Rediscovering History: The Remade Portrait of a Wealthy Bronze Age Woman
Researchers have reconstructed the face of a woman who lived more than 3,800 years ago in what is now the Czech Republic. Based on artifacts found in her tomb, she was likely among the wealthiest inhabitants of Bronze Age Bohemia.
A high-ranking woman?
The cemetery is near the village of Mikulovice in the northern Czech Republic, near the Polish border. Among the twenty-seven burials was that of a woman buried with five bracelets and three bronze sewing needles, two gold earrings, and a three-strand necklace displaying over 400 amber beads .
This woman would have died between 1880 BC. and 1750 BC BC , according to radiocarbon dating of the cemetery where his bones were found. At the time, it integrated the Únětice culture. These early Bronze Age peoples of Central Europe were known for their metal artifacts, such as ax heads, daggers, bracelets, and other stiff necklaces called “torcs.”
Although we still don’t know who this woman was, she was probably very rich . This is evidenced by the large proportion of amber artifacts contained in his tomb, but also in those of others. “ There is more amber in this cemetery alone than in all the Únětic tombs in Germany ,” explains archaeologist Michal Ernée, from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. “ We have two neighboring regions of the same archaeological culture, but the social systems were probably not the same .” This amber likely came from the Baltic, suggesting that the Únětice people were part of a large trading network at the time.
The bones of the woman involved in this study. Credits: Jarmila Švédová
The reconstructed bust
Among the skeletal remains of this woman, the skull was the best preserved. Above all, its bones were well preserved enough to still contain some DNA. Analyzing these genetic sequences allowed researchers to discover that his eyes and hair were brown and his skin was light .
Anthropologist Eva Vaníčková from the Moravian Museum in Brno and sculptor Ondřej Bílek then collaborated to reconstruct the upper body of this Bronze Age woman. As part of the project, Ludmila Barčáková from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences was responsible for making the amber necklace and gold earrings, while metallurgist Radek Lukůvka focused on bronze bracelets and hands. Finally, Kristýna Urbanová, an archaeologist specializing in textiles, fashioned the clothes.
Here’s what she probably looked like, based on her DNA and what we know about these ancient people:
Credits: MZM archives
Other DNA sequences were also recoverable from other bones in the cemetery. The researchers plan to analyze them soon in order to evaluate the possible kinship links between the buried individuals.
This work could also provide new clues about regional differences in early Bronze Age Central Europe. Indeed, we know that the richest tombs in the neighboring regions of Bohemia are those of men exclusively, while women were buried mostly without ornaments. It is therefore possible that women from this region in particular benefited from a different status.
