Ancient skull discovered in eastern Norway

The Norwegian farmer says the 2,900-year-old skull was found by chance. There is no indication as to the cause of death for now.

Picture of the skull

Archaeologists believe that the skull belonged to a man close to 20 years of age. At the same time, how the victim died currently remains a mystery.

“We can’t be 100 per cent sure that he was sacrificed, but we are comparing the remains with other bog bodies found in Northern Europe,” Hedmark County archaeologist Kjetil Skare says to The Foreigner.

“Bog acids in Norway are also of a different type than elsewhere. This means that we usually only find bones, in comparison to soft tissue in other parts. When it comes to other bog bodies, we’ve observed that the person was killed several times (using several methods) – such as by strangulation and slitting the throat.”

Mr Skare and his colleagues also found the remains of a body of a woman a couple of months ago. According to him, this further strengthens the theory that the latest discovery is of a sacrificial victim.

“They started to cremate people when they were buried during the last part of the Bronze Age in Norway (about 1100-500 BC) and in pre-Roman Iron Age times (4th-1st Century BC). It is not likely the remains we have discovered indicate a normal burial, because the body would have lain in a mound,” the expert says. [...] theforeigner.no