittrup Man, who ended up in a bog after his skull had been crushed by at least eight heavy blows. Photo: Stephen Freiheit. Image Credit: Fischer et al., 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0. The entire image compilation was made by AncientPages.com 

According to Anders Fischer of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and his team who studied the bog boy, “the impact lesions on the skull are characterized by oval fractures with larger radiating fracture lines. Such damages are described in the forensic anthropological literature on skeletal traces of fatal violence—e.g., – and are known from other Neolithic human skeletons.

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