Now Reading: Swedish cave yields 9,500-year-old burial of pregnant teenager
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Swedish cave yields 9,500-year-old burial of pregnant teenager
Archaeologists have found the remains of a young woman buried with a foetus in a cave on Sweden’s Lilla Karlsö island. The bones may be 8,000 to 9,500 years old, according to…
The Story in Brief
Archaeologists have found the remains of a young woman buried with a foetus in a cave on Sweden’s Lilla Karlsö island. The bones may be 8,000 to 9,500 years old, according to The Times of India. The foetus, estimated at 32 to 34 weeks, lay within the woman’s abdominal area, with its position suggesting it was still inside her body when she was buried.
Researchers believe the woman was aged 14 to 19 and may have been placed in a curled burial position. The cave may also contain remains of a young child and possibly another person. Archaeologist Alexander Sjöstrand of Uppsala University said the cause of death was not yet known and should not be speculated on publicly.
The Indian Opinion
The dramatic claim that this was certainly a death in childbirth goes beyond the evidence. The alternative suggestion of a post-mortem “coffin birth” is also only one possibility, not a conclusion. What makes the discovery important is the rare preservation of foetal bones alongside the mother after thousands of years. Further excavation and dating should establish whether the cave was a burial site and narrow the age of the remains.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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