Unveiling the Secrets of the 3,000-Year-Old Egtved Girl 🏺

The Egtved Girl was buried in Egtved, Denmark 1370 BC. Famous for her well-preserved grave, she has become an icon for the Danish Bronze Age and the object of continuous archaeological study. The latest groundbreaking research has revealed that the she was not local from the Egtved area but instead grew up far from present day Denmark, and travelled long distances in her short life. The Egtved Girl is thus directly linked to the trade and alliance networks that existed across Europe and the Middle East in the Bronze Age. This is the Egtved Girl’s fascinating story and bring new perspectives to understanding her identity and social role in the Bronze Age.

The Egtved Girl is an iconic female from the Early Nordic Bronze Age (1700 – 1100 BC). She was buried in a mound in Egtved, Denmark in the year 1370 BC, and has since she was found in 1921 personified the Danish
Bronze Age. The Egtved Girl died as a young woman and
her death has remained an enigma. Her burial has been studied for nearly 100 years and continues to reveal new dimensions of Bronze Age life. New scientific methods have recently been developed making it possible to follow the young woman’s movements from her early childhood years
to her death and following burial.

A grave is revealed…
The original investigation - The story begins in February 1921 when
farmer Peter Platz in Egtved was removing a burial mound from his field. This was not illegal at the time and thankfully he stopped when he discovered something unusual – a large coffin made from an oak log.
Believing it was an old grave of importance he stopped the work and wrote a personal letter to the National Museum in Copenhagen.
When senior archaeologist Thomsen arrived in Egtved to inspect the find he was not disappointed. It was indeed an oak coffin burial from the Early Bronze Age This was the first oak-coffin grave to be discovered in Denmark in over three decades. In the previous century several other oak-coffin burials from the Early Bronze Age had been discovered, many of them showing remarkable conditions of preservation. At the site in Egtved, the lid of the coffin was carefully lifted. The inside of the coffin was exactly as when it had been sealed over 3000 years ago. Nothing was touched on this preliminary inspection, and the coffin was transported via train to the National Museum in Copenhagen. Here it was to be investigated by archaeologist Thomas Thomsen in close collaboration with the
conservators Gustav Rosenberg and Julius Raklev (Thomsen 1929; Glob 1970). It is this professional excavation and following con-
servation that is the reason why scientists still today, after almost 100 years, can carry out groundbreaking research on the Egtved Girl.

At the National Museum the excavation began. A cowhide had been placed as lining in the coffin with the hair towards the body. Under it a big woven blanket had been placed covering the dead.

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