Stone Age deceased dressed in spectacular feather and fur headgear

A new research technique provides a fresh vantage point to Stone Age burial outfits and their decorations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Helsinki

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Artist’s impression of the Skateholm burial island. In the foreground is a boy whose grave contained a deer hair and possibly a fragment of a woodpecker feather

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Credit: Tom Björklund

A recently published research article examines the microscopic remains of the clothing and burial items dating back roughly 7,000 years.

The study focused on the Skateholm I and II cemeteries in Scania, southern Sweden, with a total of 87 graves. In archaeological excavations carried out in the 1980s, objects made of stone as well as animal bones, antlers and teeth were recovered from the grounds. Skateholm is one of the most significant Mesolithic Stone Age burial sites in northern Europe.

Importance of birds and feathers

The University of Helsinki’s ERC-funded Animals Make Identities project has developed a technique to distinguish fibres, hairs and feather fragments from soil samples taken from graves. It is based on water-assisted fibre separation. The current study is the first to apply the technique to this extent, with a total of 35 graves studied.

According to researcher and archaeologist Tuija Kirkinen, who oversaw the analyses in the study, the technique can be applied to any archaeological materials, not just graves.

Kirkinen specialises in microarchaeology and organic material culture, particularly fibres, hairs and textiles.

“The technique works well. Species-level identification of microscopic feather and hair fragments is difficult, and this aspect of the analysis method can still be developed further.”

“The study underlines the significance of birds and their feathers, and it produces fascinating new knowledge,“ says Professor Kristiina Mannermaa, who heads the overall project and contributed to the study.

Knowledge of Stone Age clothing increases

According to Kirkinen, information on Stone Age clothing is scarce, even though skeletal remains and objects made of bone can be preserved under optimal conditions also in Fennoscandia.

“In general, fur, plant fibres and other soft organic materials have been recovered only under specific conditions, such as in underwater sites or in glaciers. For example, the fur clothing of Ötzi, found in the Italian Alps near the Austrian border, had been preserved so well that it was possible to restore his outfit. With our method, it is possible to find microscopic fibres even in areas with poor preservation conditions.”

The study demonstrates that the skins of aquatic birds as well as the furs of mustelids, felines and other fur animals were used to clothe the deceased buried at Skateholm.

Footwear made of fur and feathers

The large mammals represented in the graves included a deer and a ruminant (the auroch or the European bison). Hawk or eagle feathers, owl feathers and the hairs of small fur animals found around heads indicate that many of the dead wore impressive headdresses.

Fur and feather remains were also found in graves that were previously considered empty, meaning that no objects were found to accompany the skeletons.

In one such grave, a white hair from the winter pelage of a stoat or a weasel, a brown feline hair and fragments of a bird feather were detected at the feet of a deceased woman over 60 years of age. This suggests that she was wearing multicoloured footwear made of fur, feathers or bird skin.

Read more

Kirkinen, T., Larsson, L. & Mannermaa, K. 2026. Waterbirds, mustelids and bast fibres – evidence of soft organic materials in the Late Mesolithic Skateholm I and II cemeteries, Sweden. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

Bronze Age mines in Spain may explain the origin of Scandinavian Bronze

 

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One of the largest newly recorded mining areas, extending approximately 200 x 50 meters. The scale shows intensive and coordinated Bronze Age extraction.

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Credit: Johan Ling

The survey took place between 9 and 16 February in the area around Cabeza del Buey in the province of Badajoz. The work was carried out in collaboration with the Universidad de Sevilla and archaeologists from the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Badajoz.

In total, six Bronze Age mining sites were documented, ranging from smaller extraction areas to more substantial mining environments. Particularly remarkable was one mine where approximately 80 grooved stone axes were discovered—tools used to crush and process ore.

The mines contain copper, lead, and silver—metals that were central to Bronze Age economies and long-distance trade networks.

The background to the survey lies in previous research within Maritime Encounters and several research/archaeology projects led by Professor Johan Ling at the university of Gothenburg. Through lead isotope and chemical analyses of Scandinavian Bronze Age artefacts, researchers have previously demonstrated that much of the metal likely originated in southwestern Spain.

“The newly discovered Bronze Age mines identified over the past ten years – both by other research teams and through the approximately 20 new mines documented by our research group between 2024 and 2026 – are transforming our understanding of how interconnected Europe was already 3,000 years ago. These discoveries demonstrate that metal extraction in southwestern Europe was far more extensive and organized than previously recognized, and they provide a concrete archaeological context for the chemical and isotopic analyses that point to long-distance connections during the Bronze Age“, says Johan Ling, Professor of Archaeology.

Facts/ The Extremadura Survey

• Location: Area around Cabeza del Buey, Province of Badajoz, Spain
• Dates: 9–16 February
• Project: Maritime Encounters
• Partners: Universidad de Sevilla and Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Badajoz
• Result: Six previously unregistered Bronze Age mines
• Notable find: Approximately 80 grooved stone axes used for ore processing
• Metals: Copper, lead, and silver

Ancient diets reveal surprising survival strategies in prehistoric Poland

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Uniwersytet Gdanski

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Skeleton of a Bronze Age woman discovered at Karczyn-Witowy – among the earliest known millet-eaters in northern Poland 

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Credit: Adriana Romanska (AMU)

An international team of archaeologists and scientists has reconstructed the diets of prehistoric communities from north-central Poland, shedding new light on how people adapted to changing environments and shifting social landscapes over three millennia between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

The researchers analysed human remains from 60 individuals, dated between around 4100 and 1230 BC. This long timespan encompassed key periods of Central European prehistory, including the arrival of groups with steppe ancestry from the East and the first widespread use of millet in the region. Archaeological traces of these societies are often scarce: their lightly built houses decayed quickly, graves contained few objects, and poor soil conditions preserved little organic material. Traditional archaeology has therefore offered only a partial picture of how they lived.

To overcome these gaps, the team combined archaeological and anthropological study with cutting-edge scientific techniques to study human remains, including radiocarbon dating, ancient DNA analysis, and stable isotope measurements of carbon and nitrogen. This interdisciplinary approach allowed them to date the remains, and reconstruct diets, farming practices and even aspects of social organisation that would otherwise remain invisible.

One of the most striking findings concerns the Corded Ware communities, who arrived in north-central Poland in the late Neolithic around 2800 BC. Contrary to expectations that they would prefer open grasslands, isotopic evidence shows that the earliest Corded Ware people herded their animals in forests or wet river valleys – marginal zones away from the fertile soils long cultivated by local farmers. After several centuries, their diet shifted and began to resemble that of their farming neighbours, perhaps by borrowing herding practices already established among local communities.

The second major discovery relates to the introduction of millet. Across Eurasia, broomcorn millet was rapidly adopted, quickly becoming a dietary staple. In north-central Poland, however, the analysis of the isotopic make-up of bone collagen from human bones tell a different story. From around 1200 BC, some communities relied heavily on millet, while others consumed little or none. Remarkably, these groups also buried their dead in different ways: some reintroduced the older tradition of communal tombs used over generations, while others practised unusual paired burials in elongated pits, with the deceased placed foot-to-foot. These differences suggest that food choices were not only practical but also closely tied to identity and group boundaries.

The results also point to subtle social inequalities. Variations in the nitrogen isotope make-up of bone collagen were used to reflect the position of individuals in the food web. Some of them – particularly in the Early Bronze Age – had greater access to animal protein than others, hinting at emerging hierarchies that are otherwise invisible in the modest grave goods of the region.

The findings also show that peripheral regions did not merely imitate the cultural centres of Central Europe, but could develop according to their own alternative principles. Exploring these dynamics reveals the creativity of prehistoric communities and their capacity to adapt to changing environmental and social conditions.

Paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/2/250986/480522/Isotopic-insights-into-long-term-socio-economic

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Journal

Royal Society Open Science

DOI

10.1098/rsos.250968 

Humanity’s oldest geometries, engraved on ostrich eggs

 

An analysis of the markings found on hundreds of eggshell fragments dating back more than 60,000 years, unearthed between South Africa and Namibia, has revealed our ancestors’ remarkable ability to organize visual space according to abstract principles

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Università di Bologna

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At several archaeological sites in southern Africa, hundreds of highly unusual fragments of ostrich eggs have been found. Dating back more than 60,000 years, the shells were engraved by groups of Homo sapiens who lived in that region.

A new investigation, led by researchers from the University of Bologna, has now revealed for the first time that these engravings on ostrich eggshells were not random or improvised, but followed recurring and surprisingly organised geometric rules. The study — published in the journal PLOS One — shows the presence of a genuine cognitive organisation of forms, based on parallelism, orthogonality and the repetition of lines and regular patterns.

“These signs reveal a surprisingly structured, geometric way of thinking,” says Silvia Ferrara, Professor at the University of Bologna’s Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, who coordinated the study. “We are talking about people who did not simply draw lines, but organised them according to recurring principles — parallelisms, grids, rotations and systematic repetitions: a visual grammar in embryo.”

The ostrich eggshells were most likely used as water containers. The researchers carried out a quantitative and systematic investigation of 112 fragments from two South African archaeological sites (Diepkloof and Klipdrift) and one site in Namibia (Apollo 11). By applying methods of geometric and statistical analysis never previously used on these artefacts, the study made it possible to reconstruct in detail the lines, angles and trajectories of the markings.

The results show that more than 80% of the configurations analysed display coherent spatial regularities, with repeated use of angles close to 90° and groups of parallel lines. The most complex compositions — such as hatched bands, grids and diamond-shaped motifs — reveal cognitive operations of rotation, translation, repetition and “embedding”, i.e. the ability to build hierarchical levels of signs within the same surface.

“These engravings are organised and consistent, and show mastery of geometric relationships,” Ferrara explains. “There is not only a process of repeating signs: there is real visuo-spatial planning, as if the authors already had an overall image of the figure in mind before engraving it.”

Beyond the possible meanings of the markings, the authors stress that the implications of the study concern above all the cognitive foundations that made it possible to create these decorations. The ability to construct visual configurations structured according to specific rules can be seen as a key indicator of the emergence of abstract thought — a crucial step in the evolution of human thinking.

“Our analysis shows that Homo sapiens 60,000 years ago already possessed a remarkable ability to organise visual space according to abstract principles,” notes Valentina Decembrini, PhD student at the University of Bologna’s Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies and first author of the study. “Transforming simple forms into complex systems by following defined rules is a deeply human trait that has characterised our history over millennia, from the creation of decorations to the development of symbolic systems and, ultimately, writing.”

The study was published in PLOS One under the title “Earliest Geometries. A Cognitive Investigation of Howiesons Poort Engraved Ostrich Eggshells”. The authors are Valentina Decembrini, Ludovica Ottaviano, Mattia Cartolano, Enza Elena Spinapolice and Silvia Ferrara.

The research was carried out as part of the FIS Advanced project SAPIENCE – Symbols, Preliteracy and Code Evolution, directed by Professor Silvia Ferrara, in collaboration with Professor Enza Spinapolice of Sapienza University of Rome.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0338509 

Iron Age massacre targeted women and children, new research reveals

 

New research reveals one of the largest prehistoric mass killings discovered in Europe, at the Gomolava burial sites in northern Serbia.

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Reconstruction of the burial event at Gomolava by S.N.

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Credit: Linda Fibiger et al

New research has revealed that women and children were deliberately targeted in one of the largest prehistoric mass killings discovered in Europe.

Archaeological investigations at the Gomolava burial sites in northern Serbia uncovered a grave containing the remains of more than 77 individuals, most of them women and children.

Buried together around 2,800 years ago, the victims suffered violent deaths, including bludgeoning and stabbing, in what researchers say was a planned act of large-scale violence.

“When we encounter mass graves from prehistory with this kind of demographic, we might expect they were families from a village that was attacked,” said co-lead and ERC grantee Associate Professor Barry Molloy, UCD School of Archaeology.

“Gomolava genuinely took us by surprise when our genetic analysis showed the majority of people studied were not only unrelated, not even their great–great-grandparents were. This was highly unusual for a prehistoric mass grave and not what we expect to find if they had all lived together in a village.”

Using a range of analyses, the ERC-funded study showed that as with the adults, most of the children found were also female.

This, and the killing of younger age groups that may be taken away as slaves, suggests this was more than a simple ambush and that targeting these people was meant to send a grisly message to their wider community, the researchers argue.

The findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, provide fresh understanding to Iron Age conflict and sheds new light on how mass violence was used to assert power in prehistoric Europe.

Of the victims, 40 were children between the ages of one and twelve, 11 were adolescents, and 24 were adults – 87% of whom were female. The only infant discovered in the grave was male.

Unlike other mass burials of the period, the Gomolava site shows evidence of careful preparation with victims buried alongside personal possessions, including bronze jewellery and ceramic drinking vessels.

“It is typical in prehistoric mass graves for victims to be hastily buried together in a pit, maybe by survivors or even their killers. The victims at Gomolava were hastily buried in a disused semi-subterranean house, but uniquely, not only had the bodies not been looted of their valuables, offerings were made in what must have been a respectful ritual,” said Associate Professor Molloy.

Animal remains, such as a butchered calf, were also interred with them, while broken grain-grinding stones and burnt seeds were placed on top of the grave.

Such an investment of time and resources suggest the killings were followed by a deliberate and symbolic burial ceremony rather than a hurried attempt to dispose of the dead.

“The brutal killings and subsequent commemoration of the event can both be read as a powerful bid to balance power relations and assert dominance over land and resources,” said co-lead Dr Linda Fibiger, University of Edinburgh’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology.

Genetic testing showed the victims were not closely related, while isotopic data from teeth and bones showed diverse childhood diets pointing to the possibility that the women and children were from different settlements and were likely captured or forcibly displaced before being killed.

Researchers believe the mass-killing took place at an unsettled time when communities in the Carpathian Basin were establishing enclosed settlements and reoccupying Bronze Age settlement mounds and parts of mega-forts.

Building these forts and the claims they must have made on the land around them may have sparked conflict with other groups disputing territorial boundaries or potentially mobile pastoralists who sought to continue exploiting those same lands seasonally, they argue.

“Our team has been tracing the Bronze Age collapse and its aftermath in Europe. What we found at Gomolava tells us that as things recovered in this area moving into the Iron Age, reasserting control over landscapes could include widespread and extremely violent episodes between competing groups,” added Associate Professor Molloy.

This study was carried out by an international team co-led by University College Dublin, University of Edinburgh, the University of Copenhagen, and the Museum of Vojvodina, with contributions from institutions across Europe.

The research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) grant “The Fall of 1200 BC” based at UCD School of Archaeology.

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Journal

Nature Human Behaviour

DOI

10.1038/s41562-025-02399-9