Osterby Man

When the man of Osterby is the skull of a bog body from the Köhlmoor, southeast of Osterby at Eckernförde.

Find circumstances

When turf cutting the skull on May 26, 1948, found by the brothers Otto and Max Müller from Osterby on the plot of her father. He lay at a depth of about 65 to 70 cm below the peat surface at that time. Max Müller noticed the drooping of his spade coat residues. Then both searched the peat shed and retrieved the parts of the skull and of the cape. The Ladies Strand farmer Detlef Thomes reported the find to the museum in Schleswig. Despite intensive search in the vicinity of the site no other body parts were found. Location: 54 ° 26 ' 51 " N, 9 ° 46' 9" O54.4474619.769292Koordinaten: 54 ° 26 ' 51 " N, 9 ° 46' 9" E

Findings

The bundle consisted of salvaged pieces of fur with a wrapped therein skulls that were originally buried in the bog. Both were damaged before recovery by the spade. There are no other finds were made.

Anthropological findings

The skull is in numerous fragments before almost completely. The bones are decalcified by exposure to the bog acids, have shrunk a little and dark brown in color. Few parts of the scalp, and the hair is in good condition, the skin and tissue on the face, however, are completely gone. On the left side of the skull a large area of injury was found, which had possibly led to the death: Covering an area of ​​about 12 cm diameter of the skull had been smashed with a blunt object, the bone was on the left temple completely fragmented and partially deep in the brain penetrated. However, the skull has been deformed by the weighing on him in the whole earth masses. The facial skeleton is in a good condition and the top face is almost undamaged. Due to the Verwachsungsgrades of the cranial sutures and the anatomical features of the skull is attributed to a 50 to 60 year-old man. Demonstrate clearly recognizable cut marks on the second cervical vertebrae that the head had been cut off with a sharp object, force from the hull. The main hair was wavy flat and thin. Microscopic examination revealed that the reddish brown discolored by the action of acids Moor head hair was originally dark blonde and the man due to age already had some single white hairs. Isotopic analysis of samples of scalp hair showed at the revamp in 2005 that the man striking rarely ate meat at least in his last year, where herbivores constituted a major portion of its animal nutrition. In contrast, marine animals such as fish or shellfish had proven no part in his diet. The parasitological researchs of the hair showed that they were, unusually, free of head lice for that time. For preservation and preparation for the exhibition at the Museum of the skull was filled to stabilize with a plaster.

Hairstyle

The most striking feature of the head is the hair style with the extraordinarily well-preserved hair, that are bound on the right temple to a so-called Suebian knot. To this end, the man at the back long hair were divided vertically into two strands. The left strand was placed on the left around the head low over the forehead, on the right side of the head. The right strand was placed above the right ear at the temple, on the left strand and both twisted with a sharp right turn. This strand was attached to a strap and pulled the loose end of the cord looped. This Suebian knot is described by the Roman historian Tacitus in chapter 38 of his Germania as a typical feature of free men at the Suevi, a Germanic tribe. He is also known from numerous Roman sculptures and pictures on at least one other archaeological find of the man of Dätgen. Since 1998, the community Osterby leads the Suebian knot of the man of Osterby in their coat of arms.

Fur cape

The already heavily decayed garment in which the head was wrapped, consists of tanned and sewn together pieces of fur. For the recovered fragment has a width of 40 cm and a length of about 53 cm. The pieces of skin were examined microscopically, as determined by the Haarmermkale as rehähnlich. The individual pieces of fur has been associated with fine butt welds. The neckline is fringed with a turned, about a centimeter wide strips of leather. All seams have been carried out carefully with very fine gut strings. Some of the seams have encountered suspect that it was later repaired areas. Based on the available fragments, as well as some well-known comparison finds the garment is interpreted as a fur cloak, and was referred to by archaeologists as textile fur shoulder collar in the 20th century. Comparable fur capes are known, such as the women of Elling and Haraldskær, the girl Dröbnitz, the boys of Kayhausen or the man from Jührdenerfeld from numerous archaeological finds

Manipulations

The anthropological examination of the skull was performed by Peter Löhr, who noted that the skull had shrunk by storage in the bog. As part of his doctoral thesis on the experimental shrinkage of skulls Löhr made ​​numerous attempts also to the Osterbyer skull. Several times he watered the skull causing it swelled and then dried it again, accompanied by detailed measurements. Löhr assumed that the skull took its nearly original size in the swollen state and not einschrumpfte evenly during the subsequent drying. For his study lay before Peter Löhr the skull itself, greatly shrunken teeth, as well as a complete lower jaw with a strongly protruding chin. Recent studies of Osterbyer head showed that the exhibited in the permanent collection of the Schleswig -Holstein State Museum skull was added during the preparation for the exhibition by Karl Schlabow, probably for aesthetic reasons, with an initially given under this head lower jaw.

Dating

The man of Osterby was dated due to its characteristic hairstyle in the Roman empire. Through a 14C - dating of a hair sample from the estate of Alfred Dieck, a potentially unsafe source, his time of death during the period 75-130 AD could help pinpoint.

Interpretation

The find circumstances, the circumstances of the Disposal of the man of Osterby, and the objects found have many parallels to other bog body finds. The man of Osterby was beheaded as other finds from the Iron Age and deposited in the bog. The fractures of the skull, by wrapping with a blunt object, indicate an intention to multiple homicide. Whether a death penalty due to Germanic legal customs enforced to the man, or whether he was offered not more today can be safely cleared. Several bog bodies occupy this practice, including the man of Dätgen, which also carries a Suebian knot, and whose head was found several meters away from the body, or even the wife of Moses Roum from Denmark. Whether the man of Osterby near the head of the body was deposited in the bog is also no longer be ascertained, as this may have been degraded unnoticed with the peat, still undiscovered is due to a more distant place or has already been eliminated historically in other ways.