VORDINGBORG, DENMARK—New dates for elk bones recovered from Lundby bog in 1999 show that the bones had been ritually placed there by Mesolithic people over several centuries during the tenth millenium B.C. “People have been living here, that’s quite certain. But so far we’ve not found settlements that are as old as the elk bones, so the identity of the people who put the bones in the bog is something of a mystery,” archaeologist and chief curator at Museum Southeast Denmark Kristoffer Buck Pedersen told Science Nordic. A total of 13 elk had been buried in six separate deposits. Some of the animals had been ritually packed in fur. An ax made of elk antler has also been recovered from the bog. “We’ve examined the bog many times and we’ve not been able to localize any settlements—but we assume they are there—somewhere,” Pedersen added.
