Luttra Woman

Luttra Woman
The Luttra Woman's skull with a perforation below the left eye socket, likely resulting from a chronic bone infection[1]
Died	3928–3651 BC[2]: 101  Present-day Mönarpa mossar [sv] near Luttra, Sweden
Body discovered	20 May 1943 58°06′48″N 13°31′14″E / 58.11333°N 13.52056°E / 58.11333; 13.52056
Resting place	Falbygden Museum [sv], Falköping, Sweden
Other names	Hallonflickan (lit. 'Raspberry Girl')
Era	Early Neolithic[2]: 101

The Luttra Woman is a skeletonised bog body^[a] from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated 3928–3651 BC) that was discovered near Luttra, Sweden, on 20 May 1943. The skull was well-preserved, but some bones of the skeleton, particularly many between the skull and the pelvis, were absent. Osteological assessment identified the remains as those of a young female. Her estimated height of 145 cm (4 ft 9 in) was deemed notably short for a Stone Age woman of the region. The presence of raspberry seeds in her stomach contents, coupled with an estimated age of early to mid-twenties at death, led to her being nicknamed Hallonflickan (Swedish: [ˈhalɔnflɪkːˌan] ^ⓘ; lit. 'Raspberry Girl'). As of 2015^[update], she represented the earliest known Neolithic individual from Western Sweden.

Multiple anthropological studies revealed no evidence of injuries or fatal diseases on her remains. She appeared to have been bound and placed in shallow water at or shortly after her death. Axel Bagge, an archaeologist who collaborated on the initial examination of her remains, hypothesised that she had been deliberately drowned, either as a human sacrifice or as the victim of a witch execution. Since 1994, her skeleton has been part of the permanent exhibition Forntid på Falbygden ('Prehistory in Falbygden') at the Falbygden Museum [sv] in Falköping, Sweden. In June 2011, a forensic reconstruction of her bust was incorporated to augment the display.

On 20 May 1943, whilst cutting peat in Rogestorp—a raised bog within the Mönarpa mossar [sv] bog complex in Falbygden near Luttra—Carl Wilhelmsson, a resident of the neighbouring Kinneved parish [sv],^[4] discovered one of the skeleton's hands at a depth of 1.2 m (4 ft) below the surface.^{[1][2]: 99–100} Upon Wilhelmsson's notification, police investigators determined that the depth of the remains in the bog indicated antiquity, thereby excluding the possibility of a prosecutable crime.^[5] The rural area of Falbygden in southwestern Sweden, characterised by its agricultural economy,^[6] had emerged as an archaeological site for prehistoric human and animal remains. The period between the 1920s and 1950s saw extensive documentation of such discoveries by Swedish antiquarians, coinciding with increased peat extraction activities in the region. The exceptional preservation of skeletal remains in Falbygden has been attributed to the area's carbonate-rich bedrock.^{[2]: 98–99}

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Location of the discovery site in Sweden

Wilhelmsson informed the local representative of the Swedish National Heritage Board, teacher and archaeologist Hilding Svensson [sv].^[7] Svensson inspected the find the following day and forwarded a discovery report to the Board, requesting expert assistance.^[1][8] In response, the Board dispatched geologist and archaeologist Karl Esaias Sahlström [sv; no], along with palynologist Carl Larsson, both from the Geological Survey of Sweden.^{[9]: 248–249} Upon arrival, they observed that the skeleton was in an upright position, with the detached skull rolled in such a manner that the chin and foramen magnum were oriented directly upwards.^[9]: 248 A segment of the skeleton had been inadvertently cut through during Wilhelmsson's peat extraction; nevertheless, the skull remained in its discovery position.^{[9]: 248–249} Sahlström, deeming a thorough in situ investigation impractical, arranged for the entire peat block containing the partially embedded skeleton to be excised. The block was placed on a Masonite board and, along with several loose bones found in the bog, was transported by train to the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm in a wooden box.^{[1][5][2]: 101} Upon receipt, osteologist and anthropologist Elias Dahr [sv] excavated the skeleton from the peat block.^[2]: 101

Three years prior to this discovery, a flint arrowhead had been unearthed in the same bog, approximately 6 m (20 ft) north of the skeleton's location and at an equivalent depth. However, researchers were unable to determine whether the arrowhead and the skeleton had been deposited contemporaneously.^[1]

The skeleton underwent its initial examination by Dahr following excavation.^[2]: 102 Axel Bagge, an archaeologist who collaborated on Dahr's examination, first reported the discovery in 1947 in the Swedish academic journal Fornvännen.^{[9]: 248–249 [11]} A subsequent, more comprehensive physical anthropological investigation was conducted by Sahlström, osteologist Nils-Gustaf Gejvall [sv], and anatomist Carl-Herman Hjortsjö; their findings, including a detailed description of the remains, were published in 1952.^[2]: 102 In the intervening years, the skeleton has been subject to further scrutiny by additional researchers, notably archaeologist Sabine Sten [wikidata] and osteologist Torbjörn Ahlström [wikidata] during the 1990s, with Ahlström revisiting the study in the 2010s.^{[1][2]: 102}

Only portions of the skeleton had been preserved; the soft tissues had completely disintegrated and some bones, particularly many between the skull and the pelvis, were absent.^{[9]: 248–249} The skull was well-preserved, with only the inner nasal region partially degraded. The condition of the remaining bones was less favourable.^[2]: 102 Pollen analysis dating indicated that the bones were slightly older than 4,000 years. As of 2017^[update], radiocarbon dating had been employed on the skeleton three times: the first two analyses corroborated the pollen analysis result, whilst the third, conducted using accelerator mass spectrometry in 2015, yielded a range of 3928–3651 BC. This places the remains in the early or middle period of the Early Neolithic, establishing her as the earliest known Neolithic individual from Western Sweden at that time.^[2]: 101

Dahr assessed the skeleton as that of a young female.^[2]: 102 Gejvall initially estimated the individual to be a woman aged 20–25 years; however, Sjögren et al. later proposed in 2017 that an age range of 15–20 years was more appropriate.^[2]: 103 Where her stomach had once been, a cluster of small yellow-brown seeds remained, subsequently identified as those of European red raspberries (Rubus idaeus).^[1] The substantial quantity of raspberries consumed shortly before death suggested that the individual likely died in late summer, in July or August.^{[9]: 248–249} This final meal, along with her estimated age, led to her being nicknamed Hallonflickan, Swedish for 'Raspberry Girl'.^[1][b]

Gejvall described her facial features as elegant and proportionally balanced, noting the consistency between her slender frame and the refined contours of her skull and jaw.^[1] The individual was characterised by short stature, with an estimated height of 145 cm (4 ft 9 in). In a 1960 monograph, Gejvall remarked that this was the shortest stature he had encountered in Swedish archaeological material. He referenced Dahr's study of remains from a Stone Age settlement on Gotland, Sweden's largest island, where the average female height was estimated at 153 cm (5 ft 0 in)—a figure Gejvall considered distinctly short—as a point of comparison.^[12] Analysis of strontium and oxygen isotope ratios in the tooth enamel from one of the Luttra Woman's molars indicated that she likely originated from present-day Scania, the southernmost region of Sweden, before relocating to the Falbygden area later in life.^{[2]: 109–111 [c]} Attempts to extract DNA from her remains have been unsuccessful as of January 2023^[update], due to the degradation of the bones by the bog environment.^[1]

The skull exhibited a perforation below the left eye socket, likely resulting from a chronic bone infection; otherwise, her remains bore no traces of injuries or diseases. Her legs were positioned in a tight squatting posture, with the calves resting against the thighs.^[1] Bagge surmised that her legs had been bound, though the binding materials had not been preserved in the bog environment.^{[9]: 248–249} Sahlström noted that the skull's imprint on the peat block suggested a prone position; Dahr concurred, concluding she had been lying face down.^[2]: 106 She appeared to have been placed in shallow water at or shortly after her death, remaining undisturbed in this restrained position until the 1943 discovery.^{[2]: 118 [d]} Bagge postulated that she had been deliberately drowned, proposing the hypothesis that she was the victim of either a human sacrifice ritual or a witch execution.^{[9]: 248–249} Ahlström and Sten noted that some Early Neolithic remains in Denmark bore indications of similar sacrificial practices.^[2]: 106 An alternative explanation posited that the bindings were part of a water burial ritual for the Luttra Woman's corpse, following her death from unrelated causes.^[2]: 118

The 1945 text Tio tusen år i Sverige ('Ten Thousand Years in Sweden'), which accompanied the Swedish History Museum's exhibition of prehistoric and archaeological finds, did not mention the Luttra Woman, despite her remains being part of the exhibition at that time.^[1] In the early 1970s, the skeleton was removed from display and placed in the museum's storage facility under the inventory number SHM 23163.^[1][16] In 1994, the skeleton was loaned to the Falbygden Museum [sv] in Falköping and made available for public viewing. Since then, it has been part of the museum's permanent exhibition Forntid på Falbygden ('Prehistory in Falbygden').^[1][17] The exhibition was expanded in June 2011 with a reconstructed bust of her, created by Oscar Nilsson, an archaeologist and model-maker trained in sculpture.^[18] He had worked on commissions from museums to reconstruct Swedish remains from various historical periods—such as the Barum Woman (c. 7th millennium BC), the Granhammar Man [sv] (9th century BC), Estrid (11th century), and Birger Jarl (13th century)—using forensic methods originally developed to identify crime victims from their remains.^[1][5]

External image
via Göteborgs-Posten, a Swedish-language daily newspaper
The reconstructed bust of the Luttra Woman, by Oscar Nilsson[18]

To create the bust of the Luttra Woman, Nilsson arranged for her skull to be CT scanned at the Karolinska Institute, a research-focused medical university in Stockholm. Utilising the scanned data, he commissioned a full-scale replica of the skull to be 3D printed in polyvinyl chloride. Nilsson then manually affixed dozens of markers to the replica to indicate the estimated facial soft tissue thickness. Subsequently, he moulded facial muscles and a thin layer of clay skin onto the replica, sculpting the finer details of her facial features.^[1] In an interview, Nilsson remarked that the skeleton appeared distinctly feminine to him. He shaped her face accordingly, incorporating a narrow nasal bridge, which resulted in what he described as "a fully modern appearance", rather than the stereotypical visage of a Stone Age woman.^[19] In the absence of DNA analysis, Nilsson was compelled to make assumptions regarding her hair and eye colour.^[5]

• List of bog bodies
• Nordic Stone Age – Time period in Scandinavia
• Prehistoric Sweden – Time period in present-day Sweden before recorded history (c. 12000 BC – c. 800 AD)

• Media related to Hallonflickan at Wikimedia Commons
• Falbygden Museum: Story of Hallonflickan (in Swedish)