Researchers uncovered the remains of a teenager who lived from the Bronze Age in Denmark and revealed that the girl had travelled great distances as artifacts that were found buried with her suggest that she was a person of high status.
This newest analysis reveals that this "Egtved Girl" that was discovered in the most pristine condition in Denmark in 1921, was apparently born from the Black Forest region in southwest Germany.
Scientists have analyzed the strontium isotopes found in her teeth which revealed that her origin of birth was outside Denmark borders and another similar analysis was conducted for her hair and fingernails that presents evidence that she had journeyed a great deal in the last two years of her life.
This special alkaline earth metal called strontium is absorbed by humans and animals upon consuming food and water. This amount varies depending on the geographical location and suggests where the person had lived during different periods in his or her life.
This new analysis confirms that the Egtved Girl travelled far and wide during the last few years of her life, before she died at the age of 18 when she was buried in 1370 B.C.
Researchers believe that she left her homeland to reach Denmark in order to marry a powerful or influential Danish family which could also suggest a forging of an alliance between a similar powerful German family.
During the Bronze Age, Denmark was bountiful with amber which is traded for bronze that originated from Greece and the Middle East via merchants and middlemen from southern Germany.
According to Kristian Kristiansen of the University of Gothenburg, amber was the main source of trade during the Bronze Age that fueled the economy at the time. In order to replenish and establish trade routes, powerful families have forged alliances through marriage by their daughters and letting their sons raised by the other family as a form of pact.
Bronze is just as valuable as oil today and when this metal infiltrated the Danish economy, it made Denmark one of the richest regions in Northern Europe, he adds. During the Bronze Age, western Europe, southern Germany and Denmark were the super powers at the time that were similar to kingdoms.
This new finding reveal that the Egtved Girl provides a glimpse of socio-political systems in the Bronze Age that includes epic journeys across Europe to forge political contracts during this age and how the concept of globalization already exists in prehistory.
This study is published in the journal, Scientific Reports.