4,000-Year-Old Child’s Skull Found in Norway

BERGEN, NORWAY—According to a statement released by the University of Bergen, fragments of the 4,000-year-old skull of a young child have been discovered in the Skipshelleren rock shelter, which is located in an inner fjord on Norway’s west coast. “The find offers rare and important insight into the first agricultural population in Norway, and we hope that analysis of bone material will help us understand what these people looked like and where they originated,” said Knut Andreas Bergsvik of the University Museum of Bergen. The skeletal remains were uncovered in a previously unexcavated area of the rock shelter, under backfill from an excavation conducted in 1931. “Here we found thick deposits of soil layers with finds from several thousand years of settlement habitation, including thousands of animal bones, tools made of bone and stone, and pottery fragments,” Bergsvik said. The rock shelter had thus been used as a dwelling and a burial site, he explained. To read about other finds from Norway, go to "Nordic Metal."