'Vittrup Man' violently died in a bog 5,200 years ago. Now, researchers know his story

Ashley Strickland
CNN
Digital

Published Feb. 16, 2024 10:06 a.m. CST

About 5,200 years ago, a man’s life ended violently in a peat bog in northwest Denmark. Now, researchers have used advanced genetic analyses to tell the unexpected story of “Vittrup Man,” the oldest known immigrant in Denmark’s history.

Bog bodies, the uniquely preserved “accidental mummies” discovered in Northern Europe, have long intrigued researchers, but a new study contends it’s the first time that experts have mapped the life history of the deceased to such a degree.

Scientists analyzed Vittrup Man’s remains in a recent study published in the journal Nature about Denmark’s genetic prehistory that sequenced the genomes of 317 ancient skeletons. Some of the same researchers decided to conduct an individual study of Vittrup Man after his DNA revealed that he was genetically distinct from the rest of the Danish Stone Age population. A study detailing the new findings appeared Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

“I wanted to make an anonymous skull speak (and) find the individual behind the bone. The initial result(s) were ‘almost too good to be true’, which made me apply additional and alternative methods. The outcome was this surprising life history,” said lead study author Anders Fischer, project researcher in the department of historical studies at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and director of Sealand Archaeology, in an email.

More:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/vittrup-man-violently-died-in-a-bog-5-200-years-ago-now-researchers-know-his-story-1.6771948