Pressrelease 2011-09-19
Heads on stakes – unique Stone Age finds at Kanaljorden, Motala, Sweden
Archaeological excavations in 2009–2011 at Kanaljorden in the town of Motala, Östergötland in central Sweden have unearthed a unique Mesolithic site with ceremonial depositions of human crania in a former lake. The human skulls have been treated in a complex ceremony that involved the display of skulls on stakes and the deposition of skulls in water. The skulls have been 14C-dated and are 8000 years old.
The rituals at Kanaljorden were conducted on a massive stone-packing constructed on the bottom of a shallow lake (nowadays a peat fen). Some human crania were found as more or less intact “skulls” while others were found as isolated fragments, for example a frontal lobe or a temporal bone. Based on the more intact skulls eleven individuals have been identified, both men and women, ranging in age between infants and middle age. Two of the skulls had wooden stakes inserted into the cranium. In both cases the stakes were inserted the full length from the base to the top of the skull. In another case a temporal bone of one individual (a woman) was found placed inside the skull of another woman. Besides human skulls the find material also includes a small number of post-cranial human bones and bones from animals, as well as artefacts of stone, wood, bone and antler.
The skull depositions at Kanaljorden are clearly ritual in character. The next step is to find out if the human bones are relics from dearly departed that were handled in a complex secondary burial ritual, or trophies of defeated enemies. The archaeologists hope that the ongoing laboratory analysis will give clues to if the bones are remains of locals or persons with a distant geographic origin, and if they represent a family group or persons unrelated to each other.
The excavations are conducted by Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård (www.kmmd.se), in connection with the construction of a new railway.
Contact for media:
archaeologist Fredrik Hallgren, head of excavations, +46 73 810 71 01, fredrik.hallgren@kmmd.se
archaeologist Anna Arnberg, +46 70 383 66 12, anna.arnberg@kmmd.se
