During the Stone Age, a boy was buried with a crown of woodpecker feathers in what is now Sweden. Another Stone Age grave contained a woman with fur-and-feather footwear. The discoveries were made thanks to a new technique that can detect traces of feathers and hair in soil from ancient graves.
“In general, fur, plant fibers, and other soft organic materials have been recovered only under specific conditions, such as in underwater sites or in glaciers,” said Tuija Kirkinen, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki.
“With our method, it is possible to find microscopic fibers even in areas with poor preservation conditions.”
The research team analyzed 139 soil samples from 35 burials at Skateholm, a Late Mesolithic archaeological site located in southern Sweden near the Baltic Sea coast. From 5200 to 4800 B.C., hunter-gatherer groups used the site as a cemetery.
The researchers identified traces of charcoal, flint, bone, and seeds in the soil. They also studied hair, feathers, and fibers separately under a microscope.
Hairs from mammals were found in 20 graves, but only 25% of them could be matched to an animal. Some of the hairs belonged to cows, deer, and otters.
In one grave, the team came across evidence of hairs from a lagomorph (mountain hair), a mustelid (weasel/stoat), an owl, and a bat. They were all discovered from the head area of a young adult male’s burial.
Additionally, there were beads made from the teeth of red deer around the head area. The young man was likely buried with decorative headgear.
The team concluded that at least 21 people were interred with feathers. Many of the feathers belonged to species of waterfowl. Several of the feather fragments were taken from head areas, suggesting that they were part of headdresses.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Amber beads, bone and stone tools, brown-bear teeth, and red ocher were found in a grave containing a child and an adult male. A soil sample taken from the space between them showed evidence of a deer hair and a woodpecker feather.
The child may have been wearing clothing made from deerskin and a headdress with woodpecker feathers.
In the grave of an older woman, traces of waterfowl feathers were found around her neck. A white hair from a weasel or a stoat and a brown hair from a carnivore at her right heel indicated that she had been buried in multicolored footwear.
Overall, the findings highlight the importance of birds and their feathers for Stone Age people. The new analytical technique is very effective, but it is still difficult to identify the species of tiny feather and hair fragments.
In the future, more research can focus on examining recent soil samples and using sediment DNA analysis to find soft organic remains.
The study was published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
