Opening the Oak-Coffins

35

VI. BIOGRAPHIES
The physical or biological anthropological data of
the Early Bronze Age is limited, both because of the
rather sandy washed-out soils of the western parts
of the country, where a greater part of the graves
are found: a general condition, and because of the
commonly rather poor conditions of preservations
for skeletal materials in the burial mounds. But some
observations on the physical stature, life-expectancy,
and common conditions of life of Early Bronze Age
oak-coffin population and other peoples in the North
can nevertheless be made, in particular if including
data from Skne (Scania) and other regions.
The very rich Initial Period II-grave from Skrydstrup, Haderslev County (AK VII 3530A) - discussed
several times above - with a neck-collar, a belt-plate,
two armbands/bracelets, an ankle-ring, a fibula, spiral
rings (bronze and gold), seemingly belong to a very
short woman. This no doubt prominent person was
perhaps less than 1.5 meter tall according to the position of the artefacts in the grave, including a ring
possibly indicating the ankle (the body itself was not
preserved). By contrast, the famous Skrydstrup woman (16-18 years old) of the famous Period III oak-coffin grave (AK VII 3527A) (Addendum No. 23) stood
1.7 meter tall, or a little more, even disregarding her
tall coiffure. Apart from the lavish and very wellpreserved clothing, she was primarily equipped with
gold spiral ear-rings (Broholm & Hald 1939) (Pl. 25,
with a photo of the head figures on the cover, as just
excavated)10.
A very richly furnished women, 30-40 years of age,
from a Period II grave at lby, Kbenhavn County
(AK I 299) perhaps stood 1.8 meter tall (Boye 1896,
Pl. XXVI). She was furnished with a neck-collar, a
belt-plate, four tutuli (three hat-shaped with a brim,
usually a male type), about 125 tubes for the string
10 Was she the one I should have loved/a breaking Stone [Bronze] Age
Spring/with glare in the wet teeth/and leaves in the wet hair/a girl who
is smiling at me/throughout 3000 years?
These are the opening stanzas of the poem She, published
in Vers i Verdensrummet [Poems from Space] (1941), by P. Hein
(1905-96), and originally written upon the excavation of the
Skrydstrup coffin; translation K. Randsborg. The stanzas add
a peculiar erotic element to the voyeurish experience - even
study - of the oak-coffin graves.

skirt, a number small bronze-spirals, two amber beads

and one of glass. Much smaller woman are: No. 18
Storehj, Egtved, 16-18 years of age, and only 1.59 m
tall, or a little more (cf. Pl. 9), and No 2 Borum Eshj,
Grave B, a women 50-60 years of age, only 1.56 meter tall (cf. Pl. 20).
The adult man of No. 10 Muldhj stood about 1.9
metre tall (cf. Pl. 10), while the men of No. 2 Borum
Eshj were smaller, Grave A (man of 50-60 years):
1.71, and grave C (man of 20-22 years): 1.66 meter
tall, respectively (cf. Pls. 14; 19-20).
No doubt, height is dependent on the quality of
nutrition even though genetic factors are also in operation. Seen from the perspective of the Early Bronze
Age, it is highly interesting and suggestive that the
graves of the Roman Imperial period in Denmark hold
taller persons in burials with Roman imports than in
graves without (Sellevold, Hansen & Jrgensen 1984,
227f.). Nevertheless, only further and detailed studies
might clarify the important issues of the biography
of the Early Bronze Age elite population. Anthropological information is limited, unfortunately, and the
otherwise very well preserved oak-coffin graves often
have skeletons very poorly preserved.11 There is no
hope to solve all these problems in the near future,
but each year more data are collected. In addition,
skeletal evidence from neighbouring regions and similar cultural circumstances can also be employed, as
already Skne/Scania.
Even if Early Bronze anthropological data are
somewhat limited, it is clear from the finds that the
life-expectancy differed between the sexes. Men likely ran the greatest risk of physical danger, taking on
much of the hardest outdoor work, travel and fighting. In fact, evidence from Europe generally points
to a steady decline of skeletal evidence of injuries
among women ever since the Palaeolithic and a concomitant rise among the men of various indications of
harm suffered. No doubt, this is anthropological testimony to an increasing division of labour between the
sexes through the ages, the women mostly staying in
11 Forthcoming publication by the author, with N. Lynnerup (and
others).

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Acta Archaeologica

and near the safer domestic sphere (Grimm 1977, 506

Abb. 8). In turn, this no doubt had consequences for
the development of female anatomy, as one clearly
observes today.
When women nevertheless on the average died
younger than men in the Early Bronze Age, this is
probably related to the immense risks of birth-giving
in traditional societies before modern hygiene and
medicine, the latter emerging only around 1800 AD.
The data quoted here is only a small sample, but perhaps worth summing up. Above, we have noted adult
men dying at the ages of barely 20 (Krukskrven),
20-22 (Borum Eshj, Grave B), 40-50 (Valleberga 67),
50-60 (Borum Eshj, Grave A), and 50-60: a grave
from Over Vindinge, Prst County (AK II 1292I),
cf. below. We have noted adult women dying at the
ages of 16-18 (Egtved), 16-18 (Skrydstrup), 20(+)
(Hverrehus), 20-25 (Bustrup), 30-40 (lby), and 5060 (Borum Eshj, Grave C). Certainly, this difference
is not significant. Nevertheless, it is indicative and in
fact confirmed, when including the much larger total
sample of age-determined adults.
Importantly, a higher life-expectancy gives women the opportunity of matching men in social life (cf.
Randsborg 1984). Child-mortality was probably high
too in the Bronze Age, as well as other biological
crises, but data on children in the Early Bronze Age
are particularly slight, even though at least some elite
children were give mound-and oak-coffin burials, as
in the cases of Nos. 5 Guldhj, Grave B (cf. Pl. 4) and
21 Trindhj, Grave C (cf. Pl. 18). Simple jewellery,
and toys, accompanied such burials.

Stress symptoms (in particular related to shortages of food) have been studied in the form of Harris lines on bones from Late Bronze Age Period IV
graves under the large princely burial mound of
Lusehj, Fyn from Period V (Khl 1983; cf. Thrane
1984). Harris lines are seemingly quite common in
the Bronze Age. Unfortunately, relatively few Early
Bronze Age skeletons have so far yielded much as to
the diseases of the age (cf. Bennike 1985). A stone
cist at Over Vindinge, Prst County (AK II 1292I)
held a secondary grave of Period I (cf. above). The
skeleton - a man 50-60 years of age (thus, hardly an
ordinary fighter) - had the tip of a bronze spearhead
lodged into the left hip-bone. The spear had entered
from behind, caused an inflammation but was not
the cause of death.
A Period II grave from Haraldsted, Sor County
(AK II 1093B) is anthropologically determined to be
a grown female with severe inflammation-like changes in the hands (Bennike 1984, 199, lmosehuse).
However, the grave goods, a sword and a strike-a-light
(flint) are beyond discussion of the male gender. This
observation represents one of the more interesting
conflicts between analyses of two academic subjects archaeology and physical or biological anthropology.
Still, integration of observation is the only way
forward, and even in the few examples here given
we are beginning to catch the dimensions of personal
and social life of the elites of the Early Bronze Age
- in particular if adding the intellectual and emotional
factors regarding cosmology and religion, as will be
done below.