The Egtved Girl in Denmark has died circa 1370 BC. She was a Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered in a barrow in 1921. The oak log that she was buried in is dated to the summer of 1370 BC. Although the body itself is missing, the acidic bog conditions of the soil made that the Egtved Girl’s clothing is extremely well preserved.
The Egtved Girl must have been 16 to 18 years-old when she died, and was a slim, 160cm tall girl with long blond hair and well-trimmed nails. At her feet were the cremated reamins of a 5 year-old child. It is unlikely that those remains were her child, so it is assumed this was an offering.
On April Fool’s Day 2008, the National Museum of Denmark announced that DNA research had established that it was 97% certain that the Egtved girl – Egtvedpigen in Danish – was actually a boy. Quite unexpectedly, the girl turned out to have an Y-chromosome.
