Discovering the secrets of a Stone Age site where a child died 8,000 years ago in Outokumpu: A search for animal and plant-based materials within the soil

A Stone Age site where a child died 8,000 years ago has been discovered in Eastern Finland, giving a rare glimpse into how humans treated the dead.

In 1992 the researchers in Outokumpu noticed a bright red lump on the surface of a service trail in the forest, which they thought was a clay rich in iron. Red ocher has been associated with rock art as well as ornamentation and burials.

In a recent analysis of the surrounding soil, little was found, but it showed the secrets of the grave.

The teeth were found to be from a child as young as three years old. Two arrowheads and two other objects were recovered, which are thought to be grave goods.

The feathers were found with seven of them associated with the birds. They represent the oldest feather fragments ever found in Finland. It’s possible that the child was laid to rest on a bed of down feathers, or the child was wrapped in clothing made from waterfowl, like an ancient parka or anorak.

A falcon’s feather was also found in the grave, thought to be part of an arrow likely once attached to an arrowhead, or used as decoration on the child’s clothing.

Fine hairs found at the child’s feet belonged to either a dog or a wolf. It’s possible that one was buried at the child’s feet, or the child was wearing shoes made from the fur of a dog or wolf.

“Dogs buried with the deceased have been found in, for example, Skateholm, a famous burial site in southern Sweden dating back some 7,000 years,” said study coauthor Kristiina Mannermaa, researcher and associate professor in the University of Helsinki’s department of cultures, in a statement.

Even though there is nothing but hairs left of animals and humans, the discovery is sensational. We are not sure if the animal is a dog or a wolf. The method shows that feathers and fur can be found in the graves of people who lived thousands of years ago.

Lead study author Tuija Kirkinen, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Helsinki’s department of cultures, carried out the analysis of the plant- and animal-based materials within the soil.

The team collected 60 bags of soil samples and separated the organic matter from the water. Three laboratories were used to search the samples for microparticles, fatty acids and carry out an analysis of the soil. The dirt had to be carefully sieved and studied using high resolution images and electron microscopes.

When Roy van Beek was a teenager in the Netherlands in the early 1990s, he made a field trip to a local museum to see an exhibit of bog bodies: ancient human remains, both skeletal and naturally mummified, interred in the wetlands and spongy turf of northern Europe. He recalled one cadaver on display that was remarkably intact and oddly disorienting. The contorted body of a female about his age, roughly 4 feet 6 inches tall, who had lived in the first century A.D. Dr van Beek said that the woman was left south of the modern-day village of Yde. Her skin was tanned by the dark tea of the bog.

The plant fibers may have been used to make fishing nets, cords for attaching clothing or bundles, and may also have been used in other ways. She developed a method to look for fibers and fragments that took time, but produced results.

“The work is really slow and it really made my heart jump when I found minuscule fragments of past garments and grave furnishings, especially in Finland, where all unburnt bones tend to decompose,” she said.

The Yde Girl, as she became known, was unearthed in 1897 by peat diggers so spooked by their gruesome discovery that they reportedly chorused “I hope the Devil gets the man that dug this hole” and fled the scene. The corpse wore a cloak that hid a stab wound near her collarbone. A seven-foot-long strip of cloth, perhaps a waistband, was wound around her neck three times and its slipknot indented below her left ear. “The cloth was probably used to strangle her,” Dr. van Beek said. Most of the bog mummies that have turned up also show signs of multiple traumatic injuries and are presumed to be murder victims.

A team of researchers collaborated to study the rise of some types of burials in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The team studied the tradition’s efflorescence from the Iron Age to the medieval period.