9000 year old skeleton: The Bäckaskog woman

The ca 9000 year old skeleton of a woman that’s known as Bäckaskogskvinnan, the Bäckaskog woman, was found 1939 in Scania. For many years she was more known as Fiskaren från Barum*, The Fisher from Barum. This is one of the oldest and most well preserved skeletons from the Mesolithic Stone Age within the borders of Sweden. The woman was ca 150 cm and about 45 years old when she died, and she was buried in a sitting, crouching position. With her there was a flint-edged bone arrow and a chisel-like bone object that may have been used as a kind of needle for making/mending nets, for digging for roots etc., or for something that we can’t identify. The skeleton was interpreted by archaeologists as having been a man, although there were many uncertainties regarding the gendering; e.g. the size was considered too small for a man and the pelvis and skull not having specifically defined male features. One reason that was used as support for the theory was the arrow with the flints which indicated that the owner had been a hunter, and therefore presumably a man. This interpretation came to dominate until 1970 when a new examination of the pelvis was undertaken and it was discovered that it had marks from several child-births. The fisher became a woman. At the same time the epithet changed from including an imagined occupation to defining the person’s gender. Apparently the person from Bäckaskog couldn’t keep the epithet ‘fisher’ anymore after it was decided that she was a woman.

(*Bäckaskog is the name of the castle on which properties the find was made, and Barum is the name of the village where the castle is situated. Both place names are used for the find but Bäckaskog is the name that is regularly used by the National Historical Museum.)